# Birth story...it's a long one (sorry!) - part 1



## beckyp (Apr 26, 2011)

I wanted to share our news and properly thank the people that have replied to all my neurotic threads about pregnancy over the last 9 months!  We had our baby a whole month ago now and I can only apologise that it?s taken this long to let you know!

Following my previous threads about my hypos and insulin requirements dropping (they dropped by 50% over the weekend of 19th and 20th March) I started to panic (to put it bluntly) so on the Monday morning I called and emailed the hospital who kept fobbing me off ? I spent the best part of 5 hours trying to speak to people to get a ?proper? reason for it and failed.  I then emailed my pregnancy doctor (having already spoken to her secretary) who called me back after a couple of hours and told me to speak to the registrar at my appointment about it the following Friday?er, not good enough for me and my crazy obsessed pregnancy brain by this point!  The diabetes team repeated what I?d been told previously that if my sugars were going up after hypos then it was nothing to be worried about but suggested that I visit the day assessment unit for monitoring to put my mind at rest.  At the time I remember thinking how patronising they were being (the usual DSN was on holiday on the Monday so it was someone covering for her).  One response I got from a DSN was that they specialise in diabetes and not pregnancy so couldn?t give me an answer about hypos in pregnancy.

I DID go to the hospital for an hour?s monitoring but it turned into 4 days.  Basically at the monitoring my blood pressure was through the roof and I?d got +3 protein in my urine (probably from where I was winding myself up!) and my doctor said that I needed to be kept in overnight and induced the following morning (22nd March).  I was due to be induced on Tuesday 29th March anyway (39 weeks) so felt a bit happier that someone was taking me seriously all of a sudden ? even if she hadn?t earlier in the day.  I was given blood pressure pills from that evening and was given them twice a day til I was discharged.

The next day I was taken round to the day ward, induced with a 6 hour pessary (not a 24 hour one) as, I would assume, my doctor wanted the baby out a bit quicker than a non-diabetic pregnancy and also had a stretch and sweep.  This failed so I was given another one 6 hours later and my husband was sent home for the night.  I woke during the night with mild contractions and was given some paracetamol which gave me a couple of hours sleep.  I woke the next day and felt nothing?not one contraction!  I was sent back to the day ward where I was waiting for a registrar to come and break my waters when he?d finished in surgery.  Thankfully my normal doctor came to check on me and said that she?d do it there and then.  A small trickle (seriously, that?s all it was!) came out and I was left for the day!  The contractions were coming a bit harder by the afternoon so I went for a small walk with my husband outside which I was told would help (it didn?t help one little bit!).  

At 8pm, with nothing more than a few contractions and 2cm dilation, I was sent round to the labour ward where I was put on a drip to speed things up.  It?s amazing how quickly it starts to hurt!  With each contraction the midwife upped the level and it hurt more and more.  By 9:30 I asked for an epidural and the anesthesist and midwife were surprised by how far I?d gone on the drip before asking (I was at the limit!) ? boosted my confidence I must say!  By midnight the epidural was starting to wear off and I needed an extra boost.  Strangely my contractions weren?t in my tummy (I was told to expect period pain type contractions) they were in my left hip and occasionally in my lower back.  The gas and air was still needed throughout the whole process ? best bit of labour ? it?s fab?long slow breathes with your eyes closed!  

I was monitored throughout the whole night but by half 10 the next morning my doctor came back to check on me and discovered that I was 8cm dilated.  She asked me to push on the next contraction (so low and behold the hip started to hurt again) and told me that I wasn?t having strong enough contractions to push the baby out and the baby was deflexed (head was pointing upwards instead of chin down to chest) so she classed it as failure to progress.  

She asked how I felt about an emergency c-section and code red was sent out on the bleepers!  It?s strange because I?d said to the midwife only minutes before being examined that if someone offered me a c-section I?d have jumped at the chance of having it hours ago ? even months ago!  Some of you may remember previous threads about how I would have preferred the option.  It?s all so quick too.  Within 5 minutes of her asking how I felt I was in surgery!

My husband was taken away to get his scrubs on and I was wheeled round to the operating theatre.  I was really lucky with the timing of the day because all the people in theatre were ?top? of their field and I kept my doctor throughout the whole thing.  As much as I complained about her in the early days, she was absolutely fantastic and kept coming back to check on me for the 2 days of induction ? I really don?t think it would have been so quick had she not been there that day.  

At 10:52 that morning baby Evelyn (pronounced ev..a..lyn) was born weighing 9lb 5oz.  I was 38+2 weeks.  She was checked over and had very low blood sugars (1.3mmol) and I reacted badly to the epidural (I was so swollen on my hands, legs and feet that I couldn?t hold her) but we tried to breast feed.  Unfortunately she wouldn?t latch on so was given some formula to boost her sugars.  I was kept in the recovery room for a few hours where they monitored the swelling.  I was then kept in another night (thankfully in the labour ward so we had a room to ourselves) and my husband was allowed to stay with me.  The whole process was much more stressful for my husband than me.  He didn?t sleep for days and had the stress of seeing people inject into my spine with the added stress of thinking about our little mini-me too.  Immediately after the birth I asked about the placenta.  I was told that it was healthy.  I think I?d just started to worry so much in the weeks between 35 and 38 and really didn?t feel that I was getting very positive answers from my so-called healthcare team that I?d caused the high blood pressure myself!

