The birth of our gorgeous daughter, Ashton...
It was the 16th of December, 2003, 6 days after my due date with my
first baby, when I started getting what I thought was contractions.
They were mild and were happening every 6 - 10 minutes, some much
stronger than others. I was at my mums at the time while my then fiancee,
Scott, was at work. I was putting our wedding invitations into their
envelopes ready to be sent the next day.
It then got to lunch time and they were still happening so I thought
I'd better ring the doctors to see what they wanted me to do. My original
doctor was home sick for the day, so I had to see the only other doctor
that delivers babies in this small country town. He checked my ob's
and also checked to see if I had dialated any but I hadn't budged.
The doctor then told me the contraction like pains I was having were
braxton hicks contractions. I thought at first it was them but I'd
experienced them in about the eighth month, and they weren't any where
near as painful as these. I then had to have my baby's heartbeat monitored
for about half an hour, to see how the baby was coping with the braxtons.
After the half hour, the doctor came back in and said everything is
fine and gave me two options. I could either go home and put up with
the braxtons until the real thing, or I could go to the hospital that
day when I was ready, to be induced. That answer was easy. Because
I'd also had the braxtons fairly mildly on the 15th, Scott and I decided
to go to hospital that afternoon to try the gel.
I arrived at the hospital about an hour later, after going home
to have a shower and grab my bag etc. After being admitted and at
about 5:30pm, the doctor came down to try one lot of gel. All that
night my sleep kept getting interrupted by even more painful braxtons
and the nurse checking my ob's every hour. The braxtons were very
painful. I usually have a strong pain threshold but this was really
getting to me. I couldn't find comfort in any position, not even by
sitting on the toilet! All in all I think I only slept about two hours
that night. Even the nurse thought I would be having my baby that
night. We were both wrong.
The next morning the 17th at about 7am, they delivered my breakfast
and it looked delicious! The only thing I could stomach though was
the cuppa tea as I was feeling sick from the pain. Still at this stage
it was braxtons. At about 8:30am, my original doctor came in with
the midwife to break my waters. I never thought the actual breaking
of the waters would feel so uncomfortable!! Scott came in just after
they'd broken my waters, and boy was I glad to see him! They were
going to give me until 10:30am to have started the "real thing" or
else they were going to put whatever that something is in the drip
to speed things up. I was in too much pain to listen to the name of
that drug. Just about on cue, at 10:30am, I got a contraction that
was a lot more painful than before. By this stage I knew it was the
"real thing"!
After that initial contraction, they started coming every 2 - 3 minutes.
I stayed in my room breathing through each contraction with the support
from Scott and the midwife, and Scott holding a bucket in front of
my face for my vomit, until about 11:30am. I needed something by that
stage as the contractions were very intense. I could hardly even walk
down the corridor to the labour ward, but we did eventually get there.
I sat in the recliner lounge chair in the labour ward using the
gas. Apart from seeing stars, the gas was doing nothing for me. It
was not relieving the pain at all. The first moment I found out I
was pregnant, I was so sure I didn't want an epidural. By this stage
I was thinking hard about having one. It was now 2:30pm and the midwife
checked to see if I had dialated. I'd only dialated 1cm. Everything
was happening so painfully slow. The midwife suggested I have an epidural
as I would probably be in labour for another 20 hours if I didn't,
and they wanted to speed my labour up but to do that the contractions
would get stronger again with the drugs they use. While the midwife
called the doctor to tell him to come to the hospital, Scott and I
spoke very quickly between contractions and decided yes I would have
an epidural. The epidural was put in by 3pm.
That was the best decision I'd made in the past two days!! It was
so good. With having the epidural I couldn't feel my contractions
at all so I could finally catch up on sleep I'd lost in the past two
days. At 6pm Scott went and got himself tea. He was still gone by
6:45pm and I was now feeling some pressure down below. I told the
midwife and she checked to see how much I'd dialated. I was fully
dialated and ready to roll. Scott made it back just before 7pm and
I told him the good news and that I could start pushing when I was
ready.
I pushed with every contraction, as the epidural had just worn off
enough for me to slightly feel when I had to push. I couldn't feel
any vaginal pain and that surprised me. They told Scott to have a
look and all he said to me was I can see the head, it's got hair!!
It seemed to be taking forever to get her out as she kept slipping
back every time I'd stop pushing. Once the head was out I had to stop
pushing because the cord was firmly wrapped around her neck and they
had to cut it before I could finish. Finally after about an hour of
pushing, at 8:10pm, our daughter Ashton Nicole was born at 7lb 9oz.
Scott burst into tears as soon as he saw her. I was surprised I didn't
end up crying myself. I think I was too puffed!! After all that all
I ended up with was a few grazes, no stitches.
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