If the baby was a girl, we were going to call her Cody Elisabeth. My mother and Aunt, who's staying with my parents, were horrified. “You can't call a girl Cody!” they harrumphed. I think it's a generational thing!
So it seems that the belief that nipple stimulation helps to start the birth process has some truth. It was Sunday evening around 9pm and Matthew was asleep in bed, and it had been a wonderful day, and we thought that some nipple, and other, stimulation would be rather pleasant. We toddled and waddled off to bed, and yes, Debbie found the nipple stimulation rather pleasant, and because her nipples were very sensitive I continued stimulating in other places after a while, and that also was rather pleasant. And as these things go, it became my turn after a while so I lay on my back and felt the, yes very pleasant, stimulation of her hand. I was moving along quite nicely, as you do, when there was an audible POP, and the sudden lifting of her hand from its business, and Debbie exclaiming, “My waters have just broken!!” So we were interupted (and I must note it affected me most of all!), and I suspect this won't be for the first time since he'll be sleeping in our room, by Joshua Dylan.
We looked at each other, I think had a brief thought that this was how we got into this situation, and started doing all we needed to at 10pm at night as Deb started having contractions pretty much immediately. She rang the midwife and arranged to meet her at the hospital in 30 mins. We rang my parents and my father came around to pick up Matthew. We rang my sister who was going to be a support person and she arranged to meet us at the hospital also. The bags were pretty much packed, but we put a few last minute things in, fed the cats, kissed Matthew goodbye, and set off to the hospital.
We got there just after 10.30pm and got settled into a birthing room. Debbie was having strong and regular contractions by this point, and after the midwife hooked her up to monitors and did a couple of tests, my sister and I got some chippies and some chocolate, and a cup of tea, and settled back to watch her! The monitor measured the baby's heart rate and the timing and intensity of the contractions. It was like a seismograph, and we looked across as it printed out, “Ohhhhh, now that's a big contraction — you felt it too Deb?” Judging by the heart rate, the baby slept through the early part of the labour, woke up, wondered if this was it, and went back to sleep saying, “Wake me when things are closer!”
It was a long night. Debbie was wonderful. She had no pain relief to start with, and kept breathing her way through each contraction. And she was so polite! She'd ask, “Please can you get me some ice for my mouth?” and always say thank you for it, and also ask, “Is it ok to move a little on the bed?” This was a whole new Debbie — pain can do that to you!
The first stage went very well and pretty fast. Debbie became fully dilated and was bearing up well with the contractions. I was sitting there holding her hand, feeling my eyes close and then jerking awake with a start as she breathed through another contraction. The midwife said she was just going to the toilet, and about an hour later my sister went off to find her trying to snatch some sleep in the room next door. She came back, did an examination and thought the baby could be born within the next hour. Debbie was started to get pretty tired by now, but we thought the end was in sight. It wasn't, and an hour later there wasn't much progress. Debbie asked for an epidural at this stage
There was a 30 mintue wait while we the Dr came in from his home, and Debbie tried the gas during this time. I guess it kind of worked. The Dr arrived, looking very even more tired than we were at that stage, and administered the epidural to Debbie. As she said, it was wonderful once it kicked in. Drugs are good! The midwife had called Debbie's specialist and he arrived about an hour after the epidural. He examined Debbie and thought the baby was still pretty high up the birth canal. Debbie now was pushing hard with each contraction, trying to get three pushes in during each one. This went on for about an hour, but there still wasn't progress. [because the damn baby was 10lbs 2oz and too big to fit through! — editor's note] As Debbie had had a caesarean birth for Matthew, they weren't keen for her to go much longer in labour as it puts a lot of strain on the caesarean scar and there's a danger of it bursting. So a decision was made to have the caesarean, and we all got ready for that, just waiting for the anesathetist Dr to be called in again from home. He looked very very tired now!
With Matthew, Debbie was put under a general anesathetic, but with the epidural this time she was concious throughout. Joshua was born at 7.46am on February 18, 2002. He cried as they took him from the womb. Debbie looked radiant and smiled as she saw him. I took some photos, my tears blurring my vision.
last | nextJournals and blogs that I read regularly
Raising Hell
Feral Living
Hippycritical
Udder
My Life in 12 Point Font
Journal of a Writing Man
Some Jingle Jangle Morning
The Last Girl Scout
Potatoe.com
Journallife.com
Window to my Soul
Chickybabe
Sorabji.com
Yesterday's Makeup
Fifteen Milliliters
Fly Away
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Registered!
The Ageless Project
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Photo of tunnel copyright Bernd Klumpp, available from istockphoto.com