A scrapbook with pictures of Dexy! Enjoy!
posted by ~* Tracey *~ @ 3:09 PM
1 Comments
Friday, 11 April 2008
Thursday, 10 April 2008
A quick update for now about our Osteopath visit...
Yes, yes - the slackness has returned and I've not updated here in a while!
I have lots to tell and to share including pictures. Like Dex giving us his first real smile on 25/3, as a day-early birthday pressie for Mummy! :) And now he's even giggling which is so cute...
He is also FIVE WEEKS OLD now - my gosh, it's crazy to think that! Well they say the first 6 weeks are the hardest and we're almost there :) I can't honestly say it's been too bad - I mean, how many other mothers only have to get up ONCE during the night (between 10pm and 6am) to feed at this age? But we have had our issues, and while Dex sleeps beautifully at night and settles RIGHT away after his feed, we won't do so during the day. He has problems with wind, and I suspect he may also have silent reflux. We'll be seeing my GP next week for our six-week check-up and I'll be mentioning all this at that time.
But anyway - I will post more here in the coming days (or even later today) but I just have NOT had much time lately. Sorry about that!
Today however, I am going to cut and paste in here a message I just put up on the message board I chat on over at Babycentre.com.au. I think it's pretty interesting and maybe someone will google "Osteopathy for babies" and find this to help them with their own newborn. Honestly someone needs to print an instruction manual for these little creatures and then we won't have to go through so much uncertainty and trial/error learning!!!
So anyhow - here is the story of Dexter's first visit to the Osteopath...
Hi everyone!
Well Dex had his first visit to the Osteo yesterday afternoon. I had decided to try Osteo to help his wind issues, which seem to be the main reason I have trouble settling him to sleep during the day. As you may remember he was taking an hour or more to settle at times, then only catnapping (less than an hour sleeps) during the day. I had started giving him Infacol (for the wind) which seems to help, but we still have our good and bad days. A good day will see him have at least one 2-4 hour sleep during the day - a bad one will see him have no more than 15 minutes maybe 3 or 4 times and be awake and upset (overtired probably...) a lot of time. He doesn't actually cry that much unless he has bad lower wind pain (when he SCREAMS!) but if he's awake he wants to be held upright which means I get NOTHING done.
So anyhow I had read on this forum and others (the Huggies site forum is GREAT for advice on this...) that going to a Chiro or Osteo could help. I decided on Osteo because I feel it is gentler, and my brother recommended a practitioner to me who is hugely respected here on the Gold Coast and has been practicing (and specialising on children) for 20 years.
So I went along yesterday afternoon. Dex had not slept much all day and was quite cranky, but fell asleep in the car. He woke up after we arrived and was cranky, wanting to be held. I'd fed him about 90 minutes previously.
Well the Osteopath asked me LOTS of questions about my pregnancy, Dexter's birth, and how he is eating/sleeping etc. It was quite an extensive 'interview'. While asking me these questions he was walking around his office holding Dexter, face out, against his chest with one hand around his chest and the other under his bum. Dex was so calm during this - and the Osteo later told me he was 'releasing' Dexter's diaphragm and loosening up his tummy by moving his legs in a certain way.
After this he lay Dex down on a massage table and then sat behind Dex's head with his feet away from him. While on the table Dex started screaming and did two LOUD farts. Seems that some of that wind had loosened. The Osteopath felt Dex's belly and said that it felt VERY tight and a bit bloated which he thought was surprising because by this time he'd had his last feed 2 hours previous, had done several farts AND a big poo just a little while earlier. He did some work on this area to loosen it up as well.
Then he said "I'll just wash my hands so I can feel his palate", went off then came back and stuck his pinky finger in Dex's mouth. He was feeling around a bit, didn't say much - but then he said "Ok now I'm going to work on his neck". This is where he started using the Cranial Osteopathy technique.
He left his finger in Dex's mouth (which Dex LOVED, he sucked like mad which he never does for me...) and put his other hand at the base of his neck. It didn't LOOK like he was moving his hands at all, but he was obviously applying some pressure because a few times Dex stopped sucking the finger and starting crying very loudly, obviously in pain/discomfort - but this stopped after a few seconds.
This went on for a while and then the Osteopath said "He's very tight at the base of the head. Sometimes I can do this manipulation and get a release in 30 seconds - but as you can see we're coming up to 10 minutes and I'm still trying. It's released a bit, but I want to keep working".
He kept trying for about 5 more minutes and then said he was going to leave it there for today. He'd made an improvement but he wants to see Dex again in a few days. He's booked out for weeks, but he made a special allowance because Dex obviously needs the work, so he's going to stay back one day next week to see us again.
I went to pay for the appointment after this and surprisingly it only cost me $24 after my health fund rebate! Bargain!
I noticed that Dex seemed quite calm after this - I put him in his baby capsule while I paid the account and he was quiet, which is quite unusual for him as he generally dislikes the capsule until the car's actually moving.
I went from there to my Mum's house (about 5 minutes away) and went in for a visit. He needed to be changed and was really good, then got a bit grumpy because it was time for a feed. I fed him and then stayed for another 90 minutes visiting and during that whole time he was just so calm - wide awake, relaxed, taking everything in. He hadn't slept all day but wasn't cranky at all. I wondered whether it was to do with the Osteo - even mum mentioned that he seemed relaxed.
Got him home, and he was asleep in the capsule so I brought him inside just as Dave got home at 6:30pm. He slept for a while then woke hungry, so I fed him till about 7:30pm. Usually at this point we'll put him to bed for the night with our usual routine, but it could be an hour or two - or sometimes more! - before he'll actually fall asleep and STAY asleep for the night. This is so hard on us because we're trying to tag-team our evening meal, I tend to end up cooking quick/easy meals rather than the nice things I used to make us, and we don't get to relax and watch a movie or anything because Dex will keep waking up (every 5-15 minutes during that 1-2 hour period) and we'll have to re-settle him.
Well... last night after feeding I put him down as usual and as usual he fussed and cried a lot. I gave him his dummy (we only use it for night sleeps, it seems to settle the upper wind for him...) and then I did something I hadn't done before ---- I rhythmically rubbed his belly where the Osteo had said he was very bloated and tight. IMMEDIATELY Dex rolled his head to the side and closed his eyes. I kept rubbing for a few minutes - he was asleep!
I quietly left his room, thinking this was a lucky fluke. He DID wake up about 15 minutes later but with obvious lower wind pain - so I did the same thing again, which caused a big fart to come out, and then kept rubbing while he once again rolled his head and fell asleep immediately.
He woke again at 1:15am!!! Then went to sleep a half hour later after his feed, and woke as we did at 6:30am!!!
Now those sleeping periods are pretty normal for him as he DOES sleep well at night, but the settling to sleep thing was just SO different for us. We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves from 8pm with a quiet sleeping baby in the house! I actually felt quite relaxed and realised how TENSE I am normally because I never know if Dex will sleep, or for how long...
Anyhow this morning I fed Dex at 6:30am for about 45 minutes (he is always ravenous in the morning!) then he was really happy to lay in the rocker by himself while I pottered around and had brekky, did chores, got dressed etc.
About 9am he was showing tired signs, I tried to put him down to sleep but he was crying for food (his food cry is very different from every other cry) so even though it was only 2 hours since his last feed, I gave him another one (he's been doing this occasionally of late, maybe a growth spurt?). So after that I burped him, changed nappy and put him down for a sleep. He was laying there, awake but calm for about 20 minutes (he often does that) before he started crying with wind pain. I burped him again, then lay him down and did the tummy rubbing thing again - firstly both thumbs rubbing up/down while my hands sort of loosely hold his sides. Then one thumb rubbing around and around for a bit.
And wouldn't you know it - the same thing happens - he gets into his 'sleeping position' and promptly dozes off. Now - I KNOW we aren't supposed to pat/rock/rub them to sleep but when you're a desperate woman you try it all! And I HAVE tried it all - and although he'll sometimes get patted or rocked to sleep, he never STAYS asleep for very long afterwards.
But this time - well here we are over an hour & a half later and he's still asleep! He woke up once after about 10 minutes with more wind pain, so I did the same thing and we went back off and hasn't woken again. I only do the rubbing for maybe two minutes before he crashes. I don't want to get too excited but it's really like a miracle at this point!
I truly believe that it's not comfort that he's getting from it, it's relief from his pain. I've noticed before that on the occasions where he is in no pain he'll very very happily self- settle and roll over to sleep alone without needing me there. He's not a clingy baby at all - he can be in the rocker in the living room for ages without me having to be there with him, but ONLY when he's not hungry or in pain. Those are really the only 2 reasons he cries most of the time, and the pain has been something I just haven't been able to help him with.
But now I truly believe that the Osteo treatment has loosened things up so now I CAN rub his belly and give him relief, and possibly there is also less wind so this all works more quickly. But I'm really amazed at how things are working right now and I can't wait to update with progress as the days go on, especially after the next appointment.
Honestly - if this keeps up I won't know myself! If I can have a baby that will go to sleep within 15-30 minutes after I put him down for a sleep - well, that will be like MAGIC to me!
Sorry for the long post but I really wanted to detail this so that other ladies may find it helpful down the track to know exactly what to expect and how this can help their own bubbas.
I have lots to tell and to share including pictures. Like Dex giving us his first real smile on 25/3, as a day-early birthday pressie for Mummy! :) And now he's even giggling which is so cute...
He is also FIVE WEEKS OLD now - my gosh, it's crazy to think that! Well they say the first 6 weeks are the hardest and we're almost there :) I can't honestly say it's been too bad - I mean, how many other mothers only have to get up ONCE during the night (between 10pm and 6am) to feed at this age? But we have had our issues, and while Dex sleeps beautifully at night and settles RIGHT away after his feed, we won't do so during the day. He has problems with wind, and I suspect he may also have silent reflux. We'll be seeing my GP next week for our six-week check-up and I'll be mentioning all this at that time.
But anyway - I will post more here in the coming days (or even later today) but I just have NOT had much time lately. Sorry about that!
Today however, I am going to cut and paste in here a message I just put up on the message board I chat on over at Babycentre.com.au. I think it's pretty interesting and maybe someone will google "Osteopathy for babies" and find this to help them with their own newborn. Honestly someone needs to print an instruction manual for these little creatures and then we won't have to go through so much uncertainty and trial/error learning!!!
