Beanie's birth story Part I

I think getting this published in one go is too ambitious, so here is part I.

With my OB we had discussed 2nd April as a potential induction date for Beanie. This would have been a Wednesday, when her practice is closed and she is free from rearranging appointments and can come to the hospital more easily. It also would have been 37 weeks and 3 days. DH and I had this date in mind, but it hadn't been fixed as the definitive date.

At one of my last pre-birth appointments, when DH wasn't there, she said we could induce at the weekend or wait until 2nd April and what did I think.

When I was pregnant with V, I had an appointment scheduled for one day after my due date. It was in July 2006, a really hot summer in Europe. I had lots of water retention. I was not dilated or effaced. After CTG monitoring and ultrasound checks, my OB had said we could fix the induction date for 5 days later, on a Saturday, since induction had a better chance of working if the cervix showed some interest in birth. She added that since it was so hot, if I really couldn't stand being pregnant anymore, we could induce earlier. I said that it was okay, as long as I had an end date.

I have of course asked myself a million times - if I had said no I can't stand it anymore, induce me tomorrow, would V be alive today? Instead 4 days after my due date and less than 24 hours before the induction time, we went to the hospital after perceiving lack of movement, and it was too late.

So when this time around she said that we could do it at the weekend instead of waiting for 2nd April, I could not say no. This is how Beanie was born at 36 weeks 6 days instead of 37 weeks. The weekend did not fall on ideal dates - it turned out to be a Friday 28th and Saturday 29th - just like when V was born. Beanie was born exactly 20 months after V. But he is alive.

My OB had said that I could check in to hospital on the Friday evening if the stress was too high, but I decided I would be better off at home on Friday night. Friday morning I had my last detailed ultrasound at the specialist. The cord was still not around Beanie's neck. I was very tense in the evening and almost shut down to the outside world, not really wanting to speak to anyone including DH and my mother. I did my last set of kick counts and listened to Beanie on my home Doppler. I had the usual late term pregnancy night of sleep - i.e. not very much but no worse than usual.

I wasn't allowed to eat breakfast apart from a cup of tea and a couple of Digestive biscuits which I ate at 6:45am. We had to be at the hospital for 8am. I said next to nothing in the car on the way there. It was a beautiful bright sunny day with blue skies and clear snow-capped mountains in the distance.

I was expected when we got there and went straight into the delivery room. We started off with some more monitoring. I knew Beanie was alive as he had moved already in the morning. The trace was fine and there was only the odd contraction.

The midwife asked me if I wanted an enema. To tell the truth, I'd never had an enema before and didn't really know what it would be like, and let's face it, who actually wants an enema? My OB hadn't arrived yet, so I asked if we could wait to see if I could manage it on my own. The midwife looked sceptical but said OK.

My OB arrived, checked the CTG trace and gave the go ahead for the oxytocin drip to start. She had already told me that the really strong contractions would start when she came back at lunch time to break my waters. She told me that an enema was a good idea as the contractions would be easier so I had one. It was painless and .... efficient.

Mild contractions started shortly after the oxytocin drip. I was told to get up an walk around at least once an hour (as I was rather attached to the CTG monitor, both physically and emotionally).

My engagement ring is a princess (square) cut diamond and it is possible to scratch someone with it at the wrong angle. I didn't want to risk scratching a newborn Beanie so I took it off and gave it to my husband for safe-keeping. He wrapped it in some tissue (i.e Kleenex) paper and put it in his pocket. A little while later I asked him where it was. He said knowingly, "Don't worry I've got it."

"Are you sure?" I said.

He gave me a look as if to say, c'mon, do I really have to show you that I have it safe? He looked in his pocket and couldn't find it. He started looking in other pockets and couldn't find it. He got his coat out of the cupboard and couldn't find it. I was having mild contractions at this point but I was more than a little concerned about the possible loss of a very sentimental ring not to mention the most expensive piece of jewellry I own.

There was a hospital waste bin in the room which already had bits of gauze with my blood on them from where my IV line was inserted, failed and inserted again and probably some used needles. Thankfully I know the bin was empty when we arrived that morning. You can see where this is going, can't you?

DH had thrown away the bit of Kleenex which had my engagement ring wrapped in it along with some other Kleenex. It was found after he scrabbled in the hospital bin. On any other day apart from the day I was giving birth to Beanie, DH would have been in the doghouse for a VERY LONG TIME. I think he appreciated his incredible luck that he chose this particular day to do something so dumb and thus got away with it. Yes, I could have taken it off and left it at home before coming to the hospital but I had wanted it for both sentimental reasons and for the continuing denial-of-live-birth scenario reasons.

My mother took the engagement ring and put it in her purse.

My blood sugar and coagulation factors were measured and my platelets were normal. In the end I had taken my last aspirin on Thursday night and now we were Saturday morning. My OB had requested a particular anaesthetist to be on call in case I ended up having an epidural as "he was the best". He was the one who did my epidural for V's birth. I was still resisting an epidural at this point in time but had told my OB to tell me when it would no longer be worth having one.

The contractions continued and the oxytocin dose was gradually increased throughout the morning. They started hurting more but still manageable. I stayed hooked up to the CTG monitor nearly all the time except for when I got up and walked around a few times.

Just after lunch (of course I did not get any lunch) my OB came back and ruptured my waters. She said she was staying around in the hospital from now on. The fluid was clear and there was plenty of it.

As promised, quite quickly the contractions started getting stronger, more frequent and much more painful. I was squeezing DH's hand very tightly through each one. Beanie seemed to be managing fine but I admit that I was no longer looking at the trace myself but had - finally - relinquished the trust of interpretation to the midwife and my OB.

Read Beanie's birth story part II....written several months after part I