Billy’s Story

 

So, after an anxious couple of months and a few false starts, Billy (William if you want to be official about it!) James Gordon Tamblyn entered into this world at 6:05 on Saturday morning, weighing an impressive 6lb 10oz.

A little bit about his entrance into the world, but not too much for obvious reasons. My labor actually got off to a rather amusing start – or at least it would have been amusing had it not been either labor or mine!

  I suspected I was leaking some fluid on Friday morning, but couldn’t be 100% sure so figured I’d wait and see for a couple of hours before calling my OB, knowing that that the minute I mentioned this to them, they would want me in labor and delivery and I couldn’t quite face yet another fruitless visit.  At the same time, Tambo’s car was also slowly but surely breaking down so we needed to take it to the garage, which meant me following him so I could take him back to the office.  To add to the drama that was about to unfold I also had Jemima at home with me on Friday as she had a fever so couldn’t go to day care.

I mentioned to him casually that I thought my waters might be breaking so to keep his phone on.  I got home, got out of the car and by the time I’d walked round to get out Jemima, the flood gates had literally opened. Calmly I managed to get us inside, told Jemima to go and play in her play room while Mummy went to the bathroom. At which point she noticed my ‘flood’ and asked if I’d wet my pants.  I told her that I thought Noddy was coming out soon. This obviously spooked her as a few minutes later I heard a whimper outside the bathroom, only to find Jemima had had an accident – her first in nearly a year.  So she was standing in a puddle of water, I was standing in a puddle of water (which was still increasing) and I’m trying to keep her calm, keep myself calm and call Tambo – but my phone was making no connection whatsoever. 

I then had the job of cleaning up both Jemima and I which when you’re trickling is not so easy. So I’m wandering around the house to get a change of clothes for Jemima (who is also beside herself that she’d had an accident) whilst leaving a little trickle behind me. Finally, we’re both clean and dry, I’ve made contact with Tambo and he’s in a cab on the way home (remember he’s got no car!) and my next job is to call labor and delivery and arrange for someone to take Jemima – a sick Jemima at that. 

With our neighbor away I was about to take one of my friends up on their many offers of help when the moment came. But alas, made two phone calls to friends that don’t work so knew they were around and about with their children – but got two no answers. I then had no choice but to be calling someone who was at work.  Heather very calming took up the challenge and was here within 30 mins, ready to take Jemima – who was by now excited as it meant a playdate and a sleepover with her best friend Rebecca.  Heather, I’ve told you this already but I’m so grateful for your help – thank you again so much and apologies for pulling you away for work. I’m humbled and honored that I’ve got friends who would do this for me. I hope you get around to reading this.

Tambo arrived home shortly after and we made our way to hospital and by which time the flood and trickling had stopped– or so I thought. We got out of the car at the hospital and the floodgates opened once again and I had to make the embarrassing walk through the hospital looking as if I’d wet myself. Ok so we’re in a maternity ward and it’s no doubt happened many times before, but trust me it’s still embarrassing – and the reception area was packed. Thankfully the nurse quickly bought me some ‘modesty’ blankets.

That’s the funny part. The rest, not so amusing I can tell you.  First there was no room available so we were put in a kind of ‘holding room’ where the traffic was high and nurses kept popping in to look for this/quickly grab that. And by now I was beginning to get quite strong contractions and we were all anxious to get the cerclage out.  I was finally moved into a room, and the cerclage was removed, thankfully by my doctor without an epidural as she suspected would be needed. At this point, we’re all expecting a baby to be delivered within a couple of hours. Noddy, however, obviously had other ideas. 

Having been contracting pretty regularly for the last 3 months, the minute the cerclage was removed all contractions stopped. And I mean stopped. Not even a flicker on the monitor from my ‘irritable uterus’. A few hours passed and we opted for some Petocin to get things going. Which it did, pretty quickly and the dose was gradually increased and for a while all was going quite well and once again we thought we’d have a baby relatively shortly. Little did we know. 

The petocin was working too well and within a couple of hours I was contracting about every 30 – 60 seconds, with contractions lasting about a minute.  Neither me or Noddy was getting any time to recover in between and following each contraction his heart beat was dropping significantly.  So the petocin was turned off. By this time, I was in significant pain and in need of some sort of relief. However, I said to myself if I’m moving along nicely and I’m about 6-7cm dilated I’ll skip the epidural and literally push on through.  Needless to say I was examined and was only 3cm.  My response, get the epidural NOW! 

For those that have experienced childbirth in the UK, where getting an epidural is not only discouraged, but once needed can take significant time to be administered,  let me put this request into context.  Having made the decision, I was being prepped within minutes and I’m not kidding inside of 15 mins the doctor had arrived, I’d had a footlong needle put into my back, Tambo had nearly passed out (he’s not good with needles) and I was blissfully pain free. Again, to give context, it’s takes a minimum of 45 mins to order a meal at the hospital.  Here if you order and epidural, you get an epidural and fast.  I’m still undecided if this is a good thing or not.

And I’m equally undecided if my decision to have one was a good, or indeed the correct one.  There is no way I could have delivered naturally as I did with Jemima but it definitely slowed things down and made the final hurdle (i.e. the pushing) significantly harder.  Being unable to feel, but still move (to a degree) your legs is a strange feeling and one I don’t want to repeat.  Also, trying to push when you can’t feel anything below your belly button is not as easy as it sounds.  Noddy’s head was turned to the right, so he was being somewhat stubborn about exiting and my pushes were proving fruitless. Eventually we opted to reduce the epidural by half which certainly made a difference and finally a couple of hours later, Noddy, now known as Billy, arrived into this world. My expected swift delivery, turned into about 13 hours of active labor to the amazement of all doctors and nurses – and myself.

Being delivered at just 36 weeks, Billy is classed as late preterm and therefore NICU nurses were needed in the delivery room and sadly he was given straight to them, rather than to me.  But it didn’t take long before he was cleaned up, looking good and was handed to me for a brief cuddle before he was taken down to the NICU.  All babies born under 36 weeks have to be watched for 6 hours in the NICU before being left with Mum.

Six hours passed and I’d still not heard anymore about Billy. A few enquiries later I was advised he was having problems holding his temperature so needed to spend time under the heat lamp but was now doing well. I think it was about 2pm when he was finally bought up to my room.

For the next 8 hours we both recovered nicely and were discharged from hospital on Sunday morning and all safely home by just after noon.

At this point, complete and utter chaos set in – I’m now telling me myself this has progressed to organized chaos!