So anyhow - here is the story of Dexter's first visit to the Osteopath...
Hi everyone!
Well Dex had his first visit to the Osteo yesterday afternoon. I had decided to try Osteo to help his wind issues, which seem to be the main reason I have trouble settling him to sleep during the day. As you may remember he was taking an hour or more to settle at times, then only catnapping (less than an hour sleeps) during the day. I had started giving him Infacol (for the wind) which seems to help, but we still have our good and bad days. A good day will see him have at least one 2-4 hour sleep during the day - a bad one will see him have no more than 15 minutes maybe 3 or 4 times and be awake and upset (overtired probably...) a lot of time. He doesn't actually cry that much unless he has bad lower wind pain (when he SCREAMS!) but if he's awake he wants to be held upright which means I get NOTHING done.
So anyhow I had read on this forum and others (the Huggies site forum is GREAT for advice on this...) that going to a Chiro or Osteo could help. I decided on Osteo because I feel it is gentler, and my brother recommended a practitioner to me who is hugely respected here on the Gold Coast and has been practicing (and specialising on children) for 20 years.
So I went along yesterday afternoon. Dex had not slept much all day and was quite cranky, but fell asleep in the car. He woke up after we arrived and was cranky, wanting to be held. I'd fed him about 90 minutes previously.
Well the Osteopath asked me LOTS of questions about my pregnancy, Dexter's birth, and how he is eating/sleeping etc. It was quite an extensive 'interview'. While asking me these questions he was walking around his office holding Dexter, face out, against his chest with one hand around his chest and the other under his bum. Dex was so calm during this - and the Osteo later told me he was 'releasing' Dexter's diaphragm and loosening up his tummy by moving his legs in a certain way.
After this he lay Dex down on a massage table and then sat behind Dex's head with his feet away from him. While on the table Dex started screaming and did two LOUD farts. Seems that some of that wind had loosened. The Osteopath felt Dex's belly and said that it felt VERY tight and a bit bloated which he thought was surprising because by this time he'd had his last feed 2 hours previous, had done several farts AND a big poo just a little while earlier. He did some work on this area to loosen it up as well.
Then he said "I'll just wash my hands so I can feel his palate", went off then came back and stuck his pinky finger in Dex's mouth. He was feeling around a bit, didn't say much - but then he said "Ok now I'm going to work on his neck". This is where he started using the Cranial Osteopathy technique.
He left his finger in Dex's mouth (which Dex LOVED, he sucked like mad which he never does for me...) and put his other hand at the base of his neck. It didn't LOOK like he was moving his hands at all, but he was obviously applying some pressure because a few times Dex stopped sucking the finger and starting crying very loudly, obviously in pain/discomfort - but this stopped after a few seconds.
This went on for a while and then the Osteopath said "He's very tight at the base of the head. Sometimes I can do this manipulation and get a release in 30 seconds - but as you can see we're coming up to 10 minutes and I'm still trying. It's released a bit, but I want to keep working".
He kept trying for about 5 more minutes and then said he was going to leave it there for today. He'd made an improvement but he wants to see Dex again in a few days. He's booked out for weeks, but he made a special allowance because Dex obviously needs the work, so he's going to stay back one day next week to see us again.
I went to pay for the appointment after this and surprisingly it only cost me $24 after my health fund rebate! Bargain!
I noticed that Dex seemed quite calm after this - I put him in his baby capsule while I paid the account and he was quiet, which is quite unusual for him as he generally dislikes the capsule until the car's actually moving.
I went from there to my Mum's house (about 5 minutes away) and went in for a visit. He needed to be changed and was really good, then got a bit grumpy because it was time for a feed. I fed him and then stayed for another 90 minutes visiting and during that whole time he was just so calm - wide awake, relaxed, taking everything in. He hadn't slept all day but wasn't cranky at all. I wondered whether it was to do with the Osteo - even mum mentioned that he seemed relaxed.
Got him home, and he was asleep in the capsule so I brought him inside just as Dave got home at 6:30pm. He slept for a while then woke hungry, so I fed him till about 7:30pm. Usually at this point we'll put him to bed for the night with our usual routine, but it could be an hour or two - or sometimes more! - before he'll actually fall asleep and STAY asleep for the night. This is so hard on us because we're trying to tag-team our evening meal, I tend to end up cooking quick/easy meals rather than the nice things I used to make us, and we don't get to relax and watch a movie or anything because Dex will keep waking up (every 5-15 minutes during that 1-2 hour period) and we'll have to re-settle him.
Well... last night after feeding I put him down as usual and as usual he fussed and cried a lot. I gave him his dummy (we only use it for night sleeps, it seems to settle the upper wind for him...) and then I did something I hadn't done before ---- I rhythmically rubbed his belly where the Osteo had said he was very bloated and tight. IMMEDIATELY Dex rolled his head to the side and closed his eyes. I kept rubbing for a few minutes - he was asleep!
I quietly left his room, thinking this was a lucky fluke. He DID wake up about 15 minutes later but with obvious lower wind pain - so I did the same thing again, which caused a big fart to come out, and then kept rubbing while he once again rolled his head and fell asleep immediately.
He woke again at 1:15am!!! Then went to sleep a half hour later after his feed, and woke as we did at 6:30am!!!
Now those sleeping periods are pretty normal for him as he DOES sleep well at night, but the settling to sleep thing was just SO different for us. We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves from 8pm with a quiet sleeping baby in the house! I actually felt quite relaxed and realised how TENSE I am normally because I never know if Dex will sleep, or for how long...
Anyhow this morning I fed Dex at 6:30am for about 45 minutes (he is always ravenous in the morning!) then he was really happy to lay in the rocker by himself while I pottered around and had brekky, did chores, got dressed etc.
About 9am he was showing tired signs, I tried to put him down to sleep but he was crying for food (his food cry is very different from every other cry) so even though it was only 2 hours since his last feed, I gave him another one (he's been doing this occasionally of late, maybe a growth spurt?). So after that I burped him, changed nappy and put him down for a sleep. He was laying there, awake but calm for about 20 minutes (he often does that) before he started crying with wind pain. I burped him again, then lay him down and did the tummy rubbing thing again - firstly both thumbs rubbing up/down while my hands sort of loosely hold his sides. Then one thumb rubbing around and around for a bit.
And wouldn't you know it - the same thing happens - he gets into his 'sleeping position' and promptly dozes off. Now - I KNOW we aren't supposed to pat/rock/rub them to sleep but when you're a desperate woman you try it all! And I HAVE tried it all - and although he'll sometimes get patted or rocked to sleep, he never STAYS asleep for very long afterwards.
But this time - well here we are over an hour & a half later and he's still asleep! He woke up once after about 10 minutes with more wind pain, so I did the same thing and we went back off and hasn't woken again. I only do the rubbing for maybe two minutes before he crashes. I don't want to get too excited but it's really like a miracle at this point!
I truly believe that it's not comfort that he's getting from it, it's relief from his pain. I've noticed before that on the occasions where he is in no pain he'll very very happily self- settle and roll over to sleep alone without needing me there. He's not a clingy baby at all - he can be in the rocker in the living room for ages without me having to be there with him, but ONLY when he's not hungry or in pain. Those are really the only 2 reasons he cries most of the time, and the pain has been something I just haven't been able to help him with.
But now I truly believe that the Osteo treatment has loosened things up so now I CAN rub his belly and give him relief, and possibly there is also less wind so this all works more quickly. But I'm really amazed at how things are working right now and I can't wait to update with progress as the days go on, especially after the next appointment.
Honestly - if this keeps up I won't know myself! If I can have a baby that will go to sleep within 15-30 minutes after I put him down for a sleep - well, that will be like MAGIC to me!
Sorry for the long post but I really wanted to detail this so that other ladies may find it helpful down the track to know exactly what to expect and how this can help their own bubbas.
posted by ~* Tracey *~ @ 10:56 AM
0 Comments
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
OH my goodness! He's two weeks old!
Well yesterday marked Dex's two week birthday - unbelievable! It's so strange - when I'm awake in the middle of the night AGAIN, it seems like these difficult sleepless days will never end. But then he turns TWO WEEKS OLD and I realise that I'm already a third of the way through the first six weeks, which are the most difficult, and that the days really are going by so quickly. And then I kick myself, because I shouldn't be wishing away the days till he gets older and sleeps more and is not as demanding. I should be cherishing every moment with my baby because he really is growing and developing SO quickly. I will never get these days back, and I need to be mindful of that.
So I keep taking pictures but not enough. I need to take more videos, to capture all these early moments. How hard is it, really, to grab the digital camera which is kept charged and at hand, and record some of these precious moments? I have to do it more often, I really do. And how awful is it, that at two weeks of age we only two pictures of Dex with either Dave or myself, and NONE of us as a family!
Hopefully my brother Andrew, a budding amateur photography with a great digital SLR camera, will be coming over next week to do a 'photo shoot'. I'll have to make sure Dave is here so we can get some nice family shots.
But other than that, Dex is doing great. He's still fussy in the late afternoon/early evening but even that is slowly getting better, with last night being the best night in the past week since he started that behaviour. His face is really filling out now, he's getting those gorgeous chubby baby cheeks and a little round tummy (like his Daddy who partook a little two much on his holidays and needs to get back to gym! LOL!) and he is just so adorable (see pictures). His face is far more expressive and at times I can see a smile starting although he's not quite getting there yet. I wonder how much longer till he can smile and giggle? It's so exciting to think of everything that is still to come...
I'm doing well too - I put on 12kg during pregnancy and I have only 5.5kg left to lose after two weeks. Breastfeeding is great! Keep it coming! I hope to lose the 12kg and then keep going and lose a few more, fingers crossed.
I feel good - I seem to be healing quickly post-pregnancy. I am only getting about 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night but I don't feel too poorly for it. Dave tends to sleep through when I'm up with Dex, but still he complains of lack of sleep every day. MEN! *sigh* He gets a good 7 or 8 hours with a couple of 5 minute interruptions when Dex cries (and I often get to him before he starts...) but still he complains. Thank God it's women who have the babies! Can you imagine if men had to deal with all of these challenges on a daily basis? I hate to think!
