I’m a Dad! I’ll never get bored of saying that! Noah is amazing and he brightens my day, even when it doesn’t need brightening! I’m so unbelievably proud of Faye, she was amazing through all of her labour and she is an amazing Mum to Noah. We are both very lucky to have her. Faye has asked me to write a blog covering her labour, Noah’s birth and our new lives since then. I’d like to say that even though some of the things I’m going to say in this blog may sound like I’m not grateful that Noah is here and healthy, or that I think Faye has suffered more than anyone else ever has. I know I’m lucky that Noah is here and healthy and I know that there are probably thousands of women out there who has suffered worse that Faye but we can only go on our personal experiences and give it how it is. This blog was always supposed to be a no frills attached observation of Epilepsy in pregnancy (and now as a new Mum) and not like some material out there that sugar coats everything.
So we knew Faye was (supposedly) going in to be induced on Wednesday 10th June, but when we got there we were told that there were not any beds in the high risk delivery suites because there weren’t any beds in the recovery ward… But because Faye was a high risk pregnancy we got a bed in an induction room relatively quickly and weren’t turned away like countless other expectant parents that day. I was very glad that we were given a room as it allowed Faye to relax and not worry about the next bit. Once we’d got comfortable we were seen by a Doctor who told us that they will be round to do some routine checks on Faye and take some blood before we go onto the Delivery Ward. They told us it wouldn’t be too long and that we were top of the list… So we thought we’d be in a Delivery suit by the evening, Faye would be induced and Baby Waddams would be on their way to meet us. How wrong we were. We sat in that induction room for 2 days before we were moved. Like I said before, I’m not saying I’m not thankful for the brilliant job the staff on the labour ward did for us, but you try sleeping on a hard floor for two nights! So on the Friday (12th) we were woken up at 6am by a midwife telling us that a high risk delivery room was free and it had Faye’s name on it! I’ll tell you, you’ve never seen a woman 37 weeks pregnant get up so quickly! But it was a good sign, we were getting into the room where Baby Waddams would be born, it was all very exciting. So Faye was up and we were moved to the delivery suite. Faye was given some breakfast and was told to take her medication and then had a cannula fitted (badly) in her arm. This resulted in Faye being sick and feeling faint which resulted in the midwifes throwing a pad and not proceeding to induce Faye until a senior doctor had seen her – even though Faye explained that she was sick through a combination of having pregnancy sickness all the way through her pregnancy and the fact that she’d had a cannula fitted 5 minutes after she’d eaten. Our Knight in shining armour appeared at about 2pm in the form of Faye’s obstetrician. He came in to see how Faye was doing and I think every Doctor, Nurse and Midwife ran into the room behind him! (You know you’ve got the best in their profession when they make a whole wards worth of staff react like that!) He couldn’t work out why Faye hadn’t been induced already and told them to get on with it. So Faye was induced and the countdown began! By this point I was quite nervous as where Faye’s epilepsy was concerned this is where my worries lay. Faye’s main triggers are stress, tiredness and pain and neither of us had slept great and I now knew she was going to be in pain with the contractions. But all my fears were taken away when the anaesthetist came in around midnight and gave Faye an epidural. Faye again was sick after the epidural was administered but it was in and they could give her some pain relief through the epidural and with the Clobazam being taken every 12 hours I was a bit more confident, when we had weighed up our options this was the better of the scenarios. At about 01.30 Faye had her waters broken and we were told to get some sleep. In the morning Faye was checked out and was 7cm dilated! Things were getting real! When her waters were broken she was only 2cm dilated, so she’d gone another 5cm overnight and there was a very good chance that we would get to meet Baby W that day! And later that day we did! At ten past two in the afternoon Faye was again checked and she was 10cm dilated. Now to “paint the picture” of how it was for me: Faye had asked of me before we went into the hospital, “Don’t go down there when they’re doing any checks or when Baby is being born”. So whenever Faye was having any checks I took myself over to the other end of the room and either played some games on my iPad or read some more of the A Song of Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones books for you TV only peeps) I was reading. So at 14.10 I went through my normal routine of moving away and started reading. I was only half listening to the midwife but I remember hearing her say “You’re ready to have your baby, you’re 10cm dilated”. Now because Faye was high risk I expected a doctor was going to be called to be present during the birth. How wrong I was. Right there and then the Midwife told Faye she was ready to push! The book went down and I was by Faye’s side (shoulder level obviously, I was obeying the commands given before) ready for Faye to give birth!! Nope not yet. The Midwife said she was going to give Faye 30 minutes to get ready and rest before we got going. Still I was potentially 31 minutes away from being a Dad! (I was that excited that I probably thought it might only take a minute…) As you can imagine those 30 minutes went in a flash and the Midwife was back. Now our Midwife Rosie was a lovely soft spoken lady who was very smiley and chatty. Dr Jackal meet Mr Hyde! Gone was sweet softly spoken Rosie and here was Drill Sargent Rosie! Rosie was telling Faye to push and not stop, to keep going. And me and Steph (fayes sister) were telling Faye to remember to breathe (lack of oxygen not being good for anyone obviously, let alone someone with Epilepsy). All of a sudden the door opens and this woman who I didn’t know walked in and I was thinking “Who the hell are you?” But both Faye and Steph greeted her with a warm “Hiya”. It was Faye’s (and Steph’s from when she was pregnant) Midwife from their GPs. She was brilliant as she knew all of Faye’s fears for childbirth. When Rosie was doing her Drill Sargent bit the GP midwife was reassuring her of how well she was doing (not that me and Steph wasn’t doing this, Faye just trusted the medical personnel over us, which you can understand). So between Rosie’s commands of “PUSH!!!”, mine and Steph’s pleas of “Remember to breathe” and GP Midwife’ calming reassurances Faye gave birth to our baby at 15.09 on the 13th June 2015 after just 30 minutes of pushing. As soon as the baby was born and I saw him I was crying my bloody eyes out! I heard him cry and then Rosie say that they we had a boy and I was like Niagara Falls! Our Baby Boy was here. His cry was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I was a Dad!! Contact us: Twitter: @fairyfaye1986 Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/739520702798749/
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AuthorMy names Faye, mostly known for being a tea addict, swimmer and now Paralegal and part time student. I'm 36, married and I had my 1st (and only) child in June 2015. Oh and I also happen to have epilepsy. This is my story of Pregnancy, Motherhood & Epilepsy and the voice I have become for those with epilepsy. Archives
December 2022
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