Fraser’s Birth Story
Fraser Clarke’s Birth Story
It was about 10pm on the night of Tuesday 4th September 2007 I started to get a lot of gurgling in the belly. Wasn’t sure if it was the whole pineapple I had eaten that day or Rick’s curry we had for dinner… but I couldn’t stop going to the toilet. I was also feeling particularly restless and couldn’t seem to sit still.
At about midnight I started feeling contractions. They started rather low in the front and weren’t lasting very long – but they were definitely different to the Braxton Hicks I had been having. Over the course of the night they started coming every 10 minutes or so and were still in the lower belly. It wasn’t until 1am when I went to the toilet AGAIN for the 20th time and I noticed my plug had come away – it was a blood stained mucous show. Just like Alexandra’s labour, I knew it was time J
I called the hospital and told them that the contractions were now 6 – 10 minutes apart but not very strong. I still needed to breath through them but they weren’t entirely painful as yet. I called my sister and mum and warned them that they should start making their way over as I was sure to be leaving for the hospital soon. I then went and woke Rick up and told him that I don’t think he would be working in the morning as labour was starting and then advised him to go back to sleep. Of course, he couldn’t! But that was all I could think of saying to him as I was getting really nervous at this point. Just a roller coaster of emotions… and it was this point that it finally hit me… I was having a BABY!! Only took me 8 months to get over my denial! I kept pacing around the house wondering what I needed to do. Of course there was just the last minute things of packing toiletries into my suitcase and making sure Bella had school uniforms for the rest of the week!
At about 3.30am we left for the hospital. The contractions were now anywhere from 5 – 8 minutes apart, and although regular, still all over the place.
At the hospital we were taken into the birthing suite and made ourselves at home. The midwife wanted to check how bubs was doing first so hooked me up to the CTG to get a good trace. Initially, she was a bit worried and the doctor was called. It appeared that the baby’s HR was dropping with every contraction instead of accelerating and they were a little concerned. I had to stay on the CTG for longer than anticipated and they called in the registrar from home to come in. Due to my frequent toilet trips I had to keep getting up and disturbing the trace, but by the time the doctor came the CTG was now showing a good trace and he was happy for me to continue on my own with no further intervention. There was talk of inserting a scalp moniter amongst other things and I was really scared they were going to talk ceasarian section. I was so relieved! I didn’t want any of those things.
The internal showed that I was 3 –4 cm dilated so I knew I still had a little while. At about 7.30am the contractions were starting to heat up so I knew it was time to have a shower. I really enjoy labouring in the shower as the hot water on my lower back really helps. Contractions were now 2 minutes apart and coming stronger and harder. I ate some breakfast and had a cup of tea while under the shower – I was so hungry and knew I needed the energy. I was left alone which was nice and just kept breathing through the pain. At one point Rick was talking me through each contraction… to which I politely asked him not to! I told him that when he talks to me during contractions I put his voice inside that little box I am putting the pain into, and I am breathing him away along with the pain! He found that quite comical!
I asked the midwife to check my notes as to how far dilated I was last time when they did an ARM (artificial rupture of the membranes). She told me I was 6cm and after the ARM Alex was born 20 minutes later. I then asked for another internal to see if I was ready for the ARM as I wanted to move things along.
At 9.40am I was 5cm dilated but well into established labour. The doctor offered to do the ARM and I totally agreed. It was so very painful this time and took forever! The intern asked if she could do it and I agreed (always happy to be a guinea pig!). She poked and prodded and something went ‘pop’ but there was no waters to speak of. She wasn’t sure if she had done it so the registrar tried and wasn’t entirely convinced that they were ruptured. I had nothing come out at all, so she got the long alligator forceps to try and pull a piece of bub’s hair out to determine if the membranes had ruptured. Well, with the midwife pushing down on my fundas and the doctor poking and prodding – it was sooo painful! There was nothing more they could do and I asked them to stop. If they hadn’t successfully done the ARM then surely my membranes will break on their own.
At this point a graduate nurse asked if she could come and observe my birth as she had never seen one. ‘Sure!’ As I said, happy to be a guinea pig! She sat quietly with her eyes wide and her mouth open most of the time J
By 10.30am I was well into labour and the contractions were now painful. I no longer breathed through them but moved onto moaning. It felt so empowering to moan out loud and push the pain away. I also found it most comfortable standing up leaning over the bed rocking side to side at this point. The midwife had to keep checking bub’s HR with the CTG and there was nothing more comforting than that dull whooshing sound of your baby’s heart beat while you are labouring. It really helped me get into the ‘zone’. The midwife placed a pillow on the floor between my legs at one point – got me wondering if she expected my baby to just slip out? I would have asked her, but it seems that I was nearing transition and all the conversations I thought I was having out loud only happened in my head!
I was getting quite exhausted now and was really tired. I even found myself drifting off to sleep between contractions – so I must have been REALLY tired as they were only a minute or less apart now.
At about 11.00am I got on my knees and leant over the bed head. This felt really good as the pressure was taken off my sore pelvis ( I suffered Symphyis Pubis Dysfunction with this pregnancy). I alternated from my knees to sitting on my side and the moaning got louder as the contractions became more extreme.
I knew it was close and got back onto my knees ready for second stage. I am not sure what was more of an issue – the pain of the contractions or the fact that I was so frustrated the baby wasn’t here yet! I kept saying out loud ‘c’mon baby… c’mon baby… please come down’. I had some urges to push but nothing significant. I remember trying to push hoping it would hurry things up.
