heatheralana21: Sam's birth story

So the 12th of September 2011 (my due date) came and went without so much as a braxton hicks. Like all other pregnant women out there I was fed up. It was my due date & my baby STILL wasn't here. I'm sure that when we reach that 37 week mark and baby is 'term' you kind of think 'oooh I could go any time now' but no. Not for me anyway :( The sleepless nights (with no baby) were a killer as I was up for no reason as well as all the general pains. And people asking if I'm still pregnant?! Don't even go there lol.

A week later on the early hours of Monday the 19th I was awoken by a cramp like feeling then an additional pain under my bump frequently too. I called the hospital & they said to take a bath and have paracetamol so I did that but I was excited that something was finally happening :D. I was booked in for a sweep on the Tuesday and the midwife said I was 3cm yay! I thought it can't be long now. I had continual contractions every 10 minutes from then until I gave birth to him on Thursday!

Anyway on Wednesday evening my mum came over straight from work as she was worried about my pains and she wasn't happy about the pain I was in so she called the hospital & told a little white lie; that my contractions were lasting longer than they were. They want them to be lasting over a minute but mines were only around 30 seconds but coming every 3 minutes.

So we made our way in to the hospital around 8pm after Bobby finished work and I was 5cm yay! We were staying in :D. When the gas & air just wasn't cutting it any more I had a shot of diamorphine (great stuff ;)) lol. & around 1am I started pushing. Finally at 2.15am on Thursday the 22nd of September 2011. Sam was born weighing an ickle 6lb 13oz. He was just so perfect. The euphoric feeling you get when you see your baby for the 1st time is just unreal & it makes all the hard work worth it. I hope every woman out there who wants to gets to experience it at some point <3.

Everything was hunky dorey except that my body decided that it wanted to keep my placenta. The umbilical cord was so freyed that the midwifes couldn't even tug on it to help me as it was just coming apart. The midwife said she had never seen anything like it & was astonished as to how he survived <3. After 3 different people trying & 'examining' in there they decided I needed surgery to remove it as I was losing too much blood. Great I thought, all the hard work & they're gonna give me the bloomin epidural anyway? But that didn't happen they actually put me under. Thinking back now I'm not sure why, possibly because I had lost a lot of blood?

After my surgery they brought me round & I was in hell. I cried with the pain I was in & couldn't stop coughing because of the anaesthestic which just made things worse. Then they told me that I hemorrhaged during surgery & lost 1.5L of blood and would require 2 transfusions :( So I spent the day in the high dependency unit basically out of it on pain killers :/ then I was finally moved to the ward.

I hated being in the ward. I hated the fact that I had a catheter, I was so sore & weak to move & I had to carry a bag of pee about?! I was just a 1st time mother & it takes time you get to know your baby & when he cried he was so fragile and tiny I was worried about how I was holding him etc. I'm an only child and had never been around any babies. I hated having to ask for help from the midwifes but I was really struggling with mobility & strength. I just wanted home, to have support from people I love and more help with Sam oh and my own bed! Also to add to things I didn't have my phone so I had no way to speak to my family & bobby and he didn't know he could come at any time so I had to sit alone while all the other girls in the wards partners came and went :(.

Well they said I would have to wait for blood work to come back before I'd be assessed to leave & when it did on the Friday my iron levels went from 6 to 8 ... Not the 12 they wanted. But I just kept on smiling and telling them I felt fine & they did decide to let me out. Thinking back now I think wow I don't think they should have done that but all was good & I really couldn't have spent another night there.