Pregnancy Diary - WEEK 39

Our little girl Ruby Helen arrived on Sunday 11th June at 10.07 a.m weighing in at 6lb 13 oz.

What happened:

On the Friday night we had another Bar B Q and the whole evening I was having quite uncomfortable braxton hicks. We were timing them but they were very erratic, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. They stopped after a few hours.

The following evening on the Saturday night, it had been a warm day so we were out in the garden, weeding and pruning until about 10pm. We then sat down to watch TV and very shortly after I had a really strong contraction, it caught me off guard but I didn't think anymore about it. They carried on every 10 minutes and I put up with it for a couple of hours and tried to go to bed. I dreaded each contraction as they were very strong but they weren't getting any closer together so I thought my body was just practicing again.

About 12.30 a.m. I decided a bath might be the answer along with some paracetamol as I had read that if you are just having practice contractions, it will ease the pain ad the contractions should stop. Well they didn't, infact the bath just felt uncomfortable. My husband kept saying this is it, lets ring your mum and get her over. I refused as I didn't want it to be another false alarm and mess everyone around again, it was almost an exact copy of what had happened the Saturday before (except the contractions were stronger). I was having lots of diarrhoea too which was really hurting. Mike decided to ring the hospital to ask for advice, the midwife wanted to speak to me to gauge whether I was in a lot of pain but as I was having the contractions 10 minutes apart I could speak to her happily for 5 minutes! In the end, she said to come in and get checked out again. Mike then rang my mum to babysit our daughter.

At 2 a.m. after a very uncomfortable journey, I arrived at hospital. The contractions were about 8 minutes apart and when I had them I couldn't walk, if this wasn't real labour I was going to be pretty upset!

The midwife timed my contractions and examined me. I was still 1cm dilated which is what I was the week before. She said she was going to send me home and to come back when the contractions were closer together. I said there was no way I could get into the car and take the journey home as the contractions were really painful. She then decided to strap me on the monitor to see what the contractions and the baby's heartbeat was doing. It was then that she found the babys heartbeat was fine but the contractions were really very strong and they could well be doing something! Hurray, maybe now I was on my way. They took my blood pressure which was 154/105 which was very high, they were concerned that I may have pre-eclampsia again so they did blood tests.

An hour later the blood test results were back, I didn't have pre-eclampsia. They were still going to send me home to wait for the contractions to get closer together and I said that I really couldn't make that journey. As they were quiet, they let me stay and I was given a small shot of pethidine. 10 minutes later I was throwing up the foul tasting crisps I had eaten that evening. I tried to rest between the contractions but they were so painful, I spent the whole time dreading the next one! Mike put his feet up and tried to sleep, but I wasn't having that. I kept calling him and told him to stay awake - if I was going to be in this much pain then he was bloody well going to go through it with me!

About 7 a.m. there was a shift change and the pethidine had started to wear off. The new midwife was fantastic, great sense of humour and really caring. After she introduced herself I said hello then asked for an epidural! She said she would see what was happening and then decide what to do. She put me on the monitor again, contractions were stronger but for some reason not much closer together. She advised against an epidural because it would pro-long the labour and possibly cause me to have an assisted birth such as ventouse or forceps. She offered me more pethidine which I readily accepted! About half an hour later I was given the pethidine. To be perfectly honest, the midwives say that pethidine takes the edge of the pain. RUBBISH. All it does is make you feel like you have drunk 25 pints of snakebite and you feel mentally distant, the pain is very much still there!

After half an hour of being on the snakebite, I had another really strong contraction and my waters broke (9 a.m.) It was like a popping sensation and water came gushing out. We buzzed for the midwife and she was pleased, this meant things were progressing. She examined me again and I was 4cm but she could stretch me to 5. With each contraction a little more water was coming out. She suggested going for a bath as gravity, being mobile and the warm water to cause things to progress quickly. Problem was, I couldn't even walk I was so drugged up to the eyeballs! I had to be helped into the bathroom and into the bath. Immediately as I sat in the bath, the contractions were coming every couple of minutes and I felt an overwhelming urge to push. Mike called for the midwife who said lets get her out quick! They got me a wheelchair and zoomed me to my bed. They got me up and as they were lifting me my body was trying to push the baby out.

They gave me gas and air which I found a lot more helpful than the pethidine. It really made me feel in another world yet I knew what was going on in this one. Problem was, I kept blowing into the tube rather than sucking which wasn't achieving anything! After a few pushes the head was out, all I could feel was a burning sensation, not really pain. The shoulders were coming through and that was quite painful, after that the baby slithered out (10.07 a.m.) and I looked down and straight away I could see it was a little girl. After that I just laid back, relieved it was all over.

There was a little problem though, Mike was going to cut the cord but it had already snapped off on the journey out. The midwives were concerned about this as they didn't know how long ago the cord had snapped. They did a blood test straight away which showed that the cord had only just snapped so there was nothing to worry about. They weighed her (6lb 13) and cleaned her up, let her Daddy hold her and then passed her onto me. Straight away I let her breastfeed and she was sucking away nicely. I had tore a tiny bit but not enough for stitches. I then asked when I could go home.

We had some tea and coffee whilst we made some phone calls with the news, I had a bath, dressed our little girl and we were on our way.

The hospital and staff (Cygnet Wing at Bedford Hospital) were fantastic. Who needs The Portland when you have the Cygnet Wing! When we got home, we showed our daughter her little sister. She stared a lot, then went off to play in the garden! She has accepted Ruby as part of the family and behaves like Ruby has always been around!

My husband says the one thing that stays in his mind, is me naked on the bed, pushing this baby out covered in soap suds from the bath! I am glad I had a positive experience second time round, though it doesn't make me feel the urge to have another baby, that's the family complete now thankyou!

Welcome to our world Ruby Helen!