It's a little difficult to be entirely accurate with this because what I usually do is look back at my labour and delivery notes and piece together times and events, to put together the whole experience in order, because obviously I'm missing parts as my head was elsewhere! The hospital have changed their procedure and that section of my maternity notes is now removed from the folder....This has actually upset me a lot, I feel like they've stolen the only way I can read and understand how the labour and birth unfolded. Dramatic? Perhaps but it's how I truly feel and I do plan to ask under the Freedom of Information Act here in the UK for a copy because as with all my own children, I keep a copy of my maternity notes as part of their history - just something I like to do. It's fun to look back and/or compare experiences.
So, my point is that this birth story will only be what I can recall currently and I'm sure in a few weeks, when I have all the information available, I will be coming back and altering parts!
Oh and it will be verrrrrrry long. I don't expect anyone but those with an hour to waste, to read it but this is very special to me, to get it down and recorded so I'm not going even attempt to be concise I'm afraid.
So, 41 weeks was where we were. On that day, I went to bed feeling worn out as usual and anticipating a quiet night with no other drama than the usual insomnia and million trips to pee. As I laid there, Boo was kicking up a huge storm - much more so than usual and I remember thinking he would break my waters if he carried on that way....
About 4am, I turned over and had a weird, wet sensation below so got up and had searing pain in the front of my pelvis and went to the bathroom and found I was leaking pink slimey/gunky stuff. Now, I've never experienced waters breaking/a show/bleeding in pregnancy so this was quite alarming. I wasn't scared, after all, I was overdue but it was surprising to say the least. I remember sitting there thinking 'hmm, that's a new one!'
I called my husband, who was at work, and told him. I thought it was a show and based on what Google was saying and what my experienced friends on a message board were confirming too, that was what it was. I put some sanitary protection on and went back to bed, I tried to sleep but kept looking at my phone and looking at different sites. I think I was just worried because it was blood after all - not fresh blood and no gushes but still, blood in late pregnancy does alarm you.
At 5am and after several more trips to the bathroom to see what was happening still, my husband agreed I should contact K & B and let them know what was happening. It's a long drive for them to get to me, and traffic would begin to build. Not knowing what was happening or could happen, I felt it best to get them here as soon as possible, just incase....After all, even if that day was a false alarm, I would be having the baby by the Monday (would of been induced) so wouldn't of been too premature for them to be here. I made a point of saying I didn't know what was happening and that there was no rush, I wasn't feeling anything like labour pains or suchlike.
So, they were en route and I continued to monitor the situation. Tried to sleep but couldn't really, the gunky stuff continued but at around 6:30am, I had a small gush of clear liquid on one of the bathroom trips. I was sure this was my waters starting to leak but having had no experience of them breaking and it not being much, I didn't want to call Delivery Suite at the hospital and jump up and down about it. It continued all early morning, it was more liquid and less gunky than the 4am stuff so I knew that 2 separate things were happening - a show and then waters leaking. I took the children to school, put a call into my community midwife for some advice and did some housework and then called Delivery about 10am as my own midwife still hadn't returned my call and I wanted some reassurance and they told me to put a sanitary towel on, sit quiet and call back in an hour to talk about the findings.
I was still leaking bubbles and small gushes of liquid when I moved or coughed or well, infact did anything but was having no pain at least, just soreness and niggles - much like period pains. I had a nap with my hubby and left it a bit over the hour before calling Delivery back. The midwife was very 'meh' about it all. She said it was probably a show and that if it was waters, the pad would be soaked. I didn't agree with that at all but they call the shots so we left it that I would monitor the situation and see how things progressed. Meanwhile, K & B had arrived and were settling into their hotel. I told them not to come over or worry as nothing was happening and I would keep them informed if and when things changed.
Thankfully my own midwife did return my call around 2pm and said that she was sure that was my waters. She has many many years experience and I trust her judgement and told her that I was inclined to agree. She asked me if I wanted to go up and get checked out by her and get her opinion - since she's just up the road that made sense and plus, she had more power to call Delivery herself and get me seen.
Straight away upon looking at the pad, she said it was definitely my waters. She called Delivery and told them as much, that it wasn't 'possible rupture of members but definite'. They advised me to go up to get monitored but were still very uninterested, obviously not believing it despite having a fellow professional telling them what she had observed personally. I got the children from school and 2 went to a friend's house for tea and I settled them later for bed and then K & B then came over to take me to the hospital for a check-over.
We had a lovely midwife, who was accompanied by a student doctor. I liked both, the student was a bit awkward and uncomfortable but I think that was just inexperience generally - she was still attentive and tried to put us all at ease. They did a trace of baby, which confirmed that he was fine and happy and that I was occasionally having small but very irregular contractions but not much else was going on. There was one small deceleration of his heart rate, which meant she kept me on the monitor for a bit longer than usual but she was happy after that that it was a normal trace and nothing of concern.
Then came the dreaded speculum examination. Ick but necessary, I wanted to know what was what down there! LOL. K & B, at this point, had their first experience of the grosser side of having a baby. They did great though, very brave!
So, midwife said she thought it could be my waters but wasn't 100% ready to call it that but would wait - me laid down, another 20 minutes and repeat the examination - to see if the same happened again or not. Urine was clear but BP was up - it was very high for me and I think K, B and I all doubted it had accurately been done but the midwife herself (as opposed to the student) checked it several times and it was still too high...So, I needed to have the pre-e bloods done yet again, as I've had several times, thanks to one or two rogue high readings at that flipping hospital!
The 2nd examination was done and the midwife said that she thought it was just mucus and a show still and not actually my waters. None of us felt she was entirely comfortable with that decision but based on what she saw at that moment, she had to call it as it was - and that was that she hadn't seen any waters coming from the cervix. She was very sweet though, she could obviously see I was overwhelmed and a bit fed up already - as were K & B and she was supportive with her words which was appreciated. A doctor came in and ran through the findings and she said we had to wait for the blood results but it could be a couple of hours, I was desperate to get home to bed - incase things picked up, I hadn't slept since 4am and it was now nearing 11pm. After the doctor left, the lovely midwife said (and I suspect she shouldn't of done so) that I could go and she would call me if the results came up with anything and with that, she let us go.
All a bit weary and feeling a bit deflated, K & B dropped me home again and went off to the hotel for the night. As soon as I got in, I cried at my husband, ate a big cream cake and got into bed! Sums up how I was feeling by that point I think.
Almost immediately I began to feel a ramping up of contractions. They continued all early morning, I remember breathing through them half-asleep and thinking that they were pretty close together and that that was great as it meant hopefully that by the time the kids were getting up for school, I would be able to head back to the hospital to get rechecked and hopefully that things would be well underway. I did try and time them on my phone but kept falling asleep without hitting 'start' on the timer! Not helpful.
At 3am, I got up again to change my pad (the liquid was now more back to slime but it was still, as it had been the previous almost 24 hours, pink/light red) and got back into bed, I realised that my contractions had stopped. Almost 20 minutes went by and not a single one. Ugh. So, that was that then. False start....
But they did start again but were infrequent still and stopped pretty much if I got up from the bed - which I know means they are not real, useful contractions. I felt really fed up at this point but had a midwife appointment that morning so knew I could at least moan to her and get it all off my chest.
K & B hardly slept either, unsurprisingly and so I think we were all thankful for daylight to break so we could start a new day and see what came....
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