Today I'm going to tell the birth story of Aoife!
A lot of people were telling me what signs they had right before they went into labour and I was always pretty nervous since it's the first time I've been pregnant and I didn't really know what I was looking out for. I kept asking "how will I know when I'm going into labour?" and everyone would reply "you'll definetly know, trust me."
So at 2.30am on the 14th Decemember I woke up in bed feeling a little off. I sat up in bed and thought "I feel a little funny." Suddenly, there was water everywhere! Bearing in mind, I had no inkling during the day that I'd be going into labour soon. I'd made plans that morning to go out and for some food shopping to be delivered to the apartment so I definetly had no inkling Aoife wanted to make an appearance. After having Aoife everyone was asking me what signs I had that Aoife was going to make an appearance and everyone didn't believe me when I said none.
I woke my honey with a loud "oh my god! I've wet the bed..." He was half asleep still. When the water had finished I took myself off to get cleaned up and changed and the waters started coming again. For over an hour and a half my waters would stop and start and I was soaking maternity pad after maternity pad. I decided to phone the hospital because I wasn't sure if that was normal or not and the hospital asked me to come in. I hadn't started having any contractions yet but they said they wanted to check us both over seeing as my waters had broke but no contractions had started.
So at 4.30am I was at the Midwifery led unit of our local hospital. I was so nervous but excited at the same time. I was actually shaking a little because I was so nervous. After doing all the standard checks I was told they were going to do a sweep and send me back home with an appointment to come back the following day if my contractions hadn't started. It's pretty annoying to go to the hospital at 4.30am to be sent back home again.
So, they perfomed the sweep, which was the most painfullest thing I have ever gone through. During the sweep the woman looked a little confused. She said "I don't want to worry you, but I think I can feel her foot." That was an absolute shock to hear that. Only five days before the midwife was saying she's in the right position for the birth. She had another feel and said "I definetly think I can feel her foot and part of her bottom." They had to call down the doctor to perform an ultrasound scan to check Aoife's position. The scan confirmed that Aoife was in a breech position; just perfect /sarcasm!
Because of this I had to be transfered to the delivery suite. I was told that sometimes they're able to turn breech babies into the right position; however, I'd lost too much fluid and Aoife had comfortably jammed one of her feet into my pelvis so they were unable to turn her. The only option I had for Aoife's delivery was a ceserean section. Something that in my birth plan I had written to only be done in an emergency.
A doctor explained to me the procedure of a ceserean section with all the risks and then I had to sign the consent form. In the delivery suite they hooked us up to monitors to track the progression of my 'labour' and to check Aoife for any signs of distress. I was told that I had been put down for an emergency ceserean section and so I would be going down into the theatre very soon.
My honey knows how to take flattering pictures, haha!
Whilst being hooked up to the monitors I started to have tightenings and they were actually quite painful. As I was hooked up to the monitors I had to stay in bed instead of walking around which I think would have really helped me with coping with the tightenings. Not long after I saw a host of people getting me ready for the procedure and explaining everything. I was finally allowed to walk around a little as I was going into theatre soon.
At around 9.30am the midwife came to take me down to the theatre. I was really really nervous at this point. What scared me more was the fact that I'd be awake during the whole thing. I've had 10 surgeries before but I've always been asleep for them. The midwife with me was amazing though. She was really kind, very sweet and talkative and kept my mind focused and made me feel more at ease.
They had a little trouble getting the spinal into my back. They had to fetch a senior anathesiologist who also had trouble after multiple attempts. In the end they had to use an ultrasound to get the spinal in. What a great start to the birth of my daughter! Once the spinal was in the feeling was amazing. It was like hot water was flowing down my back and it worked so quickly that I needed help putting my legs onto the bed. I suffered with the wonderful side effect of constant shaking from the spinal. I thought it was nerves initially.
I didn't feel a thing at all. It was explained to me that I might feel pulling or tugging, but I didn't feel anything at all. My honey and I were having a laugh and a joke as the doctors did their jobs. At one point he was talking to me about Lori's ceserean in The Walking Dead (what a fitting topic!). I didn't have a clue that Aoife had been born until the doctor peered over the cover and said congratulations. That's when I had another worry; I hadn't heard her cry yet. Luckily, not long after she gave out an incredibly loud cry and I was at ease. I became super emotional at this point. Whilst the midwife tended to Aoife the doctors started to put me back together. This is where I started to feel the tugging as they put in the stitches but it wasn't uncomfortable.
All in all, it took longer to get the spinal into me and to sew me back up than it did to deliver Aoife. Whilst the doctors were finishing up with me my honey took Aoife to the recovery area where they waited for me. All I wanted to do was to hold my daughter which wasn't soon after. I had to stay in bed for six hours whilst the spinal wore off which was a little annoying. All I cared about was having my little girl who was healthy who was lying on my chest.
We ended up staying in the hospital for four days; which is double the standard stay for ceserean births as all the mums who had ceseareans the same day as me were sent home the day after. It was a combination of things really.
At first it was my fault as I wasn't going to the toilet properly even after drinking tonnes of water which resulted in me having a catheter in for three days (usually they take them out six hours after the cesearean so you can start using the toilet normally). I can't express how much the catheter got in the way. I had to pick up the bag and stand when I walked so I had to carry Aoife one handed all the time.
Then on the second day were were told that we could go home after the paediatrician did Aoife's newborn check. However, during the check they found Aoife had a heart murmur and so we had to stay in overnight so they could check it again the next day. I'd been born with one and mine didn't clear until I was about three. The rest of her newborn check was completely fine. They were happy with her hips, even though she was breech, but she'd still have to have a hip scan as a formality. We'd also been told that Aoife had tongue tie (which I'd never heard of before!) and that it looked as if it was quite a severe tongue tie so we had to be referred for it to be assessed.
Then on the third day Aoife was checked again and her heart murmur was still there but they weren't concerned about it; however, Aoife was showing signs of jaundice. We had to stay in overnight again so they could keep checking her SBR level. I was told they were close to the level where she may have to be put under a lamp, but they wanted to see if they decreased by themselves. At least my catheter was taken out.
Luckily, the day after we were told the SBR level had decreased and we were finally allowed to go home! We just had to wait for my blood results to come through (which everything was okay, just low iron levels so cue ferrous sulphate tablets!) but we were finally allowed to go home.
All you want to do is to go home after having your baby. It was impossible to sleep in the hospital. I was in a bay with three other women and so sleeping in a room with four babies who all had different sleep and feeding patterns was very difficult. I'd end up getting woken up every hour or so; if not by my own baby's crying but by someone else's baby crying. I'm sure it was the same for the other women.
It took me a week to get into the swing of things once we got home as the cesearean left me quite sore and I was tired from the lack of sleep. I wasn't able to bend over, and people kept saying I wasn't allowed to do anything. One of the most annoying things was that it hurt incredibly to laugh! I also came home with a week's supply of clexane injections I had to administer myself. Luckily, I'd had to self-inject clexane before after one of my knee surgeries so I had been used to it, and a week wasn't that long.
I was also quite happy that Aoife decided to come eight days early (her due date was the 22nd December). Everyone had been asking me what I was doing for Christmas and I couldn't make definite plans as I didn't know if I'd still be pregnant or if I'd have given birth on Christmas eve.
It's a little over five weeks since Aoife's birth now and we're both well~ We both have a few appointments to attend, but Aoife's very healthy and it's very exciting to experience motherhood and to watch my little girl grow and go from strength to strength.
