Our labour story

Hello Lucas,

Here is the story of how you came into this world. It's a story that was a lot more dramatic than we would have liked, or even expected, but the important thing is we were both fine after the labour. So now that I have assured you, here is the course of events while it is still fresh in my mind.

Mummy's water broke on Sunday afternoon on February 17th but I wasn't really sure it was my water breaking because it was just a trickle. Daddy and I had dinner at Five Dock with your Grandparents, Mandy and Trevor. Our last meal with you still in my belly was a yummy seafood feast :)

That night I couldn't get to sleep. I kept waking up checking if more of my water was breaking and wondering whether every twinge I felt were contractions. Luckily I was able to pass the time playing a silly game called Candy Crush (that incidentally, both Daddy and Auntie Mandy were also addicted to!).  I drifted in and out of sleep and woke up at 5am to a huge gush of water breaking. I knew that I had to call the hospital but it was still too early, so I waited til 7am before calling the Mater. At this time, I still didn't feel any regular contractions. When I called the hospital, I was expecting the midwife to say we should wait a bit longer until I felt regular contractions. Instead, the midwife told me we had to get to the hospital right away due to the risk of infection since my water had broken yesterday afternoon.  I went upstairs to wake Daddy up and have never seen Daddy jump out of bed so quickly!

We quickly packed some last minute things into our hospital bags and left for the hospital at 7.45am to beat the morning peak-hour traffic. We got to the hospital around 8am and registered at the labour ward. I was still feeling quite relaxed at this point and even had some doubts whether my water had  broken since I still wasn't feeling any contractions. The midwife checked the pad I brought along and confirmed it was amniotic fluid and told us we were going to be having you that day! The midwife gave us a deadline of 11am to bring on the contractions naturally, otherwise I was going to be induced with syntocin. I really didn't want to get induced, so Daddy and I walked around the block and I walked up and down the fire stairs to try and get some contractions going. Unfortunately by 11am, I still didn't feel any contractions, so the midwife had to hook me up to the syntocin drip.

In the labour room - one of the last pics of you still in my belly

Daddy and I sat around the labour room waiting for things to pick up. I sat on the exercise ball and did some light bouncing to speed up the process. A midwife came in after a while and turned up the drip but that caused your heart rate to drop. I was told I couldn't sit on the exercise ball anymore and had to lie on my side in bed while the drip was turned back down. After your heart rate stabilised, the drip was turned back up again. I started getting stronger contractions. I remembered reading that it was helpful to visualise a flower opening and to breathe through the contractions. I did pretty well with that technique but after a while, the contractions started to get more painful and came more frequently. I started to panic and told Daddy I needed some pain meds because it was getting too painful. Each time a contraction came, I grabbed Daddy's hand and squeezed. Daddy said his hand was hurting because I squeezed too hard!

The midwife came back with gas and I used that for a bit but the gas was useless to manage the pain. The midwife increased the gas dosage which did nothing except make me lightheaded. By this time, the contractions were getting so strong. I told Daddy I needed the epidural even though before the labour, I had wanted to try going natural. Daddy told the midwife I wanted an epidural. She said it would take the anesthetist 30mins to arrive and went out to call him. While she was gone, I felt a huge gush and told Daddy to check whether it was amniotic fluid or blood. Daddy checked and said I was bleeding a lot. Stupidly enough, I told Daddy he should clean it up before the midwife came back in. I was obviously not thinking straight from all the pain! The contractions were coming hard and fast. It seemed each time one wave of contractions finished, another one would start up. Daddy said it was only a few minutes after he checked the bleeding when all the monitors went crazy and started beeping. All I remember was a lot of people rushing into the labour ward to check what was going wrong. I was in so much pain, I didn't even realise all the beeping meant there was a problem. I remember one of the midwives telling me she was going to give me an injection to stop the contractions. She then jabbed me in the thigh. I found out later it was the strong contractions made you go into distress. Your heart rate plummeted from 150 to 50 which was what caused all the beeping and everyone rushing into the room. I heard one of the midwives say we had to do an emergency c-section to get you out as quickly as possible. I then felt my bed being rushed down the halls and into the lifts to get to the operating theatre. All the while, I was still struggling with the contractions.

The operating theater was a blur of voices. I remember having to concentrate on what people were saying. The obstetrician was shouting out instructions and I felt the catheter being put in (ouch!) and then some very cold liquid poured all over my stomach. The last thing I remember was someone reassuring me that you would be out in 20 minutes. A mask was then put over my head and I was knocked out.

My next memory was waking up to the shakes. I was so cold. There was a nurse next to me and the first thing I asked him was, "How is my son?" He told me you were fine and with Daddy. I was still very groggy from the anesthesia; my throat felt dry and my lip was swollen.  I was wheeled to my room and Daddy was there. I asked him what happened and he said he was there when you were born and you cried really loudly when they lifted you from my belly. He spent the first 2 hours with you while I was knocked out. Here is a pic of Daddy with you after the c-section.

Just born!

2.63kg and 50cm

 The nurse wheeled you in so we could have skin to skin. I couldn't believe how tiny you were! It was hard to believe you came from my belly. One look at your face and I could see the resemblance to Daddy though :) I had my first skin to skin session with you, it was such a lovely moment. You tried to move towards my breast and start feeding. I just kept holding you and marveling at how tiny and perfect you were. You had to go into special care overnight to monitor your temperature but you passed all your APGAR tests with a score of 9 and 9. After that first night, you were able to stay with me for the rest of our hospital stay.

In Mummy's arms

The next day, Daddy and I found out what happened. The obstetrician popped into my room that night to say I had a placenta abruption (where the placenta tore away from the uterus) and I had an internal hemorrhage. The midwife came in the next day and told us your heart rate had fallen dramatically and they had to do an emergency c-section immediately. Luckily the obstetrician was already on his way. The anesthetist also popped in to tell us the complications he had to put the oxygen tube into my throat due to the swelling in my throat and my weird vocal chords. They had to go into plan B and put a camera down my throat to see what was obstructing the tube. He said they only had 1.5 minutes before they had to go into plan C and cut a slit into throat to put the tube in. Luckily they somehow forced the tube in, though he had already called for a 2nd anesthetist to invoke plan C just in case. He joked that he lost 2 years off his life. That made Daddy and I realise how serious the problem was! Another midwife told us we were lucky the anesthestist came when he did because he was originally called in for another patient but his car broke down, so he actually came in time to do the general anesthesia for us.

With Mummy & Daddy

So there is our labour story, quite a lot of drama but all ended fine. As I write this, you are nearly 3 weeks old and gaining weight like a champ.