Sienna's birth story

Better late than never, eh?!!

People haven't stopped asking me the details of Sienna's birth story, so I finally documented the saga below. It's amazing how some details never fade. Happy reading!!

It was Thursday, October 1st and my official due date was September 30th. I was absolutely exhausted from 9 months of pregnancy, months of consecutive sleepless nights, aching pubic symphysis dysfunction (aka: pelvic instability) and an overactive toddler. So, that morning, I rang in the troops to help bring some peace to my day. Yaya & Papu came over and whisked away my little terror so I could get some much needed rest. That afternoon, I actually managed a two hour nap! I NEVER had a nap during the entire pregnancy, much less TWO WHOLE BLISSFUL, UNINTERRUPTED HOURS!!!! I awoke feeling somewhat refreshed and human again.

That evening, my in-laws brought Austin back to us and they headed back home at approximately 8:00 pm.

We put Austin to bed and started getting ready to wind down for the evening. Here is a timeline of events that followed during the next two hours:

9:00 pm - I started feeling some twinges in my belly. They were nothing like what I experienced with Austin , so didn't think too much about it. I figured they *MIGHT* be braxton hicks (duh!). I opened contractionmaster.com to start timing them. They were very irregular, so it wasn't helpful at all.

9:22 pm - I sent a text message to the midwife student who was following me throughout the pregnancy and was meant to be at the birth saying "MIGHT be having ctx, so have mobile close just in case". Ummm....MIGHT be having contractions?!!! HELLLLLOOOO!!! By that point, I was unable to walk more than two steps without hunching over in pain. What the hell was I thinking!?!!

9:25 pm - Started packing the rest of my hospital bag and getting things together because I'm an anal cow who just had to get all my belongings in order. Again...what the HELL was I thinking?! I was in so much pain that I couldn't even do it myself. I had to direct Arthur so he could do the packing for me while I hunched over on the couch in agonizing pain. Oh, and in the midst of all this, he decided to take a little break in the toilet. I thought he was getting some things for me when I realised the fan was on in there. Yelling to him, What are you doing in there?!! He replied that he would be just a few minutes. For those of you who do not know him well, you will now come to realise that he has impeccable timing with this sort of thing. NO matter what time of day it is, his body seems to go into action the minute we need to walk out the door. This time was no exception.

9:45'ish - So, amidst all the packing, we realised that we should probably ring Arthur's parents to come back to the house so they could mind Austin. This is when it finally dawned on us that we *MIGHT* just need to get to the hospital sometime later that night. This is also when I finally realised that I can whip out my new toy: the TENS machine!! Thank Christ for that device, as it was my only saving grace during the rest of the events to follow. [if you don't know what a TENS machine is, GOOGLE it!]

After 9:45 - This section will be somewhat TMI, so readers BEWARE.

I went to the lieu twice and noticed that my panty-liner was tinged very very pale pink. I started thinking to myself that maybe the liners were now packaged pink instead of white. I must have had a 3 minute conversation in my own head about this when I could have easily just taken a new one out of the packet to check. But no. My preggy-belly-brain was in full action and I chose to ponder this ever so useless detail instead. [In case you're wondering, the liners are white out of the package]. So, the contractions were getting really really strong now. I couldn't tell how far apart they were since they were right on top of each other (but didn't realise they were right on top of one another until it was too late). At some point during this time, my waters must have broken without me realising it.

10:15'ish - Arthur's parents arrived. I was in our bedroom, on my knees and leaning over the bed while holding my belly. I could hardly breath because the pain was taking over my whole body [yet I was still able to tell Arthur to pack a few more things. I told you I'm an anal cow]. Arthur's mom tried to come over to greet me and she jumped back as if she had just witnessed Charles Manson in action. She obviously didn't realise that you DO NOT TOUCH A WOMAN IN LABOUR when said woman has had no drugs!!!!

10:20 - So, I had only been in pain for just over an hour at this point. I was in pain with Austin for a good 5 hours before we headed to hospital and then I was in labour for another 8 hours after that. So, I still had heaps of time, RIGHT?!! Somehow, amidst attempts to breath through the contractions, I was able to think clearly enough to realise that I was actually in labour and that we should ring the hospital. Once Arthur had them on the phone, the midwife asked to speak to me. I just couldn't bear to lift my arms off the mattress which I was clenching for dear life. Suddenly, I had the urgent need to P-U-S-H all while experiencing pain that I never thought could get any worse. The midwife told Arthur to ring 000 for an ambulance. In the meantime, she asked him to put me on the floor so he could, eh-hem, *examine* me. She wanted him to check if he could see the baby's head. So, Dr Arthur did his examination and reported no head...yet.

