The short version
It was planned, we took a long drive, had our twins babysat, the induction began, prospane pains, drips, contractions, pain, gas, pain, gas, so much pain, beautiful, beautiful gas….I thought I was going to DIE kind of pain, push, push, push….and then….out of nowhere (well out of somewhere)….a baby appeared!!!
The long version…
It all began, well, you don’t want to know everything…but Allister’s birth story began, lets say, on Sunday 20th May. We had watched the royal wedding the night before, we packed our bags, went to church, I even gave a talk at church, then casually drove the hour and a half to Wollongong, to drop off our twins and check into hospital. Easy and quite stress free really.
Due to Allister showing up as rather large on his ultrasounds, he had a planned induction at 38 weeks and 3 days, which was fine with me…Especially since my nightmares the months leading up to the birth, were all about giving birth in a car, or on the side of the freeway, in a panicked frenzy.
So for this birth, I figured that I would go with the flow, and follow whatever the medical staff told me. However I did have some personal goals I hoped to achieve. The main one was to not have an epidural, as my experience with the twins epidural was so horrific. The second was to have a vaginal delivery, as I haven’t had a cesarian before, and they scare me. (I know it would be fine, but not my first choice) And then I was hoping to not have any tearing or episiotomys as the icing on the cake…
In hindsite, I should have prayed for a 5 minute, painfree delivery….however, I only prayed for those 4 things: No epidural, no tearing, no episiotomy, and no cesarian. I even had family and friends praying for those things! That was the dream…
So here goes the reality…
They administered the prospan gel onto my cervix at 7pm and 10 or 11pm, and I had cramping throughout the night, which led to not the most amazing sleep. At 6am, we had breakfast and were prepped for birth! Just like getting ready for a job interview, or going shopping for groceries. We were simply prepping to excrete a human from inside me!
I had high hopes of the nurse checking my cervix and exclaiming I was 8-9cm dilated, as that is how it went with the twins…however, it was not to be.
2cm.
That was all.
I was devastated. I realized this birth was going to be a bit trickier and tougher on me than the last, as I was planning to do it a-la-naturale.
My doctor then arrived and popped my waters with a glove, that had a little spike on the middle finger, (I always wondered how it would go…) and I put on an adult diaper just to class things up. So that was a boring bursting of the waters story, but I promise, it gets better!
They then administered the drip to induce labor at 7:40am.
Start the clock.
Pete and I just chilled through the contractions and watched the gorgeous sunrise over the mountains outside the window. The nurse wandered in and out of the room checking on us. It seemed rather blissful, yet ominous.
It very quickly became rather unblissful as the contractions increased quite dramatically! The nurse wouldn’t check my contractions until 10 so I had a few hours to go and I wasn’t impressed, however she did say we could try out the gas.
And holy smokes that gas!!!
The first few sucks of gas left me giggling for minutes at a time, eyes closed, swaying on the exercise ball, barely catching my breath. It was surreal. I’d never experienced anything like it! I was completely out ofcontrol, and I totally didn’t mind!
Once I got over the giggles, the real fun began. I was completely coherent, however I could only speak very slowly, which amused me as I could only speak one out of my twelve thoughts each contraction. I counted, and then weighed up which thought I would vocalize, as I knew the next contraction would come and I would desperately want to suck that gas.
Which by the way didn’t do anything for the pain. It just made me space out, and made it so, so, so, so funny!
Some of my thoughts on gas were:
‘Why would anyone get an epidural when you can have GAS?!?’
‘I am definitely having another baby so I can have more GAS!!!’
‘Don’t let the GAS run out! Tell the nurse that she can’t let the GAS run out!!!’
The anethesist came in, expecting that I would need an epidural, and said that I had better hurry it up as he had a lot of things to do..
So I called him a grumpy bum and imitated his ‘I have a lot of things to do today…’ in my drugged sing song voice.
I wanted to let Pete have some gas as I was telling him how awesome it was, but he wouldn’t have any. By the next contraction, I had turned into Gollum and wouldn’t let anyone near my gas!
By this time the contractions were getting worse and it wasn’t fun or funny anymore. It was just giving instructions to Peter….ie. Water…
I had a teeny tiny bite of a cookie and vomited…so that was a no go.
We walked to the toilet (missing two precious gas sucks!!!), and when I got there I was so sad because I no longer needed to go 🙁
Soon I was just lying on the bed holding onto that lovely strong railing between gas sucks. The noise in my head was like a ticking bomb about to explode.
I remember having the distinct feeling that I would give anything to walk out of that room and be anywhere else. Just for 10 minutes to collect myself, then I would come back in. I would give anything to just be out of my body for 10 minutes.
Finally I felt like I had reached the end, I couldn’t do this any longer, so I asked how long until my next cervix check. It was now 9:50 so the nurse agreed to check it…
4cm.
WHAAAAAAAT???!?!?!
How could that be?!
I decided I would be needing that epidural after all.
The nurse then elaborated and said that although it was 4cm, it was very thin, and as it was my second birth, it was likely to just go ‘ping’! She said she was going to call my doctor right away.
And that then gave me the strength to continue…
So on went the sucks and squeezing that poor railing. Poor Pete, he must have felt quite helpless, but the railing was what I wanted haha!
The nurse kept asking me if I felt the urge to push. And the answer kept on being no.
Until finally, at 10:30, it was a yes.
Ok, pause for moment. I’m exhausted. Like I literally have no more in me now!
And now they want me to push!?!?!?
And thus the pushing began. Like a poo. No more gas anymore. This is the final lap.
But I was so tired! I didn’t want to push. I just wanted to stop and sleep…
Pete held one leg, and the nurse held the other for me to push against. Each contraction, I pushed, and not just pushed, but pushed and held until the contraction finished, as you don’t want the baby’s head to slip back in. The nurse kept touching down where it hurt so much, and I just thought why??? Everything hurt!!! Everything! And did I mention I was tired?
This continued forever…
Until…
10 minutes later when my beautiful baby, Allister Joseph William Stewart, was born! 10 minutes! The longest 10 minutes of my life. The longest 3 and a half hours of my life!!!
But I did it! I had my baby boy in my arms, and I reached my personal goal of doing it without an epidural!
And I was so blessed to have gotten the 4 things I prayed for – No epidural, no tearing, no episiotomy, and no cesarian! Just a little graze! I’ll have to pray for that next time too!
Holy crap it was intense! Intense, insane, amazing, crazy, beautiful and completely extreme! The most extreme thing I can imagine. I hope you got a tiny taste of that from reading this. For those mums out there, does this bring back memories? What were your births like? And for anyone that hasn’t had children, don’t let this put you off. It is so worth all the pain to have a perfect little human to call your own!
Thanks for reading,
P.S. And wow that gas!
P.P.S. Oh and my doctor did make it for the last minute of birth, and to birth the placenta. Definitely $$$$ well spent! Not!
P.P.P.S Totally worth it, and totally going to do it again!