Mud & Mischief

Labour wasn’t the best of the four, but at least it wasn’t as bad as Myf’s. I finally got into the hosptial at 1.30pm, and they did the first prostin tablet at 2.30pm. That did bugger all, but after the emergency section for the woman in the bed opposite (who’d been in there for 2 days trying to get her labour started) they managed to do another lot of prostin at 10pm. A few minutes later we were treated to a gaggle of over excited health care assisstants discussing the aforementioned emergency section and the 11lb 8oz baby that it had produced! No wonder the poor girl (teenage) hadn’t gone into labour naturally - the baby’s head wouldn’t go anywhere near into her pelvis!

But I digress.

James was sent home at 12.30am as I was just having ‘prostin’ pains and they decided a sleeping pill and some painkillers would be best for me, as I’d had very little sleep the night before. Temazepan and co-codamol knocked me out for 45 minutes…

I didn’t actually realise I was in labour though as the pain was almost exclusively in my pelvis. I’d been warned that the prostin caused ‘localised’ pain and that’s what I thought it was. I managed till 3.30am, when I pressed the buzzer and asked for someone to help me put the TENS machine on. 4.30 I pressed it again and asked the midwife to ring James because I really wanted him there. They checked me out, made a few surprised sounding noises at finding me 5cm dilated and got me shifted up to the labour ward. James arrived at 5am just as I was getting my hands on the gas and air. Gotta love that stuff…

6.30am they broke my waters and then told me I was only 3cm, not 5cm. At which point, complete exhaustion took over and I dissolved and demanded a mobile epidural. It was too much - all the labour pain was in my pelvis - every contraction was pulling/pushing it apart and I now fully understand what you meant, Helen, when you spoke about having acute pain on top of chronic (or vice versa). It doesn’t just double or multiply it, but increases it exponentially. I don’t recall having a single contraction pain in my belly or my back. I was also worrying about my back (and the potential for a week long headache) when the anaethetist arrived but he was very nice and careful, with extremely gentle hands.

7.30am and the world suddenly looked a much brighter place.

10am I asked for a top up, and was examined to be told I was 9cm but had a very thick lip on my cervix. So I had half a top up.

11am and the top up had missed a patch - probably the most unpleasant labour experience ever. The senior midwife had a feel around and decided she could lift the lip over the baby’s head. “Give me a push on the next contraction” she said. 7 minutes later, they put this drippy purple creature on my stomach and for a moment I wondered why she had two umbilical cords…

He weighed in at 8lb 12oz, and didn’t look anything like any of the names we had chosen, so he didn’t get named until the following evening once we were home. The only hiccup with him is that he only had 2 blood vessels in his umbilical cord, instead of 3, so we had to go for a renal scan a few days ago. Everything was fine though.

However, I’m still on the bloody crutches though. It didn’t help that the senior midwife hadn’t read my birth plan and didn’t know about the SPD and pelvis problems, and so when she said push, she put James on one side, Mom on the other and put my knees by my ears. They were only like that for a matter of minutes, but the damage was done.

However, I saw the physio today, so fingers crossed I’ll be out in the garden soon. I’ve got onions and banana shallots to sow!

Cool washing

I’ll be trying it, that’s for sure.

Born 18th January at 11.07am, after seven and a half hours labour (of which seven minutes was actually spent pushing!), I’d like to introduce Robin James, my 8lb 12oz baby boy.

I still can’t believe I’ve got a son. I keep saying ’she’ and calling him a ‘good girl’. It doesn’t help that he’s the absolute spitting image of Myf when she was tiny. He’s only 2oz lighter than she was (although she was 12 days late - he was 3 days late).

Will get aound to writing a brief birth story at some point, but not right now - is hard to type one handed on the laptop when it’s balanced on the arm of the sofa and Robin is rootling around trying to latch onto my left bicep.

ps - edited to add, apoloies for the delay in blogging - James sent out an email to practically everyone on his email list, then had to send it again as he’d forgotten to attach the photo… and so AOL promptly pulled the plug on our broadband connection thinking we were spammers. 482 emails (241 twice) - am wondering just who exactly he sent it too! We’ve just got back online.

Got myself booked in for an induction at 8am this morning. I had to ring up at 6.30 to check they had a bed.

They didn’t. Ring back at 9.30 they said..

So I did.

They still didn’t.

Ring back at 12, they said.

I’m a nervous wreck. Didn’t sleep a huge amount last night. Every time they say ring back, I dissolve. Am very tired. Might go see if I can sleep for an hour now.

10 hours, 12 minutes until s/he’s late.

He’s got 3 hours and 45 minutes to make an appearance if he’s going to be early.

Awkward little sod is probably running to the hospital date, though, so we can add another 24 hours to that. *sigh*

Actually, that’s not strictly true - this isn’t a rant so much as another boring ramble so I can get my head around what’s going on and what I’ve got to say to my hopeless consultant when I see him next week.

Because my lovely midwife today took half an hour to just sit and listen and ask questions whilst I rambled on, dissolved occasionally and explained the mess I was in, before picking up the phone and bringing my appointment forward a week. She said, amongst other things that I promised not to repeat as she probably shouldn’t have told them to me that I was to go home, find a nice big piece of paper or two and write down all the stuff I’d just told her, and all the questions I needed to demand answers for when I did see Mr E, and that once I was in his consulting room I was not to leave until he’d answered every point on my list. And I was to take my husband/partner with me, and if I dissolved in a heap, then I was to sit and sob pitifully whilst James went through the rest of the points and got the answers we needed.

