My Birth Story

On Thursday 3rd Feb 2011 I was to attend hospital at 9pm to be induced and hopefully deliver the next day. I'd be waiting for this day for what seemed like forever but now it was here I was scared. Terrified in fact!
I had had 2 sweeps done and was apparently a few centimetres dilated anyway the day before I went in. I had a gel applied around 10pm that night and tried to get some sleep. I was in a ward with mostly pregnant ladies and one woman who had a C section the day before. I woke at 4am for the loo. When I got back into bed I heard a pop noise. I knew what the noise was instantly because I'd heard it on One Born Every Minute or #OBEM!
My waters had indeed broken, everywhere!!! I had a shower and was told to eat some breakfast. It's 5am. Who wants to eat breakfast at that time. I ate it because they said I would be allowed to eat in the delivery suite. WHAT!!! But that's not what labour is like on TV!! I had snacks packed in my labour bag. Raging ;)
DH phoned at 8, so I told him to head down as I'd be getting moved to delivery at 9.
I had 2 midwives with me all day. I mean ALL day. One was a trainee. They were lovely. All was going really well until about lunchtime when they cranked up the oxytocin, (I think that's what it's called)! DH had just gone for lunch, happy in the knowledge that I was relatively pain free & happy. When he came back he says it was like walking into a murder picture. The anaesthetist was on her way to do an epidural. I'd gone from comfortable to 'I actually cannot cope' in about 30 minutes. The epidural was administered but I still had pain. Lots of pain. How come? A while later (i have no real concept of time) the anaesthetist comes back and does a second epidural. Thank god. Oh, no, I still have pain. Wtf?
There were a few concerned faces in the room DH tells me. He could see the midwives looking at each other whenever I had a contraction. A consultant was called. Baby was in a bit of distress. Baby was also back to back which I now know is not the best position for a natural delivery. A kind male doctor tried to turn baby round. Using his hand. Several times. This was horrendous. In fact horrendous doesn't even describe the pain and urge I had to kick said male doctor in the head.
All of this is without the epidural, let's not forget. I had gas and air.
When I got the urge to push it was obvious that baby's heart rate was dropping. Male doctor again tried to turn baby. Male doctor who has never and will never have to experience the pain of birthing a baby *insert rude words to describe doctor here*.
A woman consultant came and examined me. I think one of the midwives called her. She decided enough was enough, plus I think I actually begged her to make it stop, and that I needed some help.
Off to the operating theatre. At this point I'm crying and very scared. I think there's something wrong with baby and they're not telling me.
Apparently gas and air can make you happy or teary. It was apparent from very early on that I was a crier.
In the operating theatre there was 13 people. 13!!! This scared me even more. DH was outside getting 'Gowned up' he was told I was happy and fine. Then he walked in and I was wailing. I can laugh about it now.
I was given a spinal block. Wow. It worked. I felt such relief. The pain stopped.
I have worn an eyebrow ring for 10 years or more. It's quite subtle because it doesn't match my style, if you know what I mean. People tend not to notice it. Well, I couldn't have that during surgery, could I! I hadn't a clue how to remove it because I never had. Someone in the room twisted and pulled until it was removed. This kind of delayed things a bit!
They were going to try and use forceps to get baby out but realised they couldn't so a Caesarean section was the only option. I really didn't care by this point.
It was very quick. I felt a slight pulling sensation & baby was out. We heard someone say 'Its a boy'.
A BOY!!! WHAT! We didn't know what we were having but with 6 nieces, we were just expecting a girl! The doc who carried the baby away for the checks said 'Its a girl' What!! Confused!
She was definitely a girl and we think that the person who said it was a boy was one of the team in the theatre but standing by who couldn't really see. Anyway! A girl. She hadn't cried yet but she did! I was dying to know her weight as all along we were expecting a tiny baby because she was going to be early. We were delighted that she was 7lb 8.5 oz. a very healthy weight!
DH got to hold her while I was being sewn up. He was crying, I was crying. She was beautiful. She looked just like DH. DH says it was amazing that he got to hold her outside in the wee room while they got me sorted. That time alone with her introducing himself as her Daddy. Special times.
Baby Sofia Lisa was born at 18:31 on Friday 4th February 2011. It was a difficult day for me and DH. He was great and I only shouted at him once for stroking my hand ;) The next day I was told that they'd never had anyone with 2 failed epidurals before and that next time I should go straight for a section. NEXT TIME?! HA! ;)