Well baby's first Easter is this weekend, although Dave will only have 3 days with us as he has to work on Easter Monday - which I think is HORRIBLE, but what can you do? But at least he has the following Wednesday, March 26, off from work which was a total accident. Why is that so great, you may ask? Well it's my 36th birthday! :) I'm hoping to get out of the house with the family and maybe have a picnic or a nice drive somewhere - anything to get out in the world for a while! I'm definitely getting a bit of cabin fever, and I get the 'baby blues' from time to time but it's short-lived and usually when I'm frustrated at Dex not going to sleep. I don't think people who have not been through this realise how hard it can be to not be able to just jump in the shower for 5 minutes when you want to. The challenges of motherhood!
Anyhow, Dex is bound to either get fussy or want a feed any moment so I should end this here, but I will update again shortly with the latest and greatest in the world of the Mitchells! Love to you all!
So I keep taking pictures but not enough. I need to take more videos, to capture all these early moments. How hard is it, really, to grab the digital camera which is kept charged and at hand, and record some of these precious moments? I have to do it more often, I really do. And how awful is it, that at two weeks of age we only two pictures of Dex with either Dave or myself, and NONE of us as a family!Hopefully my brother Andrew, a budding amateur photography with a great digital SLR camera, will be coming over next week to do a 'photo shoot'. I'll have to make sure Dave is here so we can get some nice family shots.
But other than that, Dex is doing great. He's still fussy in the late afternoon/early evening but even that is slowly getting better, with last night being the best night in the past week since he started that behaviour. His face is really filling out now, he's getting those gorgeous chubby baby cheeks and a little round tummy (like his Daddy who partook a little two much on his holidays and needs to get back to gym! LOL!) and he is just so adorable (see pictures). His face is far more expressive and at times I can see a smile starting although he's not quite getting there yet. I wonder how much longer till he can smile and giggle? It's so exciting to think of everything that is still to come...
I'm doing well too - I put on 12kg during pregnancy and I have only 5.5kg left to lose after two weeks. Breastfeeding is great! Keep it coming! I hope to lose the 12kg and then keep going and lose a few more, fingers crossed.
I feel good - I seem to be healing quickly post-pregnancy. I am only getting about 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night but I don't feel too poorly for it. Dave tends to sleep through when I'm up with Dex, but still he complains of lack of sleep every day. MEN! *sigh* He gets a good 7 or 8 hours with a couple of 5 minute interruptions when Dex cries (and I often get to him before he starts...) but still he complains. Thank God it's women who have the babies! Can you imagine if men had to deal with all of these challenges on a daily basis? I hate to think!
Well baby's first Easter is this weekend, although Dave will only have 3 days with us as he has to work on Easter Monday - which I think is HORRIBLE, but what can you do? But at least he has the following Wednesday, March 26, off from work which was a total accident. Why is that so great, you may ask? Well it's my 36th birthday! :) I'm hoping to get out of the house with the family and maybe have a picnic or a nice drive somewhere - anything to get out in the world for a while! I'm definitely getting a bit of cabin fever, and I get the 'baby blues' from time to time but it's short-lived and usually when I'm frustrated at Dex not going to sleep. I don't think people who have not been through this realise how hard it can be to not be able to just jump in the shower for 5 minutes when you want to. The challenges of motherhood!
Anyhow, Dex is bound to either get fussy or want a feed any moment so I should end this here, but I will update again shortly with the latest and greatest in the world of the Mitchells! Love to you all!
posted by ~* Tracey *~ @ 11:37 AM
0 Comments
Thursday, 13 March 2008
And so life goes on, but how different it is!
So here we are, 9 days on from Dexter's birth and life is going on. Having a newborn in the house sure does change things in a million ways, but I wouldn't change it for the world. Gone are the days of 'popping down to pick up a few things at the shops' or 'I might just go wash my hair'... everything requires PLANNING, and ORGANISATION! Thank goodness I'm a pretty organised person anyway - but that's a double-edged sword because no amount of organisation or planning can prepare you for the turmoil of a newborn in the house. It's all about HIM! And so it should be!Dex is doing wonderfully :) He's generally a happy, easy baby. He LOVES to eat and has gained 300 grams since his birth! MY GOD! He's SUCH a piglet!!! Thank goodness my milk came in on Day 2 and I have PLENTY of it. The booby Gods have visited, and Dave is a happy man!
But the downside is that Dex also just loves to suckle, so sometimes he uses me as a dummy rather than a food source. This was really causing us some issues when he was tired or cranky, because all he wanted to do was go on the breast and nothing else would comfort him. I gave in finally a couple of days ago after having him on the breast about 6 times in 2 hours, and I gave him a dummy to go to sleep at night. We had a couple of nights where he just would NOT sleep for about 5 hours, by which time he was really overtired and cranky. All he wanted to do in that time was suckle. No amount of holding, rocking, soothing or singing would settle him. He would suckle and fall asleep after a while - so I would put him in his bassinette, creep away - and five minutes later he was awake, crying and sucking his fist.
So - out came a dummy and gosh - I really hated having to do that! I actually cried and asked Dave "Am I being a bad mother?" But he is a sucky baby and it's either that or let him massacre my boobs for hours a day if I want him to get any sleep at all. Luckily though he rejects the dummy unless he's really sleepy - so I can take it out shortly after he goes to sleep and he's fine. And at least he lets me know when he's actually hungry - if he spits out the dummy repeatedly, he wants food so I give it to him. He's still feeding about every 2-3 hours so I know he's not going hungry, and we're happier because he actually got a fabulous sleep last night and only woke me up once between 10pm and 5:30am! I didn't mind getting up that early though, seeing as I ended up with about 6 1/2 hours sleep for a change, and Dave gets up at 6am for work anyway so it wasn't so bad.
I've mastered the knack of feeding Dex while lying down in bed too, so I don't wake up TOO much when I get up at night and I tend to snooze and let him have as much as he likes. It's much easier to get him back to sleep if he falls asleep during the night feeds.
But other than his suckiness, he's just an angel. When he's well rested he is happy to interact with us and is so alert and interested in everything going on. Our pets are all fascinated by him - well, except for Raz our Ragdoll cat. He spent the first couple of days ignoring Dex's existence, and since then he will give Dex a sniff or two before running away. I think it will take some time for him to get used to having a new creature in the house, especially as said creature seems to be taking away much of his attention. Raz was VERY cold toward me the first few days, but now I try to give him a couple of five minute cuddle sessions each day and he seems to like me again.
Anyhow - I should keep this short. Dex has been sleeping since about 7:30am so I guess I MAY have another hour or so before he wants a feed. I have managed to get a heap of little things done this morning so I feel a great sense of achievement. That's the thing these days - achieving the smallest thing like doing the washing up or putting on a load of washing, or, the BEST thing, actually having a DECENT shower! - really does bring a sense of accomplishment and pride :) It's a strange and beautiful new world :)
posted by ~* Tracey *~ @ 9:14 AM
0 Comments
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
My birth story - FINALLY! :)
Well it's been a week and finally I have had the time to write up my birth story as Dave is back to work today (boohoo to that...) - so, here it is! I will update the blog with other details shortly but basically Dex is WONDERFUL, doing really well, putting on weight like nobody's business (he's a piglet!) and behaving beautifully. We love him to death! :)
Dexter David Mitchell's Birth Story
(Warning: VERY LONG!)
Dexter’s birth story really begins with his conception (a story in itself!) and then our journey to deciding on giving birth at home into water. However, I won’t go into those details here – much of that pre-story is detailed in my blog at www.onthecoast.com/baby where you can read it if you would like to…
So I will just start the story from Friday 29th February, the point at which we started to really worry that our home birth would not be able to happen. At this stage Dexter was two weeks late, and we had to make some difficult decisions about how to proceed.
Backtrack slightly by two weeks, and I was 40 weeks pregnant with no sign that Dex would arrive any time soon. My home birth midwife and I were slightly concerned that my belly & fundal height were so small and we thought it best, considering we thought I would be at LEAST a week overdue, that I go and get a biophysical profile/ultrasound done to ensure that Dex was growing and that my placenta was working well. I had that testing done on Friday February 15th, my due date, and all was wonderful. Dex scored 8 out of 8 on the profile and we felt happy to continue the pregnancy to at least the 42 week mark if required, and then make further decisions from that time.
I had a horrible two weeks from that point up to Feb 29th. I tried every natural induction method known to man – sex, orgasms, nipple stimulation, walking, spicy food, evening primrose oil, raspberry leaf tea, black/blue cohosh (yuck!!!), rocking on a fitball and then finally – as a last resort - castor oil. I was under pressure from friends and family about how far overdue Dex was and whether he was in good health. I worried that I wouldn’t go into labour spontaneously and that I would have to go to hospital – which of course was something we wanted to avoid at all costs. Add to that the pressure of Dave being TOLD by his work that he HAD to take his 2 weeks annual leave starting from Feb 22nd, instead of from when the baby was born. It was just a very stressful time and by the time I was 42 weeks pregnant I was both emotionally and physically drained.
We decided that we really needed to monitor the baby to make sure he was still fine at this point. The concern was not only for his health, but for the fact that if I DID end up having to go into the public hospital for an induction, and had not had any monitoring, I would be seen to have been irresponsible and may actually have a difficult time if anything went wrong. My home birth midwife works part time at the public hospital I intended to use for a transfer if necessary, so she pulled a few strings and spoke to a few sympathetic midwives who were supportive of home birth, and I went in to the hospital on the Friday night to have a CTG and check on the baby.
We turned up at the hospital at 6:30pm as my midwife was finishing her shift, so that she and the lovely head midwife could look after us without any of the Doctors getting involved. The thought was that doctors would probably push to book me for an induction, even possibly right then and there! But we hoped that the baby would be well and that we could then wait over the weekend to see if labour would start spontaneously.
The CTG and other monitoring showed that both Dex and I were in wonderful health, everything was fantastic and that we should have no problem waiting a couple more days. The head midwife offered to do a stretch and sweep with her ‘magic fingers’ and I agreed. We hoped that this, coupled with more of the natural induction methods I had been trying for two weeks, would help to bring on labour.
