Alastair’s Hospital birth at 31 weeks – Cecily
Where to begin…
Firstly, my little boy wasn’t due until the 18th of November! At 31 weeks gestation, a Friday, I realised that I was having contractions, and had had them for a few days, steadily getting worse.
I went into hospital, to be told I was in premature labour, 2cm dilated, and that they were going to give me something to stop it. I was given tablets under my tongue, and was given the first of two steroid injections. I had to stay in hospital overnight, so that I could have my other steroid injection. I was supposed to have it in 24 hours, but they gave me it within 12, because they were concerned. I was told I had an infection and given antibiotics and a pessary. As soon as I put the pessary in I started having stronger contractions. I was moved into a delivery room and put on the monitors. I was examined by the DR and told I was still 2cm dilated and was left to try to sleep. God this DR was fit!!! So unfair…
The contractions slowed down again and I was put back on the ward in the morning. I had to stay in hospital until the sunday, when I was just desperate to leave!!! I was having contractions, and they were getting worse, but they weren’t showing up on the monitors, and the nurses didn’t bother feeling my stomach during a contraction the way they did during the night on friday. I was treated as though I was making it up, and told I was probably uncomfortable from a bad back and constipation. I was sent home on sunday night, at about 6pm, with some Lactulose for constipation and some paracetamol. I went to my mothers for a sunday dinner and then she took me home at about 9pm.
By this point I was still having the pains and they were getting worse, but I had convinced myself that it was back pain and constipation because that’s what the midwife had said it was!! At home I had a bath , and took the Lactulose and some paracetamol, and put another pessary in for the thrush that it turns out I didn’t have anyway, and then Michael and I went to bed. I spent the next three hours rushing to the toilet feeling like I really needed a poo, and then not being able to push one out!! (Probably TMI, but there we go!!)
I couldn’t get comfy and had to squat on the bed on all fours. At about midnight I went to the toilet AGAIN, and had started bleeding. I rang the hospital and then tried to ring my mother, who was not only my second birth partner (after Michael) but also my lift to the hospital as Michael can’t drive. I couldn’t get through to her at all, so at about 00.30 I rang my dad in desperation! It took him about 10minutes to do a 30min journey!! I spent the time pacing the house in agony and trying desperately to get rid of the pain.
We arrived at the hospital and rushed up to the labour ward. I was examined again and was told I was 3cm dilated and there was no way they could stop it again. For the next 4 hours I just carried on with the contractions on gas and air. I refused to have anything else because it might have damaged Alastair, especially with him being so tiny and vulnerable.
The midwife kept telling Michael that I wasn’t to use the gas and air all the time, and he should take it off me. Well what sort of idiot man listens to that advice!? I hit him round the head with the mouthpiece on more than one occasion…
I was examined at 4, and was 8cm dilated. The gas and air was working wonderfully!! At about 4.30 I was examined and was still 8cm dilated, so they said that because he was so tiny, they didn’t want us to struggle on much longer. As my waters still hadn’t broken, they decided to break them for me. I was actually told not to look at what they were going to break them with!!
I carried on with the gas and air, talking complete nonsense, when my mum walked in!! My dad had finally managed to get hold of her so that she could actually be present at the birth…fat lot of use as a birth partner she was!!!
At about 5am I was told by the midwife that I was ready to start pushing, after I had been told off for about 15mins cos I wanted to push!! I braced myself for the next contraction…and suddenly wanted to be sick!! Michael got a bowl and I was promptly sick. I was in so much pain I was thrashing about, and ended up turning my head away from Michael and the bowl and was sick all down myself and the bed. Turned back to Michael for the final bit of sick, and then I was fine!!! I was having problems pushing with the contractions, because he was so small that the contractions weren’t really much help!! They still weren’t showing on the monitor, but hurt like hell! So I had to do most of the work myself.
Pushed for about 30mins and all of a sudden, I had this squirming screaming thing placed on my tummy!!! Michael and I got cuddles before they whisked him away to SCBU. Little Alastair was born at 5.30 on the 19th September, and weighed 4lb 3oz.
I delivered the placenta in seconds, after having the injection, and then they spent about 30mins examining me. I was told I had a tear on my cervix, but it was so deep that they had to give me a spinal anaesthetic and repair it in theatre. I was given the spinal (I was surprisingly calm for someone with a phobia of needles!!) and repaired. It took ages and I was so tired I was drifting in and out of consciousness. I was absolutely terrified that they couldn’t stop the bleeding (totally irrational!) and was just desperate to see my baby. I was finally taken back to the room, where I found Michael asleep on the floor!!
My mum had been to see little’un and had brought me a picture. Despite the tubes and things he was absolutely beautiful! I was still desperate to see him, but had to be checked over. The midwife checked me over and a consultant came in to have a peek. He said something about taking packs out, which scared me…but not as much as when the midwife started pulling long lengths of gauze from my bits!!! It was like a magicians handkerchief trick!! They just kept coming! FINALLY, I was ready to go back onto a ward, and on the way (because I was still numb from the waist down) they were going to wheel me through SCBU to see the little man.
3 days after the birth, before I was leaving to go home, I asked if I still needed to take the antibiotics I had been on since before the birth. The nurse checked through all of my notes, and test results, and told me that there was no sign of any infection, and there was no need for me to have been on the antibiotics to start with. So there is still no reason why Alastair decided to come early!!
He had to stay on SCBU for 2 weeks and 3 days, and then we were both moved into a room on the children’s ward at the nearer hospital so that we could properly establish breastfeeding. 4 days later he was allowed home.
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