Diane's stories - Oliver and Ehren

Oliver  Robert, 6 lbs, 3oz, 20 inches born June 22, 2004 at 5:36am at Waitakere.

Mummy & Daddy met 5 1/2 years ago in Los Angeles. They lived in L.A. for a year or so and then moved to New Zealand.
They have lived here for 4 years. Then it was time for me. Mummy had a good pregnancy apart from a few weeks of morning sickness. I was due on June 23, 2004.  On June 21st Mummy started feeling contractions. Daddy started timing them at 5:30 pm while playing XBox. By 3 am Mummy was ready to go to the hospital. When they got there the midwife checked us. Everything was fine, but Mummy was only dilated to 3cm, so we decided to go back home and come in at 10 am.
Well by 8:30 Mummy was ready to go back to the hospital. When we got there at 9 the midwife check us again. Everything was still ok and Mummy was dilated to 5cm. We filled-up the big bath tub and got in.
We only stayed there for an hour or so cause Mummy wanted to walk around. At about 3 pm Mummy decided to get an epidural. OOoohhh that's better, sorta. When we got the epidural the midwife broke my nice warm water. That's when the ride got bumpier. My heart rate plummeted and the midwife hit the panic button. All of a sudden there were 10 people in our room. They pushed Mummy on her side and started rocking her. That helped me get over the shock of all my water pouring out. After that they started Mummy on pitocin. That made the contractions stronger. But by 5:00 pm Mummy had not dilated past 5-6cm and my heart was decelerating with each contraction. So the doctor decided to do a C-section. It turned out I had my umbilical cord around my neck twice. I was out at 5:36 with APGARS of 7 & 9. I was a little baby at 6 lbs 3 ozs and 20 inches long, but I was really cute. After a few days in the hospital we all went home and I didn't sleep a wink for the next 6 weeks. Then Mummy got a book about scheduling and put me on one. It was rough going at the start because I was used to getting my own way and now I just had to lay in my crib and fuss until I went to sleep. But by a month later I was sleeping through the night. Now at 4 months I sleep from 7:30pm until 6:30 am and I have 3 naps of 2 hours. I am a very happy baby and I smile and laugh all the time.

Ehren James, 8lbs, 2 oz, 21 3/4 inches, born Aug 4, 2006 at 12:21 at Whangarei.  

My pregnancy this time was very different. I was due on August 5th. I felt carsick for about the first 3 months. I didn't throw-up much just felt sick all the time. By my 7th month I had pelvic pain on my right side. I couldn't sit for very long without getting stuck in that position and finding it very hard to stand up. I also had pain under my ribs on the right side. My midwife said it was the baby's feet. I could push them out to get a few seconds releif but then he would pop back up. Like my first baby, this one never fully engaged in my pelvis.
My contractions started on Thursday August 3rd at about 8 pm. They started out 3 minutes apart and painful. By 10:00pm I was ready to go to the hospital. I called our friend to stay with Oliver and called the midwife to have her meet us at the hospital. We got there at about 10:45.  My midwife checked me and I was at 6 cm. Yay! This is going fast. I tried gas for the pain, but it made me feel drunk, I didn't like it at all. So by midnight I got an epidural.  It took more strongly on one side than the other so I couldn't move my left leg at all. But at least I wasn't in pain any more. As with Oliver's birth, as soon as I got the epidural my contractions slowed way down. They gave me a pit drip and they picked up a little. By 7 am I was complete and tried pushing. However my little angel had turned posterier and would not budge. Oh joy! We waited until 11 am to see if the contractions would move him down, but they didn't. The doctor came and checked then and said we could go to the opertaion room and try the vontuse for about 3 or 4 pushes and if that didn't work we'd do a c-section. We got to the operation room, put the vontuse on his little head and I pushed so hard. After the 3rd push I saw her pick up the scisors to do the episiotomy and groaned a little, ouch! On the next contaction she pulled and I pushed with every thing and out his little head popped. On the next one the rest of him slid out. They put him on my tummy right away. His little face was so purple. He didn't move or cry or anything so they took him over to the little table where they check them and then he started to cry. I was glad it was over! He then peed on the midwife and a few minutes later when a nurse bent down to get something he peed on her head. He was born at 12:21 on Aug 4th. We were home the next morning by 10:00am.