Then she spoke with the Doctor on duty (she had no choice) and although he wasn’t completely happy with the plan, he agreed that seeing as the baby was healthy, I could wait the weekend and come back in on Monday (if labour hadn’t started before then) for more monitoring. At that time he would suggest an induction to be performed that day, but would accept if I declined and would instead order another biophysical profile to ensure baby was absolutely fine. If he was, we would book an induction for the Wednesday. If not, we’d do it right away. I was happy with this plan, and felt that if baby wouldn’t come by himself by Wednesday – which was 5 days away – then I would accept that an induction was required and I would feel I had tried everything I could to have my home birth before giving in and going to hospital.
Dave and I left the hospital feeling a lot more positive than we’d been in weeks – we had a plan now, and a final end date that we would meet Dex, one way or the other. We stopped in at our favourite Mexican restaurant on the way home and had a lovely dinner, and were in good spirits.
At about 10pm that night, I started having pains. They were strong tightenings of my abdomen, different to what I had felt previously. We started timing them and found them coming every 10 minutes. I thought it may be the start of labour. The pain was uncomfortable but manageable. After a few hours the pains came every 5 minutes and were lasting up to a minute. From everything I’d read, I thought I may need to call my midwife. I did so at 2am, feeling terrible at waking her up, but wanting to be safe rather than sorry. I told her what I was experiencing and she said that she didn’t think it was truly labour, but possibly pre-labour, and that the pains were probably strong Braxton Hicks rather than true contractions. Not having anything to compare this to, I had no idea myself but in hindsight I realize she was correct. She suggested I get some rest, said that things could be starting but that these kinds of pains are often stirred up by a stretch and sweep, and that it could even last days before true labour began. Of course that wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I took her advice and went back to bed. The pains continued till about 3:30am when I finally fell asleep and when I woke 4 hours later they were gone. If I’d known at the time that those 4 hours sleep would be the last I’d have for 3 days, I might have gone back to bed and had some more!!!
We spent Saturday March 1st hanging out at home, and I continued to have some mild contractions throughout the day at unusual intervals. Nothing was regular, but there was definitely something going on. Dave and I just relaxed and watched a movie, hoping that labour could start in earnest at any time.
Around 5pm the pains started to become a bit more intense, and I noticed they were coming every 15 minutes. However I could still breathe through them, still talk through them, so I knew it wasn’t REAL labour.
But two hours later, at 7pm on March 1st, that all changed. I started having REAL contractions – still fairly mild, but I had to breathe through them and I couldn’t talk to Dave when they were at their peak. We timed them and found them to be 10 minutes apart. This continued all night long, right through to Sunday morning. I got no sleep at all, and Dave didn’t get much either. The contractions would vary in intensity and also in duration. At times they would be 5 or 6 minutes apart – sometimes much further apart. I searched the internet for some answers and determined I was probably in early labour, but that this could continue for some time.
I called my midwife to let her know what was going on. She agreed that it seemed promising and to let her know if they got more intense or closer together/lasting longer. She dropped by that afternoon to check out my progress. I was hoping I would be somewhat dilated, and looking as though labour was well underway.
Unfortunately, I was only 2cm dilated, and the cervix although soft and spongy and anterior, was still about 1/2cm thick and the baby’s head was high. My midwife sadly told me that she didn’t think I was going to have the baby any time soon, and that I should try to conserve my energy whenever possible. She checked out my contractions and agreed I was in labour, but still only in the early stages. She said that although the contractions were obviously quite strong, they weren’t doing enough to prepare my body and send me into active labour. We had to wait until they became harder and faster, and that could happen in hours or even in days!
The contractions continued all day Sunday March 2nd, and all through the night. I sent Dave to sleep in the spare room as I knew it would be a long night. The pain was very difficult to deal with, and so regular that I could only get a minute or two of a catnap between each one. By the time I got up the next morning, I had been in early labour over 36 hours and I was dead tired. I felt emotionally and physically drained, and I started to worry that when labour DID kick in properly that I wouldn’t have the energy or the mental strength to deal with it. I started to doubt myself. In hindsight, I realize that these feelings are completely normal and it was probably a sign that things were going to start gearing up but at the time I really felt like a failure.
I called my midwife that morning and spoke to her about it. She suggested that she would come by again and check me out, that maybe I had progressed if I had been labouring all night. She arrived around 9am on Monday morning, March 3rd, and after doing an examination we found that nothing had progressed. NOTHING! I was mortified – I had prepared myself to only have had marginal progress, but NONE? And after a night of no sleep and very painful contractions every 10 minutes? I felt very depressed and worried that my body was failing me.
My midwife asked me what I wanted to do. I was already in labour, so we were no longer going to have the baby monitored at the hospital like we had originally planned. So I could (a) wait and see what happened, (b) I could go to hospital to be induced or (C) we could try to kick start this labour. I asked her what she meant by that. She said we could try EVERYTHING we could to bring the contractions on harder and faster – that it would be painful and challenging – but it might make my body go into active labour. I agreed we should try this before resorting to going to hospital.
So between 9am and 4pm I rocked on my fitball, did nipple stimulation, and induced some incredibly intense contractions. I was in an awful lot of pain, made harder because I was bringing it on myself. I would be consciously working on bringing on a strong contraction, knowing how much it was going to hurt, and trying to make it as strong as possible. All the while I was physically exhausted – during the contractions I was leaning over the back of my lounge, moaning and breathing and wailing. After each contraction I would lean back and try to have a small rest before starting over again. Dave would feed me water and Gatorade, but I couldn’t eat and hadn’t done so since dinner the night before. I threw up with the pain on several occasions and was getting dehydrated, even with the fluids I was trying to have between each contraction.
But the contractions never really picked up of their own accord or found any ongoing pattern. At times they would be 5 minutes apart and lasting a full minute each, sometimes I’d have contractions one on top of the other. At other times they dropped off to 10 minutes apart and weren’t too bad at all.
After 7 hours of this, my midwife checked me again and sadly told me that I was about 3cm, but the baby’s head was still quite high. She worried that he may be posterior, and therefore his head was not pressing down on my cervix enough to bring on the active labour we needed. I was absolutely exhausted and mentally I felt completely drained. We weighed up all our options, and very sadly I told Dave that I thought it was time to give up on our home birth dream and head to the hospital for an induction. It was very sad, and I cried. I felt like a failure but I knew that I was losing my faith in myself and my body, and needed some help to bring my baby into the world.
My midwife told me that she thought this was the right thing to do, that medical interventions are there for a reason, and that she thought that after 46 hours of spurious (non-progressing) labour, no sleep, no food, and dehydration I would probably require some pain relief to get through the intensity of an induced labour. She explained that they would probably break my waters first, and that this may bring on labour without needing drugs. But if they needed to use the drugs to bring it on, that it would come on very fast and hard with little warning, and if I didn’t have an epidural there was a good chance that I would not have the energy to go through with the labour, the baby could become distressed, and then the Doctors would push for a caesarian. This is something I most DEFINITELY did not want.
So I agreed that I would get an epidural before they induced me, so that I could get some sleep and try to avoid further interventions. By this stage all I wanted was to have my baby in my arms. I had been through two of the most difficult and stressful weeks of my life and I just did not have the energy to fight anymore. Once this decision was made and we had packed my bags into the car, I felt more at peace. It was now 5pm and I would meet my baby sometime the next day. My midwife thought it would probably be in the morning sometime. I was happy about that – the 4th March seemed like a good birthday for my baby. 4 is our lucky number, so maybe things would start going our way from now on.
I had a few contractions in the car on the way to the hospital which was HORRIBLE, and we finally got there at 5:30pm. We crossed the border and were now in NSW so it was 6:30pm daylight savings time, and the shifts were just about to change. We checked in, monitoring was started, and Dave and I were left in the birthing suite for a while by ourselves in the dim light and the beeping machines. We suddenly felt calmer and realized we had done the right thing by coming here. We let our families know what was happening – up till now we had held off saying anything while I was in early labour, but it was nice to be able to let my parents know that the baby was going to be here soon.
The midwives hooked me up to an IV with fluids, a CTG to monitor baby’s heartbeat and another monitor for my contractions – I was stuck on the bed and couldn’t move! The doctor on call turned up and checked me out. She said she would break my waters, then they would order the epidural, and then start the syntocinon drip to start labour. All that would take a few hours, and I should have my baby mid-morning the next day at the latest.
At this stage my contractions had dropped way back to about 20 minutes apart and weren’t too bad. Apparently this is very common when you arrive at hospital in labour. Adrenalin kicks in from the fear/anticipation you feel arriving at the hospital, and this slows down the labour process. So I was feeling much better at this stage, although incredibly tired. Dave took a few pictures of me at this point and you can see how exhausted I look.
The doctor came back to break my waters and when she went to do so she found that they had already broken! She asked me about it – and I thought back to the night before when I had been having contractions all night while Dave slept in the spare room. I had been going to the toilet after every 2nd or 3rd contraction to pee, but I thought at the time that I was peeing an awful lot considering I wasn’t really drinking that much water in between. I realized that my waters must have broken then. The doctor put me on some antibiotics seeing as we couldn’t be absolutely certain when I lost my waters, and told me that she would organize for the epidural to be done shortly.
About 9pm the anaesthetist came in and discussed the epidural with me and got me to sign off on getting it. He said he was waiting for his supervisor to arrive, and that he should be there soon. Well – as it turned out his supervisor didn’t come for another hour and in the meantime the following happened…
Suddenly, just after the anaesthetist left, there was a knock at the door and my parents walked in. They just wanted to give me a kiss and a cuddle – apparently Mum was beside herself with worry and just wanted to see me quickly. She got Dad to drive her all the way there for just a few minutes. That was really sweet.
But while they were there, all of a sudden I had the WORST contraction I’d ever felt up to that point – it went on and on and on, and then came again immediately! I had about 4 contractions in a row, about 2 minutes apart, all lasting about 90 seconds and they HURT. I was in agony, I threw up repeatedly and couldn’t talk or breathe. It hit me so suddenly and so unexpectedly that I was totally unprepared. My body had suddenly and violently gone into active labour SPONTANEOUSLY without any need for induction! The midwives thought later that maybe the fluids helped – that my dehydration had been stopping labour from starting in earnest. Who can tell – but all I know is that suddenly I was dealing with full-on labour and it was completely unexpected. Of course it had to happen while my parents were there! They were horrified and left quickly.
