Pregnancy And Parenting

[MB]

Little Suspect Device arrived today at 12.52.

I will spare you all the gory details about the labour but that was the most traumatic experience of my life.

To say that her contractions started at 4 on Sunday morning and we arrived at the hospital at 12.30 on Monday morning doesn't really do justice to the story between the first signs and the eventual arrival.

In case anybody is anxious about their first child's imminent arrival I will not expand on what I've already said.

I just hope that your time is a lot less eventful.

Congratulations Suspect Device! Mrs MB's labour back in August was quite 'eventful' though it sounds as if you have recently experienced something altogether more traumatic.

My eight month old son is bloody fantastic.

[Suspect Device]

Now that's just made me even more curious!

Congratulations!

Spill it Suspect Device, we're all friends here anyway

Congrats by the way, they are coming thick and fast at the moment.

For those of a nervous disposition or the soon to be parents for the first time, I've hidden the details in a spoiler.

I'll start by saying that the wife probably had unreal expectations of a few hours in a birthing pool a couple of pushes and hey presto here comes the new bairn but I don't think anything could have prepared her for the trauma we eventually went through. Possibly it was just because it was happening to someone I love and I could do very little to help or maybe I'm being a pussy and you'll think it was par for the course when giving birth. I'll have to find out.

Here goes. We did what we'd been told and waited for the contractions to get to the stage of 1 minute long and 3 minutes apart before we were told to come in. We'd phoned earlier a couple of times just to make sure we were doing the right thing. Once we arrived they could see that she was in labour and a quick check showed a 4cm dilation so on to the pool we went. About 12.30 on Monday morning or so. Relaxing and soothing with our own music supplied by my mp3 player. The pool was meant to be at 37 degrees but very soon after she got in she was complaining about the heat and had to keep getting in and out of it to cool down a bit. The contractions were a bit irregular but still mostly as they were meant to be. Her blood pressure had been fine all through but now it was starting to rise and they were also expressing concern about her swelling legs and feet. Sure signs of possible pre-eclampsia.

Her contractions then seemed to stop and her urine was almost non existant and a muddy brown colour. nobody had seen this before so we were visited by the head midwife and doctor who asked questions and did some tests but seemed a bit perplexed by it all. They said then that she couldn't get in the pool and another check showed no further dilation in 7 hours. Shift change then she was checked and told that she would have to be induced so put on a couple of drips.

All fairly easy though.

This is when it started to go a bit unpleasant. A cathater was installed to see if she could pass any urine and it showed only about a few millilitres even though she'd been drinking 4 jugs of iced water. Her legs were swelling even more. Can you guess where the water was going? Now the staff were telling us tht her kidneys weren't working properly but it was OK so far. Nothing to worry about!

The inducing was causing very strong contractions and the wife was in agony trying to control them only on gas and air so they then decide that the dilation would be helped if she wasn't producing adrenaline by the bucketload because of her anxiety and pain. An epidural doesn't sound too bad even if it involves an injection into your back but the explanation of the 'risks' involved doesn't help the wife's blood pressure and they become more worried about pre-eclampsia. This is tempered by the fact that she calms down a lot when she can't feel a bit of pain from the contractions and the dilation eventually gets to fully dilated.

By this time we'd been in the hospital for 19 hours but awake for about 39. From 9 at night is when she is told to start pushing. Not the easiest thing to do in her state. I was completely spaced and all I had to do was hold her hand and try to clam her down. After 2 hours of pushing with every contraction, the head was still nowhere near low enough to show and they were starting to talk of forceps, suction caps and c-section. Just the kind of thing to pump up the wife's blood pressure even more. After various doctors and midwifes had had their hands up the wifes chuff, they decided that we had to go to theatre for a forceps pull or a c-section. I go along and get dressed in my theatre gown to watch 5 people around the wife whos's got all sorts of wires and tubes coming out of her. She is dead from the waist down but is still aware of the feeling like a tractor pull down below which si trying to 'ease' the baby's head out with forceps while she pushes with each contraction. She's pushing but can't feel a thing. truly a bizarre experience I would guess even though I cannot possibly have any thing to compare it with. Every time there is a pull from the doctors down at the business end we can hear a cry of a baby. Surely that means the head is out? No unfortunately not. After 15 minutes of pulling at the baby's head (with every pull making me think of the possibilities of brain damage) they finally give up and tell me to leave the theatre while they prepare her for the section. This was the worst part of the whole day because am alone with my thoughts in the theatre locker room. You can imagine the multitude of possible outcomes that went through my head with very few being pleasant. Eventually back in to the theatre and I again try to keep my wife calm who seems to be having palpatations (although I was told that the 'spinal' caused this shaking effect) while all the time thinking that one or both of my loved ones may be taken from me here. Trying to stay calm yourself is hard enough. Trying to calm a very frightened woman when you really think you are lying to her saying that everything is going to be OK is possibly the hardest thing I have ever done. I generally don't lie which is one of my very few good points.

