Blogtober #4

Giving birth to a huge baby.

Day 4 of  Blogtober

I thought in today's post I would write about the birth of my youngest child (now 10 years old) Isabella, she was a hefty weight, not at all your average baby weight, although I have heard of much bigger babies being born (my eyes sting at that thought) so here is my story of how my beautiful little girl entered the world.

Before I begin, I would like to say that I kept telling midwives I was carrying an elephant inside me, they would say she is only going to be about 1 lb bigger than my older two children's birth weights (8lb 6oz & 8lb 7oz) I had SPD (where the ligaments over stretch in the pelvis, causing a lot of pain) I was depressed as I could hardly do anything, the pain was immense, I used to cry whenever I needed to get up out of my bed to go to the loo, (which was often, babies like using our bladder as a trampoline) I would literally crawl to the bathroom, the midwives just said they couldn't induce me until I was at least 1 day overdue.

 I reached my due date, nothing happened, I was 3 days overdue and had a midwife appointment (Friday 28th September) I had the usual wee sample check, weight and blood pressure checked, all good, then the midwife called me in, she could see straight away how much I was struggling to walk (I was meant to have crutches for the SPD, but I had an 18 month old to push in her pushchair) she got me to lay on the coach so she could check on baby, then she measured my bump (they measure from bottom of bump to the top of bump) she told us that my bump measured as 52 weeks pregnant and sent us for a growth scan to see how big baby was, we waited in the waiting room for about 20 minutes and then we were called to go in. 

The growth scan was done, the sonographer told us our baby was doing really well, then she broke the news we desperately wanted to know, the size of this baby girl, we were told that she would weigh between 11lbs 5oz to 11lbs 15oz we couldn't believe it, I was in shock, I was scared and I was overwhelmed to say the least.

We headed back in to see the midwife, then we had to have a meeting with a surgeon, midwife and a consultant to make a plan. They decided it was best I had a Cesarean section, I was crying, the thought of a C-section scared the life out of me, I have only ever had one operation as a child and that was just to put grommets in my ears, how would I cope with being cut open? I was a wreck. After a while, I calmed down, I was then admitted into the maternity ward, saw the anaesthetist to plan the spinal block (epidural, a thin tube inserted into the spinal cord to release an anaesthetic medication to numb the belly ready for the c-sect) they then to me they had booked me in to have a c-section on the following Wednesday (3rd of October) I was so upset about it all, not only did I keep telling midwives 2 weeks before I was due how big baby was and how much I struggled to do anything due to pain, the weight and size of my bump but I had to wait until Wednesday to have a C-section that I was so petrified of having. I was so low and just wanted to meet my baby and be back to myself, I felt so much guilt over not being able to do much with my 4 year old son and 18 month old daughter. After having spent the last 5 hours at the hospital, they discharged me and I couldn't wait to see my children and my Mum (she was luckily looking after them for us to go to this appointment) I needed a cuddle with my children and a hug from my Mum, but I was feeling calmer.

The next morning at 8am I woke  to a strange feeling, slight pressure which kinda felt like I needed to wee, I started to walk to the bathroom and as I got near my bedroom door I felt a gush, my waters had broke (turns out it was the hind waters, a sack of water that cushions the main sack baby is in) so we rang my Mum (she was having the older two) then we rang the maternity unit, they told me to come in when I start to have contractions, 30 minutes after my waters breaking (hind waters) I was getting contractions, my Mum arrived and from leaving the house to getting to the car (13 steps to climb up from my house to the road) I had 3 contractions and had to keep stopping, in the car I had a contraction every minute that lasted about 30 seconds.

