10 Days Early, 8 Pounds 10 Ounces

By Sally

The pregnancy was unplanned and after the initial shock my husband and I started preparing ourselves. The pregnancy wasn't a real picnic, I had heavy spotting at 14 weeks when I was overseas and alone and then terrible back pain from then on. I was hoping to go early but of course everyone told me that first babies come late. I had an ultrasound at 32 weeks to make sure my placenta had moved from my cervix and the baby was measuring four weeks ahead. I said all through the pregnancy the baby was a boy.

I was due May 10, 2000. I left work two weeks prior to this. On April 26 I went for my 38-week appointment with my OB. I got on the scales and had put on another 4 kilograms in a week. I had put on 29 kilograms by now and was very uncomfortable. I looked at my OB and said, I didn't eat that much!! He took my blood pressure and it was high. I rested on my side and he took it again and it was still high. My husband was with me because he had the flu. The OB packed us off to hospital with the words if my blood pressure wasn't down by morning I would be induced. I was in shock and started shaking with nerves.

We went home, got our bags, called my mum and went to the hospital. The baby was doing fine and with a couple of hours bed rest my blood pressure was lower. They checked my dilation and I was not even a fingertip. The nurse said that from the speed of the baby's heart she thought that I was having a boy. I still had to stay overnight. At 2 a.m. I woke up saturated from head to toe, I assumed my water had broken. The nurse came in and I told her that my waters had broken. Oh no, love you are not in here for that. Then she turned the light on. Oh you poor love, it is in your hair and everything. There was so much fluid it was dripping onto the floor. All I could think about was that my brand new mattress was saved. They monitored me, blood pressure was high again but the baby was fine until 3 a.m. Then they said to get some rest.

Of course, as soon as they left my contractions started. Within two hours they were five minutes apart and I didn't want to be on my own so I asked to go to labor and delivery. My husband and my parents finally got there about 7 a.m. I was hooked up to all sorts of machines and my BP was still going up. I was happy just to lie there and breathe through my contractions but they gave me some Pethidine which just made me tired. They wanted my contractions more frequent and were going to put me on Pitocin.

10 a.m. I was only 1 centimeter. Six hours of contractions and 1 centimeter!!! The nurse told me that the last resort to get my BP down was an epidural and if that didn't work we were looking at a Cesarean. Epidural thanks. So at 11.30 a.m. it was administered, the Pitocin drip was turned up and I went to sleep for two hours. My BP was normal again and the scare was over.

At 2 p.m. I was 10 centimeters and ready to push. We waited for the OB (guess what, it was my OB) and I started pushing at 2.30 p.m. I had stopped using the epidural and was starting to feel the contractions. I pushed for an hour with a little tantrum at the end when I decided enough was enough I was going home. My body took over and the baby was out at 3.25 p.m. The doctor said, Congratulations. It's a girl!! 8 pounds 10 ounces, 10 days early. No stitches or tears. I was dumbstruck. It took me days to get used to seeing pink everywhere. We nursed straight away and she is 6 months old and her baby brother or sister is due in June 2001.