She was an absolute tonic. She wasn’t my normal midwife either, so whether I found it easier to talk to her because I didn’t know her or because I felt I had to explain the whole situtaion as Anne already knows most of it, I don’t know. But she picked up on three main things: the pelvic pain & crutches aren’t liveable with any longer; my worries about the size of this baby (OMG just remembered I forgot to mention varicose whotsits to her…), and the postnatal depression after my last baby which is quite likely to manifest itself rapidly, if not before the birth, if nothing is done about the sitution I’m in with this one. And I’m bloody not going down that route again, thank you very much!!!

Nice strong braxton hicks again there, not that it’s likely to be anything else. *sigh* What else can I try to get this baby moving? We’ve pretty much exhausted all the normal self-induction techniques. Including self-administered accupressure and homeopathy. The only person I know who does accupuncture won’t touch me until I’m in labour, and I don’t know any reflexologists - might have to go get a book out of the library on that. Desperate measures here!

Went to Ikea yesterday with the idea of walking (hobbling) it out, but then they had electric scooters in the foyer and no sooner had I waddled in through the front door than the greeter was there with key to scooter in hand. Was fun, and we got the shelves I’ve been after for ages. Time to sort a few more books out of the loft!

I don’t have any children today until later this afternoon, as Piglet has gone to a little friend’s house to bake buns after preschool. The friend’s mum will take her to the girls’ school at pick up time and James can collect all three in one go, which I thought was very decent of her. So I’m going to go and sit (carefully) in the living room with a nice new Stitch’n'Bitch book and a twix. In the sunshine, as the rain has vanished. So have the builders, unfortunately, but at least my cooker hood is finally wired up!! It’s only taken a year….

Neither is it a cushion. That rotund bump actually houses a baby.

Yes I do look tired and a bit pale around the edges, but dammit, it’s a bloody heavy bump. And no, the pictures on the wall behind me aren’t all hanging at an angle - for some reason, James wasn’t holding his camera quite straight. And it was 11.30PM when it was taken. Maybe the stripes don’t help.

Oh well. Will hopefully be publishing a picture of me sans bump shortly. Very, very shortly with a bit of luck.

Have backache but that’s about it. Getting grouchy about the whole thing now.

Yes, I know I could theoretically go another three weeks, but I really thought I would have had this one by now. It’s my fourth, for goodness sake. My system should know what it’s doing and just get on with it! Every day that goes by, the little bugger gets bigger. I’d like to have a baby and not something that’s closer to toddler in size. I put the moses basket together today, and IIRC, Piglet didn’t spend much time in it as she was too big!

Not that they tend to sleep in the basket much - they all would rather sleep with me for some reason.

However, at least I’m still fairly calm about the whole thing. Repacked the hospital bag last night with the bits I’d forgotten - hence two small bags now not one. Can’t think of anything else I could do to convince this bump that I’m ready any time he is. Need to go up in the loft and hack a chunk of material off the big bolt of blue cotton to fashion a sling out of, but that’s not important just yet.

Off to crochet the neck of this tank top (in purple) and finish yet another small knitted item off.

However, I’m quite calm about things atm. Could be down to the lovely, long, peaceful lie in I got this morning, followed by the leisurely, uninterrupted shower; the hot cup of tea and absolute quiet I’m enjoying now is also contributing.

There are no children in my house, and whilst it’s a very odd experience, it’s also a very soothing, restful one. James’ lovely sister took ALL THREE away last night, for a sleep-over at her house. And she’s not bringing them back until between 6 and 7 this evening (unless, of course, Piglet starts dismantling things). Apparently they’re doing a few shopping errands then going for a walk in Clumber Park, so they went with wellies etc - although thinking about it, I didn’t send spare trousers for Piglet or Tea, seeing as how they always find the extra deep puddles.

So I’m going to potter around this morning, sew up the sides of the latest little knitted thing I’ve done; then wander into town for 1pm, collect James and go for lunch with him. That’ll be two child-free meals we’ll have had in the past week. How civilised!

It’s also a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY for my Mom today, and a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY for my aunt for Wednesday = there are presents up here at my house, but the logistics involved in actually getting said presents from Yorkshire to Birmingham make my head hurt at the moment. Especially as Mom’s is fragile and Mandy’s is, well, let’s just say I don’t want to risk sending them in the post either. So they’re going to have to wait until bump makes his appearance and then I can send them back down with whichever visitors come to call.

Tomorrow would be a good day for bump to arrive, actually. Yesterday was Gramps’ funeral, which apparently went very well all things considered. (we didn’t go - the two hours driving each way would have practically finished me off) You can’t be overly glum when the Welsh crowd are there. It’s just not allowed. And tomorrow would have been his 85th birthday. So bump, are you listening? It would also be especially good to arrive tomorrow if you happen to be a boy, as we’ve pretty much settled on Alwyn as a boy’s name. Which just happens to have been Gramps’ name.

At least, that’s what we’ve decided this week. This naming lark is a real minefield, isn’t it? Still pondering over girls names, although Louisa is a definite middle name.

Right, off for lunch.