Vick's stories - Micheal, Jayden and Abigail
MICHEAL
Micheal's pregnancy was a dream, I never had morning sickness
and apart from being huge no discomfort. I never went to
antenatal classes as I figured I didn't need to, I was single after
breaking up with my partner two weeks after I found out I was
pregnant, so my mother and my brother (who being gay would not have
his own birth experience) were to come in with me. At 39weeks
and six days my doctor became concerned at his size and sent me for
a scan which estimated his weight to be 9.9 being of a rather
small build my doctor then got me an emergency appointment
with a specialist for two days later, as she was worried about me
having him naturally. Micheal had other ideas at exactly 40
weeks I woke up and had a show, my doctor checked and said we'll
see you in a couple of days. All morning I felt weird and was
off my food, so my mother and brother went to lunch without
me. At around 12-00pm I started getting my first
contractions, they were surprisingly painful, and brought tears to
my eyes. Finally at around 4-00pm I couldn't stand the pain
and rang the hospital crying, they in turn told me to come
in. We arrived at the hospital and as we got to the door I
very promptly threw up in their lovely flower garden! We were
met by a midwife who when asking my name got the reply "I'm going
to throw up". I had a check up and I was already four
centimeters dilated so I was offered pethadine while I waited for
my doctor to arrive. The pethadine made me feel really spaced
out and once again sick. At around 7-00 I was in a lot of
pain mainly in my back so I asked for an epidural, the hospital
midwife refused several times to ask a doctor and was in my eyes
being a right cow.
I remember screaming at her and was told to shut up as I was
upsetting other people. My doctor arrived back at 9-40 and
had an argument with the midwife over the epidural or lack of and
that set the mood for the rest of my labour. The midwife
would not look at me or talk to me. I was put on a drip as I
was dehydrated and at 10-00 pm my doctor broke my waters. My
brother I might add complained constantly that my nails were
digging into his arm to which he was told tough! I was ready
to push. I will be the first to admit I was terrified and had
no idea what I was doing. Then finally after 1 hour and 6
minutes of pushing and a big cut with the scissors Micheal came
screaming into the world weighing 8.5, 53cm long and with a head
size of 37cm. My mother cut the cord and then Micheal and I had
cuddles. I consider myself very lucky in the fact that I was
in Labour for only 10 hours. To my brother's disgust straight after
the birth I cut my nails as I didn't want to accidentally scratch
Micheal!
JAYDEN
My pregnancy with Jayden was different from the start, firstly he
was planned and then we had the bleeding to contend with. At
13 weeks finally past the 12 weeks Mark, Troy and I started to
relax (we had had an earlier miscarriage). Then at around 14
weeks I started to bleed, in a panic we rushed to the doctors where
after an ultra sound I was diagnosed with a low lying
placenta. We were told not to have any "relations" and I was
told to rest for a weeks to help settle the bleeding down. A
week later we went in for another scan and to our relief the
bleeding had stopped.
We spent the next few months walking on egg shells and then at
26 weeks we were told to good news, my placenta had moved and all
was now well. The rest of my pregnancy went well apart from
severe pain from Symphysis Pubis. My due date came and went
and 10 days later I went for a checkup where my doctor did a sweep
and set a date for my induction. Later that night I started
getting twinges that I put down to Braxton hicks. At around
10-45 I rang my doctor at home and told her I thought I was going
into labour, she told me if I didn't know I probably
wasn't. She then told me to take some panadol, have a bath
and get some rest. I did what I was told and got in the bath
at 11-00 and 5 minutes later I started having massive
contractions. We piled into the car, picked my sister up from
work and went to mum's to drop Micheal off and pick her up.
By the time we left mum's it was 12-20, we arrived at the hospital
at 12-40, where Troy got told off for making me walk the length of
the car park where I might add I had to stop every minute for a
contraction. Although these ones were more intense than with
Micheal I felt more at peace and there was no screaming or throwing
up this time I was in control.
When we arrived in the birthing suite I was ushered to a double
bed the room had a T.V, couch and tea and coffee, I felt very
strange giving birth in this room it felt like a hotel suite. My
Doctor arrived at 12-50am and when she said hello all she got was
"I need to push". She checked me and I was 10 cm dilated, she
broke my waters and a few minutes later and 1 push Jayden Andrew
was born at 12-57am weighing 7.6, 50cm long and his head was
35.5cm. Troy cut the cord and Jayden was placed on my chest for
cuddles.
My labour from start to finish was 2 hours, you can't ask for
better than that. I stayed at St Georges and loved it, what a
fantastic place.
ABIGAIL
My pregnancy with Abby was different again, I had the dreaded
morning sickness, this lasted for the first 16 weeks and drove me
insane. There is now a certain brand of cracker that I can
not even look at let alone eat.
Abby's pregnancy was great until the 7 month mark when the good old
Symphysis Pubis pain came back with a vengeance; I couldn't sleep
and could barely move. Thankfully the two boys were old
enough to understand, why I couldn't do much. All was well
though and Troy and I were a lot more relaxed. At 32 weeks my
Doctor told us that our little miss had not turned around and she
would have to keep and eye on it. So we went in weekly for
checkups, at 36 weeks I was sent for a scan to confirm she was
breech, and she was. So I was booked into a specialist, who once
again confirmed she was breech and then broke the news that I would
need an elective C -section as I was too small the have her
naturally. I was gutted, even more so to find out that St Georges
were all booked out and it would have to be Christchurch
Womens.
My caesarian was booked for 1 week before her due date the 6th
of January at 10.00am. I felt sick the whole night before due to
stress and it was the same the following morning. We dropped the
boys off at mum's at 8-00am and arrived at the hospital at
8-30. Abby was monitored, and kept kicking the monitor which
mucked up the readings in the end they gave up. I was prepped
for surgery and met my anesthetist - lovely, lovely guy. Then
we met the Surgeon and nurse who asked me about having my tubes
tied. We hadn't even thought of this so she said we shouldn't
make a snap decision and that was that. We went into theater
and they put in the Spinal block, I was crying and they were all so
nice. After a lot of tugging and pulling Abigail Mary-Louise
came squeaking into the world at 10-42am, weighing 6.4, 45cm long
and her head was 34cm. She was whisked away and suctioned and
cleaned and then given to her dad while I was stitched up (I was so
jealous). The only thing I regret is I didn't get my first
cuddles for nearly an hour and my Doctor/Midwife who delivered my
other two children couldn't deliver my last.