We found that she slept a LOT so didn?t feed very well ? she could easily go 6 hours without asking for food and she fell asleep on the boob too so we needed to keep waking her after less than a minute of starting ? all very frustrating for me but I wasn?t concerned until I came home.  

The next day I was sent round to the post-natal ward where I was left to my own devices.  My husband was allowed to stay with me throughout the day and they seemed pleased with how well I was recovering so by midday I asked to be discharged (it?s hospital policy that you are in and out within 24 hours even with a c-section now!).  I was left waiting until 8pm when a midwife came to check on me and told me how the doctor had appeared 3 or 4 times to read my papers but had been bleeped away to emergencies.  By 9pm another midwife came round and told me that it was highly unlikely that I?d be discharged as my blood test results from the morning had just come back and my iron levels were so low that I was going to need a blood transfusion the next day.  Honestly?I freaked!  I asked if they would still send my husband home for the night bearing in mind that I would probably need his help ? they would so I said that I wanted to go home that evening low iron or not - some people may think this is crazy (my husband did) but I couldn?t bear the thought of being in hospital for another night, especially on my own with no help from my husband, with a newborn baby and really did think that I?d do better at home - that place was enough to put your blood pressure up on its own!  The doctor came round at midnight and I explained that I was desperate to go home, I didn?t feel poorly and she said that I could go home on the understanding that I was to eat a lot of broccoli, steak and drink Guinness!  She was great and really understood where I was coming from having read my notes and the horrible time that I?d had over the last couple of days (this email doesn?t even come close to the state I was in!).  

The same midwife that told me that I would need a transfusion told us that Evelyn should be feeding for an hour every 6 hours ? that was our parting words from the hospital and it completely freaked me out.  I will never forgive her for the advice we received.  Evelyn was feeding for about 5-10 minutes every few hours.  Every midwife we spoke to about the breastfeeding gave a different opinion so by the time you actually leave the hospital you have no idea what?s right or wrong!  

_- to be continued in part 2 because it's too long!!!_


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## beckyp (Apr 26, 2011)

Part 2

We were discharged from the hospital at midnight on Friday 25th March and by Saturday night we were calling the hospital for help with the feeding because I was so worried that she wasn?t getting enough.  I honestly believe there is nothing more stressful than breastfeeding a baby ? no stress at work has ever come close to how I felt a month ago!  By Monday 28th we were back at the hospital.  I?d called the breastfeeding ?specialist? for advice and explained to her how Evelyn falls asleep whilst feeding and she told us to go straight in because she was also jaundice and she would need to be checked out by a paediatrician to make sure that she was nutritionally alright?..nothing like a ?specialist? to freak you out when you only want help with latching on positions!  At the hospital the doctor took blood from Evelyn?s hand (heartbreaking for me to see her crying) and tried her with a bottle.  It was at this point that we were told that we had a lazy daughter!  She drank the whole bottle of formula milk and we were told to give her bottles from then on to make sure that she ate properly.  I?ve been expressing milk ever since ? knackering is the only word that I can find that comes close to how it is!

Annoyingly, her weight has always been alright and I feel that the ?specialists? that should have helped failed to give me good advice.  I?ve now read books that answer all my questions from the early days.  You get a good midwife every now and then who makes sense and then the next person you speak to contradicts everything the previous midwife says and you?re back to doubting yourself.

When my husband was due to go back to work last week (he had 4 weeks off) I had a mini-panic attack that I?d be up for about 6 hours during the night (she wakes twice a night still) 1 hour bottle feeding and then 1 hour expressing so I tried her on the boob again over the weekend with the stress taken away because I was looking at a bottle on standby!  It sounds completely crazy but without the stress of knowing that she has no alternative it?s working!  She?s never latched on properly to my left side so I use that to express and have the bottles as top ups for when she?s grouchy or for when my husband wants to feed her but use my right side to feed her myself.  I can only do the rugby position and have since been told my many people that the ?larger boobed? ladies generally have trouble with their babies latching on (since my milk came in I?ve grown to a G-cup!).  I?ve also been told by a sensible midwife that newborn babies can feed for between 5 and 45 minutes depending on how good they are at suckling and how much milk you?re producing - not the 1 hour I was previously told.  I?ve also been told that all women become engorged when their milk comes in (not helped in my case on the leftie because she would latch on to that side so it became REALLY painful!) and that the blisters she developed on her lips are a good sign that she?s latched on correctly ? nobody told me this when I was freaking out!  I also developed a blood blister on my boob from her suckling which hurt a lot. 

