October 14, 2019

My Birth Story – Hallie Joy

Back Story – Pregnancy Complications – Polyhydramnios

Our beautiful third baby, Miss Hallie Joy was born at 2:50am on the 18th of September via a planned induction. I will start my story with a bit of a back-story as to why an induction was planned.

Through out the start of my pregnancy, it was relatively simple and complication free, my care was through my hospitals midwife clinic. Around 26 weeks gestation I had a growth scan as my GP thought that my fundal height (belly measurement) was measuring smaller, funnily enough they picked up that I has excess fluid and that baby was measuring a week smaller.

After this scan, I had appointments with the hospitals obstetrics doctors and a few more scans to watch my fluid levels. My scan at 36 weeks showed my fluid levels had increased and the doctor confirmed polyhydramnios. The doctor also thought that given my history of fast births and reduced movement, a planned induction at 37+6 was the best option. I happily agreed with this option as my mum was travelling the week after my induction date, so she could help us out with the kids!

There are a few risks of polyhydramnios, but the main one they were concerned about was a cord prolapse. I have since found out this was very rare!

Induction Day – 17th September 2019

On the 17th of September we arrived at the hospital at 11am as planned, and then began the LONG wait! We first waited for the birth suite to be cleaned and then we had to wait another 5 hours before a midwife was able to see me and check on babies heart rate! It was then another couple of hours later that they were able to do an internal exam to determine the best method of induction.

Finally around 6ish in the evening my cervix was checked and I’m pretty sure around 2cm dilated. The midwife said she could break my waters then and there however she thought the best option was to insert the gel and send me up to the maternity ward for 6 hours, then break my waters after that. This was just to help how favourable my cervix was for a successful induction.

It wasn’t until around 1am that we were taken back down to the birth suite. I was then put on the CTG for half an hour to monitor babies heart rate again. The midwives also prepared the room for delivery, as they were aware my last birth was approx. 1 hour long!

Finally – Labour Time!

At around 1.30am my midwife was able to successfully break my waters! YAY! I then had continuous monitoring from here until birth and I did request the portable monitors so I could labour in the shower which really helped. They then started the Pitocin drip to start contractions. Labour started around 2am and it wasn’t too painful at the start. I was able to breath through the contractions, and was happy sitting on a gym ball. However as soon as I stood up I felt a lot of pressure in my lower back already, my waters continued to gush with every contraction as well. My amazing student midwife popped a heat pack on my lower back and massaged my back to try and help with the pressure. I then decided to hop in a hot shower as I remember that helped in my last labour too. It helped a lot! I stayed in the shower happily for maybe 20-30 minutes before the contractions became too painful and I asked for some pain relief, I opted for gas! I remember my first try and I couldn’t remember how to use it, they told me I needed to make the noise rattle, and there you go…. AMAZING!! I managed through contractions much better thanks to the gas and hot water!

It wasn’t really too long after that that I started to get really uncomfortable and absolutely exhausted! I just wanted the pain to stop and I wanted to sleep. The midwives suggested I hop out of the shower and maybe I could try another position on the bed. Walking to the bed I got the urge to push… I remember asking the midwife to check if I was even dilated enough for her to be born. She didn’t need to!

I remember repeating that I can’t do this anymore!

I remember the midwives asking me what I wanted, and I just kept saying I just wanted to sleep!

Then I remember Dave saying in my ear, “I think your little girl wants to meet you now”! This was the best thing I had heard and made everything 100x easier.

Little did I know that she was almost out! I didn’t even need to push, my body did it itself during my last contraction. And that was it; Baby Hallie was born in the early hours of Wednesday the 18th of September at 2.50am, about 45 minutes after my induced labour began!

I laid up on the bed after this and it was instant relief. The BEST feeling ever! I was so exhausted yet holding Hallie in my arms woke me up and I couldn’t sleep at all! Yet Dave had already passed out in the recliner chair! It was a LONG day! I just couldn’t stop looking at her, she was just perfect! So tiny and perfect!

Post Birth!

My birth of the placenta took a bit longer, but it eventually came out in tact. I had very minimal blood loss, and no tearing! Hallie was able to have delayed cord clamping which was amazing to watch, and then Dave was able to cut the cord!

We had a couple of hours of skin on skin, where I tried to get Hallie to latch onto the breast, but she wasn’t even slightly interested. She then had her injections and was taken for a check and measurements. Hallie weighed 7lbs exactly, and was our smallest baby yet!

After this daddy got his first cuddles and I went and had a shower! Then we went back up to the maternity ward! I felt amazing; it was honestly the best birth! (Although at the time I felt like I was dying ha-ha)!

Breastfeeding Struggles!

So even though I felt amazing, we did have to stay in hospital for a few more days as Hallie was having a bit of trouble feeding and had begun to lose a bit of weight. At first we were told it was just because of her fast birth and swallowing too much fluid. It was 8 hours post birth and she still couldn’t latch, so we needed to syringe feed her some expressed colostrum. She wasn’t very interested in this either and was very sleepy but my amazing midwives helped so much. We did continue to do this for the first few days, she was taking just 2-5ml of expressed colostrum every few hours.

This was so different to my experience with Harrison and Hazel; they fed so well from the start! But it goes to show how different every baby is!

Breastfeeding was really important to me, so I was determined not to give up, even though it was emotionally exhausting!

I had a lot of help and support from the midwives and lactation consultants, we ended up getting her to latch, not well, but it was a start!

Home Time!

Then came home time and we kept making progress at home with feeding. However, when the home midwives came out they confirmed that Hallie was still losing weight, so I needed to top her up after breastfeeds with around 20-30ml of expressed breast milk! Well she did NOT like the bottle, but we kept trying!

I was discharged from the home midwives after 4 visits (It was an amazing service that they were able to come so many times). Breastfeeding was getting easier! But then one day (I think Hallie was about 8/9 days old) she decided to refuse all feeds, she was screaming in hunger, she wouldn’t take the breast or bottle, we couldn’t calm her! I was a mess! The only thing that eventually got her feeding was in the shower with me, but obviously I couldn’t do that all the time, but for this day I needed to! I called the Lactation consultant at the hospital and she were amazing! She was reassuring and supportive and told me to keep doing what I was doing! She then booked an appointment to see her the next day. Thankfully this was just one off day for us!

My appointment came. The lovely midwife/lactation consultant confirmed that Hallie thankfully had no lip or tongue ties. But her mouth was just so tiny she was only getting a shallow latch. She also said, as Hallie gets bigger, her latch and feeding will get easier! I had a great milk supply, so she was definitely getting enough milk! Here we now almost a month post birth, Hallie is feeding so well now, sometimes still take a bit to latch but 100 times better then our rough start! She has also gained weight and is now unto 3.5kgs! YAY!

If you have made it this far, thank you so much for reading our story! I wanted to share my positive induction story, as I know how daunting it can be, especially for first time mum! But I loved my experience! And to also share how every baby is different, and breastfeeding DOES get easier!