Birth, one guy's experience

This is probably a bit late in coming but as you can expect, having a newborn to look after and having started a new job, the whole blogging thing has taken a little bit of a back seat. That said, the birthing process is freak'n amazing but there is some pretty scary stuff that's going to happen and it's not always what you think. This, as best as I can remember it, is how it played out for me...

Friday, T-minus 33 hours

The good lady wife has a bit of a show. Nothing to worry about though, aparently. We laugh about how in the movies, the woman always wakes the man up with a smile and a nod and says "It's time". Jades begins complaining of back pain throughout the day, we assume that she has been sitting uncomfortably or lifted something the wrong way. An early night and some rest will fix that, nothing to worry about there.

Saturday, T-minus 15 hours

Jade got up at 2:00 am, the back pain had gotten increasingly worse and seemed to ease off and come back at fairly regular intervals, I of course am out to it. At 3:00 am, TGLW wakes me with a smile and nod and says "It's time". Nice one Jade! It is then that I realise we haven't packed the hospital bag because this isn't supposed to happen for 5 weeks! A quick dash round the house, a bag packed and it was off to the hospital. Fortunately we live just around the corner. Even more fotunate as when packing I had forgotten the TENS machine, so was able to duck home and pick it up during a relatively quiet moment.

Having been admitted to the birthing suite, the wife was hooked up to a machine to monitor the baby's heartbeat and also the strength of her contractions. The contractions weren't really registering on the machine as they were occurring quite low in the back, rather than high up on the front. (I don't really know why this is or what it means.)

As it was three in the morning and it wasn't an emergency, there wasn't a doctor to see us right away. And since the contractions weren't registering on the machine we, and the midwives too, were expeting us to be sent home when the doctor arrived.

T-minus 8 hours, doctor arrives

So after six hours in the birthing suite, with the contractions still not really registerring, the doctor arrives. By this time Jade and I are pretty tired and looking forward to the doctor telling us it's braxton hicks and that we can go home. Surprise, by the title of this post, you can probably guess this wasn't the case. What she did say was "You're four centimetres dialated. You'll be having a baby today"

Game On! (Enough with the whole T-minus thing)

From here, we got down to the business end of the delivery pretty quickly, although the good lady wife probably doesn't think so:) Contractions began increasing in frequency and intensity to the point where the she was vomiting with each one. This is where it started getting a bit scary for me. The wife has a pretty high threshold for pain and is not noisy by nature, so while the woman in the birth suite next door was screaming down the house, my lady was throwing up, that is some serious pain!!!

The doctor prescribed Maxilon for the vomitting to little effect, which meant that Gas was out of the question for pain relief. You can't really suck down nitrous oxide while your throwing up. Not being a real fan of Pethadine meant that an epidural was the only option left for pain relief.

The Epidural was a really freaky thing to see. Firstly, the process of having a needle inserted into your loved ones spine is an incredibly nerve wracking thing to witness. Then seeing the drug take effect and my moaning, vomitting wife all of a sudden relax and close her eyes, scared the hell out of me. I know it probably shouldn't have but there was something about it that felt like a loss of control. After a little while she was lucid again and back into action. The epidural had taken effect, the vomiting stopped and she was able to get down to business and focus on what needed to be done.

Push!!!

So, it all comes down to this. When the pushing began everything seemed pretty normal. Just like we had spoken about in the prenatal classes, like what you see on telly and things seemed to be going normally. The doctor trying to get a good two or three pushes per contranction. Then, after each contraction the baby's heart rate would drop. At one point from 140 down to 70. I had heard about this and knew that it meant the baby was in distress.

The doctors were great, talking us through what was happening but it was here that I started to lose my shit. (Internally of course, nothing showed, had my poker face on. I'm a closed book me, you just can't read me.) The thought occurred to me that something could go wrong, that we could lose the baby, I could lose Jade or both of them. Terrifying!!!

With the baby in distress and already engaged it was going to mean a forceps delivery. This again was terrifying, The force used to get him out was so full on I thought she (the doctor) was going to pull his head off. She didn't of course and out he came. He was quick to cry and I was then free to lose my shit visibly and had a bit of a cry. We had a son and everyone was still alive. He was quickly weighed, measured and then popped up on to Mum's chest for a bit of "Hi, what's your name? I love you!"

Done

Mum then went on to pass the placenta, the nurses asked if we wanted to take a look at it, which I thought was a little weired at first, but when they ask if you want a look. Take one, it's amazing! To see the house your bub has called home for nine months and marvel at the wonder that is the human body.

And that is pretty much my experience of the birth. The wife was alive and well, the bub was then admitted to special care nursery as he was five weeks premature (but that's another story). And it really was the first day of the rest of our lives. I am so incredibly happy and amazed at the strength of my wife. She is amazing! She makes people now!