After they sliced her open they showed a very blue looking (to me) baby to us then immediately took her away to be given oxygen. Whatever happened to the lying skin on skin bonding shite you hear about at ante natal classes? I then get hauled over to be told that there is a slight problem with the baby's breathing and she will have to be taken to the neo natal ward for observation. Now slight and observation are very benign words and looking back with the benefit of hindsight this should have meant that everything was fine but they were being cautious. To me slight meant major and observation meant high intensity care. Still light headed from lack of sleep I just nodded not really comprehending. I then turn around to catch sight of my wife lying on an operating table with waht seemed like most of her stomach sliced open and more blood than your average slasher movie all over the sheets. Now generally I'm not squeamish. I remember watching a very interesting documentary about a knee cap replacement operation on a farmer while I was eating a jam piece but something about seeing your wife being stitched up while crying uncontrollably makes my squeamishness rise ever so slightly but again I've to sit down and tell her that everything was fine. The bairn was under observation. She couldn't have it lying on her bonding like is 'meant to happen'. I then have to g home on my own not really knowing what was in store the next day. This might explain my trauma thread when I got in too tired to sleep so logging onto the interent simply for something to do to fill the time until I actually felt i could sleep.

The good news is that Nesta (that's her name - it is Bob marley's middle name but also a Welsh name derived from Agnes which is Greek for lamb) is now breathing well and is really too well to be in the neo natal ward but has to be fed before she is allowed to leave. Box ticking at it's best.

The wife is less well but only because of the amount of drugs she is getting making her very woosy, drifting in and out of sleep. Her blood pressure is down and her kidneys are back working because (as I was told) the placenta is out and her body is returning to normal. Supposedly the placenta is a bit of a villain of the piece but pretty necessary in the whole thing.

Not the most pleasant of tales but with a happy ending.

Edited April 13, 2010 by Suspect Device

[Lisa Cuddy]

I thought my first two were horror stories, but that sounds like an absolutely horrendous experience! I'm glad you've all come through it ok. It's onward and upward from here on.

[ffcsam]

Congratulatios SD. Hope the missus and wee one are fine. That sounded like a horrible situation to be in but i think it will make you love yer wee onen (and the missus) even more.

Dissappointed with the name though. Muttley Device sounded better

Seriously, Hope all goes well from now on in

[Adam_Wee]

Fucking hell, that sounds scary! I'm really glad that everything went OK in the end though, SD.

Christ, I thought I had it bad when my girlfriend was taken for a c-section and I was left out on my own for 20 minutes when the Midwife had told me she would be out to get me a couple of minutes after they had taken her into surgery. Time passes awfully slowly when you are waiting for something that important!

Even with healthy births it is horrible going home on your own. I stayed at my Mum's house the night that my son was born, but then went back to my own house the next couple of nights. It isn't the best.

Once again, glad everything is fine now. Nice name, never heard it before.

[Suspect Device]

Congratulatios SD. Hope the missus and wee one are fine. That sounded like a horrible situation to be in but i think it will make you love yer wee onen (and the missus) even more.

Dissappointed with the name though. Muttley Device sounded better

Seriously, Hope all goes well from now on in

Muttley. I'd have that name before Mark. Sounds like a dog with a hair lip and I don't like our manager either.

