Giving Birth Second Time Round not Sooooo........ Bad! a Blow by Blow Account......

Friday 28 November, 2008, 15:05 saw the arrival of Milla Grace Poisson onto planet Earth. I’m told I was there, but I’m not so sure I was.

 I arrived at the Parklane at 07:00 ready to be induced, only to discover that I was in fact contracting all on my own already. That’s nature for you. Anyway, they helped me along with a drip that brought the contractions on stronger and got me dilating a little quicker. I was managing just fine until 11:05 when the mother of all contractions arrived bringing with her instant Tourette’s syndrome and a suitcase full of PAIN! She seemed to be moving in for a good, long stay! 3 minutes, later she’d unpacked her overnight bag and three minutes after that, most of her summer wardrobe. I realised these contractions were not going anywhere soon, and certain measures were called for.  Between bouts of uncontrollable swearing I ordered the epidural. Half an hour and about eight contractions later, the anaesthetist arrived with his wonderful needle of relief. Greg donated his left hand to the cause as I nearly broke all his fingers squeezing it through the next few contractions and the needle going into the gap in my spine and I felt liquid pain relief flooding  the vacuum. Within ten minutes I was laughing about Greg’s fingers and commenting on how my contractions were so much more manageable… 

The wonders of modern medicine. According to the graph, the contractions got slightly stronger and continued at intervals of about three minutes for the next three hours. I can categorically state, that without the epidural I would have killed someone or broken something, or jumped out a window.  

At 14:30 I was wheeled through to the delivery room. I asked them to turn the epidural down a little so that I could feel myself pushing. When the doc arrived at five to three everything was ready and I was fully dilated. PB’s head was still quite high, but the doc said She should still just pop right out. I pushed on the first contraction and she began to crown. To his dismay Greg was summonsed to take a look, which he did… The next push sent the shoulders through and within seconds I had a wet, blue baby lying on my tummy. They suctioned her and she began to cry. They took her away to do the Apgar and give her some oxygen. The doc said he had had to take the cord off her neck – hence the blue colour of her. She had to spend some time on the oxygen and the Paed was called to give her a quick check. I had to wait about half an hour before I could hold her, but I could see her and Greg and the Oxytocin was doing it’s job – making me feel like a loved up rave bunny! When I did get to hold her she latched immediately and seemed totally content. 

I only stayed in hospital one night due to the fact that the nurse’s call button sounded just like a doorbell, and it went off ALL NIGHT. I figured I would get better rest at home, so with the all clear from my doc and the paed, we left on Saturday morning.

 Milla behaved very well although I had to wake her for feeds – she’s a big sleepy head. Sunday when we woke up she had taken on a distinct yellow glow, and earned herself the name of Pumpkin. She is rather jaundiced which accounts for the sleepiness, but it is clearing up after exposure to sunlight.

 The second time is so very different to the first time round. Bethany is full of questions and helpful hints and tips like: “you must rock her mommy” when she cries, and “babies don’t like wet nappies!” when she poops. She seems very proud of her sister, even though she is having difficulty remembering her name and refers only to her as ‘my sister’. Keeping the house quiet is near impossible, so Milla is going to have to be one of those children that can sleep through a hurricane. She’s not doing too badly already!

 I am doing fine, although I think the repercussions of sleep deprivation have yet to kick in. I also have a sense that Milla is about to discover her lungs, so the quiet times will be fewer and further between.

Thanks mom for everything you taught me, about achieving my goals.

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