Yay, the sweep worked! :D I had a rotten night's sleep due to various things, but was not actually having proper contractions that felt like the real thing until this morning around 6.30am. I felt sick, anxious and shaky all night and had horrible sharp IBS pain which stopped me getting comfy in bed, and which also kept me going to the loo all night. I just felt so rough with it and was anxious about the nausea, even though I knew it was all a good sign! I continued to lose the bloody show all night too. Benjamin cried for me until after 3am, and Neil and I just couldn't console him, even though I breastfed him whenever I could, so we didn't get any sleep until after 3am. He seemed so anxious and kept sobbing "I gaaare!" (I'm scared) and pointing randomly at everything like he didn't know what was scaring him. My heart just about broke for him because I knew that he KNEW something was going on - something big and incomprehensible - but he was too little to be able to make any sense of it and he was just so insecure and unhappy :( I remember Arthur being that way when I was in labour with Matthew.
Eventually he went to sleep on Neil's chest while Neil sat propped up in bed in the boys' room, and did sleep until 6.20am. For the first time he did not want milky on getting up. He just wanted to go downstairs, but he remained extremely sensitive all day right up until bedtime tonight, crying hysterically if Neil left the room, and wanting to be held a lot. I felt so sad for him, my poor little lovey!
After I woke up at around that time, my first thought was that nothing was happening AGAIN, because here I was waking up in the morning yet again and had not been woken up by contractions or anything. Within moments of sitting up in bed, however, I had a strong contraction - very different in tone from the ones in the evening and here and there through the night, and painful low down at the front and in mygroin, like period cramps only sharp. After 2 more in the next 10 minutes or so, I phoned Heather and when she said, "Hello?!" in an excited tone, I just said, "Would you mind coming over?"
I am wanting to write as much detail of my birth story as possible, as SOON as possible this time, so I guess this is the very start of it. But I am tired now from giving birth today, and Samuel is asleep on my chest as I recline in my bed (got to love giving birth at home!! :) ) so I'm typing with one hand looking sideways off the bed to my laptop screen, and can't keep that up for long. I'll try to add to the story as I go along when I get chance, and then eventually I'll compile it all into a proper birth story (and cut out paragraphs like this one!).
For now let me just give the announcement stats and things!
Samuel Robert was born at 1.41pm, in my bed with my much-prayed-for lovely midwife, Mandi there to deliver him (she also delivered Benjamin) - who knew she was on one of her 2 random days-a-week shifts today?! God did, that's who! :)
I'll have to check my notes to see how long my stages of labour were, but I was not yet in "established" labour when Mandi arrived at 9-something. I refused internal examinations so nobody ever checked me to see how far dilated I was at which times. Second stage and transition were horribly horrible beyond description with no pain relief, but I'm not sure of the lengths of time. Mandi tried helping me control the second stage better this time to avoid a tear, so it took longer. I had to give a little push, then blow 3 times, and repeat until the contraction ended. That was the hardest thing EVER and I lost it lots of times saying I couldn't do it. If I started to push then I couldn't stop without great throat-aching effort, and when I did the 3 blows the pain was overwhelming. BRILLIANT news was that I did not do any wailing or screaming as a result - I can't tell you how happy I was about that! :)
My waters broke a few minutes before he was born, while I was pushing his head down. No meconium in the waters this time, yay! :) He was lifted onto me screaming a raspy STRONG cry, and has been extremely vocal since! He especially hated being weighed, measured and checked over (and his Vit K injection!) a bit later - he has a pretty loud cry for a brand new fresh-from-the-womb baby! I did not let them take him to do those things until after his first breastfeed - he stayed skin-to-skin until then. I offered him the breast right away, as was my instinct since he was screaming even skin-to-skin and I guess I wanted to soothe him, but Heather said he wouldn't likely be interested in the first hour. After about 30 minutes though, he began pushing himself about on my chest with his little feet, and located my left breast quickly. I helped him latch on, and he nursed for about 40 minutes straight!!!! I had a surprise as well, for the first time with one of my babies, he was gulping and swallowing most of that time (at birth!!!) at a fast rate, as though my milk was in. Heather said that this time I must have more milk left from still breastfeeding Benjamin than I usually do. So that brand new baby boy got a good tummyful of breast milk (it is mostly colostrum though, all the same, but there just seems to be lots of it!). His tummy was making busy groany squelchy noises and he stopped now and then to let out a few HUGE burps, lol!