It was the wife's choice. She got to choose if it was a girl and I got to choose if it was a boy. I guess I'll have to call the dog Rudy. (From the Specials song - It would have tickled me to giving the lad a row by saying stop your meesin around. I know that's a very strange reason to name your offspring but we also liked it better than any of the multitude of names we thoguht about.

Thanks for all your messages of support.

[Thundermonkey]

I wish I hadn't asked now and thats after our own difficult first birth as well. Glad to hear things are better now.

And going home on your own is very weird. I stopped off at a garage and sat in the house with an Irn Bru, steak McCoys and a Dairy Milk for my breakfast before getting 3 hours sleep and then back to the hospital.

[Skyline Drifter]

For those of a nervous disposition or the soon to be parents for the first time, I've hidden the details in a spoiler.

I'll start by saying that the wife probably had unreal expectations of a few hours in a birthing pool a couple of pushes and hey presto here comes the new bairn but I don't think anything could have prepared her for the trauma we eventually went through. Possibly it was just because it was happening to someone I love and I could do very little to help or maybe I'm being a pussy and you'll think it was par for the course when giving birth. I'll have to find out.

Here goes. We did what we'd been told and waited for the contractions to get to the stage of 1 minute long and 3 minutes apart before we were told to come in. We'd phoned earlier a couple of times just to make sure we were doing the right thing. Once we arrived they could see that she was in labour and a quick check showed a 4cm dilation so on to the pool we went. About 12.30 on Monday morning or so. Relaxing and soothing with our own music supplied by my mp3 player. The pool was meant to be at 37 degrees but very soon after she got in she was complaining about the heat and had to keep getting in and out of it to cool down a bit. The contractions were a bit irregular but still mostly as they were meant to be. Her blood pressure had been fine all through but now it was starting to rise and they were also expressing concern about her swelling legs and feet. Sure signs of possible pre-eclampsia.

Her contractions then seemed to stop and her urine was almost non existant and a muddy brown colour. nobody had seen this before so we were visited by the head midwife and doctor who asked questions and did some tests but seemed a bit perplexed by it all. They said then that she couldn't get in the pool and another check showed no further dilation in 7 hours. Shift change then she was checked and told that she would have to be induced so put on a couple of drips.

All fairly easy though.

This is when it started to go a bit unpleasant. A cathater was installed to see if she could pass any urine and it showed only about a few millilitres even though she'd been drinking 4 jugs of iced water. Her legs were swelling even more. Can you guess where the water was going? Now the staff were telling us tht her kidneys weren't working properly but it was OK so far. Nothing to worry about!

The inducing was causing very strong contractions and the wife was in agony trying to control them only on gas and air so they then decide that the dilation would be helped if she wasn't producing adrenaline by the bucketload because of her anxiety and pain. An epidural doesn't sound too bad even if it involves an injection into your back but the explanation of the 'risks' involved doesn't help the wife's blood pressure and they become more worried about pre-eclampsia. This is tempered by the fact that she calms down a lot when she can't feel a bit of pain from the contractions and the dilation eventually gets to fully dilated.

By this time we'd been in the hospital for 19 hours but awake for about 39. From 9 at night is when she is told to start pushing. Not the easiest thing to do in her state. I was completely spaced and all I had to do was hold her hand and try to clam her down. After 2 hours of pushing with every contraction, the head was still nowhere near low enough to show and they were starting to talk of forceps, suction caps and c-section. Just the kind of thing to pump up the wife's blood pressure even more. After various doctors and midwifes had had their hands up the wifes chuff, they decided that we had to go to theatre for a forceps pull or a c-section. I go along and get dressed in my theatre gown to watch 5 people around the wife whos's got all sorts of wires and tubes coming out of her. She is dead from the waist down but is still aware of the feeling like a tractor pull down below which si trying to 'ease' the baby's head out with forceps while she pushes with each contraction. She's pushing but can't feel a thing. truly a bizarre experience I would guess even though I cannot possibly have any thing to compare it with. Every time there is a pull from the doctors down at the business end we can hear a cry of a baby. Surely that means the head is out? No unfortunately not. After 15 minutes of pulling at the baby's head (with every pull making me think of the possibilities of brain damage) they finally give up and tell me to leave the theatre while they prepare her for the section. This was the worst part of the whole day because am alone with my thoughts in the theatre locker room. You can imagine the multitude of possible outcomes that went through my head with very few being pleasant. Eventually back in to the theatre and I again try to keep my wife calm who seems to be having palpatations (although I was told that the 'spinal' caused this shaking effect) while all the time thinking that one or both of my loved ones may be taken from me here. Trying to stay calm yourself is hard enough. Trying to calm a very frightened woman when you really think you are lying to her saying that everything is going to be OK is possibly the hardest thing I have ever done. I generally don't lie which is one of my very few good points.

