The birth story series. Part 3.

I was so incredibly relieved when Craig finally came through the door at 1.10am (yes- I was paying very close attention to my watch). We’d tried the bath, and the contractions spaced out, but it felt terrible being in there. The bath relieved the pain I was feeling in between the contractions, but it was awful for the contractions themselves. So I hopped out after about 3 contractions in there. It wasn’t working enough to relieve my back pain, which was far more severe than the pain in my abdomen during the height of the contractions. I needed some hands pushing on my back more than the relief of the water warmth. As soon as I stepped out of the bath, the contractions came thick and fast.

Craig had to lean into my back with his full weight while I held onto the bath sink and leaned myself on an angle back into them. And by the time my birth assistant showed, I wasn’t opening my eyes at all. The doula timed the contractions at every 3 monutes and tried massaging me herself, but Craig was much better at knowing where to push at this point, so she conceded to letting him do it a bit more before she took turns with him again.

For only going into real labour a couple of hours earlier, I thought that the pain was way too intense and too close together for me to cope very long without any relief from drugs, so I asked for the gas. Thankfully, the midwives did hook this up pretty quickly for me. I actually threw it away during a contraction early on because I swore to them that it wasn’t on. My doula insisted that it was, but I could tell no relief came from breathing it in, so I stood my ground until the midwives realised that no, it wasn’t working. They’d forgotten to turn on the switch that actually let out the gas with the oxygen.

What seemed like an hour passed (and it probably was) when I finally decided now was epidural time. The gas gave me such a spin out, and I decided that I wanted to push this baby out in my right mind. I wanted to be able to see this baby be born. And I also didn’t want to feel like I was dying. So I told Craig that now was the time, and that if I ask for it now, then when it’s unbearable and I can’t talk, hopefully it’ll be in and working.

Craig got the midwives informed of my decision, and they told me it was all in motion. The epidural was coming. Thank the Lord!