My midwife was there with me, as was Dave, and they were both trying to help me get through the contractions. But I had a really hard time dealing with them because I was lying on the bed and hooked up to machines, so all I could do to cope was to roll on my side and clench my fists. And that just didn’t help at all. At one point I asked to go to the toilet – and the contractions that I had sitting on the toilet were actually more manageable – but I wasn’t allowed to stay there because they couldn’t monitor the baby’s heartbeat while I was in there.
I went through this for an hour before they were able to administer the epidural. Compared to the contractions I was experiencing the epi was a walk in the park! They had to do it twice, but I don’t even remember that – Dave had to tell me later. However, they started with a very low dose of pain relief which did absolutely nothing to help, and it took yet another hour for them to come back and top it up. When they topped it up however, they had me on my side and the catheter in my back was in too deep, so it ended up completely numbing my left leg (the side I have osteoarthritis in my hip) and the left side of my abdomen, but hardly affected the right. So there I am, still feeling these intense contractions on one side only, and they started getting even more intense and I could feel this strong sensation around my bottom which felt really strange.
By this time it was 11:30pm, and finally the head midwife called the anaesthetist back and told him that it wasn’t good enough, that I was still feeling pain on my right side, and that he had to fix it up. He pulled the catheter out of my back by a few centimeters, topped up the epi again, and then finally I was pain-free. My home birth midwife had gone to have a sleep as she was due to have a shift the next morning at 7am, and after the epi the idea was that I’d have a few hours sleep while the induction progressed. It was expected to take quite a few hours to go from the 3cm dilated I was when I arrived at hospital to the 10cm I needed to be to start pushing. My hospital midwife, Pam, told me she’d let me sleep shortly but she just needed to check out a few things. She put in a catheter and did an internal and found that I was now 5cm, so all those spontaneous contractions had certainly helped me along. By this time it was 11:50pm.
So Pam was fussing around me, checking the monitors and looking with a confused expression on her face at the read-outs. She told me after a while that my ‘belly is funny’ and she can’t feel my contractions – apparently my abdomen just always feels firm, and so the monitor can’t pick up when I am contracting. This is a bit of a problem when you’ve had an effective epidural, as you can’t feel them yourself. She was also trying to palpate my tummy to feel them herself, but was having little luck. She called a couple of other midwives in to check, and they all were saying how unusual it was and how difficult my belly was to read.
This went on for a while, and I was dying for them to leave me alone so I could rest. Dave was lying on a pull out single sofa bed (that was really uncomfortable!) and he wanted a rest too, but he didn’t want to fall asleep while they were still fussing over me. He was so protective and sweet during the whole process, and wanted to monitor every little thing they were doing and asked them all kinds of questions to make sure we knew everything that was going on.
Then at about 12:50pm Pam comes in with two other midwives and they start fussing more. Apparently the baby’s heartbeat is dropping at times, and taking a while to come back up. If this were happening DURING a contraction then it is not quite so serious as it is normal for the rate to drop a bit when the contractions are squeezing the baby. But they suspected that it was happening AFTER the contractions, which wasn’t good. The problem was that because they couldn’t tell for sure when I was contracting, they couldn’t tell when his heartbeat was dropping. Pam didn’t want to call the Doctor unless it was really necessary so she was getting second and third opinions from the midwives. They were all pretty sure the heartbeat was dropping after contractions, which is a sign of fetal distress. They seemed a bit worried and Pam told me that she would probably have to call the Doctor and that if the baby was in distress there was a chance they’d want to get him out right away. She hadn’t yet started the syntocinon, so the induction hadn’t yet happened – and therefore the quickest way to get him out would be a c-section.
Just before all of this happened, Dave decided he was hungry so he headed out to the vending machine to get a snack and was gone about 10 minutes.
While he was gone one of the older, more experienced midwives said to Pam “When was the last time you checked her?”. Pam says, “About an hour ago when I put the catheter in, she was only 5cm, and I haven’t started the induction yet”. The older midwife says, “Well you know the other reason the heartbeat could be dropping after contractions…” and Pam raises her eyebrows and then looks at me and says she wants to do an internal. I get into position and they help raise my legs up (because I can’t feel them!) and she has a look to see how I am doing.
Next thing this HUGE smile comes across her face and she says “Tracey, your baby’s head is ready! You can push the baby out – you did it all by yourself without induction!”
OH MY GOD! I can’t believe it – it’s just on 1am and my baby is ready! Everyone starts fussing and all I can say is “Where’s Dave? Can we wait for Dave?”. Pam says “We won’t be ready for a few minutes but we can’t wait too long.”
Then she comes over to me and says quietly, “Tracey, we have to call the doctor because the baby’s heartbeat is dropping, but I think he’s ok and he just needs to get his head out. He might have been waiting there for a while and we didn’t know because we couldn’t see your contractions had picked up. I know you can’t feel anything, but I think you can push your baby out. When the Doctor gets here she will use the vacuum but you can do it ok? Will we try to push the baby out?”
Suddenly I have ALL the energy in the world and I tell her YES I will push out my baby. Dave walks in and sees the fussing around, the lights back on, my legs up in stirrups and frowns at me. I tell him “Look down there!” and Pam guides him down to see a fuzzy head just ready to start coming out. He calls my home birth midwife who is sleeping upstairs and a few minutes later she arrives just as Pam tells me to start pushing.
We don’t know when my contractions are coming but I tell them my instincts are telling me to push, so I try even though I may be pushing against the contractions. Pam tells me we have to get the baby out NOW because he is in distress, so I push with all my might just as the Doctor arrives and starts getting the vacuum ready. I don’t want that used on my son, so I am determined to push him out before she can suck him out!
So there I am, not being able to feel anything below my waist, but telling my body to push. I am gripping my legs, and pulling them hard and concentrating on the sensation of pushing. Next thing the baby is crowning and I pause and look down with a huge grin on my face as I see the top of his tiny head. Dave thought it was hilarious that I’ve got this little head poking out, blood everywhere, people fussing, monitors bellowing – and a huge grin on my face! He was able to record all of this too, so we have it on video, and it’s quite funny to watch!
As soon as the top of his head is out, his heartbeat regulates and sits solidly at 140bpm for the rest of the delivery. I like to think that after waiting for so long to come out, he finally decided he was ready and everything just went SO fast after that - nobody thought I would progress so fast, so he was probably waiting there to come out for a while and his heartbeat dropping was his way of letting us know that.
So now the doctor is just about to put the vacuum on Dexter’s head and Pam says to me quietly “Push if you can Tracey, push if you can…” and so I push just as she is putting the vacuum on and out pops his head. I am so elated! I am grinning and telling Dave to “move down the end so you can film him coming out!” It all seems so surreal. They’re waiting for a contraction, and I tell them I want to push anyway so they tell me to go ahead.
And next thing I know I have a crying, squirming, bloody little creature on my chest and I’m completely and totally in love. It’s 1:10am on 4/3/08, just 20 minutes after they first saw his head ready to come.
Everything I’ve been through the past few weeks, every stress, every bit of tiredness – it all evaporates the second I touch my little boy. Suddenly it doesn’t matter where or how he was born, only that he IS. Dave is standing beside me saying “Oh wow, oh my goodness, oh baby…” and kissing me on the forehead. All I can do is smile and talk to my son saying “Hello Dexter, hello baby, welcome to the world, Mummy loves you…” while he cries and cries.
Pam takes Dexter over to the heat lamps at that point, and cleans him up. Dave cuts the umbilical cord and films some more, while the doctor delivers the placenta. The placenta shows some signs of deterioration but it’s not too bad, so we know that it was still feeding Dex even though he was officially born 2 weeks and 4 days late. But Dex is so small for an overdue baby, and he still had vernix on him, so the midwives start wondering if maybe my dates were wrong. I don’t believe so, but anything is possible.
His stats at birth are:
DOB: 04/03/2008
Time: 1:10am (NSW DST)
Weight: 2880grams
Length: 48cm
Head Circ: 33cm
Once Dex is cleaned up they bring him to me and I get to cuddle him for about half an hour. His breathing is a little bit grunty, and they think he might have had a bit of fluid in his lungs, so they take him away to be under heat lamps and to get a bit of oxygen. Five minutes later he is fine, but because he was technically ‘in distress’ they want to monitor him for a while. Dave goes and spends time with him in the nursery while I have to wait for the epi to fade so I can get up and shower. I sent Dave home at this point (around 2am) so he could get some sleep, and I managed getting about 2 hours of sleep myself – the first in three days!
I ended up waiting in the birthing suite till 6:30am because my left leg got an extra dose of the epi, so it took quite a while to get the feeling back. I was helped into the shower at that stage, which was lovely, but then I found that although the Doctor had given me the all-clear and said I had no tears from the delivery, I did in fact have two small labial tears that required stitching. The Doctor came back and did that around 7am but I didn’t feel a thing because by this stage they had brought Dex back to me for his first feed, and I was completely distracted by my little man.
They took me into the ward and assigned me a bed, and I ate breakfast while gazing at Dex who was gazing back at me. He was so alert, and so calm! Dave came in a few hours later, the proud father, who couldn’t wait to hold his baby son and spend some more time with him. I cannot believe the change in Dave, and how smitten he is. He seems like a different person now that Dex is here, and all for the better!
Over the next few hours Dex had his paediatric checks, hearing check and I was shown how to breastfeed. Luckily Dex and I are naturals and we took to it immediately! The nurse asked when I wanted to go home and I said “right away!”. She got the all clear and we ended up being scheduled to leave after lunch, only 12 hours after Dex was born!
My home birth midwife, who was now on her shift, came in a few times to see us and we went over how everything had happened and agreed that we should have no regrets, that Dex was born the way he was meant to be born. She thought that because he was so small at birth, she may have had to resuscitate him if we’d had our home birth, and most certainly he would have need to be warmed up as soon as he was born. And the ferocity of my labour once it kicked in would have been manageable at home, but who knows how it may have panned out?
