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Boston Piers Fitiaumua Kinloch. Born July 19th, 5:30am. Weighing in at 11lb 13oz.THE BIRTH STORY
After a long 40weeks of pregnancy I was DONE. I had tried everything to get this baby out but none of it was working. Some of the old wives tales would bring on contractions but by the end of the night I was so tired I would end up sleeping them off until the next lot kicked in evening after evening. My midwife had told us all we needed was for my waters to be broken and so we scheduled ourselves in for this to happen at the hospital sometime on the 18th. Unfortunately every other pregnant woman in Southland decided it was also time for her to have her baby so come Saturday we were told it was a no go, we had to wait. That was it! I was sooo miserable. Night after night of contractions less than 5mins apart had made me a very sad and angry woman.
I basically spent the day sulking. I was trying so hard not to lose my mind. Didn't they know how exhausted I was?!?! Andrew and I decided that no matter what, when the contractions kicked in that night and came every 5 mins or less we were heading to that hospital and making them break my waters. Until then, it was time to watch some Laughing Samoans!
2 hours into the laughter, seriously, Mum, Andrew and I were in stitches from laughing so hard, I was satisfied enough with the contractions timing and intesity that I said "Ok, it's time!" I now say thank you to Ete and Tofiga for sending me into labour :P
Andrew and I headed off around midnight and made the loooong walk through the hospital to the labour and delivery suites. On the way there I had my final encounter with THE question. The one question I'd been asked almost every day since I was 4 months pregnant. We walked past a woman who's dughter had just given birth 2 hours earlier and she kindly congratulated us, we her, then she asked "Is it twins?" I had to laugh. I told her not to our knowledge but we'd soon find out for sure!
Then we arrived. We made ourselves comfortable in the room and waited till Kathy (our midwife) and Kate (our student midwife) arrived. Within 5 minutes we were all there, I got into one of the ever so flattering white tents they call gowns and hopped into bed to get monitored. Kate commented that I was having some pretty decent contractions which made me wiggle around to try and see the scale thingy that shows the intensity of contractions. I told her they didn't really hurt and asked if they were meant to. She just said that for some women, this was their peak on the monitor. Baby's heartrate was a little fast so they got some fluids ready just to be sure I wasn't getting dehydrated.
Kathy had planned to put an IV into me because after my births I tend to bleed enough to need blood transfusions so we were trying to avoid that scenario this time around. She decided to call in the anesthesiologist seeing as last time it took 8 tries to get a vein. I remember I went home looking like I'd been in a pub brawl. I was pretty happy when they announced they'd found a vein after the second try. It was a vein on the inside part of my elbow too which just made it even better. So much less pain.
That was it, all the prep work was done! Time to get the show on the road. So we lay the bed back, grabbed that crochet needle and attempted to break my waters. For some reason this took a while. I must have read the sign above the bed a thousand times over trying to distract myself from the discomfort I was feeling. Kathy finished up and we kind of just looked at each other like 'is it done?' Usually the water gushes out but NOTHING. She was sure she felt a rip and I was sure she was right so we left it at that and figured time would tell.
Seeing as it was now around 2am and Andrew and I were perfectly fine to labour alone, Kathy and Kate headed off to get some rest and have a cuppa while we waited for things to progress. I decided it was time to stand up and hurry things along, if there was a rip then surely gravity would help get the water out and move the baby down. It didn't take long, the contractions came, water began gushing and I would squat to try to make the most of each one. For the next hour or so Andrew and I did the same thing over and over again. Off the bed for a contraction, on the bed to rest, off the bed, on the bed.. My belly was so heavy sitting was a welcome relief. We went through a tonne of towels trying not to make a mess. Labour was going great, I started to feel pressure so I hopped back onto the bed to start focusing on my breathing.
Things were going perfectly, just like I was used to. The contractions were becoming stronger and were only about a minute apart now but something felt different. After my last natural births I was shocked that I was starting to feel as though I needed some help to keep the pain to a minimum. I told Andrew I thought I might need some gas to get me through so we paged our midwives, got the gas set up and off they went again to let us labour as we wanted.
I'm not going to lie, the gas was fun. It only took a few sucks before I could feel the difference. I apologised in advance for any stupid comments I might make while I was high. Andrew mentioned he'd always wanted to try the gas so me and my alluring temptress ways offered him some. Somehow he managed to resist me in my sexy white tent, slurring "TRYYY ITTT", while peeking at him through slanted eyes, head hanging to the right and saliva drooling out of my mouth.
The contractions kept coming and finally I started to get the urge to push. I signaled to Andrew to page Kathy and Kate. We all talked casually as we waited for another urge to come along. Then it came, I began pushing. Another urge and another. I kept pushing but nothing was happening. At this point we decided to get rid of the gas as it was just distracting me from what I really wanted to focus on. We readjusted my positioning and waited again.
