As we are fast approaching Melody’s first birthday “sob” I thought it would be helpful to reflect on how she came into the world almost a year ago. Even though 10th March 2018 was probably the most important day of mine and Mikes lives I felt writing down the days events will help us to always remember them.
My pregnancy pretty much ran smoothly up until I hit 28ish weeks, I remember the midwife appointment so clearly as it was a couple days after Christmas and the first time my bump had been measured, instead of measuring 28 weeks it was measuring 35. The midwife rang the ultrasound department and I was told I had to go there first thing in the morning for a growth scan. During my scan I was instead told that the baby was not growing as fast as she should and was in fact measuring smaller and on the 2nd centile. From that date on I had to see a consultant and have an ultrasound scan every two weeks. By the time I had my ultrasound appointment at 38 weeks Melody had not grown at all from the previous scan two weeks prior this plus the fact I had very high blood pressure meant that the consultant told me that I had to go straight to the delivery suite at hospital.
Once there we were told that I was being admitted to delivery suite and I would be staying over as the consultant wanted to me to be induced first thing the following day. Mike stayed with me over night at the hospital in a chair with just a sheet over him whilst I had my blood pressure checked continually throughout the night.
My mum arrived at 7am the next morning however I waited around until 12pm before I was actually induced due to how busy the delivery suite was. Now I had no clue what to expect about being induced, I had this idea that I was going to go over by two weeks so I didn’t even need to think of it! If I can give anyone advice it would be read up as much as you can whilst you’re pregnant! Now once you have the gel to induce labour you have to lay down on the bed for 30 minutes so it actually can start working (not the best when you’re heavily pregnant and peeing every 2 minutes). When you can move around, the best thing to do is move. I can honestly say I walked around every single floor of that hospital and danced on a exercise ball to get the baby moving. Every now and again I would get a slight niggle but I didn’t think they were contractions. After a couple of hours the midwives decided to put me on the monitor to monitor the baby and whenever I would get a slight stomach pain my baby’s heart rate would spike. Due to this the midwife in charge decided to delay my second induction until the next day, by this time it was 9pm and my dad had arrived to pick up my mum and Mike however the pains were getting worse. My mum went out to speak to one of the midwives who then decided to come in and check the monitor. Once again the baby’s heart rate was spiking with the pains and the consultant was called who mentioned if it carried on I would have to go to theatre for a Caesarian section. Two midwives then came in and tried to get me to lay on my side so they could monitor the baby’s heart rate as the monitor wasn’t picking it up very well. By this point however I was in a lot of pain and could hardly turn over. The midwife then decided they should break my waters so that they could attach a monitor onto the baby’s head to measure her heart rate, this is when they told me that I was 1cm dilated at 10:30pm. Over the next hour my contractions got increasingly worse and the consultant came in and was still unhappy with the baby’s heart rate and decided we should go to theatre for a c-section. As the anestatist came in to explain the procedure and for me to sign the forms my contractions were one after another and my body was automatically pushing. No matter how many times the consulant told me to not push I simply couldn’t help it, thankfully the midwife in charge decided to see how dilated I was before we went to theatre and I was 10cm dilated and the consulant said they had to take blood from the baby to check if I would be able to push her out. I was told it would take 15 minutes for the procedure so I would have to try and not push for fifteen minutes. Which honestly felt longer than the nine months I had just been pregnant for! Once the midwife came back in with the consulant who decided I could push her out! After twenty minutes of pushing I was told just one more push and my world changed forever when I heard a little cry.
Melody came into the world at 00:50am on 10th March 2018
If you’re wondering where Mike my partner was during my two hour and twenty minute labour he was next to me but he honestly didn’t speak he was in such shock! When he and my mum stepped out to let my dad know that my waters broke she asked mike if he was ok and his reply was ‘No I’m not Jayne I’m freaking out’ which I think should sum up how most first time dads are feeling when they are in a completely strange surrounding watching their partner go through childbirth. He was in shock throughout the whole experience but he fell in love with Melody straight away (even if he was too scared to cut her umbilical cord).
My dad sat in the waiting room all night as he was so excited to see his little granddaughter and my mum was so happy to be in the room to see her being born.
It was just the most incredible moment of my life and I wanted to share my story so that I can always remember how special that date and time will be.
Laura xx
Melody and Mama 