I could never find a labor and delivery story from a pre-pregnancy diabetic to read when I was pregnant so here's mine for you. Hope it helps you out!
Let's set the scene. It's March 14 and Thomas (My SO) and I have decided to try for a baby. Or at least, see what happens. No one gets pregnant on the first month of trying, do they? Yes. They do. No sooner had we decided we were ready for the journey into parenthood, those two little lines had shown up on the stick. I was about 3 and a half weeks pregnant when I had my first positive test. I was due my period on the Saturday but tested on the Thursday, knowing it would probably be negative as it was too soon, but nope... a (very) feint second line had appeared. The first few weeks involved a lot of referral appointments and messing around with midwives, consultants and diabetes specialists. My average reading was about 18.5-20.5. and I had only been diabetic for 6 months and had no idea what to do to bring them down! I was 7 weeks and 2 days when I had my first little peek at my baby. All there was on the screen was a cluster of pixels and that little flicker of a beating heart but seeing it there made it so real. There was a beating heart inside that I'm growing, and that would one day be my child. I had another scan the next day due to a bit of appointment booking confusion where my due date was set at my 20th birthday, the 17th January 2015. The wait between scans was lethal. Most only have 2/3 scan's during their entire pregnancy. I had four in the first 10 weeks. It was amazing watching this little seed grow into something with distinguishable features. My scan at 10 weeks looked like a little ape was growing inside me! Knowing that there would be a 10 week wait until myÛweek scan, where we could find out a gender was not going to suit us, so naturally, after a slightly over exaggerated delivery van incident, we were booked in for a scan at 14 weeks and 5 days. This was the scan that changed everything for me. There was a person in there. There was arms, legs, a spine, a brain.... and a penis. It's a BOY! Being so little, you could see so much detail on his body, with his eyes, his nose, his fingers and toes. It was incredible!
6 weeks later and it’s time for our 20 weeks’ scan. By now, I've had lots of help from my specialist and my levels are almost normal with just the odd spike here and there. Thomas’s mum, and my dad came to the scan and we all marveled at the anatomy of this little human. He was completely perfect. This was the last time we had a 'perfect' scan. Because of being diabetic, we had routine growth scans booked to make sure he didn't get too big. We also had our 4D scan booked so we could see his little face. The 4D scan, was something else. It wasn't medical, it was just for us to enjoy some time looking at our baby. He was stubborn to say the least, it took so long to get his foot out of his eye to get a clear picture but once we did, he was beautiful. The absolute spit image of his daddy! I treasure the pictures and videos from that day. Every scan we went back to at the hospital, he had grown that little bit too much more, until at 36 weeks, he was estimated at 8lbs 2oz. At 5'3 and still only 8.5 stone, I was a giant. People thought I was expecting twins and didn't believe me what I said that I was only (insert week number here) saying that I looked about to drop at any moment from about 30 weeks. Well, I didn't drop and finally at 37 weeks and 2 days, I had my hospital bed ready to be induced. I was having hypos all the time which is a sign of the placenta starting to stop working as well and was almost bed bound by this point because of the size of my bump and it was the best decision to get things going.
It was late evening when we got to the hospital the night of my induction. It's common practice to insert a gel which starts to dilate and efface your cervix ready for labour and then within 24 hours, labour either starts naturally or doctor's intervene via breaking your water's or a Pitocin drip. I arrived expecting a baby that night, or maybe in the morning. Getting told it could take up to 3 days what not what I wanted! Anyway, the midwife who was to administer the gel came and did a cervical check on me and I was already 3cm. The gel was pointless. She told me that I might go into labour on my own overnight but if I didn't then they would break my waters first thing in the morning.
It was the
longest
night
of my life.
