Going Home

Tuesday 12^th June

We had stayed in our little own room at hospital (Jason had slept the night) and we were trying to feed the baby and get him to weigh a big more to be able to go home. he finally weighed 3.3kgs and was allowed to go home. He had lost more than 15% of his body weight and the doctors could not tell us why (even after they had probed him and taken his blood from his little hand). But they finally let us go home and we in our hearts had decided enough was enough and it was time to go home.

Nikki, Lola and Rueben (5) (her children came to visit) and we finally felt the urge and need to get out of hospital and go. This was a big step for us but a necessary one. So we left at about 12 to go home, we got in the car and put the little nameless one in the car capsule and Jas drove us home. I was in shock still, not moving to my potential but the drive home was great and the baby did not cry and slept. It was very cold and windy outside but when we got home we got the heaters going. Jason had cleaned the flat up and it did not look like a pigstye from the labour with towles and clothes everywhere, with the kettle and chair in the bathroom and wet sheets (from the waters breaking on my bed)

At home

We were in a shock when we got home and had so many things to do and learn.

Jason went and hired a electronic pump and bought bottles with peristaltic pigeon nipples and formula and food for us. I was left alone with the little one for the first time at home.

Baby is born

Friday 8^th June

Joaquin was born at 10.30am on Friday 8th June 2007. He weighed 3.82kgs and measured 57cm.

I think that is quite a big baby and long one.

Was sent to Oxford ward at Birthing Suite and i had my legs numb from the epidural and could not feel them at all. Jas was no where to be found nor the little baby, and finally Jason came to my room holding a new little parcel, a new little baby all pink and soft wrapped up, only his face showing. I held him in my arms and really did not know what to expect.

Jason and I cried a bit that day, we slept on and off, the baby was sleeping all day and I really did not feed him that much. I was stuck in bed with a drip with antibiotics and a hormone drip of oxytocin hormones and a catheter for going to the toilet.

My friends from Uni came to visit and brought me flowers on Friday after the birth in the afternoon. I was still in shock from labour but very happy. Jas could not sleep with me in the room and had to go home to bed. I am sure he was very tired after not sleeping the day before.

Saturday 9^th June

On Saturday Jason's parents came from Scone it was a very wet windy day and it was raining in most parts of NSW, a great rain. We were thinking of calling the nameless baby Noah as he had brought the rains. A boat the Pasha Bulka was stranded on the Newcastle beach and this was front page news along with all the flooding in the Hunter region. On Saturday we also had a bathing class and he loved to be bathed. He did not cry and I was still so scared to hold him and wrap him. Jason was quite good at wrapping him. All the babies in the class were boys and a few were called Lucas or Luca, we wanted to call him that name but changed our minds when we found out everyone was naming their baby that. Our baby remained nameless, poor little thing.

Those few days at the hospital after he was born are a blur to me, I remember sleeping and staying in bed and the baby in the crib next to me looking with his eyes open and at times sleeping. He did not cry much the first few days.

My waters broke

My waters broke on Thursday 4.30pm I had gone to my midwife appointment and was 39 weeks and 5 days and the midwife said if the baby was not born soon I would have to have an internal examination and then if nothing came of that make a booking to be induced.
So that kind of freaked me a bit. I don't know why, as I am sure it is not that bad.
So i went home and was feeling tired and rested, I was not that hungry and that was a bit strange. I was in bed and at 4.30 my waters broke, I rang Jason and he said he was on his way from work Nth Sydney and then I rang the midwives. They wanted to know if it was a real waters break or leakage urine and suggested I go in to the hospital. I knew with the gush and power of the waters breaking that it was my waters breaking.
We went to the hospital at 6pm and a midwife did a swab to see if it indeed was amniotic fluid and not urine and it was indeed amniotic fluid.
She put a toco meter around my stomach to moniter the contraction and baby's heartbeat and lo and behold i was having miny contractions about 7 min apart. The midwife said to go home and rest and labour would probably begin in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Well on the way home at 7.30 i had a much larger contraction in the car which felt like period pain x 5. Then at home by 8.00 I started feeling contractions they were already 5 min apart and 30 seconds long. This went on for a while and gradually the contractions got closer together and towards the end they were 1 min and a half apart and 40 seconds apart. All this time i was at home with Jason doing everything i remembered from the class, breathing, hot showers, sitting on the toilet resting between contractions drinking a lot of water and having panadine every 4 hours. I made sure Jason massaged my lower back with a tennis ball during every contraction (we only had one as the others were in the bag in the car and I could not fathom the thought of Jason leaving my side to get the bag).
By 3am i told Jason to call the hospital as the pain was much greater and I had the urge to push and he did they said if i wanted to come in i could. By that time Sydney was storming and walking out to the car was quite an adventure. I was having contractions in the car and urges to push in the carpark.
When i got to the hospital I had an internal examination and lo and behold I was 8 cm dialated. I thought I would be 3 cm not 8.
After 2 and half hours of contractions and urges to push I was 10 cm dilated and the midwife said that I would be having the baby soon. These last contractions were not as painful or long as the others and I was just taking each contraction at a time, riding them and the pain.
So then at 6am on friday morning i started to push and this went on for a while but they could not see the baby's head. So after 2 and half hours of pushing the Drs came in and recommended I had an internal examination under an epidural and to see if the baby would come out with a ventose and if that did not work it would have to be a cesarean. I was so disappointed and upset.
So there all my plans went out the window, I endured the labour at home without drugs and right at the end they wanted to give me an epidural. I told them explicitly i wanted to keep pushing and did not want a cesarean.
But in the end i succumbed to the doctors as I was exhausted, I had an epidural and went into the theater and they did an internal examination and were able to locate the head of the baby just near my pelvic bone and told me to push during this and i did without feeling anything. But i pushed as if my life depended on it and after about 3 more contractions with pushing they told me the baby was on its way out. Thankfully, they said they had to use baby forceps to help. The doctors had to give me an episiotomy and unfortunately while they were doing this I tore and had a 4th degree tear.
But at 10.25am the baby was born!!!!!
Stayed in hospital for 4 days and left on Tuesday to go home.
I am home now with Jason and the bub, we still don't have a name. We are breastfeeding and learning every day. The hospital staff were great, the midwives that teach you how to breastfeed at the hospital are wonderful.
I am feeling fine and have no pain, just taking antibiotics and panadol. I can walk around fine and hopefully everything will get better as each day passes.
I am sorry if i bored you with all this detail.
If anyone wants to know anything else I am pleased to help. But the truth is the antenatal course and Sue's teaching helped Jason and I labour at home, and control the pain and know exactly what to expect and that made it all worth while.