At 11.40 I was ready to really push…. It all happened so fast from here. Once the baby started crowning and I felt that first burning pain … it bought it all back! I thought to myself – ‘oh no, I remember this bit now’. After my second push I remember asking the midwife if the head was out – nooooo not yet! But nearly. I re-focused and told myself I can do this… I had to do this. This was the last time I was ever going to experience this so I can’t lose focus now. So I pushed as hard as I could until I was told to do little pushes so the head could come on it’s own. I am sure at this point I screamed the walls down. Rick assured me later that he hardly heard me so maybe I was doing all the screaming my head again? But whether it was out loud or in my head – the screaming helped. The head was out. ‘Oh I can take a quick breather now’ I thought. I collected myself ready for the last push. This is my favourite part of birthing. The urge came around quickly and I pushed as hard as I could trying not to let the pain get in the way and making me stop. Then I felt the quick ‘pop, pop’ of the shoulders coming out, then the amazing feeling of the body plopping out I felt completely fulfilled. All that pain suddenly blew away and I heard the first cry of our baby. I asked Rick ‘what is it?’ to which he smugly replied ‘have a look’. The midwife passed my baby up to me through my legs and I saw boy bits! I wasn’t entirely convinced so took a second look! Yep… definitely a boy! At this point I think I went into a pleasant shocked state. I also noticed a huge cyst on the umbilical cord that was the same size as his boy bits and this threw me so I had to take a third look just to be sure.
At 11.44 our beautiful, perfect little boy was born.
I ripped off my old faithful birthing t-shirt (that I wore with the girls too) and just held my new little guy to my chest. I turned over and sat down with him and just stared at each other. His first breath took ours away. My first impression was that he looked so much like both the girls. But his colouring and head shape was so Isabella, and his face was very much like Alex. He just seemed to bond us all together. The other thing I noticed immediately was his skinny little ‘chicken legs’. They were just like Isabella’s at birth but what really spun me out was he looked EXACTLY like the baby that came bursting through my stomach in a dream I had a couple of months ago. Same legs, same sex and same face! That blew me away.
It was time to cut the cord as we had opted to donate our cord blood. I really wanted to birth the placenta prior to having the cord cut but being able to donate the cord blood was a higher priority for us, and we missed out the last 2 times due to having our babes in the middle of the night. It was great to sit calmly and watch them clamp the cord. Rick had the honours of cutting the cord again. It took about 5 minutes or so for the nurse to collect the cord blood. I didn’t have a lot of blood to offer, as I tend to only have short cords. We were informed later that there wasn’t enough blood to go to donation, which was disappointing, but we were still happy to donate it to research J
The placenta was now ready to come out and with a gentle push it plopped itself out. Strange feeling! We all had a good look at it afterward and the midwife showed us all the bits etc.
The graduate nurse thanked us for letting her watch.. she looked a little shell shocked so I asked her ‘how was it?’. She replied that she won’t be doing that anytime in the near future but it was an experience!
Once the placenta was out I started breastfeeding bubs. He was a natural and took to it like a pro. He sucked for a good 15 minutes on the right and then I swapped him to the left. What a clever little boy.
As it turned out the ARM was actually successful. We knew this because our poor little man had so many bloody scratches on his scalp from the little hook that ruptures the membrane. There was a good 6 – 8 long scratches and he also had a few little divots in his head from the alligator forceps L He looked pretty banged up. It was such a ‘clean’ delivery and he didn’t need to be wiped down at all. There wasn’t much waters to speak of and the midwives asked if I had been leaking for a week or two. I hadn’t at all – well not that I noticed anyway. His skin was quite dry and flaking and the doctor wondered if I was quite a bit overdue. Going from scan dates I was only 4 days over EDD so not really overdue. It just seemed like there wasn’t much amniotic fluid at all as there was little mess. Unlike my first delivery where I saturated the doctor with my hind waters! Anyway, it doesn’t really matter as we had a healthy little boy!
Rick had taken some great birth shots too! It is great to look back at them and see how my boy entered this world. Quite amazing really.
We were at a loss as to what to name him. We had only agreed that the middle name would be Clarke after Rick’s Dad. I actually sms’d a friend and asked her to bring in her baby name book so we could go through it! The names on our list just didn’t seem to suit him. So it wasn’t until a good 6 hours later that we decided on a name.
Fraser Clarke Bray
Was born via natural, drug free delivery at Birralee Maternity Services, Box Hill.
He arrived on Wednesday 5th of September at 11.44am weighing 3470g (7 lb 10oz).
He was 51cm long and had a head circumference of 35.5cm.
Apgar scores were 9 / 9.
Labour lasted less than 12 hours from very first niggle. Established labour probably 6 – 8 hours.
Big sister’s Isabella and Alexandra couldn’t be happier. They are so thrilled to have a baby brother! Isabella keeps telling me that she just knew it would be a boy! Alex just wants to ‘pat her’ all the time! I was convinced we were having a girl even though all my dreams quite vividly were about boys.
I have fallen completely and utterly in love all over again and absolutely thrilled to have another man in my life. Rick is just so chuffed that he has a little boy and has a smile from ear to ear.
We have now officially completed our family. I feel so complete but a little sad that I will never experience being pregnant or giving birth again. But now we can concentrate on being a family and raising our 3 wonderfully healthy children.
posted by BrayClan @ 10:59 PM
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