Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Henry Parker Klimetz

That's what all this fuss was about!?!





Henry Parker Klimetz
Tuesday, July 13th 2010, 8:58pm
6lbs 13 oz
20.5 inches long

48 hours of labour...
No drugs!


Visit Captured Photography's fantastic blog for awesome pictures of the little fellow.

He is the most beautiful little man I have ever laid my eyes on, and I would do nothing but hold him and stare at him all day long, if I only could!

As a couple, Danny and I try our hardest not to take medicines. In the five years that I have been married to Danny, I could probably count on one hand the number of times Ive seen him take an Ibuprofen; so it seemed a logical progression that we wouldn't use any drugs for the birth of our baby. Though as every one kept reminding me, I had never known the pain of child birth.

All day Sunday I had mild pains that we didn't attribute to anything much. We played cards (I lost), watched TV and generally chilled out. Danny drove to the airport to get my parents in the evening, who arrived much later than planned due to a storm in Canada. When they got here we ate a simple pasta of spinach, tomatoes and mozzarella and that's when I started noticing the pains. We started timing them around 10pm ish, roughly 5 minutes apart. I was determined not to go to the hospital too early for fear of having drugs forced on me, so we waited. We called our Doula, Alison, around 130am as the pains had been 3 minutes apart for 90 minutes. Getting everything ready and into the car we saw my mum who was exceptionally worried when we told her how frequent the contractions were and for how long they had been that way, she thought we had left it too late. Ha. Little did we all know.

The first thing they do when you get to the hospital is check your cervix; 2cm. You have to be kidding me. 30% effacement and -2 station. I was disappointed, to say the least. Danny brought all of our 'coping' mechanisms up, the soothing music, the birthing ball, our over night bags and what not. Next piece of bad news was that despite knowing that my Doctor got back from vacation on Saturday, he was not 'available' until Monday morning, so I had to have a stand in doctor. Its incredible how the mind rules the body; the contractions slowed, I believe with the knowledge that I had to have a different doctor. We laboured together through the night, Danny and Alison were great and helped me cope well. The nurses coming in periodically asking if I wanted drugs yet, were some what annoying, but the answer was always no. I became so so tired, falling asleep between 2 and 3 minute contractions. Some contractions were on top of each other for a minute at a time, often giving up to 4 consecutive minutes of contractions with no break. In the morning I had stomach cramps, but none of the hospital staff believed me, they all thought it was back labour, but I know that it was not. Then standing over the bed in my hospital gown, Im sure with my arse hanging out, I hear the voice of my doctor asking me what was wrong. Ha! He was back at work, of course the contractions came closer together again! Though by lunch time they checked me again and not much was going on, despite all of the pain. The nurse was actually mean enough to say that had she measured me, she would have put me at 1 cm. So they discharged me. I cried and I cried and I cried. I had now been in labour well over 14 hours and are you telling me my cervix has re-gressed? Seriously. To make matters worse, I was now confused about when we would come back to the hospital, since we came when 3 minute contractions had been occurring for well over an hour. So I asked the nurse, how will we know when to return to the hospital. Her reply, "Real labour is intense". Oh, so please, tell me again with a straight face that the agony I have been in for the past thousand hours is not intense. To add insult to injury, she then said I will need to reschedule my doctors appointment for next Monday. Next Monday! What a b-atch.

So we went home. I don't really remember, but Im sure I cried all the way home.

Danny ran me a bath, and yes, I was still having regular contractions between 3 and 5 minutes apart. He tried to make me eat, since I hadn't eaten since Sunday evening, but as I took a mouthful of bread I had another contraction and nearly choked on it. About this time, I seem to remember crying to Danny that if I could be in that much pain and not dilate at all but just efface from 30 to 100%, I was not going to be able to do it, I was going to need the drugs. Of course he tried to reassure me, but convincing a sleep-deprived, hungry woman in pain that she can manage whatever comes her way, is no easy task. So I took the first drugs I had taken in my entire pregnancy; two Tylenol and Two Benadryl. Neither of us had slept Sunday night, so I dealt with my continual contractions as quietly as possible so that Danny could sleep. I managed to sleep 3-6 minutes between contractions. I noticed that I was loosing the mucus plug.

Tuesday morning, Danny went to work. I attempted to make blackberry muffins but had to stop every 2-3 minutes for contractions and eventually after at least two hours of trying to bake some simple muffins, I gave up and had Dave finish them. Alison came by to check on me around lunchtime. Then everyone left me. My parents went out for lunch and Danny picked his brother up from camp. Those were the worst contractions I had and I had them alone. When my mum came back she tried to tell me I was in Transition and that I needed to go to the hospital but I cried out that I wasn't going to the hospital as they would only send me home again. In the end they convinced me to go to the doctors who consented to check me. We parked away from the door and walked into the surgery, having contractions all the while. 6cm!!! Time to go to Labour and Delivery!!! So we walked! It was a great idea, whoever suggested it, and did wonders for my morale. We even walked around the car park before going into the ER.

Everything was different this time when we got to the hospital - everyone was rushing around in a hurry. They asked the all important question "Do you want the Epidural"; No, I would rather not, but I don't know how painful childbirth is.

8cm

10cm

Waters broke.

The nurses were fantastic.

Pushing was hard. Im not going to lie. You just don't know what to push. And it hurt. And they wouldn't let me sit up. And there was an oxygen mask on my face, oh and I was hungry, suddenly really hungry and I realised I hadn't eaten or slept since Sunday - it was Tuesday, night.

The baby's heart rate was dropping dangerously low. The doctor looked me directly in the eye, "Lauren, baby's heart rate has been below 60 for over two minutes, it is not recovering from the contractions. Two more contractions and we are going to do a C-Section". Panic. He told me to rest the next contraction, but it was actually the first one that I had really wanted to push. So I pushed and then I could see a little head! Then the doctor was holding the rest of him!!! I cried as they placed him on my belly! He cried and cried! Such a wonderful sound after so long! Danny held him after they had cleaned my little Henry, it was a beautiful sight! Breast feeding went well straight off the bat, such a wonderful feeling! The second time we went to the hospital we were there 3 hours before we had a baby. We didn't have any of our stuff; no camera, no music, no birthing ball, I even forgot my wallet and my glasses. It seems impromptu may have worked better for us!

There was no recovery, since I didn't have the drugs - I felt great straight away. One small tear, but no stitches.

The shower I took the next morning was the loveliest shower of my life!

He is asleep on my chest in his little froggy pose, in his little froggy outfit, as I type one handed, my beautiful Henry. Such a good young fellow. I cherish his naps on my chest in his post-feeding mini-coma, partly because I know it wont last for long and because I know he is going to grow up quickly and be getting married before I know it.



1 comment:

  1. Just reading your birthing story makes me all teary-eyed. Trauma and beautiful moments all in one! I'm so glad everything worked out well in the end and Henry is a healthy little guy. Best wishes to the whole family!!

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