I did manage to get a 2nd degree tear anyway, and needed stitches, but it was apparently not as long a tear as previous ones, even though it was just as deep. Mandi did a great job with the stitches and, much as I absolutely HATE having stitches done there, I was waaaay calmer this time and it seemed less painful than other times. They have not bothered me one bit since, and I did take paracetamol for the afterpains before they were done, but right now those have been worn off for a good couple of hours and I am not in any pain. The afterpains are sore but very manageable this time (so far!).
Long story about the placenta but I had a managed 3rd stage with the injection given and cord cut a couple of minutes after Samuel was born. Mandi was careful and gentle helping the placenta out and we were all absolutely dumbstruck to discover a complete, smooth and untorn circular placenta with 100% intact membranes and no possible location on it where a lobe or its attaching membranes could possibly have ever been. I was anxious and suspicious about it, wondering if they'd just somehow missed it anyway (it was present at 2 scans after all!!) and I still hd it inside me. Mandi spent a good while sitting on the bed with me and showing me my placenta in detail, stretching out all the membranes carefully to show me that they were all intact and there was nowhere that any other vessels or membranes to an extra lobe could have been attached. She phoned the hospital to be sure and they said to bring the placenta in to have the doctors check it to confirm that there's nowhere a lobe could have been attached to it, so that's what she did when she left me. If it's really really true, then it's nothing short of miraculous. Amazing! I still feel vaguely suspicious, but all seems to check out fine. I did not have a lot of blood loss really in general, and my uterus is well contracted as it should be if it's not retaining anything. My lochia since then has been normal, but I'm keeping an eye on it, and for things like fever or feeling unwell, as the midwife explained to me.
Mandi booked me an appointment for a midwife (hopefully Kerry!) to come round tomorrow to do the first day postnatal check on us, and also for one of the GPs from our surgery to come out and do the newborn check on Samuel, since he was born at home and therefore didn't get one in the hospital. Heather stayed until 7pm - what a star! She asked if I wanted her to stay or go around 4.30pm and I asked if she would mind staying (she didn't mind at all) because Neil was so busy with all the boys that I felt like I would be on my own a bit if I needed anything, if she went home. She read stories to the boys and played Duplo with them, and sat with me while they ate, and brought me food and drink and so on. She helped me position myself in the bed various times to breastfeed. Tomorrow she's coming back late morning for a few hours, just to be with me and maybe read a couple of stories to the boys, but the nicest thing is that she has offered to wrap any of the boys Christmas presents that are not yet wrapped while she's here, so as to save us the stress of getting that done in the few days left before Christmas! She's WONDERFUL!!! :)
Oh I almost forgot - Samuel weighed in at NINE POUNDS AND NINE OUNCES!!!!!! What in the wide world!!! I thought it was a major deal for me when I produced an 8lb 11oz Benjamin, but 9lbs 9oz?!?! I am literally in disbelief over it. For hours I just sat in bed saying occasionally, "NINE pounds and NINE ounces?!?!" I just couldn't believe it, haha! I'm so petite in build and well, yikes. I did not ever imagine making a baby that big (or birthing one, lol!)! Mandi was so apologetic that I tore despite her coaching me gently to avoid tearing, but when she learned his weight she said it made her feel better about it, haha! ;) Samuel is also my longest baby by far (although they never measured Benjamin's length so I don't know what he was) - FIFTY NINE centimetres!!!! To compare, the usual average is 50-52cm, and Matthew at 41 weeks was FORTY nine centimetres - 10cm shorter than Samuel!! Yikers! I wish I knew what that was in inches but Samuel is squeaking and stirring (sooooooo cute) so I need to feed him and don't have time to google. He is so precious, and looks to me amazingly like Matthew did as a newborn (except his cheeks are so soft and chubby, lol!). He is a mix of all the boys, and looks like Samuel and nobody else (just like they all have!), but I think he is most like Matthew, which is a first since Matthew himself was born! :)
I will update soon! Thanks so much for the messages and comments - I appreciate you all routing for me soooo much! xxx
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