Little Man's Arrival

Friday 12th August 2005

40+5weeks

Around 5pm I took my little brother over the field to have a mess around with his golf clubs, and laughed the entire time.

Around 7.30pm I felt like I'd wet myself, and soon after the contractions started.  Mum got tea finished pretty quickly and we had gammon, egg and chips.

By 10.30pm the contractions were coming every 4 minutes and I was in a fair bit of discomfort with them, so I rang the labour ward, and we left for the hospital, picking my Godmother up on the way.

My father stayed home with my brother, but made us promise to ring when I was close to giving birth so they could meet us down there.

I was examined at 11.30pm, and was just 3cm dilated, and not in established labour.  I was given the option of going home or remaining at the hospital.  We decided to stay as I was in so much pain, and the gas and air arrived. :)

Me, Mam and my Godmother were left to our own devices, and told I would be examined again in 4 hours. 

During the next 4 hours, I provided much of the entertainment by convincing my Godmother they sold the gas and air in nightclubs.

Saturday 13th August 2005

40+6weeks

3.30am - I was examined again and hadn't progressed all that much as I was still only 4cm dilated.  I was gutted and in so much pain.

My Godmother and the midwife both suggested I had pethidine as they didn't feel I could cope with the pain much longer.  I wasn't too keen but gave in.

Shortly after agreeing to have pethidine I felt I needed a poo, so was sat on the toilet howling 'I need a poo'. (Surprisingly enough, this is the most memorable part of the whole labour and the bit that is still talked about regularly.)

At 3.50am I was given the pethidine, I remember it even now, it was in my leg and I was sat on the toilet still trying to have a poo.

Just 20 minutes later Mum asked the midwife to examine me as she felt I was pushing, and sure enough, Little Man's head was indeed crowning.
Everyone seemed to spring into action immediately. We had to get down a floor to the delivery suite, so I was wheeled out of the room, into the lift and onto the delivery suite, all while saying 'I need to push'... and my Godmother saying, 'Don't you dare push'

We got into the delivery room, and 2 pushes later, at 4.16am Little Man arrived.

I was in established labour for 3 hours and 55 minutes.  My waters didn't break, and I had no stitches, just a small graze.

Little Man
13th August 2005
4.16am
8lb 3oz

About Me #1

I've never been able to write a very good 'About Me' page. It seems I'm much better at putting myself down than bigging myself up, hence I'd rather not write one, but, on entering the world of blogging it became inevitable I would have to.



So, here it is.






I'm Beth, a twenty-something Mammy of two little terrors darlings. I wake up every morning not knowing how my day is going to go, but I love waking up and seeing the faces of the most important people in my life.


I'm engaged to J, a thirty-something Daddy, and in my personal opinion, I look after him well. ;) He's fed, watered and occasionally cuddled, which makes for a happy man.


Little Man is a four-year-old 'Superhero' and this week he's Ben 10. He goes to a Welsh-Medium Primary School, and speaks 'English at home, and Welsh in School'.
I'm encouraged to 'siarad Cymraeg' at every possible opportunity - by a four-year-old - made kind of difficult by not being able to speak a great deal having forgotten most of it in the last 8 years! :)


Dot is a baby. She was born at the beginning of December, and is a proper little pudding. She's laid back and only gets frustrated when she's hungry (definitely follows her father then). Her smiles are arriving, which tells me that, like her brother, she's going to grow up and I can't stop her!




I treasure every moment with both of them, and everytime I look at them I realise it's going to be the last time I look at them as young as they are.




I don't want to be 'just a Mammy' all my life though. I have aspirations the same as the next person, but I also don't want to be a 'career woman'. A job that puts bread on the table and I'm happy doing is good enough for me. :)
It is what has inspired me to start 'DD101 - Introducing the Social Sciences' with the Open University though. A subject I'm interested in, and something which can take me anywhere I decide, because I still have no idea what it is I actually want to do.
The course is running from January - October. I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm absolutely bricking it. I'm going to need to spend 16-20 hours a week studying with a four-year-old and a baby. It'll be interesting to see how my head holds up.
I have to succeed, for myself and my family. :)


I'm a Crime Show fanatic, I'm actually watching NCIS as I type. I avidly follow many crime dramas including: CSI; CSI: New York; CSI: Miami; Numbers; NCIS. I feel lost if I miss any of them. (Yes, I do need to get out more!)
I do have a slightly broader variety of things I watch, like Friends, I must have watched the re-runs on E4 at least a dozen times.


