Monster Ru

The Labour

Well, i wasn't sure i wanted to post about this, but NAB said i should, for posterity. Hell, i don't even know where to start. On record, the labour took 18hrs 57mins. But really, it was more like 24hrs, starting from the time of the first contractions (Sunday, just gone 0000hrs), although the first symptoms appeared quite a lot earlier (around 4pm Saturday).

Basically i endured the contractions without any pain relief (nor sleep!) for a few hours and then i took some panadol in the morning. And it wasn't until a couple of hours later that NAB asked me if i wanted to use the TENS machine (duh! Why didn't i use this earlier?!). This made the pain slightly more bearable, although i must say that the persistence/regularity of the pain of contractions is enough to make anyone lose hope!

So on and on the contractions went without respite until they were about 2-3mins apart, lasting about 1 1/2 mins each. And this was when the hospital said it was ok to go in.

We got there about 2ish, and after the usual checks, we waited in a room because there were no delivery suites available. i requested for some pethidine so i could sleep for a bit before the big push. I managed to doze off a bit, but everytime a fucking contraction came, it woke me up. When the pethidine wore off (4hrs later), i started on the "gas & air" (entonox) which was great! It made you dizzy and numb... definitely recommend it.

It wasn't until 8pm that we got into the delivery room. and just when i thought it would all be over soon, i was actually facing the worst part of labour. By then i had very little energy - wait, make that- no energy left. So the pushing bit was really really really very very tough going. It basically went on for about 3 hrs. After an hour, I was going to have the doctor come in to give me some help (ventouse) but they were just too busy. The baby's heart rate was dropping and everything was really looking quite hopeless, like nothing was going to happen. But the midwife was really good - she kept going "KEEP PUSHING KEEP PUSHING..." and it was about quarter to midnight and she was saying how with 3 good pushes, we'll have the baby soon... and 'cos she had already written down the date of birth on the papers and she didn't want to change it haha.

so then it happened. With "3 good pushes", the baby was out. But as he came out i could see the look of horror/shock on the midwife's face. It turned out that the umbilical cord was round his neck, and it snapped whilst he came out, and blood spurted everywhere. I must say that he made a pretty dramatic entrance into the world... I was super relieved, but there was more pain to come, in the form of stitches.

So, that's what happened. We thought the midwife handled the situation really well, and she kept calling the baby "Tiny" and said he looks like a girl!!! He's only 48cm in length, and weighed 2.44kg at birth. But he's super super cute, and feeding well at the moment. Will send the midwife a thank-you note with a bottle of whiskey and some tea leaves. Also very very grateful to NAB's mum who was with us - couldn't have done it without her!

Oh, and for the record, no swear words (in whatever language) were used during labour.

Baby's full name: Alexander Peter Burton 林宥.

posted by 儒 @ 01:18