After a lot of thought and reflection, I’ve decided that I’m at peace with everything that happened. I can see now that my story on my blog and in the online buddy group I am part of seems to have inspired some other women to stay strong, trust their instincts and to do what they feel is right in their own pregnancies. I got so many lovely messages and emails when Dex was finally born that I see our story has touched many people, even as far away as Brazil! In that regard I think that maybe these challenges are sent to try those of us who have the ability to pass on the lessons to others and help them in their own journeys. But whatever the reason, now that I have my baby Dexter David here in my arms, nothing in the world can take away the joy and love that I feel for him every day. I’m just thankful he is here, and in the end his journey to being here is not as important as the journey that is ahead of all of us now that he’s arrived.
So I will just start the story from Friday 29th February, the point at which we started to really worry that our home birth would not be able to happen. At this stage Dexter was two weeks late, and we had to make some difficult decisions about how to proceed.
Backtrack slightly by two weeks, and I was 40 weeks pregnant with no sign that Dex would arrive any time soon. My home birth midwife and I were slightly concerned that my belly & fundal height were so small and we thought it best, considering we thought I would be at LEAST a week overdue, that I go and get a biophysical profile/ultrasound done to ensure that Dex was growing and that my placenta was working well. I had that testing done on Friday February 15th, my due date, and all was wonderful. Dex scored 8 out of 8 on the profile and we felt happy to continue the pregnancy to at least the 42 week mark if required, and then make further decisions from that time.
I had a horrible two weeks from that point up to Feb 29th. I tried every natural induction method known to man – sex, orgasms, nipple stimulation, walking, spicy food, evening primrose oil, raspberry leaf tea, black/blue cohosh (yuck!!!), rocking on a fitball and then finally – as a last resort - castor oil. I was under pressure from friends and family about how far overdue Dex was and whether he was in good health. I worried that I wouldn’t go into labour spontaneously and that I would have to go to hospital – which of course was something we wanted to avoid at all costs. Add to that the pressure of Dave being TOLD by his work that he HAD to take his 2 weeks annual leave starting from Feb 22nd, instead of from when the baby was born. It was just a very stressful time and by the time I was 42 weeks pregnant I was both emotionally and physically drained.
We decided that we really needed to monitor the baby to make sure he was still fine at this point. The concern was not only for his health, but for the fact that if I DID end up having to go into the public hospital for an induction, and had not had any monitoring, I would be seen to have been irresponsible and may actually have a difficult time if anything went wrong. My home birth midwife works part time at the public hospital I intended to use for a transfer if necessary, so she pulled a few strings and spoke to a few sympathetic midwives who were supportive of home birth, and I went in to the hospital on the Friday night to have a CTG and check on the baby.
We turned up at the hospital at 6:30pm as my midwife was finishing her shift, so that she and the lovely head midwife could look after us without any of the Doctors getting involved. The thought was that doctors would probably push to book me for an induction, even possibly right then and there! But we hoped that the baby would be well and that we could then wait over the weekend to see if labour would start spontaneously.
The CTG and other monitoring showed that both Dex and I were in wonderful health, everything was fantastic and that we should have no problem waiting a couple more days. The head midwife offered to do a stretch and sweep with her ‘magic fingers’ and I agreed. We hoped that this, coupled with more of the natural induction methods I had been trying for two weeks, would help to bring on labour.
Then she spoke with the Doctor on duty (she had no choice) and although he wasn’t completely happy with the plan, he agreed that seeing as the baby was healthy, I could wait the weekend and come back in on Monday (if labour hadn’t started before then) for more monitoring. At that time he would suggest an induction to be performed that day, but would accept if I declined and would instead order another biophysical profile to ensure baby was absolutely fine. If he was, we would book an induction for the Wednesday. If not, we’d do it right away. I was happy with this plan, and felt that if baby wouldn’t come by himself by Wednesday – which was 5 days away – then I would accept that an induction was required and I would feel I had tried everything I could to have my home birth before giving in and going to hospital.
Dave and I left the hospital feeling a lot more positive than we’d been in weeks – we had a plan now, and a final end date that we would meet Dex, one way or the other. We stopped in at our favourite Mexican restaurant on the way home and had a lovely dinner, and were in good spirits.
At about 10pm that night, I started having pains. They were strong tightenings of my abdomen, different to what I had felt previously. We started timing them and found them coming every 10 minutes. I thought it may be the start of labour. The pain was uncomfortable but manageable. After a few hours the pains came every 5 minutes and were lasting up to a minute. From everything I’d read, I thought I may need to call my midwife. I did so at 2am, feeling terrible at waking her up, but wanting to be safe rather than sorry. I told her what I was experiencing and she said that she didn’t think it was truly labour, but possibly pre-labour, and that the pains were probably strong Braxton Hicks rather than true contractions. Not having anything to compare this to, I had no idea myself but in hindsight I realize she was correct. She suggested I get some rest, said that things could be starting but that these kinds of pains are often stirred up by a stretch and sweep, and that it could even last days before true labour began. Of course that wasn’t what I wanted to hear, but I took her advice and went back to bed. The pains continued till about 3:30am when I finally fell asleep and when I woke 4 hours later they were gone. If I’d known at the time that those 4 hours sleep would be the last I’d have for 3 days, I might have gone back to bed and had some more!!!
We spent Saturday March 1st hanging out at home, and I continued to have some mild contractions throughout the day at unusual intervals. Nothing was regular, but there was definitely something going on. Dave and I just relaxed and watched a movie, hoping that labour could start in earnest at any time.
Around 5pm the pains started to become a bit more intense, and I noticed they were coming every 15 minutes. However I could still breathe through them, still talk through them, so I knew it wasn’t REAL labour.
But two hours later, at 7pm on March 1st, that all changed. I started having REAL contractions – still fairly mild, but I had to breathe through them and I couldn’t talk to Dave when they were at their peak. We timed them and found them to be 10 minutes apart. This continued all night long, right through to Sunday morning. I got no sleep at all, and Dave didn’t get much either. The contractions would vary in intensity and also in duration. At times they would be 5 or 6 minutes apart – sometimes much further apart. I searched the internet for some answers and determined I was probably in early labour, but that this could continue for some time.
I called my midwife to let her know what was going on. She agreed that it seemed promising and to let her know if they got more intense or closer together/lasting longer. She dropped by that afternoon to check out my progress. I was hoping I would be somewhat dilated, and looking as though labour was well underway.
Unfortunately, I was only 2cm dilated, and the cervix although soft and spongy and anterior, was still about 1/2cm thick and the baby’s head was high. My midwife sadly told me that she didn’t think I was going to have the baby any time soon, and that I should try to conserve my energy whenever possible. She checked out my contractions and agreed I was in labour, but still only in the early stages. She said that although the contractions were obviously quite strong, they weren’t doing enough to prepare my body and send me into active labour. We had to wait until they became harder and faster, and that could happen in hours or even in days!
The contractions continued all day Sunday March 2nd, and all through the night. I sent Dave to sleep in the spare room as I knew it would be a long night. The pain was very difficult to deal with, and so regular that I could only get a minute or two of a catnap between each one. By the time I got up the next morning, I had been in early labour over 36 hours and I was dead tired. I felt emotionally and physically drained, and I started to worry that when labour DID kick in properly that I wouldn’t have the energy or the mental strength to deal with it. I started to doubt myself. In hindsight, I realize that these feelings are completely normal and it was probably a sign that things were going to start gearing up but at the time I really felt like a failure.
I called my midwife that morning and spoke to her about it. She suggested that she would come by again and check me out, that maybe I had progressed if I had been labouring all night. She arrived around 9am on Monday morning, March 3rd, and after doing an examination we found that nothing had progressed. NOTHING! I was mortified – I had prepared myself to only have had marginal progress, but NONE? And after a night of no sleep and very painful contractions every 10 minutes? I felt very depressed and worried that my body was failing me.
My midwife asked me what I wanted to do. I was already in labour, so we were no longer going to have the baby monitored at the hospital like we had originally planned. So I could (a) wait and see what happened, (b) I could go to hospital to be induced or (C) we could try to kick start this labour. I asked her what she meant by that. She said we could try EVERYTHING we could to bring the contractions on harder and faster – that it would be painful and challenging – but it might make my body go into active labour. I agreed we should try this before resorting to going to hospital.
So between 9am and 4pm I rocked on my fitball, did nipple stimulation, and induced some incredibly intense contractions. I was in an awful lot of pain, made harder because I was bringing it on myself. I would be consciously working on bringing on a strong contraction, knowing how much it was going to hurt, and trying to make it as strong as possible. All the while I was physically exhausted – during the contractions I was leaning over the back of my lounge, moaning and breathing and wailing. After each contraction I would lean back and try to have a small rest before starting over again. Dave would feed me water and Gatorade, but I couldn’t eat and hadn’t done so since dinner the night before. I threw up with the pain on several occasions and was getting dehydrated, even with the fluids I was trying to have between each contraction.
But the contractions never really picked up of their own accord or found any ongoing pattern. At times they would be 5 minutes apart and lasting a full minute each, sometimes I’d have contractions one on top of the other. At other times they dropped off to 10 minutes apart and weren’t too bad at all.
After 7 hours of this, my midwife checked me again and sadly told me that I was about 3cm, but the baby’s head was still quite high. She worried that he may be posterior, and therefore his head was not pressing down on my cervix enough to bring on the active labour we needed. I was absolutely exhausted and mentally I felt completely drained. We weighed up all our options, and very sadly I told Dave that I thought it was time to give up on our home birth dream and head to the hospital for an induction. It was very sad, and I cried. I felt like a failure but I knew that I was losing my faith in myself and my body, and needed some help to bring my baby into the world.
My midwife told me that she thought this was the right thing to do, that medical interventions are there for a reason, and that she thought that after 46 hours of spurious (non-progressing) labour, no sleep, no food, and dehydration I would probably require some pain relief to get through the intensity of an induced labour. She explained that they would probably break my waters first, and that this may bring on labour without needing drugs. But if they needed to use the drugs to bring it on, that it would come on very fast and hard with little warning, and if I didn’t have an epidural there was a good chance that I would not have the energy to go through with the labour, the baby could become distressed, and then the Doctors would push for a caesarian. This is something I most DEFINITELY did not want.
