And then there were four

It’s about time I wrote Tamsin’s birth story.
I’d had Braxton-Hicks contractions every night for a week, varying from strong and regular but not painful to painful but irregular. So Sunday night, getting what felt like indigestion pains every half hour or so, I didn’t think anything of it – I was only 41 weeks pregnant and fully expected to go at least another week. Went up to bed as normal and fell asleep as the pains stopped. Only to wake up at 4.30 with what I thought was trapped wind (it really took me ages to realise I was in labour this time. “You’ll know” everybody says – I must be very dense indeed.)
Severe “trapped wind” every half hour or so, I dozed off in between and shifted about during the pains trying not to wake Maggie who had crept into bed next to me. By 7 o’clock I had to get out of bed and went to sit downstairs. By 8 o’clock I went up to tell Cameron, who was getting Maggie dressed (and didn’t seem to be wondering where I was at all), that I thought something might be happening, I was having contractions every 10 minutes or so but that it would probably be ages yet: I’d had no show and after my previous 42-hour labour I really thought we were in for a long wait. They came down for breakfast, by which point I was having a contraction every 3 minutes but hadn’t adjusted mentally so I kept going ooh that was a bit quicker, that wasn’t 10 minutes, without really realising much was happening. I did need to go and walk and lean on the table and breathe through the pains by this point but just didn’t twig that I was actually in labour (I said I was dense). We decided to start the pool filling – though even at this point I remember saying that if it all fizzled out, fully expecting it to, we could always empty it and refill it when we needed it – and that Cameron would pop into work, dropping Maggie off at nursery on the way, to tell people he probably wouldn’t be there (it seemed sensible).
I had a quick shower then settled down in front of the computer (where else) with an online contraction timer. A good job I did as this finally convinced me that they were in fact coming every 3 minutes and lasting quite a long time. I rang the midwife who decided she should come and see me. While I was waiting for her I started to panic: it hurt, bouncing about on my ball was not helping enough, and I was really worried that if it was as strong as that I wouldn’t get through – still mentally geared up for a long labour, convinced it was very early days and worried because I didn’t remember it being that painful last time. I do remember leaning over the futon and thinking I’d forgotten how horrible it was (but now I remembered). Oh and I rang Cameron and told him he needed to come home. I managed to keep an eye on the pool, turning the tap off and putting the boiler on when it started to run cold, then starting it filling again once I had hot water.
Karen-the-midwife turned up about 10.30. A quick examination: 7 cm! I was amazed but relieved that I wasn’t just being a wimp and the contractions really had been quite intense. Immediately wanted to get into the pool which was just full and just the right temperature. Hopped in, hooray, while she rang the second midwife (this was the point I became convinced that I really was going to have the baby that day).
Cameron turned up and seemed quite surprised I was in the pool already – he was geared up for a long haul, too. It’s all a bit of a blur from then on: I remember having nice civilised chats with the midwives between contractions, and some debate about whether to use gas and air (I was talked into it “to get me through this nasty transition bit”: the first puff made me nice and light-headed but I couldn’t feel any effect after that, although it gave me something to focus on, and perhaps it was doing something as when I dropped the mouthpiece at one point I had a big panic). Nice midwife Val held my shoulders for me while Cameron was mostly on boiling the kettle duties – tea and topping up the pool. I started to get pushy, but that seemed to go on and on so they persuaded me to climb out for an exam (easier said than done) during which Karen held the last bit of cervix out of the way or something?
Seemed to push for ages – no longer with gas and air, I couldn’t be doing with that any more – getting quite demoralised and swearing blind I couldn’t do it, and no more chatting between contractions, I was away with the fairies. Waters broke with a big pop. Sometime around 12.30 somebody asked what time Maggie finished nursery (1 o’clock) and told me I’d have the baby out by then, which gave me a much-needed boost. I turned over onto my back as squatting was just not getting me anywhere (Val told me the baby was turning the corner: I said I didn’t have corners) and that was just what was needed, a couple more pushes while holding very tight to Cameron’s hand and we saw a head (ow!). I could feel the baby wriggling about half-out, which was quite a bizarre sensation, then one more push and all of a sudden there it was!
Cameron and I were both a bit taken aback by the speed with which the midwives moved to get the baby out of the water – no peaceful reflection time like we’d had with Maggie – but I scooped the baby up, they disentangled the cord (longer and thinner than any they had ever seen, apparently), which was caught under one arm and round the back of her neck – and I checked whether we had a boy or a girl. Val said “hello baby Tamsin” as we’d had some discussion of names during the peaceful times between contractions then started rubbing at her to make her cry. Not sure what that was about, seems a bit unkind, but it did pink her up.
Immediately the baby was out I wanted to be out of the water, but I was persuaded to stay there until the cord had finished pulsing and it had been cut (by Cameron). Then out – very wobbly but nothing like as bad as I’d been when Maggie was born – bundled up in towels and onto the futon. I needed a cup of tea (which is very strange as I’d not wanted it at all for the previous 9 months) and Tamsin latched on for a feed really quickly then after about 20 minutes or so I pushed the placenta out.
Just 40 minutes after Tamsin was born, Maggie arrived home – thanks to Sara who took an afternoon off to collect her then took her to the zoo. Quite disappointed not to see Tamsin in her pool, and the first thing she said to me was “did she come out of your bottom?”, but really thrilled both with her baby sister and the “Fimbles” DVD.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 1:00 pm and is filed under parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.