Wednesday 19 March 2014

A Birth Story - Baby #3

I always knew my pregnancy wasn't going to go to full term since Milo had been induced at 38 weeks due to hydronephrosis of my right kidney. When the similar pain occurred at 20 weeks with girly one I knew she was sitting on something she shouldn't be.
My obstetrician was lovely and agreed that at around 38 weeks, we'd do an induction. I was happy with this and had been counting down accordingly.
I was admitted to hospital at 35+5 after some bleeding and contractions that were painful and regular, when I arrived was confirmed that yes, definite contractions every 3-4 minutes. However baby floating high and a VE was about 1-2cm and not effaced, which is not unusual for a multiple timer. I was given nefedipine and morphine which eased the contractions. I was warned the hospital wasn't equipped to have an under 36 weeker and baby would still potentially be sent to Perth under 37 weeks.

I was in hospital for a couple days and was eagerly awaiting discharge, I missed my husband and my boys. However I was still having contractions that amped up around the time for my medication, my OB told me at this point I would be staying for the duration. I was ok to get this baby out now! I was exhausted from a crappy bed and had cabin fever, the thought of another 2 weeks was just awful. 


Days went by, the medication made me dizzy, it is used to relieve blood pressure, but works for uterine contractions, as my BP was initially perfect, it was now super low. The boys and husband visited every day but their short stays and a walk to the cafe would wear me out and make me feel faint.

Towards the end of the 36th week, there was talk of a 37 week induction as something clearly going on as contractions weren't easing, I was also massive. The baby was still high and free floating, I had some huge fluid issues and had polyhydramnios, 3L of fluid instead of the usual 1Lish. They couldn't find a cause, however there was the concern that if my waters were to break the cord would prolapse, requiring an immediate emergency caesarean. The thought of a caesarean was awful and the worst delivery outcome I could imagine. The induction date was locked in 11th February!

 The day of the induction arrived, surprisingly I did get sleep, not particularly comfortable but sleep. It still didn't quite feel like today was the day we meet our daughter, everything was still very surreal. My induction was due to start at 1pm and the plan was to take me to theatre and to prep for a c-section, the OB would attempt an assisted ARM to assure the head dropped into place, however the chance of prolapse was still there.

Husband arrived at midday and we were excited, baby day! I had high hopes everything would go to plan and after a very short 1-2 hour labour with Milo, everyone was anticipating a quick arrival this time also. I was gowned up and husband was given scrubs and I was wheeled off to theatre. The anaesthetist placed the spinal and epidural and I was numbed to my neck, I wasn't happy! However the ARM went off without a hitch and I was shortly wheeled off to 'recovery'. They waited for the spinal to drop slightly and the CTG showed regular and frequent contractions. Hooray, labour! I was wheeled off into the delivery suite to wait it out for baby.


While in there I was propped and moved about a bit to get into better positions for baby happiness as she wasn't always happy with contractions. The spinal was dropping and I was beginning to feel my feet again. After a few hours the OB came in and did a VE, we were all expecting amazing things however the examination was unchanged from 1-2cm, possibly more effaced. I was so disheartened. Never the less we powered on.
The contractions had begun to die off a bit and the baby's heart rate had begun dipping more often with the contractions, I could tell the midwife was starting to get nervous about it. At about 6pm my mum and sister visited and I had started throwing up randomly, which wasn't fun, the heartbeat kept dropping still and everyone started getting anxious.
I was exhausted but they had me propped upright so I couldn't really sleep. The OB came in again and reviewed and said he was happy enough so far and maybe we could try syntocin to try bump up contractions. He performed another VE and I was about 6cm, which was getting there but I think everyone was hoping it was more as it was becoming more evident that baby needed out sooner rather than later. Syntocin was started and the contractions were coming on fast, the elderly midwife who had been taking care of me wasn't happy about using it because sure enough the baby just wasn't coping. Every contraction her heart rate would slow right down from 150bpm to 80, then 40 then sometimes disappear and we were just waiting for it to come back after every contraction. The next couple hours were a bit of a blur, I was exhausted, there was a midwife changeover and the syntocin was stopped, I hadnt progressed further and the baby was getting more and more distressed. At around 11pm my OB came in and said we had to do a C-sec as he just wasnt happy to leave it longer. I was so exhausted and scared for my baby that I just wanted her here. I remember him ringing up and organising a theatre and a paediatrician, then the midwives organised baby things, swaddles, clothes and charts and I was wheeled off to theatre for the second time that day.

The theatre was just as cold as it had been before. I was placed on the table and the epidural was topped up. Everyone was pretty calm and happy, the baby wasnt happy but it wasn't an emergency as of yet as she was still recovering after the heartbeat drops. They placed the screen up and I remember thinking I was sad it wasn't going to plan, I know I was numb from the epi but I was kind of numb in general. Everyone was lovely and chatted to us about what was going on and that the screen would be lowered and we'd see baby being born. They began the operation and the OB talked us through what he was doing, all was well but then when it came to taking her out there was difficulty, she was stuck really low. It felt like forever until they took her out, it was taking longer than all those c-sections on One Born Every Minute, we knew something was wrong as they were in the process of lowering the screen for us to see but it was ripped back up and the atmosphere changed. The quickly showed us our baby and took her over to be checked out and suctioned I remember waiting for her to cry and she did and it was beautiful. I was so emotional about it all. 
At that point everything started to spin and I felt really sick, throwing up on your back not fun. My blood pressure was bottoming out, the anaesthetist tried to compensate with medication and we could hear the OB talking about haemorrhaging and someone began counting the litres of blood I was losing. They brought the baby over at this time and she was so grumpy and wrapped up in a little parcel, she was warm and gorgeous but I was too sick to hold her much and was worried I would drop her if I passed out. I remember asking over and over again if she really was a girl, she was!
Husband took her from me, and everything had begun to calm down. I dont remember much from then on in, I had to check with husband for details but I apparently was wheeled into recovery again with the baby. I don't know how long for until I was wheeled to my room, when I was back there, they gave me baby to do skin to skin and I put her straight on the breast. They brought some sandwiches and juice as I hadn't eaten since 7am that morning. I took some photos and they said they would take her to the nursery as she was still too cold and I could rest. I just had no energy and I was in the worst pain I had ever been in, they ended up giving me a self administered pain relief drip because I was screaming.


At about 6am I woke up from restless sleep and asked for my baby back. I was very teary and emotional and the OB had come in and told us that the baby had the cord wrapped over her shoulder holding her there, she wasnt able to drop down, also it was a huge bundle of knots so with every contraction the pressure of forcing her down was causing all her oxygen supply to be cut off. He also said that when they had tried to get her out, she was so wedged in that he had to do more damage than usual and I had also haemorrhaged badly and lost 1.5-2L blood and all in all very lucky she came out when she did and very lucky they had been able to stop the bleeding.


So after all the drama, we are very delighted to announce 
Lorelei 'Rori' Rogue Holmes
 was born on the 11th February at 11.52pm, weighing 6lb 5oz (2.86kg) and 49cm long!
She is such a delight and having a little girl has been such a novelty! I feel so lucky to have her and lucky to be here to enjoy her as much as I do.


The boys just adore her and kiss her so much she gets angry, I could not be happier with how she has been received into our little family, we couldn't ever imagine having not had her.




~ Lorelei ~