So I agreed that I would get an epidural before they induced me, so that I could get some sleep and try to avoid further interventions. By this stage all I wanted was to have my baby in my arms. I had been through two of the most difficult and stressful weeks of my life and I just did not have the energy to fight anymore. Once this decision was made and we had packed my bags into the car, I felt more at peace. It was now 5pm and I would meet my baby sometime the next day. My midwife thought it would probably be in the morning sometime. I was happy about that – the 4th March seemed like a good birthday for my baby. 4 is our lucky number, so maybe things would start going our way from now on.
I had a few contractions in the car on the way to the hospital which was HORRIBLE, and we finally got there at 5:30pm. We crossed the border and were now in NSW so it was 6:30pm daylight savings time, and the shifts were just about to change. We checked in, monitoring was started, and Dave and I were left in the birthing suite for a while by ourselves in the dim light and the beeping machines. We suddenly felt calmer and realized we had done the right thing by coming here. We let our families know what was happening – up till now we had held off saying anything while I was in early labour, but it was nice to be able to let my parents know that the baby was going to be here soon.
The midwives hooked me up to an IV with fluids, a CTG to monitor baby’s heartbeat and another monitor for my contractions – I was stuck on the bed and couldn’t move! The doctor on call turned up and checked me out. She said she would break my waters, then they would order the epidural, and then start the syntocinon drip to start labour. All that would take a few hours, and I should have my baby mid-morning the next day at the latest.
At this stage my contractions had dropped way back to about 20 minutes apart and weren’t too bad. Apparently this is very common when you arrive at hospital in labour. Adrenalin kicks in from the fear/anticipation you feel arriving at the hospital, and this slows down the labour process. So I was feeling much better at this stage, although incredibly tired. Dave took a few pictures of me at this point and you can see how exhausted I look.
The doctor came back to break my waters and when she went to do so she found that they had already broken! She asked me about it – and I thought back to the night before when I had been having contractions all night while Dave slept in the spare room. I had been going to the toilet after every 2nd or 3rd contraction to pee, but I thought at the time that I was peeing an awful lot considering I wasn’t really drinking that much water in between. I realized that my waters must have broken then. The doctor put me on some antibiotics seeing as we couldn’t be absolutely certain when I lost my waters, and told me that she would organize for the epidural to be done shortly.
About 9pm the anaesthetist came in and discussed the epidural with me and got me to sign off on getting it. He said he was waiting for his supervisor to arrive, and that he should be there soon. Well – as it turned out his supervisor didn’t come for another hour and in the meantime the following happened…
Suddenly, just after the anaesthetist left, there was a knock at the door and my parents walked in. They just wanted to give me a kiss and a cuddle – apparently Mum was beside herself with worry and just wanted to see me quickly. She got Dad to drive her all the way there for just a few minutes. That was really sweet.
But while they were there, all of a sudden I had the WORST contraction I’d ever felt up to that point – it went on and on and on, and then came again immediately! I had about 4 contractions in a row, about 2 minutes apart, all lasting about 90 seconds and they HURT. I was in agony, I threw up repeatedly and couldn’t talk or breathe. It hit me so suddenly and so unexpectedly that I was totally unprepared. My body had suddenly and violently gone into active labour SPONTANEOUSLY without any need for induction! The midwives thought later that maybe the fluids helped – that my dehydration had been stopping labour from starting in earnest. Who can tell – but all I know is that suddenly I was dealing with full-on labour and it was completely unexpected. Of course it had to happen while my parents were there! They were horrified and left quickly.
My midwife was there with me, as was Dave, and they were both trying to help me get through the contractions. But I had a really hard time dealing with them because I was lying on the bed and hooked up to machines, so all I could do to cope was to roll on my side and clench my fists. And that just didn’t help at all. At one point I asked to go to the toilet – and the contractions that I had sitting on the toilet were actually more manageable – but I wasn’t allowed to stay there because they couldn’t monitor the baby’s heartbeat while I was in there.
I went through this for an hour before they were able to administer the epidural. Compared to the contractions I was experiencing the epi was a walk in the park! They had to do it twice, but I don’t even remember that – Dave had to tell me later. However, they started with a very low dose of pain relief which did absolutely nothing to help, and it took yet another hour for them to come back and top it up. When they topped it up however, they had me on my side and the catheter in my back was in too deep, so it ended up completely numbing my left leg (the side I have osteoarthritis in my hip) and the left side of my abdomen, but hardly affected the right. So there I am, still feeling these intense contractions on one side only, and they started getting even more intense and I could feel this strong sensation around my bottom which felt really strange.
By this time it was 11:30pm, and finally the head midwife called the anaesthetist back and told him that it wasn’t good enough, that I was still feeling pain on my right side, and that he had to fix it up. He pulled the catheter out of my back by a few centimeters, topped up the epi again, and then finally I was pain-free. My home birth midwife had gone to have a sleep as she was due to have a shift the next morning at 7am, and after the epi the idea was that I’d have a few hours sleep while the induction progressed. It was expected to take quite a few hours to go from the 3cm dilated I was when I arrived at hospital to the 10cm I needed to be to start pushing. My hospital midwife, Pam, told me she’d let me sleep shortly but she just needed to check out a few things. She put in a catheter and did an internal and found that I was now 5cm, so all those spontaneous contractions had certainly helped me along. By this time it was 11:50pm.
So Pam was fussing around me, checking the monitors and looking with a confused expression on her face at the read-outs. She told me after a while that my ‘belly is funny’ and she can’t feel my contractions – apparently my abdomen just always feels firm, and so the monitor can’t pick up when I am contracting. This is a bit of a problem when you’ve had an effective epidural, as you can’t feel them yourself. She was also trying to palpate my tummy to feel them herself, but was having little luck. She called a couple of other midwives in to check, and they all were saying how unusual it was and how difficult my belly was to read.
This went on for a while, and I was dying for them to leave me alone so I could rest. Dave was lying on a pull out single sofa bed (that was really uncomfortable!) and he wanted a rest too, but he didn’t want to fall asleep while they were still fussing over me. He was so protective and sweet during the whole process, and wanted to monitor every little thing they were doing and asked them all kinds of questions to make sure we knew everything that was going on.
Then at about 12:50pm Pam comes in with two other midwives and they start fussing more. Apparently the baby’s heartbeat is dropping at times, and taking a while to come back up. If this were happening DURING a contraction then it is not quite so serious as it is normal for the rate to drop a bit when the contractions are squeezing the baby. But they suspected that it was happening AFTER the contractions, which wasn’t good. The problem was that because they couldn’t tell for sure when I was contracting, they couldn’t tell when his heartbeat was dropping. Pam didn’t want to call the Doctor unless it was really necessary so she was getting second and third opinions from the midwives. They were all pretty sure the heartbeat was dropping after contractions, which is a sign of fetal distress. They seemed a bit worried and Pam told me that she would probably have to call the Doctor and that if the baby was in distress there was a chance they’d want to get him out right away. She hadn’t yet started the syntocinon, so the induction hadn’t yet happened – and therefore the quickest way to get him out would be a c-section.
Just before all of this happened, Dave decided he was hungry so he headed out to the vending machine to get a snack and was gone about 10 minutes.
While he was gone one of the older, more experienced midwives said to Pam “When was the last time you checked her?”. Pam says, “About an hour ago when I put the catheter in, she was only 5cm, and I haven’t started the induction yet”. The older midwife says, “Well you know the other reason the heartbeat could be dropping after contractions…” and Pam raises her eyebrows and then looks at me and says she wants to do an internal. I get into position and they help raise my legs up (because I can’t feel them!) and she has a look to see how I am doing.
Next thing this HUGE smile comes across her face and she says “Tracey, your baby’s head is ready! You can push the baby out – you did it all by yourself without induction!”
OH MY GOD! I can’t believe it – it’s just on 1am and my baby is ready! Everyone starts fussing and all I can say is “Where’s Dave? Can we wait for Dave?”. Pam says “We won’t be ready for a few minutes but we can’t wait too long.”
Then she comes over to me and says quietly, “Tracey, we have to call the doctor because the baby’s heartbeat is dropping, but I think he’s ok and he just needs to get his head out. He might have been waiting there for a while and we didn’t know because we couldn’t see your contractions had picked up. I know you can’t feel anything, but I think you can push your baby out. When the Doctor gets here she will use the vacuum but you can do it ok? Will we try to push the baby out?”
Suddenly I have ALL the energy in the world and I tell her YES I will push out my baby. Dave walks in and sees the fussing around, the lights back on, my legs up in stirrups and frowns at me. I tell him “Look down there!” and Pam guides him down to see a fuzzy head just ready to start coming out. He calls my home birth midwife who is sleeping upstairs and a few minutes later she arrives just as Pam tells me to start pushing.
We don’t know when my contractions are coming but I tell them my instincts are telling me to push, so I try even though I may be pushing against the contractions. Pam tells me we have to get the baby out NOW because he is in distress, so I push with all my might just as the Doctor arrives and starts getting the vacuum ready. I don’t want that used on my son, so I am determined to push him out before she can suck him out!
So there I am, not being able to feel anything below my waist, but telling my body to push. I am gripping my legs, and pulling them hard and concentrating on the sensation of pushing. Next thing the baby is crowning and I pause and look down with a huge grin on my face as I see the top of his tiny head. Dave thought it was hilarious that I’ve got this little head poking out, blood everywhere, people fussing, monitors bellowing – and a huge grin on my face! He was able to record all of this too, so we have it on video, and it’s quite funny to watch!
As soon as the top of his head is out, his heartbeat regulates and sits solidly at 140bpm for the rest of the delivery. I like to think that after waiting for so long to come out, he finally decided he was ready and everything just went SO fast after that - nobody thought I would progress so fast, so he was probably waiting there to come out for a while and his heartbeat dropping was his way of letting us know that.
So now the doctor is just about to put the vacuum on Dexter’s head and Pam says to me quietly “Push if you can Tracey, push if you can…” and so I push just as she is putting the vacuum on and out pops his head. I am so elated! I am grinning and telling Dave to “move down the end so you can film him coming out!” It all seems so surreal. They’re waiting for a contraction, and I tell them I want to push anyway so they tell me to go ahead.
And next thing I know I have a crying, squirming, bloody little creature on my chest and I’m completely and totally in love. It’s 1:10am on 4/3/08, just 20 minutes after they first saw his head ready to come.
