105 Weeks & Arley Arrives!

So, I have a very kind mother who enabled me to sleep a full 8.5 hours last night, so I figured I would update the blog while I can (but don't expect these posts to be in any way consistent in the next few weeks!).

(As a side note: I discovered last week that the only doctor who does epidurals at my local hospital - Milton Hospital - is away for the month, so any mother who wants/needs an epidural this month can't have one!  I was also told by my doctors and midwives that they didn't think that I would make it to Shoalhaven Memorial Hospital (Nowra Hospital) and would have no choice but to deliver naturally at Milton).

I started having proper contractions on Monday 1st July, and I went to my scheduled doctor's appointment at 10 am that morning, and she told me that I was 4 cm dilated and the baby was at a -1, and that given the speed of my last birth, I would probably be having the baby that afternoon.  She said to go home and rest, which I did.  My contractions were moderate and about 10 minutes apart.  At 3 pm I went to the hospital to get checked, and I was still 4 cm dilated.  So, I went home not knowing what to think.  Contractions continued, and then I went to bed that night at around 10 pm, taking a Panadeine for the pain.  The contractions slowed down, and was I woken by about 5 contractions in the night, until 4:25 am when I woke in immense pain.  After three more terrible contractions I called Nowra Hospital, fairly hysterical, but after hearing me have a contraction over the phone, the midwife there told me to go to Milton Hospital to get an internal exam done before I made the 45 minute trip to Nowra.  Jeff dropped me off at Milton, then raced up to Fisherman's Paradise to pick up Mum (they were looking after Carmie).  I had my internal, and the midwife said I was still at 4 cm, and it would be a while yet, and given the amount of pain I was in, she agreed that I should go to Nowra Hospital to get my epidural.  However, we had to wait for the ambulance to drive down and pick me up.  I got a shot of morphine which did nothing to alleviate the pain but made me quite relaxed in between contractions :)  The contractions were still 7 - 10 minutes apart, but were really terrible, much worse than my contractions with Carmen, in fact a different kind of pain altogether.  The ambulance finally arrived, and they strapped me on to the gurney and Mum and the midwife rode with me while Jeff followed in the car.  That ambulance ride was pretty much the worst experience of my life.  I had five contractions, and the pain was like nothing I have ever felt before, and being strapped down onto a gurney unable to move was dreadful.  It literally felt like someone was ripping me apart on the inside.  One contraction was even two minutes long.  I am cringing at the memory of that trip.  I even damaged my voice box from yelling/screaming.  Anyway, we made it to Nowra Hospital, and as soon as I got there I was begging for my epidural.  The midwife had to check me first, and when she did, low and behold, I was dilated to 10 cm.  She gave me an internal while I had my next contraction (OH MY GOD!!), and then I was ready to push.  No epidural for me, again.  The pushing was much easier this time (I was on my knees instead of on my back), and so much less painful than those Godawful contractions, and after 35 minutes, little Arliss James (Arley) was born, at 9 am, 2 years and 11 minutes after his big sister.  I simply cannot believe that my kids share a birthday.  Apparently the odds of their birth days, hours and minutes are about 1/50,000 (thanks Jay!).  Anyway, the drama wasn't over with his birth, because apparently I had a 'gusher', and while the midwives were dealing with me, Mum and Jeff were over with Arley under the heat lamp, and they yelled out because he had stopped breathing and had turned grey.  So the nurses ran over and pushed some emergency button, and someone ran in to the room and hooked him up to oxygen and started pushing and poking at him, while I was being told that he was OK.  I can still see his limp little body, it was pretty scary.  Anyway, he revived, and someone came in to sew me up (by the way, the anesthetic didn't work, and I felt the stitches!).  But that was the end of the drama, thank goodness, and I decided that I would rather be at home (home being my parents' house) than at a hospital, so at 1pm the doctor checked Arley and me out of the hospital, and we were on the road home by 2pm.

When Carmen got home from school that day, she met her little brother for the first time, and it was such a lovely moment.  Since then she has been acting up a little bit, but that is to be expected.  We have all been staying at my parents' place at the farm, but we plan on going home tomorrow.  For the first two days, Arley was a very contented little guy, but then he started to become unsettled.  With all of the trouble I had breastfeeding (or not breastfeeding!) Carmen, we weren't sure if I would be able to this time either.  Well, my milk has been coming in very slowly (it took 5 days to really seem in), but the poor little guy hasn't been able to get it out, despite a very strong suckle.  It's just like last time.  The midwife has been out here twice to visit, and she said it was time to start supplementing formula, as he had lost 10% of his birth weight.  So, we did that for 1.5 days, but after feeding on me for an hour, he still just can't seem to get anything out, so I have  given up on breastfeeding, and Arley is completely on formula now.  I just thought I would try to enjoy him rather than stress about it, as I don't think things would be different from how they were with Carmen, and all that pumping made the first month with her awful.  And as a bonus, Mum took the second feed last night, and the morning feed, and I got 8.5 hours of sleep!

Below are the less gruesome photos from Arley's birth :)