I enjoy a good book, in fact I will read pretty much anything. Dan Brown, Harry Potter, you name it, I'll have a go. :)


I have also recently discovered a new-found love for cooking (I think it was buying a slowcooker which did it). I love trying out new recipes, and find myself hunting down new recipes regularly.
Having a slowcooker even keeps me more organised. :)


I'm a blogger... I read and I write. I can't say I write well, but I write.
My main blog is 'So Much To Do, So Little Time' and it's MY blog to do with as I please. I try not to swear or get too irate, but I also don't want to wear rose tinted specs. My life isn't perfect and why should I make anyone think it is? :)
My second is 'Love Cooking, Love Food' and is for recipes. I have a few to continue adding to it, but I'm need to grab the time first. :)

I need to start scrapbooking, given that I ordered 676 prints of photos from 2004 - present, and now I have nowhere to put them.


So, rather long winded, but there it is.










28/01/10

Dot's Arrival

Wednesday 2nd December 2009
40+2weeks

I woke up at 6am with niggles, but thought nothing of it, and tried getting back to sleep. I’d programmed my brain into thinking I would go the full 10 days over, and have to be induced, that way anything earlier would be wonderful.

By 8am, I was getting ‘waves’ of pain through my pelvis every 5 minutes and lasting over a minute each time. It was horrible.

I rang my midwife at 9.30, and she suggested I not go for my appointment, and have a home visit instead.

By 9.45, I was worried, and realised I hadn’t felt Dot move this morning, so I rang the maternity unit, and they said it was probably just the groundwork being done, but to go in and be monitored anyway. So we picked Little Man back up from school at 10, and then headed straight to the hospital, meeting Mum there.

I was given a VE as soon as I arrived at the ward (around 11am), and was only 2-3cm with a long cervix. I was pretty disappointed, and the examination hurt like nothing I’ve ever had before. 

Then they monitored Dot, and my contractions. Dot was happy, and I had non-existent contractions despite the ever increasing pelvic pain.

They told me I could go home, and I burst into tears because nobody was listening to me, in regards to the pain I was in. ‘It could be days’ they kept telling me... which wasn’t what I wanted to hear. 

I was booked in for a scan to check Dot as is standard with low fetal movement, so headed off to antenatal for my scan, stopping every few minutes because the pain was so bad.

While in the waiting room for the scan, calm(ish) Beth completely left the building. I didn’t know what to do, the ‘pains’ were practically constant, a midwife even came over and took me into a private room, and managed to calm me down a little bit.

At 12.16 I was having a scan, and when I got up was when it all became a little too real with what was going on...

..The contractions started through my bump every 3 minutes...Strong and very painful.

I hadn’t eaten since breakfast so went for dinner. I didn’t stop crying the whole time I was eating. And the contractions were lasting for over 60 seconds and coming every 2-3minutes.

Mum didn’t even finish her food, but said we should go back to the maternity ward, as they were getting a lot stronger.

At 1pm, I was examined again, and was only 4cm dilated..But it did mean I was in labour, and I was bundled over to the labour ward, and put into a room

I was offered gas and air, I said ‘maybe’ so the midwife got it ready just in case.

Then I had Doctors come in to take blood, one put a cannular(?) in my arm in case I needed blood taken, then because my temperature was high, another said they needed separate bloods.  So I had more out of the arm which doesn’t like to give, and was put on IV antibiotics.

By 2pm I’d given in to gas and air, as I wasn’t even given a break between contractions, as one finished another one started.

I had 2 qualified midwives and a student with me, and it was great to listen to them talking away, and actually calmed me down. Although, all I could worry about was the fact I hadn’t had a shower in the morning.

Suddenly, around 2.30, I started feeling the need to push, and was examined but was still only 5-6 cm. I cried, and begged my Mum to make it stop...which obviously she couldn’t so she started getting upset too.

I was told not to push because I’d cause myself more problems as my cervix would end up swollen, and labour would be longer, and by this point I really didn’t want my labour to be any longer than necessary.

My contractions were short but extremely strong, and by 2.45pm my body was still pushing. Apparently, my toes were curling too, and the midwife said that was a sure sign I was ready to push, but baby’s head was still quite high.

I carried on, but by 3.15 I was exhausted with the continuous pushing.  And I begged for pethidine, and got confused because none of the midwives rushed off to get me some... within minutes I started begging for a quick way out (and yes, I was thinking C-Section!), again getting frustrated because no-one was listening to me.

But then I started sounding like (as DP put it) Chewbacca... :s and was examined once again, and the student could still feel a tiny bit of my cervix... so asked one of the qualified midwives to check, I didn’t give them chance, and started really pushing.

I felt her head crowning, and was told to stop and just do ‘baby pushes’ and eventually out came her head.

At 3.32pm, I watched her body follow, and it was the best sight I’ve ever seen in my life!  She was put straight onto my stomach, but the first thing I said was ‘How small?’ then I realised I hadn’t checked if I had a boy or girl.

Peeking under the blanket, I didn’t see any boy bits, so let J find out for himself!  He also cut the cord. 

My labour lasted 2 hours and 12 minutes according to my notes...almost 2 hours shorter than Little Man’s, and again my waters didn’t break, and there was nothing when she came out. :S

Dot
2nd December 2009
3.32pm
9lb 1oz