After they sliced her open they showed a very blue looking (to me) baby to us then immediately took her away to be given oxygen. Whatever happened to the lying skin on skin bonding shite you hear about at ante natal classes? I then get hauled over to be told that there is a slight problem with the baby's breathing and she will have to be taken to the neo natal ward for observation. Now slight and observation are very benign words and looking back with the benefit of hindsight this should have meant that everything was fine but they were being cautious. To me slight meant major and observation meant high intensity care. Still light headed from lack of sleep I just nodded not really comprehending. I then turn around to catch sight of my wife lying on an operating table with waht seemed like most of her stomach sliced open and more blood than your average slasher movie all over the sheets. Now generally I'm not squeamish. I remember watching a very interesting documentary about a knee cap replacement operation on a farmer while I was eating a jam piece but something about seeing your wife being stitched up while crying uncontrollably makes my squeamishness rise ever so slightly but again I've to sit down and tell her that everything was fine. The bairn was under observation. She couldn't have it lying on her bonding like is 'meant to happen'. I then have to g home on my own not really knowing what was in store the next day. This might explain my trauma thread when I got in too tired to sleep so logging onto the interent simply for something to do to fill the time until I actually felt i could sleep.

The good news is that Nesta (that's her name - it is Bob marley's middle name but also a Welsh name derived from Agnes which is Greek for lamb) is now breathing well and is really too well to be in the neo natal ward but has to be fed before she is allowed to leave. Box ticking at it's best.

The wife is less well but only because of the amount of drugs she is getting making her very woosy, drifting in and out of sleep. Her blood pressure is down and her kidneys are back working because (as I was told) the placenta is out and her body is returning to normal. Supposedly the placenta is a bit of a villain of the piece but pretty necessary in the whole thing.

Not the most pleasant of tales but with a happy ending.

Jesus Christ!

Glad I didn't have to go through that. Delighted all is well now. All the best,

[Skyline Drifter]

Even with healthy births it is horrible going home on your own. I stayed at my Mum's house the night that my son was born, but then went back to my own house the next couple of nights. It isn't the best.

And going home on your own is very weird. I stopped off at a garage and sat in the house with an Irn Bru, steak McCoys and a Dairy Milk for my breakfast before getting 3 hours sleep and then back to the hospital.

I never had any problem going home on my own for either birth. Although the timing was relatively normal for both in that I left the hospital about 10pm. First time around I called in to my local to have a quick pint, went to my parent's to show them a couple of pictures and then went home got a bite to eat and turned the pc on to report on this thread!

Second time round I knew they'd be getting out the next day (first time I knew they wouldn't and I'd get a few beers the Friday night) so I went to the pub for 3 or 4 drinks before home. I knew I wouldn't be getting a chance again for a long time! In fact that was mid February and I've only had one night since when I managed a drink (and that because it was an organised dinner), although I am getting out to play on Saturday night if I want because the kids are going to granny's and the wife is out with her pals.

[Thundermonkey]

Katie was born at 2.11am and I was at the hospital until 5am. Quick stop off for my breakfast at the Esso garage and in bed for 6.15. Up at 9.30, texting folk until 10 and back at the hospital for 10.15am. I was running on pure adrenalin after witnessing our own version of the birth scene from 'V'.

I think I remember crashing out about 2 days later.

Edited April 14, 2010 by Thundermonkey

[Homer Thompson]

For those of a nervous disposition or the soon to be parents for the first time, I've hidden the details in a spoiler.