Everything I’ve been through the past few weeks, every stress, every bit of tiredness – it all evaporates the second I touch my little boy. Suddenly it doesn’t matter where or how he was born, only that he IS. Dave is standing beside me saying “Oh wow, oh my goodness, oh baby…” and kissing me on the forehead. All I can do is smile and talk to my son saying “Hello Dexter, hello baby, welcome to the world, Mummy loves you…” while he cries and cries.
Pam takes Dexter over to the heat lamps at that point, and cleans him up. Dave cuts the umbilical cord and films some more, while the doctor delivers the placenta. The placenta shows some signs of deterioration but it’s not too bad, so we know that it was still feeding Dex even though he was officially born 2 weeks and 4 days late. But Dex is so small for an overdue baby, and he still had vernix on him, so the midwives start wondering if maybe my dates were wrong. I don’t believe so, but anything is possible.
His stats at birth are:
DOB: 04/03/2008
Time: 1:10am (NSW DST)
Weight: 2880grams
Length: 48cm
Head Circ: 33cm
Once Dex is cleaned up they bring him to me and I get to cuddle him for about half an hour. His breathing is a little bit grunty, and they think he might have had a bit of fluid in his lungs, so they take him away to be under heat lamps and to get a bit of oxygen. Five minutes later he is fine, but because he was technically ‘in distress’ they want to monitor him for a while. Dave goes and spends time with him in the nursery while I have to wait for the epi to fade so I can get up and shower. I sent Dave home at this point (around 2am) so he could get some sleep, and I managed getting about 2 hours of sleep myself – the first in three days!
I ended up waiting in the birthing suite till 6:30am because my left leg got an extra dose of the epi, so it took quite a while to get the feeling back. I was helped into the shower at that stage, which was lovely, but then I found that although the Doctor had given me the all-clear and said I had no tears from the delivery, I did in fact have two small labial tears that required stitching. The Doctor came back and did that around 7am but I didn’t feel a thing because by this stage they had brought Dex back to me for his first feed, and I was completely distracted by my little man.
They took me into the ward and assigned me a bed, and I ate breakfast while gazing at Dex who was gazing back at me. He was so alert, and so calm! Dave came in a few hours later, the proud father, who couldn’t wait to hold his baby son and spend some more time with him. I cannot believe the change in Dave, and how smitten he is. He seems like a different person now that Dex is here, and all for the better!
Over the next few hours Dex had his paediatric checks, hearing check and I was shown how to breastfeed. Luckily Dex and I are naturals and we took to it immediately! The nurse asked when I wanted to go home and I said “right away!”. She got the all clear and we ended up being scheduled to leave after lunch, only 12 hours after Dex was born!
My home birth midwife, who was now on her shift, came in a few times to see us and we went over how everything had happened and agreed that we should have no regrets, that Dex was born the way he was meant to be born. She thought that because he was so small at birth, she may have had to resuscitate him if we’d had our home birth, and most certainly he would have need to be warmed up as soon as he was born. And the ferocity of my labour once it kicked in would have been manageable at home, but who knows how it may have panned out?
After a lot of thought and reflection, I’ve decided that I’m at peace with everything that happened. I can see now that my story on my blog and in the online buddy group I am part of seems to have inspired some other women to stay strong, trust their instincts and to do what they feel is right in their own pregnancies. I got so many lovely messages and emails when Dex was finally born that I see our story has touched many people, even as far away as Brazil! In that regard I think that maybe these challenges are sent to try those of us who have the ability to pass on the lessons to others and help them in their own journeys. But whatever the reason, now that I have my baby Dexter David here in my arms, nothing in the world can take away the joy and love that I feel for him every day. I’m just thankful he is here, and in the end his journey to being here is not as important as the journey that is ahead of all of us now that he’s arrived.
posted by ~* Tracey *~ @ 11:07 AM
6 Comments
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
HE'S HERE! Please welcome... Dexter David Mitchell!
Hello everyone!
I have only been home a couple of hours with my boy who was born only 16 hours ago - but I wanted to share the quick version of the details for all of you who were waiting for news :) I think it best I just share the details I gave to my birth buddy group a few minutes ago :)
Birth Date: 4/3/08 !!!
Time Of Birth: 1:10am
Gestation At Birth: 42w 4d
Sex Of Baby: Boy
Name: Dexter David
Birth Weight kg's: 2885kg (tiny boy!)
Birth Weight lbs: 6lb 6oz
Head Circumference: 33cm
Length: 48cm
Home Or Hospital: 46 hour labour at home; 7+hours in hospital
Type Of Delivery: Vaginal
Pain Relief: Epidural (after most of the work was done, mind you!)
Comments: We ended up transferring to hospital from our home birth & requesting induction and an epidural as spurious labour was going on nearly 2 days and I had NO energy and cervix still only 2cm dilated and baby only 2/5 engaged - but then all of a sudden spontaneous labour kicked in 2 hours after we got to hospital, and he was born after epidural, but before induction began. Back home after only a few hours in hospital (or 12 hours after he was born, didn't even stay the night as I didn't leave the birth suite till 7am for various reasons)
I will share the FULL story very soon - if he keeps sleeping the day away that is! :)
~* Tracey, Dave & Dexter *~
I have only been home a couple of hours with my boy who was born only 16 hours ago - but I wanted to share the quick version of the details for all of you who were waiting for news :) I think it best I just share the details I gave to my birth buddy group a few minutes ago :)
Birth Date: 4/3/08 !!!
Time Of Birth: 1:10am
Gestation At Birth: 42w 4d
Sex Of Baby: Boy
Name: Dexter David
Birth Weight kg's: 2885kg (tiny boy!)
Birth Weight lbs: 6lb 6oz
Head Circumference: 33cm
Length: 48cm
Home Or Hospital: 46 hour labour at home; 7+hours in hospital
Type Of Delivery: Vaginal
Pain Relief: Epidural (after most of the work was done, mind you!)
Comments: We ended up transferring to hospital from our home birth & requesting induction and an epidural as spurious labour was going on nearly 2 days and I had NO energy and cervix still only 2cm dilated and baby only 2/5 engaged - but then all of a sudden spontaneous labour kicked in 2 hours after we got to hospital, and he was born after epidural, but before induction began. Back home after only a few hours in hospital (or 12 hours after he was born, didn't even stay the night as I didn't leave the birth suite till 7am for various reasons)
I will share the FULL story very soon - if he keeps sleeping the day away that is! :)
~* Tracey, Dave & Dexter *~
posted by ~* Tracey *~ @ 4:49 PM
3 Comments
Saturday, 1 March 2008
One final March 1st update...
Here I am - it's 11:30pm on March 1st. And I've been having 30-40 second contractions, 10-15 minutes apart, since about 7pm. These are not the so-called contractions I had last night or the other morning - those were tame by comparison. These HURT... but I know, they still might not be LABOUR.
Yes I'm thinking of it now in ALL CAPS - it's elusive and hard to recognise. I hope it's what I'm experiencing right now, but of course - who can tell? My husband didn't really take all this seriously until I told him "OK, maybe this is another false alarm - but regardless, it REALLY hurts, we should time then and... if it's NOT real labour - it's a good practice right?"
He promptly threw his beer out and took me seriously. I hope by tomorrow we realise it was a good idea because this is the real thing.
But for now - I just don't know for sure... I guess I am second-guessing myself and being unsure because this is the third time I've experienced something that I thought might be the start of labour - and the other two times I was wrong.
Well - not really wrong. Because I know labour can stop and start. I think maybe what I was feeling on Friday morning was pre-labour, and last night was early labour which stalled... and then slowly picked up a number of hours later throughout the course of today... and may, hopefully, now be the real deal.
I don't know what to expect from here on in. I'm tempted to google 'labour what to expect' so I can find out - well frankly - what to expect! Yes I've read about this before - and been told by my midwife how it works --- but so far I haven't gone according to the rule book and it'd be nice to just have a bit of an idea of how this could all pan out...
OOOOO hang on another contraction......
So fingers crossed that this will just continue - and build - and I'll get to that point where Dave and I KNOW this is the real thing - we call the midwife, my Mum and my doula... and then we can hopefully feel like it's really happening. Right now we feel like we're in limbo-land - we're not going to bed, even though it's late because well... for one, I wouldn't be able to sleep. But also - we don't really know WHAT we should do! We're kind of waiting for some kind of sign ... that things really pick up or die off.
However I kind of think - we probably won't be getting much sleep tonight no matter how you look at it...
Yes I'm thinking of it now in ALL CAPS - it's elusive and hard to recognise. I hope it's what I'm experiencing right now, but of course - who can tell? My husband didn't really take all this seriously until I told him "OK, maybe this is another false alarm - but regardless, it REALLY hurts, we should time then and... if it's NOT real labour - it's a good practice right?"
He promptly threw his beer out and took me seriously. I hope by tomorrow we realise it was a good idea because this is the real thing.
But for now - I just don't know for sure... I guess I am second-guessing myself and being unsure because this is the third time I've experienced something that I thought might be the start of labour - and the other two times I was wrong.
Well - not really wrong. Because I know labour can stop and start. I think maybe what I was feeling on Friday morning was pre-labour, and last night was early labour which stalled... and then slowly picked up a number of hours later throughout the course of today... and may, hopefully, now be the real deal.
I don't know what to expect from here on in. I'm tempted to google 'labour what to expect' so I can find out - well frankly - what to expect! Yes I've read about this before - and been told by my midwife how it works --- but so far I haven't gone according to the rule book and it'd be nice to just have a bit of an idea of how this could all pan out...
OOOOO hang on another contraction......
So fingers crossed that this will just continue - and build - and I'll get to that point where Dave and I KNOW this is the real thing - we call the midwife, my Mum and my doula... and then we can hopefully feel like it's really happening. Right now we feel like we're in limbo-land - we're not going to bed, even though it's late because well... for one, I wouldn't be able to sleep. But also - we don't really know WHAT we should do! We're kind of waiting for some kind of sign ... that things really pick up or die off.
However I kind of think - we probably won't be getting much sleep tonight no matter how you look at it...
posted by ~* Tracey *~ @ 11:29 PM
2 Comments
