Iris’ Birth Story

Gosh, how is it that my little squidge is one month old today?! As is the common theme with most of my blog posts these days, I’d been meaning to get this written for a while now, but the general chaos of newborn life has been holding things up slightly – I take my hat off to all those mothers I see on Instagram who totally seem to have their shit together, I don’t know how you guys do it! Anyway, without further ado, here’s how my latest wee cherub came in to the world…

For the whole of this pregnancy, I was convinced I wouldn’t go full term. I wasn’t necessarily expecting to have a preemie, but I’d been working on the assumption that subsequent children always come out faster and sooner than their previous siblings. Couple that with the LLETZ treatment (large loop excision of the transformation zone) I’d had on my cervix a few years ago, and I was sure that this pregnancy would end at least a few weeks before the 40 week eviction date – as it turned out, Iris would be my most overdue baby yet!

At my 37 week appointment, they suspected she was breech and I had to have a scan to check her orientation. When that confirmed she was actually head down, I relaxed a little, but all subsequent appointments revealed that her head wasn’t engaged, so I couldn’t be offered a sweep. This didn’t worry me too much at first, but when it was still the case at 40+4, I broke down in tears while my midwife and her student tried to be sympathetic. I’d had horrible anxiety the whole way through my pregnancy, and I was now at the stage where I just wanted everything to be over! Thankfully, when they took into account the reduced movement scares that I'd had at various stages throughout the later weeks, they phoned the antenatal ward and arranged for me to be seen in the hospital.

When we arrived on the ward, I was hooked up to a foetal heart rate monitor and looked after for a couple of hours. After, once again, confirming that everything looked fine, a lovely doctor then took me along for a final ultrasound and said the words I’d been longing to hear… ‘we can induce you tomorrow if you’d like?’

 

Of course I would, get me in that diary!!!

 

In my hurry to get things moving, I’d almost forgotten that ‘tomorrow’ also happened to be my other daughter’s birthday and I couldn’t help but feel bad that I’d now be spending it in the hospital. Unfortunately, if we declined the induction appointment (which was a Friday), I’d have to wait until the following Monday for another appointment, something I don’t think my anxiety levels would allow! This way, we could also guarantee childcare with our parents over the weekend, even if it did mean celebrating her birthday a little differently this year.
 

Armed with my trusty leaflets about everything I should expect, we left the hospital for the final time as an expectant couple, and grabbed the traditional ‘pre-labour McDonalds’ for our last supper before the chaos ensued.

 

Friday

 

We turned up at the hospital promptly for our 11.30 appointment. I was examined, with the hope that they’d immediately be able to break my waters, only for the midwife to tell me I was barely 1 cm dilated. She also said that all she could feel was scar tissue on my cervix, which would likely mean that any further dilation would fail to progress until right before birth, when it would just ‘spring open’. This was apparently another side effect of the LLETZ treatment, meaning that, rather than experiencing pre-term labour, I was stuck with a non-cooperating cervix, which could eventually result in a c-section if dilation still failed… great!

After this rather disheartening conversation, I was given the drug ‘Propess’, which is a small tampon-like thing which is inserted and releases prostaglandins gradually over a 24 hour period. I was also strapped up to another heart rate monitor and told that I couldn’t be re-examined until 12 hours had passed, as they didn’t want to risk infections by checking too often. Given that 12 hours meant a late night/early morning examination, I’d resigned myself to the fact that Paul would be heading home by himself, while I spent the night on the ward.

 

This wouldn’t have been so bad but, no sooner had he left, horrific snoring erupted from not one, but two of the other patients in the room! Eventually, at about 3am, one of the midwives took pity on me and moved me to a private room, where I could attempt to get some sort of rest before another day of waiting for baby.

 

Saturday

 

Paul arrived back at the hospital for 9am, complete with a rubber exercise ball to try and speed things along. We spent the day bouncing and playing cards, interspersed with a few walking trips around the hospital… thankfully, the hospital was big enough that it counted steps on Pokémon Go, so we were able to hatch a few eggs in the midst of our boredom!

