Amy’s Birth Story

Amy’s Birth Story

Amy was born on her due date of the 4th March
by emergency ceaserean.

Stats Weight:3170 grams Length:48 cm Head Circumference:34 cm

On Tuesday 2nd I realised I hadn’t felt her
move all day and went to the hospital to have a trace (of her heartbeat)
at about 10pm. Her heartbeat dropped for a few minutes but returned to
normal and we went home about 11pm. The next day my doctor asked me to
have another trace, which showed up fine. He then said for me to have another
trace on the 4th, just before me weekly appointment with him. As you will
have guessed by now we didn’t quite make it to then.

Just after 12am on the 4th I started to have
contractions. My mucus plug had come away earlier in the afternoon. The
contractions weren’t too bad and I let my husband get some more sleep.
I used a hot water bottle on my back (since the first sign a contraction
was coming was severe backache) and had a nice warm bath. At about 2.30
I thought my waters had broken (we later found out they hadn’t) and called
the hospital. At this stage the contractions were about 5 mins apart, they
said till wait

until they were 3 mins apart and then go in.
We arrived at the hospital about 3.37 only to be told we should have waited
till they were 3mins for an hour. Oh, well. My temperature was up a bit
so they advised me to stay there.

At 8am my ob arrived, ruptured my membranes
and order a Syntocin IV to get things going. Baby’s heartrate was being
monitored through her scalp. By 9:30 the Syn drip is actually running.
Shortly after this I needed to go to the bathroom, where I was sick. Back
in bed my husband noticed the babys hart rate had slowed to 50bpm
(should be 160bpm) and went to get the nurse. The doctor arrived at the
same time, 10:15am and an injection (briconil sp?)was given to stop Syntocin
and all contractions and halt labour. At the 10.30am they began to prepare
for an Emergency C-Section. At this point I was pretty out of it. Unfortunately
because they needed to get Amy out so fast, a general was used instead
of an epidural, so my husband couldn’t be with me.

At 11:17 Amy was born. There was a lot of
merconium present so she didn’t breathe properly

straight away. First APGAR was 4, second was
9. After suctioning lungs, she was put on manual respiration for about
1 minute before she started breathing by herself. At 11:35 Amy was given
to my husband. She was fine by this point. Shortly after she was put on
a warming table, given vit K

needle, blood sugar taken, and a bath (according
to Kevin this was very messy because of the merconium… It was EVERYWHERE)

When I started to wake I was shivering with
cold and remember the nurses gossiping. I was also in considerable pain.
Desperate to see my daughter and husband, I declined further pain relief
because I would have had to stay in recovery longer. At about 1pm I was
wheeled into my room and Amy

was placed across my chest. I’ll never forget
those big blue eyes looking up at me.

The stay in hospital was hard, though I recovered
well from the operation. The c-section was just such a shock, and I really
had no idea what to expect.

We arrived home last Wed and Amy seems to
have settled in well, sleeping for most of the night. Our only problem
has been breastfeeding but we are slowly getting better. And she was already
back over her birthweight before we left the hospital.

Heres some photos taken 4th March

Amy’s official baby portrait taken in hospital