MY PREGNANCY JOURNEY - IS THE BABY HERE YET?

41 weeks and 4 days…

Still no signs of labour yet…someone is getting too comfortable in my belly and Mama is getting really agitated. I cannot even lie, I must have gently tapped on my tummy to shake ‘’things’’ up a bit in there so that baby knows the whole tribe is awaiting his grand entry and courtesy demands he doesn’t keep everyone waiting for too long. Haba!

Interestingly, at my last ANC date, the gynaecologist had booked me for induction on 25^th January 2018 that was if I hadn’t naturally gone on labour myself prior to this date.

Apparently, it was in everybody’s interest if I did go into labour naturally and Lord did I hope I would…well, 25^th January came and I was still carrying my bump all around as usual. In fact, two days before this day, I had washed a heap of clothes, thoroughly cleaned my house and was super active as always.

Mum had already come around a day before my induction appointment, so we left for the hospital together that morning. I DROVE us to the hospital (yeah, I did). Immediately all the documentation process was over, a nurse took me to a bed space in the ward, gave me my maternity pack and asked me to ‘’just rest’’. This was even before 8am. In my head I was like, ‘’hello, can we just get this started already’’? My hospital bag was set beside me; other not-so-important things were in the car booth. Mum wasn’t allowed in, so she stayed in the lobby and asked me to call her phone if I needed anything.

I laid on the bed for several hours and the doctors and nurses would pass by, read through my folder and say ‘’oh, you are for induction? Ok, keep resting’’. I was losing my mind. Even when new docs and nurses resumed fresh shift at say 4pm, I kept hearing, ‘’just rest’’ every one hour. Hubs was calling from work and concerned about the delay and everyone was visibly tensed. During this period, I completed a business transaction online (Steph didn’t even know I was in the hospital to have my baby). One Doctor read my file once again and mentioned something about that evening being my ‘’party time’’. Yeah right, you guys should get to work already; I thought. He directed my Mum to go to the pharmacy down the hall and purchase all I’ll need for the induction process. I was thereafter instructed to come to a certain room at 6pm that evening. FINALLY!

6pm on the dot, I was at the door of the room and was ushered to another bed space with scary lights and instruments all over the space. I was asked to strip and then the process started. (They are supposed to run a long tube into you which will release some hormones to begin the labour process artificially. Your water will then break after this).

Let’s just say that getting the tube into me wasn’t so easy for the doc as I gave stiff resistance throughout the process. I could sense his irritation, but I didn’t care. The process was painful, and I reacted exactly how I felt. Simple! In a short long while, we were done, and l was asked to go rest till the next morning. On my way to the ward, I met Mum and Hubs and I was filling them in on how the induction went, when I began to feel a certain way. I immediately went to lie in and Mum was with me. Then, I felt a hot flush like I had peed on myself. MY WATER HAD BROKEN. I was happy. Baby will come in no distant time right? I thought so too. I informed the nurse and I cannot remember what happened next, but I remember telling my Mum I had to sleep and she said she was going to sleep in the hospital also. Hubs went home.

25^th January 2018 night to 26^th January, 2018 morning was the longest night of my life. I kid you not! I began to have contractions for about half a minute every five minutes (which in my opinion was too fast to start with!) imagine having to wake up every five minutes to severe pains in my belly? I had earlier downloaded this contraction timer on my phone and was using this to track my progression. EPIC FAIL. When the pain became even more severe, I forgot to track sef…in retrospect now, I seriously wonder what use that tracker was to me…NADA.

This was how I spent the night till the next morning (I did bear the pain all through the night and was even praising myself because I thought I had felt the worst pain there was…how much worse can it get please? Little did I know).

By 6am on the 26^th of January, I had a bath and went to the labour ward as l was directed. Got there and I met two other pregnant ladies in there…apparently, they were brought in from their homes during the night. The two ladies were in complete contrast…both were in active labour, but whilst one was unusually calm and in pain (when her contractions came, she’ll hold unto the iron bedframe and squeeze the hell outta it until the contraction eased out), the other lady was shouting on top of her voice and creating a scene. I was the observer. The latter was checked by the Doctor and l heard she was in 7cm. The former was still in 4cm. For the benefit of those who do not know, in lay terms, your baby’s head is supposed to protrude downwards to your birth canal 10cm before you are asked to push him/she out. I was barely 2cm but my pain was already in 1 zillion cm in my head. I heard I was not even in active labour… two other doctors came in to check me and confirmed I wasn’t in active labour. ’’whhhhhhaaaaaat? please say that again Doctor? I’m about to go crazy here and you mean to tell me that I haven’t started? Jokes on you Sir. Don’t annoy me please’’ I thought in my head. I laid on the bed and in less than 30 minutes, you could hear my screams even louder than the other lady’s own. I drowned her screams and overpowered it. The building was shaking because I had taken over.

I was placed on drips and some other stuffs to quicken the labour, and I was going bunkers. Every ‘’check’’ by the Doctor to confirm my progression was super painful. The doctors will put on sanitized safety gloves and literally put their five fingers inside you (down there) to check! I could feel my eyes roll to the back of my head each time they came to check me. And I can swear they did that up to ten times or more. I was supposed to lie on my side on the bed but I found this position to be highly uncomfortable. I was advised against lying face up, and anytime I did I’ll be directed to lie on my side.

To cut the long story short, I wasn’t dilating properly and l was in 4cm from morning till about two that afternoon. The doctors were getting worried because I was in active labour pain-wise but not labour-wise. I called Hub and we literally begged the Doctors for a voluntary C-Section. They refused. They insisted I could go through vaginal delivery. I think they talked Hubs into believing it was normal for me to feel pain being a first time mum and everything was under control. I didn’t believe them, I told the Doctors they were out to kill my baby or myself. I told them I’ll push him out immediately if they keep watching me in pains and doing nothing. I walked out on the drip affixed to my hand and watched my blood trail me as I went on. I wasn’t bothered. I kept on walking… Nurses rushed to my aid and held onto me, brought me back safely to my bed and kept engaging me to bear the pains and relax. I didn’t. I couldn’t. One nurse even went out to look for my mum, brought her in to admonish me and Mum asked me to keep praying. I stared her in the eyes and couldn’t even utter a word. Prayer was far from me at the time (except in my mind), I was in pain, exhausted and obviously not dilating as fast as I should. By now, the two ladies from that morning had already put to bed. I asked to poo, to vomit, to eat and anything you could think of every time. The doctors and nurses got too tired of me. I didn’t even care, I was tired of them and their labour ward too. Get this baby out and let all of us have peace! Nobody was listening. I was given injections on my lap and I didn’t even feel it. At this juncture, an injection to my eyeball wouldn’t have hurt me. I had exceeded every threshold of pain I ever thought there was, and was confronting new ones. Hubs was crying, I was crying and screaming, Mum was praying…I eventually progressed and kept progressing after this.

Some minutes past half 5pm, I was wheeled to the delivery room to finally have my baby…story continues in my next post.

Quick guess? Did I have a boy or a girl? Through what means? Vaginal or C-Section?

Next article comes shortly…keep refreshing this site to find out these answers.

In the meantime, please share your birth experiences below? For would-be mums and dads, what are your expectations for delivery? Would you opt for a voluntary CS from the onset? Do share with us in the comment section below.

Have a nice day,

­Barby.