The urges stared again, this time Kathy also placed her fingers on where she wanted me to push. I tried again to no avail. I think this is where we all started to get a little confused. This was not normal for me, the last baby dropped out onto the bed after a few pushes. We kept trying a while longer but after some hard pushing and barely getting anywhere I got Andrew to grab one leg and Kate to grab the other. As each contraction came my legs were pulled back and I would give these almighty pushes. Finally I felt his head begin to crown. I was so relieved! I knew that meant I was only a minute or two away from having this baby out! That wasn't the case...
The next contraction came and I pushed out the head, they say his cord was loosely wrapped around his neck and shoulder. As the contraction disappered....so did the baby. That's right, back up inside where he just came from. It was the strangest sensation I've ever felt. Usually after you push the head out, you feel a tonne of wiggling come out with the next contraction, thats the shoulders, arms, legs, cord... I could feel that but it wasn't coming out, just wiggling around in the same place. I kept pushing and pushing but nothing. It wouldn't budge!
Next thing I knew the room was full of people. There was a lady on top of me pushing on my pelvis, I could hear my husband telling me "You're doing great sweetheart, push, push" and my midwife saying "We really need you to push Chavah, just push and don't stop. We need to get this baby out now." It was then that I realised something really was wrong. I could feel the urgency in the room, my knees seemed to be up at my ears now, some woman was saying "I got it" and my midwife's voice just said it all as she continued to tell everyone around us what to do. I pushed and oh my gosh I pushed some more. HE WAS OUT!
I sighed and said 'Thank you' to everyone around me. Kate quickly cut his cord, something my husband usually gets to do and they whisked him off to the other side of the room to the doctor and other nurses that had come in. I looked at my husband and said "He's not crying?! Honey, I need him to cry..." I looked over at my baby as he lay there quietly while they tried to get him breathing. I remember saying "Come on bubba, breathe, breathe." It seemed to take forever but it was less than a minute and we heard a grunt, then another and then finally the sweetest cry I have ever heard in my life. I was so happy. It was all over.
Then a buzz of OMG look at the size of this baby took over the room. The nurses we ended up with, the doctor, our midwives, Andrew and I all agreed that he did look pretty big. They happily put him on the scales and said "WOW, 5.35kg. I think that's in the elevens!" My midwife walks out of the room briefly then walks back in to proudly announce that he was 11lbs 13oz. "Holy heck" is all I can think.
All the tests have been done now and Boston is given to me to cuddle. Kate delivers the placenta and instead of putting it in one of those kidney dishes goes and finds herself an ice cream container because that's come out huge too. She looks at us with a big smirk on her face and asks "Shall we weigh it?" So we do! BABY + PLACENTA = EIGHT KGS. Crazy.
I finally have time to reflect on what just happened. It all begins to make sense. Boston has what is called Severe Shoulder Dystocia. It explains why my pelvis was so sore when I was pregnant, why the pain was different during labour - with each contraction he was pushed into my pubic bone, why he would move back up after each contraction - he was too big to fit through my pelvis! Apparently a 'small' woman like me and a big baby like him don't mesh well together. If the baby isn't delivered within 5mins of the head being pushed out there is a high risk of brain damage or death. It amazes me what we did. No drugs, no surgery, just pushing. I get emotional remembering the atmosphere. I feel so blessed.
Boston came out bruised on his face and shoulders but that's all disappeared now. I can't really walk, bend or lift but have some great drugs to help with the pain. Although, even then, it still hurts a tonne. I cannot wait to be all healed. My husband is being amazing and going above and beyond. Boston and I start physio to help with recovery next week. He's doing great though and has excellent movement in his shoulder/arm.
The hospital stay was great. I was told by the NICU nurses that we should have put up a dontation box because everyone in the hospital had come to see the nearly 12lb baby. I'm guessing it's true because I had lots of 'You're the 11lb baby's Mum!' from nurses, receptionists and cleaners. I even had a visit from a nurse who wanted to meet the woman who had a bigger baby than her 11lb 1oz one 30years ago, lol. It was fun to hear how similar our pregnancies were and talk about 'the question'. Speaking of twins, I also got visited by a woman who tells me Boston outweighed both her twins combined so no wonder I got asked "One or two?" so much.
Although the delivery wasn't at all what I had pictured I have to say it was one of the best days of my life. I spent the day on a high. The kids love having a baby in the house and just like to stare at him and Andrew and I are both smitten. I'm so glad to be done and just can't wait to watch my children grow. Life is good to me.
Oh yeah, if you want to figure out how big he is, he's the size of a pillow.
