Our nightmare started at 20:30 on Thursday 25th March 2010. We were washing up after having omelette for tea when I started feeling a bit uncomfortable. Then the sharp pains started but we put it down to the cyst giving me gyp, as they were the same pains as I was getting at the beginning of the pregnancy. We watched a programme on house renovation and I was still getting pains throughout. I then went to the toilet where we found out that I was bleeding. We had been umming and aahing about whether to ring the hospital for advice but as soon as I started bleeding I told Chris that he needed to ring. When he rang and gave all the details they advised us to come in. I changed out of my uniform whilst Chris got a bag ready just in case they kept me in. We drove out to the hospital which didn’t seem to end. When we eventually got to the hospital and parked up, Chris went to get a ticket. He seemed to take forever, although he came back to say that the machine had eaten his money. We then made our way up to the maternity assessment unit on the second floor. We arrived at the unit at 22:45 where we were told to wait in the waiting area, which was nothing more than a corridor with chairs in. We were left in the waiting area for what seemed an age without anyone coming to check on us. The only way I could get comfortable was to kneel on the floor and lean against Chris every time a pain came. Eventually I decided to tell Chris, after he had asked them to look at me several times, that I felt like I needed to push.
This was like the magic words with us immediately being shown into a room, where a doctor examined me and uttered the life changing words “there is the head” (about two inches from the exit!). I was rushed – ER style- through double doors; with a close encounter with a door pillar, into the delivery suite. I was asked if I could move onto the bed that was in the room, and after saying I could, started to manoeuvre myself from the first bed onto the second one. As I did this, my waters broke. Tarnya and her team then took over...
“Push into your bottom” they said, Chris later saying that Joshua’s legs and body came out almost immediately and that he looked dead so Chris was heartbroken until Joshua kicked! Tarnya and Chris kept telling me to take some gas and air as I fought to push out Joshua’s head. Joshua was breach and his head- being the only part of him that was growing normally- was big for his size. I put my chin to my chest and pushed with all my might, not taking much gas and air because it made my head spin and tasted funny. Tarnya paged the doctor because Joshua’s head was not budging and it had been stuck for ten minutes.
The doctor arrived with the fateful news that they would have to cut me- without anaesthetic because there was not time. That cut was the single most painful thing that has ever happened to me. Chris watched, and heard, it happen and still pales when he describes the hedge trimming and my howl of pain. Joshua was pulled out and a team of magicians immediately began reviving him. Chris thought it was a boy at this stage but was not sure, so when we heard him cry, and one of the doctors confirmed it was a boy, it was a magical moment. I was now inhaling as much gas and air as my lungs could carry, in an attempt to mask the pain of the cut and the forthcoming stitches.
Tarnya pulled on my placenta, which my body was not giving up without a fight. She was eager to remove it all before my cervix clamped down on it. The placenta eventually came out but was fragmented so I was prescribed antibiotics. Next Tarnya used local anaesthetic to numb the pain of the stitches. They were still unbelievably painful so I kept inhaling gas and air. So much so, in fact, that the room went black. As I giggled uncontrollably Chris watched me try to put the gas and air nozzle through my cheek, before taking it off me laughing that he thought I had taken more than enough for now. Tarnya kept stitching and it hurt so badly.
The stitching finished we were left in the room alone whilst Joshua was installed in his incubator in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). We were brought a cup of tea and some toast- Chris managed one piece. Then we tried to get some rest until they came to take us to the ward. Joshua was officially born at 00:49, including 20 minutes on the magical resuscitation trolley. At around half-three I was told to get in the bath to clean myself off. Chris helped and we were both alarmed when the water turned pink from my bleeding. Once I had cleaned myself up, with Chris’ help, I got dressed into a hospital gown and paper knickers, which the hospital provided for me, and then sat on the wheelchair ready to be taken to see Joshua.
The midwife wheeled me down the corridor with Chris following along carrying all my belongings. The nurses in the NICU were ready for our visit as Joshua appeared to be comfortable in his incubator. As I was wheeled closer to him I noticed that the incubator was called the giraffe incubator and also had a picture of a giraffe on it. The nurse moved the incubator down so that I could see Joshua, as I was still a bit shaky from the birth and couldn’t really stand up from the wheelchair. As I looked at him it dawned on me how small he was but could still not believe that he was ours.
We stayed there for a short time before it was time for the midwife to take me to the ward where I was to stay. We went down to the ward which was on the first floor. When the midwife had opened the door to the ward she turned to Chris and said “this is where you say goodbye.” There was no warning and there was no real time to say the goodbye as we wanted, only a fleeting bye and see you later as I was pushed in the wheelchair through the doors and then Chris was gone. I was shown into my room (room 10) where I got onto the bed and waited for the midwife from the ward to introduce herself to me. She came in after a couple of minutes and asked to feel my tummy so I lay on the bed where she proceeded to press on my tummy and said that all was as to be expected. She then informed me that breakfast was served at 8 o’clock so I should try to get some rest before then. She then left me alone in the room where I looked at the big clock that was on the wall opposite my bed. The clock said that the time was 05:20.
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