10:28 (per ambo records) - The ambulance arrived with 2 paramedics (one female & one male). I was laying on the dining room floor with nothing on down south; trying to get in some sort of comfortable position, but nothing was helping. The pain was almost unbearable and I was feeling so overwhelmingly hot and THIRSTY. The male ambo asked me if I wanted some pain relief. I immediately replied YES without hesitation. Somehow, during all the excitement, my plea was ignored. I NEVER received any drugs. Thank goodness for my handy TENS machine!!!

I was pressing the button on the TENS machine for dear life as if pressing it harder and harder would make it work any better. Arthur was still on the phone with hospital who was telling him to make sure my legs were not closed and make sure I was flat on my back. All the while, I kept begging for some water. Nobody was listening to me. HELLLLLOOOOO, woman in labour needs H2O!!! My mother-in-law had a wet rag that she was putting on my forehead to help keep me cool. I finally just grabbed that and started sucking on it as if I had been stranded on a desert island and was sucking water droplets from a leaf. I couldn't believe how desperate I was for water and, yet again, NOBODY granted my desperate pleas.

The paramedics tried to evaluate me on the floor, but they had a hard time seeing anything; so they brought in their bed from the ambulance and put it in the dining room. They lifted me onto that so they could have better view of my goods. I started pushing and the female ambo lady said (with a big smile, trying to break the tension) "So, who in the family has black hair?!!". I glared at her and didn't say a word, just kept pushing for dear life. Who the hell cares who has black hair lady?!! If you really want to know, look at me and my husband. We're right in front of you!!!! One more big push and Sienna's head was out. That's when I started to panic, realising that we had no true support if something was wrong. What if I needed an emergency caesarean to get her out? What if she wasn't breathing? What if ......

I screamed out "Is she breathing?!!!!". They told me to just concentrate and keep pushing. At this point, I felt as if I needed to just hold onto something solid, something that I could push down on with all my might. So, I let go of Arthur's clammy hand and grabbed the female ambo. I gave her a huge bear hug and gave a huge push which brought out Sienna's shoulders. One more push later, and out came the rest of her beautiful body. We heard her beautiful screaming lungs as they wrapped her to wipe her clean. The time was 10:53 pm.

They proceeded to put her on my torso when someone asked her gender (we were team green for this pregnancy). The ambo guy said "oh, girl I THINK". They hadn't even looked! One moment later I was holding my dear daughter on my chest. They quickly checked her apgar scores (which came back 9/10 & 10/10) then proceeded to put me in the ambulance with baby. Arthur followed us in the car so that he could bring the fully packed hospital bag which didn't fit in the ambulance. [I wasn't about to leave it behind after all that effort packing the damn thing!]

The ambulance ride to hospital seemed to last FOREVER. The male ambo guy was obviously new-ish at baby deliveries (based on how he was receiving instructions from the female ambo lady). While on the way to hospital, I was still having contractions (my body trying to deliver the placenta) and I still had no drugs!!. I was sweating and felt overwhelmingly hot; my blood pressure was like a roller coaster and I had lost a lot of blood. After a few more contractions, I suddenly felt something come out of me down below. The guy said to the lady "I think she just delivered the placenta". He held it for a few seconds (the size of an orange), just looking at it with a very confused facial expression. He was about to put it in a bag when he said "oh wait, no, this is just a big blood clot". Ummm....oooookay, and you just delivered my baby???!!!. A few more contractions later and the placenta finally came out. When that happened, I felt SOOO much better. The final relief came when we arrived at hospital and they opened the doors and a big gush of cool air hit me. Awwwww.....relief!

So, after 8 months of obstetrician appointments and thousands of dollars later (paying for private obstetrician), all he had to do was stitch me up. Arthur just won't let that one go. He said if we ever have another baby, he's going to ask for a discount! (aye-aye-aye!)

Sienna is beautiful and we are truly blessed that our darling daughter arrived safely into this world (and even more blessed that Austin managed to sleep through the entire ordeal!!).