Longer than the nights I spent getting the steroid injections when I had threatened preterm labour at 31 weeks. I ad other pregnant women there to keep me company but I just wanted that night to end. I wanted to meet my baby and end the hell on earth that was the last few months of my pregnancy! 6am came around and I was taken to the labour ward ready to get things started. Thomas arrived pretty early in the am and my waters were broken. An possible NFL player took the first attempt. She hurt like a bitch, scraping the hook along my cervix and almost making me pass out in pain. Yes, it was that bad. The older midwife then finished her job in one smooth move. It's hard to explain the feeling of having your water's broken. You can't feel it physically being ripped open, but the gush of warm water is like nothing else. It's even worse when you stand up and it just keeps flowing out continuously. I had a lot of water so it didn't stop for a long time! It was about 7/8am when I was told to walk around the hospital for half an hour to try and kick start the contractions and if that didn't work, then the Pitocin drip would be started. You have aÛhour deadline after your waters are broken to deliver your baby or you will be given a C Section to reduce the risk of infection. About half past 9, the decision was made that my contractions weren't strong enough and the drip was needed. It was started up around midday and I was not in the slightest prepared for what happened next! Contraction 1 and 2 were like period cramps. Nothing major, enough to notice but I could talk during. Then came contraction 3. It felt like someone had just shoved a hot iron through my stomach! The intense pain and sudden increase in intensity made me projectile vomit. This continued every4 minutes for around 20 minutes until the nurses decided that an epidural and ans-bsickness drug was desperately needed. A clip was attached to baby's head as I couldn't keep still through the vomiting, and hot iron stabbing and the screaming. Yes, it hurt that much! By the time the anesthetist arrived, I was exhausted. Pitocin induced contractions are known to be the worst pain possible during a labour. It's the intensity of being at 10cm when you could be a 3/4. I couldn't do it! When I had the epidural in, which I didn't even feel compared to the contractions, I could breathe a sigh of relief. I could handle a few hours of this. No pain at all! So naturally, I grabbed an hours sleep while I could. I woke up around 2pm with no feeling below my chest apart from one. I needed to poo! The midwives said I was mad. No one dilates that quickly in a first pregnancy and it was just my imagination. Thanks to some persuasion by Thomas's mother, they checked me again, despite being at 4cm an hour before and I was fully dilated and baby's head was maybe an inch from crowning. Cue everyone rushing about getting ready to deliver? No.
They made me wait a whole hour before pushing, even though I knew I was ready! When they finally got me ready to push, they moved me to the centre of the bed... and pulled out the epidural! All the feeling came rushing back into me and I was hysterical. I can't put into words how much pain is involved with being at 10cm dilated. Your entire insides feel like they are twisting and pulling themselves about trying to escape a fire burning in the deepest part of your lower abdomen. It is the worst pain I have ever been through, plus more. It took me two hours of shouting at the midwives, doctors and Thomas before my baby was finally delivered. It's true what they say, a woman gains super human strength in labour. I managed to full pick up a 15 stone man as well as push away two midwives in the pushing stage. His head took so long to decend, mainly because I was crying, refusing to push and begging for a C Section but as soon as he started crowning, this overwhelming feeling took over me and I knew I needed to do this on my own. There is nothing pleasant about another woman pushing half a hand into your vagina and telling you to push her away, but it's what I needed to guide me on where to concentrate my energy. My boy had a massive head. It caused a slight tear or two on its way out but after 2hours of pushing, there it was. It will forever be the strangest moment of my life looking down between my legs and seeing a human head hanging there. A few more pushing and his shoulders flew out, leaving some nasty second degree tears behind. He was put straight onto my chest while Thomas cut the cord. Hello Baby!
Caleb was born on the 30th December 2014 at 5:21pm, weighing in at 8lbs 11oz. I barely remember delivering the placenta, least of all the injection to speed things along but what I do remember is watching Thomas holding our little boy while I got stitched up. That hour was almost worse than the hour before! I had gas and air and the promise of a baby to get me through pushing... but the sttches...! When it was all done and dusted, Thomas had been sent home by the midwives, grandparents had visited and held their new grandchild, I sat there in the delivery room alone, looking at my baby boy in his cot thinking 'Well, now what Do I pick him up, let him sleep, change him, feed him?' Beyond anything, I was exhilarated about what had just happened. I'd just had a baby! ME! And he was perfect. My little son.
Today he's 18 months old, perfectly healthy and a big brother to his little sister, Freya, born 10/02/16. My sugars were perfect at the beginning of her pregnancy but after months of vomiting and then bad food poisening, my control was gone and never came back! We had a much worse delivery experience with her. She was also born at 37 weeks, I wasn't induced and she was 9lbs 10oz! We spent time in SCBU because of her sugar levels, as well of a bunch of issues because she was so big. She got stuck quite badly and even though it was a natural delvery, she had a hard time breathing and almost broke her shoulder. She doing really well now though and has barely any signs of how bad she was at birth.