I wanted to give breastfeeding a go for at least a month and she was a month old on Sunday so I feel like I?ve completed my own little milestone.  I?ll now work towards my 6 week appointment but in all honestly it won?t last much longer than that.  I?m finding it really uncomfortable, my boobs are huge (which isn?t as nice as I thought it would be?I?m certainly no Jordan!) and I?m still expressing from both boobs to make sure that I?m empty.  The freezer is full of little milk pots as I?m expressing far more than she can drink.  

I?m struggling to get her into a routine?she wakes, she feeds, she poo?s and she sleeps!  There doesn?t seem to be a certain number of hours between each of them but I really don?t mind ? I?m just loving being a mummy!

Anyway, I wanted to say thanks for all the great responses that I got from this website.  I found it to be fantastic whenever I had issues (diabetes related or not).  I hope all your pregnancies go well for your remaining weeks ? labour really isn?t bad.  I suspect I was really lucky to not have too much pain (and the pain I did have was in my hip!) but my biggest tip would be to always plan for the worst when you?re packing your hospital bag!  Somehow I always knew my labour would result in a c-section so I planned for it ? huge knickers and peppermint tea to help with trapped wind!  If the huge knickers weren?t needed then I?d not lost anything by packing them!

Oh and one other thing?.I wrote 2 birth plans (one for a c section and one for being induced) and neither made it out the bag!  I?m pleased I wrote them because they helped me understand terminology but everything goes out the window when you?re actually there in the situation where your baby is going to arrive within days/minutes!

I?m not sure if this link will work but there are some piccies of Evelyn on my facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.1504699877976.57226.1848644105.  

Becks


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## bigpurpleduck (Apr 26, 2011)

Many many congratulations Becks! It seems like you stayed incredibly strong throughout what was a fairly traumatic experience.

Welcome to the world Evelyn


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## Laura22 (Apr 26, 2011)

What a story! And how strange that so much of yours resembles my birth experience with Imogen! She also was born at 10:52am and she also had low blood sugars (0.3mmol or something like that!) and she also wouldn't latch on! And still doesn't! She also sleeps alot but we have to actually wake her for feeds and nappy changes etc. Oh, and I also had an emergency section!

But glad you got through it OK and Welcome to the world baby Evelyn! x


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## margie (Apr 26, 2011)

Congratulations Becks on the birth of Evelyn. 

You obviously knew there was a problem and your persistence got you into the hospital where you needed to be. I think the medics are very rude telling you that your daughter is lazy. Glad you are enjoying motherhood.


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## Northerner (Apr 26, 2011)

Becky, thank you so much for sharing your story with us  Welcome to the world Evelyn, you beauty!  Take care, and enjoy your new family


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## rachelha (Apr 26, 2011)

She is gorgeous!  Congratulations on her birth.  I know what you mean about breastfeeding, I found it incredibely painful to begin with, and could only get Nathan to latch on with my OH's help for about the first 3 weeks.  Well done for sticking it out for a month.


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## teapot8910 (Apr 26, 2011)

Awwww she's gorgeous! Congratulations to you and your husband  x


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## MrsCLH (Apr 26, 2011)

Oh becky she is absolutely beautiful! I've been wondering how you were getting on for the last few weeks, I even posted on here last week, so I'm so glad to hear from you. I was thinking of emailing soon but didn't want to pester you when you obviously have more important things to be thinking about lol 

It seems that everyone comes back with quite a birth story to tell! I'm glad that you are doing well now.

xx


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## grahams mum (Apr 27, 2011)

reading your story remind me of graham that he was always a sleep this why he end up in special care unit , i thought i had a bad time but your and evelyn was a lot worse i am glad that everithing is allright (this time i already bought my milk and i start the bottle straight away i am not listening aby midwife ,i do what i want ) and i dont know in your hospital now they dont provide you with formula any more what about other hospital?


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## Dizzydi (Apr 27, 2011)

Congratulations Becky, love the name x


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## Estellaa (Apr 27, 2011)

congratulations, what a traumatic experience but i am glad you and the lil one is ok 
she is very cute, should be very proud!


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## everydayupsanddowns (Apr 27, 2011)

Massive congratulations!! Well done all of you. Enjoy every minute with your beautiful daughter


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## PhoebeC (Apr 27, 2011)

Wow! what a story. Sounds like a real hard past month and a bit.

Shes beautiful. Your doing a really good job. Well done for keeping up with the breastfeeding. Dont feel to bad if you have to stop, you have done really great.

Breast milk isnt as filling as formula so that might explain abit why shes got no routine yet. saying that we dont have a rountine really, i follow what Jemima wants, and try to just wake her up and put her to bed at the same time

xxx


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## xxlou_lxx (Apr 28, 2011)

She is really beautiful, congratulations u must be so proud hun  xx


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## smile4loubie (Apr 30, 2011)

Congratulations Becks xxx Evelyn is absolutely stunning =) sorry you had such a rubbish time but she is sooo worth it =) xxx

sent a friend request on facebook hope thats ok xx


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