We arrived at the hospital at about 9am, I went in to the labour ward and there were loads of staff all rushing about to get theatre ready for me, I laid on the bed and had a cannula put into my hand, got examined and the midwife said "oh my word, you're 7cm dilated, you've progressed too far to have a c-sect"  

now I was already feeling anxious, scared and apprehensive about the c-sect and now I find out that I have to deliver her naturally (after being told it was too risky) then I was told I could only do it with gas & air, I cried and I begged, the midwife felt so sorry for me she pleaded on my behalf to get me some strong pain relief, Meptid (similar to morphine) she injected me with the Meptid and also an anti sickness medication (Meptid makes you nauseous) the surgeon that was going to do the c-sect came to see me, he told me he would be delivering my baby (I felt very embarrassed about a man delivery my baby, but needs must, I had no choice) I was now 9cm dilated, it was about 9.50am.

9.55am and I had the urge to push, I was fully dilated, I had so many people in the room, there were two paediatric doctors ready for baby, three midwife assistants, two midwives and the surgeon (then more came in, no idea how many in the end) the surgeon took the end off of the bed, I had both legs held up by  midwife assistants and midwives pushing on my bump, once her head was out the surgeon had his foot up on the bottom of the bed and started pulling her out, he tugged and tugged, midwives pushing bump to push baby out ('shit, she is stuck' I kept telling myself) then after a lot of pushing from me, pushing from the midwives, tugging from the surgeon, Isabella was born at 10.15am with a gush of water, soaking the surgeon like he had just be drenched by a car speeding through a massive puddle. I was so embarrassed, he put Isabella onto my chest, he then stood  like a drowned rat and asked a midwife "can you direct me to the nearest shower please" (thankfully I was already red from all the pushing) Isabella had a floppy right arm due to her shoulder getting stuck, she would need an x-ray after our cuddles.

A couple of minutes after Isabella entered the world she was quickly taken from me by the midwife and handed to one of the doctors, they shouted for another doctor and started resuscitation on my little girl, we had no idea what was going on, she now had three doctors working on her, I was so scared, "what is wrong? Is my baby OK?" I kept asking.

I started feeling fuzzy, disoriented, "you're losing a lot of blood, don't worry about baby the Doctors are helping her, we need to sort you out" the midwife told me, I was hooked up to a drip and gave me some sort of medication (No idea what they gave me, I just wanted my baby) to slow down the haemorrhage, luckily the medication did the trick, I lost a lot of blood but luckily I didn't lose enough to need a blood transfusion. I got checked out to make sure I didn't need stitches, somehow I didn't (all that applying wheat germ oil down there paid off) A few moments later, Isabella is OK and she then had to go and get an x-ray to check she hasn't got a dislocated shoulder.

Isabella came back from x-ray, No dislocation but she did have shoulder dystocia (her shoulder got stuck behind my pelvis, causing this, she needed physio weekly for 4 weeks plus exercises done at home) finally I got to hold my baby and feed her for the first time. The surgeon came in, all fresh from his shower, told me all will be OK but we both need to stay in over night (I couldn't look him in the eye, still so embarrassed) then off he went, then the lovely midwife who saw me the day before (who got me a growth scan) came in to see us, she had a cuddle with Isabella, and off she went. Finally I could have a shower and get upstairs onto the maternity ward.

On the maternity ward word got round the ward that I had a huge baby, so many people wanted to see her, I just wanted to rest, I started to feel like a freak show, I wanted to scream at people to leave me alone, I'm such a friendly chatty person but I had just been through a difficult birth and wanted to bond with my baby, alone with her Daddy.

Joshua & Georgina my eldest children came to visit later that day, they loved their baby sister, Georgina kept kissing her cheek (that become a nightmare when we were at home) Georgina yanked my cannula out of my hand and off then went back to Nanna's house. Isabella and I were allowed to go home the following day, they left us in limbo until 3pm until we finally got discharged.

Well that was a lot longer than I had planned, hope you didn't mind such a long post.
I would just like to add that I am so very grateful to our NHS and the brilliant, amazing and wonderful staff at our hospitals. So much love goes out to them all.

If you've reached the end of my post, I am sending you lots of love, hugs and a big thank you for reading this.

Ta ta for now

J x