My pregnancy journey

We'd been trying again for about 4 months. Trying again after our miscarriage (mc) in September 2009 that is.
I was worried of course that we'd have another mc but there was no real reason to think that.
My period was 1 day late. Most normal people wouldn't even consider that 'late'! I hardly slept that night, I was willing it to be morning so I could get up and do a pregnancy test with my morning wee! That's the best time apparently.
I got a very faint line and hoped that it was a positive. I went back to bed and told DH that I might be pregnant. He was delighted, obviously, but understandably cautious.
So, over the next few days and weeks I probably tested about 10 more times, just to be sure.
I was fairly sick over the weeks. Once, I ate some grapes before I'd had any breakfast and was sick so much that I blocked one of the sinks in the ladies toilets in work. THAT was a tad embarrassing and it was also the last time I ate grapes.
We had booked a holiday a month before we got pregnant, to America. We were going to see family in San Francisco for Thanksgiving in November and having 5 days in New York on the way back. This was my 30th birthday celebration and I'd be 28 weeks pregnant. First though we squeezed in a week in Portugal in September 2010. We had a lovely holiday. Very relaxing and finally at 18 weeks my sickness stopped! Yay! Or so I thought.
I had my 'big scan' at 19 weeks and everything was great and the consultant said he'd see me before I was due to go to America but he didn't envisage any problems with our trip. Excellent. We were getting excited!
2 days later I started itching my hands and feet. It was worse in the evenings and kept me awake a bit at night but I also scratched during the day. I 'Googled' and found it was probably an increase in Oestrogen. Satisfied I bought calamine lotion and bath oils to ease the itch.
A week later I had to go to hospital to get my confirmation of pregnancy form for my employer & I mentioned the itch to the midwife/sister person, Jane. She said she should take precautionary bloods but it was probably nothing.
She said she'd phone if there was any problem. I told DH then went out for lunch with my mum. I think I actually forgot about it because when I looked at my phone later and saw 8 missed calls I was very surprised. I was at home and I listened to the messages from Jane asking me to call, when my home phone rang. It was Jane. My bloods were irregular, it's probably a mistake but could I come back down and 'why didn't you check your phone'? I panic, obviously and phone DH to come home (he has our car & I need a lift!). I pack a small bag, just in case, and I called my boss in work, also, just in case.
In hospital I had more bloods, more bloods and more bloods taken. My liver function was 'Grossly elevated'. There were questions about holidays etc (Portugal) and they thought I had Hepatitis A. That's ok then.............WHAT!!! How will this effect my baby? Me? What!!!!
I was kept in overnight and booked for a liver scan. Baby's heartbeat was checked a lot and if it couldn't be found I was dragged off, panicking, for a scan. I was only 20 weeks it was normal for the heartbeat to be hard to find but all this made me feel they weren't telling me something and that they were worried about my unborn baby. The liver scan etc was normal but my liver function tests (LFT's) were getting worse. If I remember correctly, normal was 35 and mine was 550 of whatever measurement LFT's are carried out in. They wanted me to stay in for the weekend. I didn't want to stay. I felt fine, I want to go home. Ok, I could go home but I had to come back EVERY day for scans and blood tests to see what was wrong. I had no other symptoms of HepA but just in case I shouldn't really see anybody. Great.
The blood tests continued and my results continued to get worse. They thought I had a condition called Obstetric Cholestasis (OC) but I was far too early pregnant for that. There was consultation with another hospital and a liver specialist and more appointments for scans. By the end of a very long week which one day had me in hospital for 5 hours by myself, waiting, I was diagnosed with OC and given medication. Obviously I Googled OC constantly and scared myself half to death. Why do we do that?
Anyway, the condition meant I had to be seen every week at the hospital for a scan to check all was ok with the baby. It also meant I was a bit of a special case I think. I was the 'patient with Cholestasis', all the midwives had heard of me.
The medication wasn't really helping and the itch was sending me insane. Many a night DH would find me in the bathroom with my foot in the sink running cold water over it. I would cry with it, I hardly slept and I was still working.
My LFT's and Bile Acids continued to rise so the medication was increased every few weeks to try and find the right level. My blood results were off the scale. Everybody was worried and my consultant had never seen results as bad or the condition in anybody this early. She was speaking to professors in London and specialists in Belfast trying to see what to do.
We were approaching November and our trip to America. I was kind of dreading the flight etc because of the itch and because I wasn't sleeping I knew I'd be tired. New York would be hard work if I was tired.
I shouldn't have worried. My consultant said about 4 weeks before that I couldn't go. They were afraid of me going into premature labour and if that happened in America then I'd be stuck there for months. Can you imagine the medical bills?!
So, whilst we were upset we knew it was the right decision and if I'm honest, was I up to travelling round America? No. I was glad someone else made the decision for me.
My results continued to get worse and I was hearing things like 'We need to get you to 30 weeks' 30 weeks!!!!! Scary.
I finished work at 28 weeks. I was tired. I wasn't sleeping. I was being seen at the hospital twice a week. My consultant agreed that finishing work was a wise idea. I was devastated. No, really, I was! I had been off one Thursday, the day my results hit their all time high and I went back into work on the Friday to get cleared up and handover to my team. That was it. I worked late and sneaked off at about 7pm. Nobody really knew I was finishing. I cried the whole way home. Nothing was going how it was supposed to.
When I finished work I rested, slept, went to hospital. The bad snow hit in December and I was housebound except my trips to hospital. 30 weeks came and went and baby was hanging in there. We even had to go to hospital on Boxing Day & New Years Day.
At around 36 weeks the itch disappeared. Actually went away. Wow. But by now I couldn't sleep anyway because of the size of my bump!! Typical. I was ready for this to be over. I practically begged for a section.
I was amazed to have got this far.
My bloods had all calmed down so it looked like I would get to 38 weeks. Danger to the baby increases at 38 weeks so I wouldn't be allowed to go any further.
We'd done it. We'd got through a really tough pregnancy, a condition most people have never heard of and we were ready to meet our baby! We were booked in to be induced on Thursday 3rd February 2011, I would be 37 + 6.