Introducing... Ezekiel Martin

Arrived at 1.53pm on Thursday 23rd September 2010, weighing in at 8lb 9oz, 51cm long with a head circ of 36cm.

Birth Story!!

41w 5d

Wednesday 10am

ANC visit to discuss options as overdue. Dr asked me when I wanted to be induced - to which the answer was.. "Now would be great!!" and it turns out that it was because my blood pressure was 155/100!!! He got me to do a pee sample and go and get some bloods done at pathology and then report to Birth Suite. Stu had come up to the appointment after doing a work job - so had to go back to Redcliffe (30 mins) drop off the work car.. get our car and all the hospital stuff and come back. I text my mum while I was waiting for bloods and she arrived about the same time as I reported to Birth Suite.

They put me on the CTG to do a trace and then did an internal to accertain I was not ready for business - AT ALL - so they inserted a Cervadil to soften things. They waited for Stu to get back and it was all done and in by 12.30. They monitored me in BS for a while to check that the Cervadil wasn't causing issues for bubs and then sent me to the ward. Mum and Stu did some car swapping and manouvering and got me some Macca's on the way back.. which I ate.. and then ate my hospital dinner too!!! (oops!!)

The Cervadil is supposed to be in for 24 hours.. and soften the cervix enough that they can break your waters and go from there at the 24 hour point.. well... my body wasn't happy about that.. It decided that it wanted me to start contracting pretty much straight away. I went from 14 mins to 7 mins to 3 mins!! That said we were out wandering the car park and trying to get things going! The actual Cervadil thing fell out around 11pm so they took us up to BS again to do another internal to see how the progression was going... 2cms... BLERGH! The pains were uncomfortable, but nothing really in the scheme of things. They gave me some Panadol and told us to get some sleep. Managed maybe 2 hours.

Thursday 7am

Dr came in and broke my waters in the hope it would speed things up... well.... it did... for a little bit - but then it all just SLOWED! They mentioned the Syntocin drip and we discussed how I wanted to labour and deliver etc... and it was all put into place to happen if the labour hadn't progressed by 10.30 which is when I was due another internal... (there is no such thing as dignity anymore.. seriously!) Had a canula put in (that was ouchy too!) and more bloods drawn before they got me situated and started on the drip at 11am. Bubs was engaged and ready and cause they couldn't get a good trace off the CTG we had the head clip thing done. (Sorry honey... they said it wouldn't hurt!)

Thursday 11am

Internal from 10.30 showed that I had gone to 3cm... Whoopdy doo!!! They 'stretched' me to 4... and then started the drip. It goes in increments 1, 2, 4, 8 and so on. I started contracting straight away.. I managed it without pain relief until they had increased the drip to 4 (I remember Stu saying they'd missed a step!) At that point she came back in and gave me the gas.. 30 good stuff /70 oxygen. We also removed the dress I was wearing and got me up and into the position that I wanted to labour in... Hands and knees.. over the bean bag on the bed... and I didn't move from there until after the birth! I remember saying I wanted to go and wee... but then things heated up.. and I'm pretty sure I pissed myself... multiple times! She asked if it had relieved the pressure so I guess I did anyway!!! I don't know when they did it but they so nicely turned the gas up to 40/60 at some point... obviously I was getting too loud or something!

Thursday 1pm (guessing!!)

The paperwork in my folder said this is when I hit 10 cm... so I'm guessing it's when the urge to push started... and they said to go for it!!! I asked for an Epi... (too late!) Told my mum she was a martyr..... sorry... effen martyr! (she was going to leave but we really needed her to be there! she kept asking Stu if he was okay with it...)

The gas at this point and my breathing were the only things I could concentrate on.. the contractions were so strong and fast.. there's just no room left for you to think about anything else. It didn't help me to moan and groan and grunt either.. cause that just took away the focus on the task at hand.

I obviously shit myself.. cause I heard her say that she was going to wipe me... cheers! Should have just done it!!! and I can still feel the fingers of them trying to stretch my perenium cause it just wasn't working right! that was fun too... They had to keep moving me back up the bed cause I kept bearing down and pushing myself back instead of pushing bubba out.. It's all instinctual.. but it took a bit for my brain to catch up to what it was supposed to be doing... I think hearing the Dr say something about forceps helped me regain my focus. Especially when I hadn't heard the Dr come in... turns out that with my contractions bubs head was going in and out and his heart rate was dropping each time. So much so that the machine was alarming and they just turned the noise off so Stu wouldn't stress over it!

There are no words to describe the actual birthing sensation... OMFG fits well here though. It's just a burn that you have to push through... there's no way around it... nothing you can do to stop it - other than push through it. I heard them say the head was out and to do another few pushes and then the shoulders were out and gush... it was over! (I wasn't dropping cause he was plugging the escape route! All the waters were up behind him!) Stu said the rush was on to get him over to the baby crash cart cause he was purple. They shoved the scissors to him and got him to cut the cord and then we waited for the cry.. for what felt like forever... I was still out of it cause to me.. I didn't know there was other stuff going on so was still trying to figure out what was happening!! It's like an out of body experience - 'cept... you don't leave your body! After being in that position and pushing for almost an hour it was really really hard to turn over... I almost ended up off the bed... I had to be lifted over so that I could get the placenta out.. One push and it was done. They brought bubby over to me.. but he was wrapped and I wanted him naked! Skin on Skin dammit!!!! I was instantly smitten. Stu was in tears... so was I... Mum was in charge of the camera!!!

Thursday 23 September 2010 1.53pm - Our lives changed forever! No longer just us.. now us three! A family in the real sense of the word. A little life, created in love that is ours to cherish forever and ever.