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| Reuben one day old |
So I said in a previous post about how my son was born premature. Birth stories are easy to find on the Internet but premature ones not so easy. When I gave birth early I didn't know of anyone else who had given birth so early. I look back on the birth of my son and our time in hospital now and think how lucky my husband and I are that everything was OK. At the time I can honestly say I was never scared or worried, I took each day as it came. For some reason didn't even consider the thought that something might go wrong. This is how I remember it, I'm not sure how accurate my memories are, my husband would probably tell a different story but this is mine.
So first things first, my pregnancy. When we discovered I was pregnant we were thrilled and I thought maybe I had gotten away with no morning sickness but at exactly 6 weeks its struck! I don't think it was too bad I've heard many others have it worse but from weeks six to ten I couldn't eat anything except ketchup or prawn cocktail flavour crisps and I lost half a stone. We were on our anniversary weekend away when it was at its worse luckily my other half didn't book the gin tasting! Just as suddenly as the morning sickness came it went and I gained the half a stone I'd lost back by the time it was my twelve week scan. The scan went well and there were no problems. My pregnancy continued to run smoothly and at our twenty week scan we found out we were having a boy. Again everything went smoothly until around twenty six/ twenty seven weeks when I started to suffer from pelvic girdle pain (PGP). I work on my feet so I ended up being signed off work as it was just so painful to walk around and stand all day. I felt really guilty leaving work early as when I didn't move around the pain completely went and I felt fine. At 28 weeks I work up from a nap an felt a gush, my first thought wasn't to panic, I had heard your bladder can weaken in pregnancy and although I didn't think I'd wet myself I went to the bathroom to check. It was blood, so of course I panicked. My husband was at work about fifteen miles away and my mum lived about five miles away. I tried to calm myself and rang my local maternity unit, they said to ring triage so I did and the said to come in as soon as I could. I quickly rang my hubby and got him to meet me at the hospital and rang my mum to pick me up. We got to hospital and my hubby was already there. We had to wait for ages so my mum went home but I felt relieved to be in the safest place. They put pads on my stomach to monitor the baby's heartbeat and movement. They were quite tight which the baby didn't like, he kicked and kicked, which was so reassuring for me. I had an internal examination and a swap taken. They couldn't see where the blood had come from and the swab results said the at I had thrush! And they believed that was why I had the bleeding! I hadn't had any symptoms at all so I was surprised but very relieved.
I continued to suffer from PGP but had no bleeding and the thrush cleared up straight away and as far as I'm aware it didn't return. On the Sunday before I gave birth I did have an increased number Braxton hicks for about an hour I had one every 10 minutes but then they stopped completely so I didn't worry. Until then I had only had one or two a day. I can't remember when I first started having them as I wasn't aware that what I was suffering from was Braxton hicks. If I had to guess I would say I started having them from about 18 weeks but like I said maybe one to two a day. For me Braxton hicks weren't at all painful but just a bit uncomfortable. My tummy felt harder and it felt like he was sticking his bum out in an awkward way, so to start with that what I thought was happening! I just thought he'd moved into and odd position so rubbed my tummy until he moved. Anyway, the Tuesday after I had an appointment with the maternity chiropractor who had a feel of my pelvis and said that the right side had rotated forwards and that's why I was having so much pain in my leg when I walked. She manipulated my pelvis back to where it should be but said it would eventually rotate forwards again. I went home feeling fine, I still felt pain when walking but the moving of my pelvis hadn't caused any other pain.
