Birth Story ~ Welcome Baby Joseph David

 

We got a call from the midwife on Thursday the 24th saying that the hospital could fit us in for the Prostin gel in 3 hours time. Got that done and went home to return in the morning for induction.
Arrived at the hospital at 8am on 25/2/2011 was checked by the midwife and my cervix was still posterior and closed.
A doctor checked me a while later and I had some progress but not a lot.  It was decided to start me on the syntocinon drip straight away to get things moving.
Had my waters broken and started the Syntocinon which was gradually increased every half hour til I was at the max dose (96ml/hr) 7 hours later...apparently most women don't get past 12ml/hr before major contractions and asking for epidural lol.  We were told we would sit at the 96ml/hr for 6 hours and if no baby by then it'd be a caesarian section for failure to progress...our midwife got approval for epidural as the registrar had to go do a caeser, but my contractions though regular were only mild. I never got past 4cm dilated and cervix still posterior. Baby's heart rate had multiple decels so they decided to attach a foetal scalp clip in case the machine wasn't picking up properly. Still showed decels so they tried to get a blood sample from him (major ouch) but couldn't reach so they pulled the plug and I ended up with an emergency c-section under spinal anaesthesia for failure to progress and foetal distress. Joseph's head was right where my bikini line incision is so he was well and truly high up! Because of this his head is perfect, not a bit of him was squished.  He came out screaming bloody murder which is apparently unusual for c-sections but we had 8lb 6oz (3.8kg) of gorgeous baby, 55cm long and a 35cm head circumference.
I feel like I've totally cheated, never experienced true labour or child birth but at the end of the day we have a perfect wee boy who is healthy and that's the main thing :) We got our story in multiple news articles because of the earthquake which will be a fantastic keepsake :)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4708653/Quake-not-enough-to-rush-Joseph

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10708939

I stayed two nights at Christchurch Women's Hospital then transferred out to Lincoln Maternity Hospital where I stayed for three nights.  The midwives out at Lincoln were all lovely and a huge help, especially with establishing breast feeding...who knew such a natural thing could be so difficult!  Our persistence has paid off as when our midwife visited us on Thursday we had Joseph weighed again.  Instead of losing weight like most newborns he'd put on 80g!
Hamish has been awesome, visiting me every day in hospital for most of the day allowing me to get in much needed naps.  He's such a fantastic Dad too, making sure we all have what we need and being a great support...I tend to forget I've had a fairly major abdominal surgery since I've been feeling pretty good but Hamish has made sure everything is done, groceries, washing, cooking etc. and although he can't breast feed he's amazing at settling the wee fella when he's upset!
We have such a hugely amazing journey ahead of us and I'm really looking forward to it, love our wee guy to pieces :-)