Emma & Baby Elliott
Our story starts out just like most others, a drive to the hospital feeling anxious and excited for the journey that’s about to begin. It was a cold winters morning (July 18 - Thursday) and my husband & I started our drive to the hospital. We were admitted, and eagerly awaited my induction. Due to no gas being located on the ward, I had to wait until a gas machine became available. Fast forward 6 hours, a machine is available and I have my induction. A balloon catheter is inserted and now it’s time to wait. Whilst the wait seemed long, the time actually flew by.
The following morning at 3am I am moved down to the birth suites, eagerly awaiting the delivery of my baby boy. Little did I know that my balloon catheter was inserted incorrectly, meaning not long after arriving in birth suites, I’d be taken back up to the wards. After another 6 hours on the ward it was time to go back to birth suites. It’s now 10am on Friday June 19, and the day I thought I’d have my baby. My balloon catheter is removed, and my waters are broken. I was in incredibly high spirits and feeling great, despite how fast and sudden my contractions came on.
Fast forward 4 hours, I was in a world of pain. Contracting 8-9 times in a 10 minute span, it was agreed an epidural was best. I wasn’t opposed to this, an epidural would help ease the contractions and provide me with some pain relief. The epidural is administered, but ineffective. A cold piece of ice is placed on my leg and I feel it all. The anaesthetic doctor comes back and re-positions the epidural needle. Whatever happened during that moment, I thought was genuinely going to kill me. I felt immense pain on my right hand side, pain that felt like my leg was on fire. I couldn’t describe it any other way. I was told to wait it out and let the drugs work, but no waiting in the world was subsiding the pain. I remember saying “please sedate me, I can’t take this pain anymore” “if you don’t sedate me, take me in for a c section now”. A couple hours later and a world of pain later (9pm) a new anaesthetist comes in, removes the old epidural and places a new one. I felt like a new woman, who was ready to push. Given how exhausted I was from hours of pushing, I was told to sleep. 1 sleep later, it was go time.
I was 10cm dilated. Yay!! After 2 hours of pushing my baby boy was here, in my arms, just not breathing. Seconds after being placed in my arms he was scooped out of them, being worked on by 15-20 doctors, nurses and midwives. It took my little man about 15 minutes to have a stable heart beat, but he was here and safe. As I watched him being worked out, I was being stitched back up as I had a grade 2 tear. Ouch!! At 12:06am on Saturday, Elliott was born, a moment I’ll forever remember. Our time in hospital came to an end on Sunday at 3pm when we were discharged. However, we’d find ourselves back in hospital just 2 days later, with Elliott for his jaundice. With the help of photo light therapy, Elliott recovered from his jaundice quick. Our happy baby was home safely again with us on Thursday July 25, after a bit of a whirlwind start to life.