The next morning I woke up bleeding. I'm sure my hubby just thought it was just thrush again but I called triage and because it would be rush hour traffic she said to call and ambulance as I'd get in quicker. The ambulance seemed to take forever, I really don't remember how long but I remember trying to keep calm and concentrated on whether or not I could feel movement. I was also too scared to stand in case more blood came out. The ambulance crew were lovely. When I got to hospital I was put on to a small ward with full term mums whose waters had broken but labour hadn't started so they were being induced. It was quite interesting hearing everything go on around me, everyone was hidden by curtains so no one could see each other. I think the busy atmosphere and being in the best place helped me relax. I was examined like I was before and they couldn't see where the bleeding had come from. The bleeding stopped but they decided to keep me in over night as a precaution and they also gave me the first steroid shot needed to mature my baby's lungs. So when visiting hours were over at nine o'clock my husband went home. You can guess what happened next! Within about half an hour of him leaving the bleeding started again and with it this time came Braxton hicks approximately every ten minutes. The bleeding was never a lot but obviously any bleeding is a worry especially when teamed with contractions. I asked if I should get my husband back and they were pretty sure that he baby wouldn't come that night so I let him know what was going on but told him to stay at home and come straight back in the morning.
I was transferred to a private room with my own midwife, I knew I was in the safest place and being monitored, I was hooked up to a machine that monitored the baby and my heart but I didn't sleep at all that night I remember watching the clock and timing my contractions, which continued to be every ten minutes. My room was very hi tech with a special preemie birth table ready should it be needed. The next morning not long after the midwife left the room for a few minutes the monitor on my starting beeping, I felt normal so rolled over to find the machine saying warning erratic heartbeat! Then of course I felt panicked. I tried to find the call nurse button but it had fallen on the floor, I felt too weak to reach it I thought I might fall out of bed if I tried. I had so many thoughts rushing through my head, my main concern was 'am I going to have a heart attack!?' so I tried to take control of the situation and I calmed myself and tried to breathe slowly and deeply. The machine stopped beating and then the midwife came in, she probably hadn't been gone for more than five minutes but it felt like to ever! I told her about the machine and I had to have an ECG, which showed everything was fine. Then my hubby came in, the bleeding continued intermittently and the contractions continued to be regular every ten minutes. I was given my second steroid injection and I had so many internal examinations by doctors, midwives and consultants. There didn't appear to be a reason for the bleeding but because I was bleeding they were unable to try to stop the labour. I can remember the doctor saying he wasn't sure when I would give birth it could be that day or it could be weeks but that I would remain in hospital until I gave birth. My mum and step dad visited that afternoon and my contractions started getting stronger, they weren't painful but I had to breathe thought them.
My husband stayed in with me that night and it was much like the night before we couldn't sleep but at least we were in the safest place. Poor hubby had to sleep in a chair most of the night but they did find him a bed eventually! By about six the next morning the contractions were much stronger and they checked me and I was finally one centimetre dilated. I don't think anyone believed I was in labour until then as they were still referring to my contractions as Braxton hicks. I was also sent for scan to check if I was in labour! The scan confirmed that the head was engaged. The contractions got worse and I was first given pethidine to help, which worked but made me very drowsy, I was given a second lot and then when I asked for more I was given diamorphine. I was exhausted and the contractions were so painful. I then was given gas and air and that really did help with the pain other than when the midwife said that I was using it more often than I was having contractions so I stopped and found that their monitor just wasn't picking up all of my contractions! A lot of what happened next is a blur, I don't remember them checking to see how dilated I was but they may have! I have vague memories of having a back massage and the smell of aromatherapy oils. Then I remember suddenly feeling like I needed to push (you always see people being told not to push and just to pant on TV) so I asked if I could push and they said yes. Then I was told that the baby was in distress so I had to try to do one big push to get him out, they thought it best I sat up, I remember saying I'm too tired you'll have to pull me up! So they did! And in the next push my waters finally burst and out came Reuben immediately followed by my placenta.
Reuben was rushed over to the hi tech table and cleaned up and we got to see him briefly before he was whisked away. Then they gave me another internal examination to check for tears and grazes and I had a small graze. The placenta was huge! Bigger than Reuben! Then I was shown how to hand express some milk so they could give it to Reuben as soon as possible. Then once I had cleaned myself up I was wheel chaired up to see Reuben. He was hooked up to oxygen and actually didn't look that small. He weighed 3lbs 15oz, which is quite big for his gestation of 31 weeks and 3 days.
So there it is my preemie birth story. I will do a post about the time Reubie spent in neonatal care to follow.
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| Reuben and I, kangaroo care |
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