I'll start by saying that the wife probably had unreal expectations of a few hours in a birthing pool a couple of pushes and hey presto here comes the new bairn but I don't think anything could have prepared her for the trauma we eventually went through. Possibly it was just because it was happening to someone I love and I could do very little to help or maybe I'm being a pussy and you'll think it was par for the course when giving birth. I'll have to find out.

Here goes. We did what we'd been told and waited for the contractions to get to the stage of 1 minute long and 3 minutes apart before we were told to come in. We'd phoned earlier a couple of times just to make sure we were doing the right thing. Once we arrived they could see that she was in labour and a quick check showed a 4cm dilation so on to the pool we went. About 12.30 on Monday morning or so. Relaxing and soothing with our own music supplied by my mp3 player. The pool was meant to be at 37 degrees but very soon after she got in she was complaining about the heat and had to keep getting in and out of it to cool down a bit. The contractions were a bit irregular but still mostly as they were meant to be. Her blood pressure had been fine all through but now it was starting to rise and they were also expressing concern about her swelling legs and feet. Sure signs of possible pre-eclampsia.

Her contractions then seemed to stop and her urine was almost non existant and a muddy brown colour. nobody had seen this before so we were visited by the head midwife and doctor who asked questions and did some tests but seemed a bit perplexed by it all. They said then that she couldn't get in the pool and another check showed no further dilation in 7 hours. Shift change then she was checked and told that she would have to be induced so put on a couple of drips.

All fairly easy though.

This is when it started to go a bit unpleasant. A cathater was installed to see if she could pass any urine and it showed only about a few millilitres even though she'd been drinking 4 jugs of iced water. Her legs were swelling even more. Can you guess where the water was going? Now the staff were telling us tht her kidneys weren't working properly but it was OK so far. Nothing to worry about!

The inducing was causing very strong contractions and the wife was in agony trying to control them only on gas and air so they then decide that the dilation would be helped if she wasn't producing adrenaline by the bucketload because of her anxiety and pain. An epidural doesn't sound too bad even if it involves an injection into your back but the explanation of the 'risks' involved doesn't help the wife's blood pressure and they become more worried about pre-eclampsia. This is tempered by the fact that she calms down a lot when she can't feel a bit of pain from the contractions and the dilation eventually gets to fully dilated.

By this time we'd been in the hospital for 19 hours but awake for about 39. From 9 at night is when she is told to start pushing. Not the easiest thing to do in her state. I was completely spaced and all I had to do was hold her hand and try to clam her down. After 2 hours of pushing with every contraction, the head was still nowhere near low enough to show and they were starting to talk of forceps, suction caps and c-section. Just the kind of thing to pump up the wife's blood pressure even more. After various doctors and midwifes had had their hands up the wifes chuff, they decided that we had to go to theatre for a forceps pull or a c-section. I go along and get dressed in my theatre gown to watch 5 people around the wife whos's got all sorts of wires and tubes coming out of her. She is dead from the waist down but is still aware of the feeling like a tractor pull down below which si trying to 'ease' the baby's head out with forceps while she pushes with each contraction. She's pushing but can't feel a thing. truly a bizarre experience I would guess even though I cannot possibly have any thing to compare it with. Every time there is a pull from the doctors down at the business end we can hear a cry of a baby. Surely that means the head is out? No unfortunately not. After 15 minutes of pulling at the baby's head (with every pull making me think of the possibilities of brain damage) they finally give up and tell me to leave the theatre while they prepare her for the section. This was the worst part of the whole day because am alone with my thoughts in the theatre locker room. You can imagine the multitude of possible outcomes that went through my head with very few being pleasant. Eventually back in to the theatre and I again try to keep my wife calm who seems to be having palpatations (although I was told that the 'spinal' caused this shaking effect) while all the time thinking that one or both of my loved ones may be taken from me here. Trying to stay calm yourself is hard enough. Trying to calm a very frightened woman when you really think you are lying to her saying that everything is going to be OK is possibly the hardest thing I have ever done. I generally don't lie which is one of my very few good points.

