My mom Shirley had a long and hard labour. She started with contractions 2am Friday morning. At 7am my dad Tim drove us to St George's hospital hoping for an relatively easy birth. The plan was for as natural birth as possible, that meant as little or no pain medication, no oxytocin, no episiotomy, delaying clamping the umbilical cord, getting me on the breast as quickly as possible, and not going to the nursery at all. Well even though our doctor Suska Schoeman tried her best to keep to the plan, nothing went according to plan.
Our midwife Danielle got us settled in an we started on a birthing ball at 3cm. At 9:30am she tried the spa bath, that helped a lot. By 11am and still 3cm my mom gave up on the idea of no pain medication and started on gas. That was not very successful and by 12 an epidural was organized and when it was in place it started to work. By 1pm her blood pressure took a dive to 80 over 40 and there was quite a commotion to get her and me stabilized. They halved the epidural dose and things seemed to be going ok again, at that stage she was at 5cm. By 5pm she was at 8 cm and the pain really kicked in again. The epidural was pushed up quite a bit and by 5:30pm she was fully dilated and the epidural was turned practically off and we waited for Suska to arrive to get me out.
After some practicing for a while the real push started at 6pm. After about 10 minutes my dad could see the top of my head. After 45 minutes there was still this small patch of hair showing. I was stuck! They decided to cut my mom to make some space but that also did not work and she was getting week so they decided a Caesar was necessary. My mom freaked a bit and said that she was going to get me out. They then decided to try get me out with forceps. Eventually my head popped out and soon after the rest of the me. I weighed in at 3.6 k They cut the cord immediately and at that stage I was very weak, my Apgar score was 7 at 1 minute and 8 at 5 minutes. After I gave my first cry they took me to ICU for observation. After they hooked me up to all the monitors and gave me some oxygen I started to get better and my colour improved drastically. My dad held my hand all the time, he's so proud of his new daughter!
In the meantime they stitched my mom back together. After an hour she was all patched up and then tried to come and see me. They weren't too happy, but after a fight let her in. She tried to feed me but I was too weak to suck. They then took my mom to her room and my dad helped her get settled. At 9:30pm my dad came to see if I was alright, I was sleeping and they had taken me off the oxygen. Things were starting to look up.
My dad went home to celebrate my birth and the new year with the rest of the family. My mom came to me at 1am and tried again to feed me, but I was still very week and it wasn't too successful, I did get some colostrum in though. At 5am she came again and this time I drank quite a bit.
At 8am the paediatrician had given me a clean bill of health and I was allowed to go to my mom. My dad arrived back at 9am Saturday morning pleased to see mom and me together.
Suska arrived at 10am and gave mom a check-up. She was quite happy and said we would have to stay for 2 days in hospital. You should have seen her face drop! She then said she was joking and told us we could go home. My dad wasn't expecting this and hadn't brought the piccolo with. The hospital won't let you go home if you are not in a baby car seat. So he had to rush home to get it.
My mom Shirley had a long and hard labour. She started with contractions 2am Friday morning. At 7am my dad Tim drove us to St George's hospital hoping for an relatively easy birth. The plan was for as natural birth as possible, that meant as little or no pain medication, no oxytocin, no episiotomy, delaying clamping the umbilical cord, getting me on the breast as quickly as possible, and not going to the nursery at all. Well even though our doctor Suska Schoeman tried her best to keep to the plan, nothing went according to plan.
Our midwife Danielle got us settled in an we started on a birthing ball at 3cm. At 9:30am she tried the spa bath, that helped a lot. By 11am and still 3cm my mom gave up on the idea of no pain medication and started on gas. That was not very successful and by 12 an epidural was organized and when it was in place it started to work. By 1pm her blood pressure took a dive to 80 over 40 and there was quite a commotion to get her and me stabilized. They halved the epidural dose and things seemed to be going ok again, at that stage she was at 5cm. By 5pm she was at 8 cm and the pain really kicked in again. The epidural was pushed up quite a bit and by 5:30pm she was fully dilated and the epidural was turned practically off and we waited for Suska to arrive to get me out.
After some practicing for a while the real push started at 6pm. After about 10 minutes my dad could see the top of my head. After 45 minutes there was still this small patch of hair showing. I was stuck! They decided to cut my mom to make some space but that also did not work and she was getting week so they decided a Caesar was necessary. My mom freaked a bit and said that she was going to get me out. They then decided to try get me out with forceps. Eventually my head popped out and soon after the rest of the me. I weighed in at 3.6 k They cut the cord immediately and at that stage I was very weak, my Apgar score was 7 at 1 minute and 8 at 5 minutes. After I gave my first cry they took me to ICU for observation. After they hooked me up to all the monitors and gave me some oxygen I started to get better and my colour improved drastically. My dad held my hand all the time, he's so proud of his new daughter!
In the meantime they stitched my mom back together. After an hour she was all patched up and then tried to come and see me. They weren't too happy, but after a fight let her in. She tried to feed me but I was too weak to suck. They then took my mom to her room and my dad helped her get settled. At 9:30pm my dad came to see if I was alright, I was sleeping and they had taken me off the oxygen. Things were starting to look up.
My dad went home to celebrate my birth and the new year with the rest of the family. My mom came to me at 1am and tried again to feed me, but I was still very week and it wasn't too successful, I did get some colostrum in though. At 5am she came again and this time I drank quite a bit.
At 8am the paediatrician had given me a clean bill of health and I was allowed to go to my mom. My dad arrived back at 9am Saturday morning pleased to see mom and me together.
Suska arrived at 10am and gave mom a check-up. She was quite happy and said we would have to stay for 2 days in hospital. You should have seen her face drop! She then said she was joking and told us we could go home. My dad wasn't expecting this and hadn't brought the piccolo with. The hospital won't let you go home if you are not in a baby car seat. So he had to rush home to get it. Then it was back to home to meet grand parents Ron and Elze Kuiters and George Parker Nance, great gran Janet Oppermann, and my uncle Peter and auntie Taryn Riddin.
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