The birth of Bella Grace

It's been 18 months and I haven't even attempted to write Bellas birth story! I am sketchy on the details (have never really been one for precise times!) and the 27 hour labour didn't help things!

 
Okay, bit of background. I was diagnosed with GD and had to attend the diabetes clinic every week until the birth. I also had to have twice weekly CTG monitoring to check on bubs . I wasn't on insulin, just monitored my diet and tested my blood sugar levels about 4 times a day. Because of that, we had a growth scan at 36 weeks to check how things were progressing and to see how big she was. It was at this scan that we found out the sex! We caved and asked the lady to tell us! Well, she told my DH and then the sonographer printed out the scan and had written girl across it and handed it to me . She told me the baby would be about 8 or 9 pounds and that everything was looking good! 

 
Fast forward to 41 weeks and my appointment with the ob. He said I was about 2 and a half centimetres dilated and things were progressing, albeit slowly! He told me he wanted to book me in for an induction on Thursday or Friday (it was Tuesday). He rang up and then told me that they were going to be too busy on Thursday and Friday, so we had to do it right now! I definitely wasn't ready for that news!

So off I went up to the Day Assessment Unit (where I went for my CTG - they knew me well!) and they put the first lot of gels in at 11am. Well, almost immediately I starting having contractions, they weren't severe, but they were definitely there! She told us we had to hang around the hospital for 2 hours and to go have some lunch and a walk. Let me tell you, trying to eat a cheese and tomato sandwich in the cafeteria when you are in so much pain isn't easy!

I could breathe through the contractions and basically talk through them (and no matter what anyone said - I couldn't laugh through them!) In the end, DH and I went home at 1pm and tried the labour thing at home. No-one told me how hard it is to labour in the car!! Was so very painful!

We got home and I immediately jumped in the shower. It helped a little, but the contractions were coming closer together. I wasn't really coping at home so at 4pm my DH rang the hospital and said they were about 3-4 mins apart. They told us to come in, so we did.

 
Was admitted to the labour ward and hooked up the CTG machine. From about 6pm until 8am is a bit of a blur! All I remember is a really really nice midwife named Sandy who sat beside my bed for ages holding my hand and telling me stories. I also remember at about midnight this really lovely male midwife came in and told me I should probably have some pethidine if I wanted to get any rest so I could have my strength to labour tomorrow. I was about 3cm by that stage. The contractions were not letting up. I had pain everywhere and even broke the bed with my thrashing about at one stage! They were basically on top of each other, the midwives told me it was because I was induced.

He gave me the pethidine and an anti-nausea med and that was it. My DH was on a trundle bed beside me trying to sleep (well as best he could with me squeezing his hand every 5 mins!) I remember sitting up in the bed and my head kept on falling down and then I would jolt awake again with each contraction. It was as if I was drugged up to the eyeballs and I had no idea what was going on! I didn't even really want the pethidine in the first place, but just went along with it because I thought that was the "right" thing to do. So from 1am until the pethidine wore off was yucky and weird to say the least!

At 8:30am they came in and broke my waters - finally! It hurt like anything, but was a welcome relief! I was about 5cm at that stage. I then decided I wanted to try the gas (so much for my no drugs plan!) After I took the first breath of gas, I never put it down! It was lovely!

So....I had been labouring now for about 17 hours. Mind you, time really had no meaning to me! All I knew was that it was painful and never ending! At one stage the midwife took 2 hour to bring me a heat pack! Apparently all the rooms were full of women labouring with more waiting in the waiting room! Things started to progress a little quicker after they broke my waters. I remember at about 2pm I started to get very very intense contractions. They had changed from very painful to me turning into a mooing cow! I kept saying "Please can you make the labour stop now!" "I don't want to do this anymore!" Apparently I was in transition.

At 2:30pm I really just wanted to push! I had such an intense feeling of needing to push - it was overwhelming! I felt the pain near my bottom the most - I just needed to push! The midwife came and in and checked me, I was 9cm dilated and they said I could push very soon! I was in agony! The male midwife came in and checked me as well and said, "No! You cant push - don't push!" I said "I cant stop, I have to!"

He told me that she was posterior and that they had to put an epidural in to stop me from pushing. I said okay and as quick as I had said that the two doctors were there to put it in. It was so incredibly hard to sit still while they put it in. I was sitting on the edge of the bed and rubbing my thighs as hard as I could to get through the contractions. It was so intense!

So, the epidural went in fine and began to take effect. After a few more contractions I felt like a new woman! I could not feel a thing (except for some tightening). I managed to eat something for the first time in over 24 hours. However, the epidural made my contractions almost disappear so they put the drip in to get my contractions going again.

By about 4pm they finally decided that I could try and push! They said that I had to push like I was doing a poo, but I couldn't feel anything down there! I pushed with a few contractions and in the end they had to give me an episiotomy. They started cutting with a pair of scissors and then said "Oh, they are blunt, can I have another pair?" and the next pair they tried, they said it again! I felt like they were chopping up a cooked chicken the way they were hacking at me!

In the end, they had to vacuum Bella out and at 5:04pm on the 24th of September 2008 after 27 hours of labour, Bella Grace was born. It was a magical moment and one that I will never forget. The midwife guessed she weighed about 7 pounds however when they weighed her she weighed 8 pounds 13 ounces! She was also 53cm long.

 
I am so glad that I had an epidural when it came to them stitching me up! I had a trainee doctor that kept saying "I cant see what I am doing because of all this blood, someone come and help me!" That made me feel really good - not!

I had 15 stitches and in the end it took me nearly 9 months to heal and even be able to pee properly! They botched it up really bad! It was horrible!

Wow, so that was it! The birth story of my firstborn daughter!