After they sliced her open they showed a very blue looking (to me) baby to us then immediately took her away to be given oxygen. Whatever happened to the lying skin on skin bonding shite you hear about at ante natal classes? I then get hauled over to be told that there is a slight problem with the baby's breathing and she will have to be taken to the neo natal ward for observation. Now slight and observation are very benign words and looking back with the benefit of hindsight this should have meant that everything was fine but they were being cautious. To me slight meant major and observation meant high intensity care. Still light headed from lack of sleep I just nodded not really comprehending. I then turn around to catch sight of my wife lying on an operating table with waht seemed like most of her stomach sliced open and more blood than your average slasher movie all over the sheets. Now generally I'm not squeamish. I remember watching a very interesting documentary about a knee cap replacement operation on a farmer while I was eating a jam piece but something about seeing your wife being stitched up while crying uncontrollably makes my squeamishness rise ever so slightly but again I've to sit down and tell her that everything was fine. The bairn was under observation. She couldn't have it lying on her bonding like is 'meant to happen'. I then have to g home on my own not really knowing what was in store the next day. This might explain my trauma thread when I got in too tired to sleep so logging onto the interent simply for something to do to fill the time until I actually felt i could sleep.

The good news is that Nesta (that's her name - it is Bob marley's middle name but also a Welsh name derived from Agnes which is Greek for lamb) is now breathing well and is really too well to be in the neo natal ward but has to be fed before she is allowed to leave. Box ticking at it's best.

The wife is less well but only because of the amount of drugs she is getting making her very woosy, drifting in and out of sleep. Her blood pressure is down and her kidneys are back working because (as I was told) the placenta is out and her body is returning to normal. Supposedly the placenta is a bit of a villain of the piece but pretty necessary in the whole thing.

Not the most pleasant of tales but with a happy ending.

Its hard to know what to say after reading that! Just glad everything worked out ok in the end, I guess.

[gypoarmy]

My Baby was born on Friday

she weighed 6/7 and is a wee cracker. A wee bit on jondis but other than that shes perfect. Still not totally sunk in. Its such an amazing feeling!

and i have even learned how to change her my self (sometimes)

[Skyline Drifter]

My Baby was born on Friday

she weighed 6/7 and is a wee cracker. A wee bit on jondis but other than that shes perfect. Still not totally sunk in. Its such an amazing feeling!

and i have even learned how to change her my self (sometimes)

Congrats.

"Jaundice" by the way.

[Thundermonkey]

My Baby was born on Friday

she weighed 6/7 and is a wee cracker. A wee bit on jondis but other than that shes perfect. Still not totally sunk in. Its such an amazing feeling!

and i have even learned how to change her my self (sometimes)

*High Five*

[Nick_BCFC]

Congrats.

"Jaundice" by the way.

What is this?

[Lisa Cuddy]

It won't be long before all your little arrivals are leaving little messages on your walls for you, like this:

I can only assume that this means "Mum, I've finished my Easter egg and it was lovely, but please can you wash my hands now?". He didn't really need to leave it in the hallway, but it makes a change from leaving it on my trousers.

[Skyline Drifter]

What is this?

What is what?

[Nick_BCFC]

What is what?

Is this a name?

[Skyline Drifter]

Is this a name?

"Jaundice"? It's a medical condition extremely common in newborn babies. Wiki. Our first was jaundiced for about a week and needed kept in sunlight as much as possible for that time until it went away. Our second had a touch of it but it went away within a day or so of its own accord.

"gypoarmy" referred to it as "jondis" in his post. Mine was a mild correction in a congratulations post (since it was miles wrong).

Edited April 14, 2010 by Skyline Drifter

[gypoarmy]

"Jaundice"? It's a medical condition extremely common in newborn babies. Wiki. Our first was jaundiced for about a week and needed kept in sunlight as much as possible for that time until it went away. Our second had a touch of it but it went away within a day or so of its own accord.

"gypoarmy" referred to it as "jondis" in his post. Mine was a mild correction in a congratulations post (since it was miles wrong).

Cheers Skyline Drifter

Yeah Jaundice , I was just up early and spelling is not my strong point in the 1st place