The 24 hours from the initial insertion of Propess came around, and an examination showed that I wasn’t any further along than when we’d started. I’d had a few contractions here and there, but if I fell asleep, or stopped moving for any length of time, they completely stopped. It was now time to progress to the stronger ‘Prostin’, which was another dose or prostaglandins, but in the form of a gel or tablet, rather than the irritating tampon thing. Examinations could now be increased to 6-hourly, but I wasn’t holding out any hope that birth would be happening anytime soon.

 

I was examined again right before ‘kicking out’ time for Paul, only to be told that I was still at 1 cm! I now had visions of a week-long induction, with an eventual c-section my only hope of it ending! I begrudgingly said goodbye to Paul, for the second night in a row, hoping that Sunday would be more promising.

 

Sunday

 

Pretty soon after Paul left on the Saturday night, I started having contractions that finally felt strong enough to need pain killers. The antenatal ward are only able to issue paracetamol and co-codamol, so I took what I could and tried to settle down for the night. At about 2am, I was woken by a midwife checking on another patient, but something felt a bit odd… I got up for the toilet and felt a sudden gush of warm liquid – my waters had broken!

 

I was examined to double check, and then the labour ward was contacted to expect my arrival. After three attempts of phoning Paul, I eventually got hold of him to relay the exciting development, although the poor guy had only managed to get one hour of sleep!

 

Everything now seemed to be moving super quick! I was escorted down to the labour ward, and given one of the rooms with a birthing pool – although I was told that women undergoing induction are not able to have a water birth. Paul arrived, rather breathless, and we were told to relax for a few hours while we waited for my labour to progress.

 

By about 5am I was strapped on to a monitor again and, despite my contractions feeling much stronger, an examination again revealed that my cervix was still only 1 cm dilated! By this point, I was getting pretty tired and felt gas and air was a necessity. I’d forgotten how much I loved it, providing I remembered to stop before making myself sick! Due to the slow progress, the midwife checked with a doctor and told us that a Syntocinon drip would now be required in order to speed things along properly. I’d had the same drip when in labour with Megan, so I knew what to expect, but I had no idea the labour ward only used wide bore needles, so it took an age to get everything set up properly.

After trying both arms, huge amounts of sobbing from me and fetching a consultant doctor with more drip experience, I was finally set up for the final stretch of labour. Contractions quickly sped up, and the intensity meant that I was crying out for my usual labour choice of morphine in order to make it through.

 

The rest of the labour was pretty hazy, but I remember finally being told I was at 8 cm and that it wouldn’t be much longer. When I felt the need to pee, but couldn’t go, I knew that baby was definitely on her way, and after that, I started trying to push with every contraction. My midwife ran out to fetch a student, who was trying to gain more birth experience, and within a minute of them returning, Iris was born!

 

She was plopped on belly, choosing that precise moment to shower everyone in poop, while Paul had a bit of a hard time cutting the cord. She was then whisked off for a bit of assistance breathing, before being returned, suitably cleaned and lovingly placed in Paul’s arms. After just over two full days in hospital, we were now the proud parents of a beautiful 8lb 10oz little miracle – I couldn’t quite believe it!

We spent the next few hours enjoying the wonderful feeling of peace that followed her birth. Knowing that this would definitely be the last time we would experience this, it was important for us to take in every special moment before we were surrounded by other people again. I was pretty hazy, due to the morphine, but Paul did a fantastic job of caring for his new daughter – I didn’t have to change a nappy until after he left that evening!

 

I’m so grateful to have been given the wonderful opportunity of becoming a mother again. After the trials of last year, I can’t quite believe my luck at having such a perfect wee bundle to care for again! It’s crazy to think we are now a family of 5… we should probably think about buying that new car now, haha!
 

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Iris Ruby Drina Shanks 19/08/18