- labour room
- excitement
- paperwork
- hooks on trays, look away
- unpacking: book/lipbalm/water bottle
- kissing four faces goodbye
- nervous tears
- lonely
- waiting
- cannula, oops
- try again
- try again
- medical guinea pig
- monitoring
- swish-swish of a heartbeat
- reading
- staring out of the window
- missing four faces
- waiting
- excitement
- hungry
- HUNGRY
- food, relief
- doctor, introductions
- touching my feet
- but, don’t
- explanations
- agreement
- waiting
- gas and air
- stirrups
- knitting needle
- deep breath, done it before, it was fine
- gas and air
- pain
- gas and air, gas and air
- pain, crying
- pleading to stop
- screaming
- water on the bed, done
- shock, can’t open eyes, can’t look at him
- need strong gin
- would feel better if that was the worst and it was over
- later – walking
- supper
- walking
- waiting for sleep
- off-stage screams: one baby, another baby
- 4am: mooing
- can’t sleep
- walking, long dark hospital corridors, wishing more people were about
- hungry
- HUNGRY
- breakfast
- walking, nothing
- doctor, explanations, negotiations, reluctant agreement
- wish suppository had worked
- lunch
- delaying tactics
- Pitocin
- monitoring
- supper (a mistake)
- red-hot poker pain
- exhausted
- lonely
- pain
- babysitters drive down from London, Matthew arrives
- anaesthetist’s bandana
- jesus!
- stop!
- a second needle
- count to thirty, numb
- exhausted, asleep before he leaves the room
- sick
- doze
- progress!
- nausea, send Matthew to find fizzy drink
- send Matthew out to get the RIGHT fizzy drink
- more progress!
- anti-emetic
- sick
- nausea, a different anti-emetic
- sick
- nausea, shaking, a different anti-emetic which works
- forget to note which anti-emetic so I know for next time
- SILLY COW, THERE WON’T BLOODY BE A NEXT TIME
- fever
- C-section discussions
- quick progress
- the nurse closes the windows
- ‘because a baby’s arriving’
- ‘push now’
- shit (oh shit)
- discretely removed
- push
- shit, discretely removed
- push
- shit
- effing, bloody suppository
- sitting up chatting to midwives, pile of crap sitting on the bed
- strangely unembarrassed about this mortifying scene
- pushing
- stuck
- doctor
- still can’t really look at him
- forceps
- stirrups
- push
- ‘pant’,
- I pant, as ordered
- no pain though so cannot resist urge to giggle
- crying with laughter
- little push
- baby
- baby!
- delivered onto my tummy (first one)
- extraordinary!
- euphoric
- looking at me – really looking at me – unblinkingly
- perfect delivery
- gorgeous baby
- gorgeous baby
********
Written as part of the first exercise of Tim’s creative writing course: Think of an event in your life that you can recall vividly. Write a ‘shopping list’ of single words or phrases – nothing like a complete sentence – that come to mind as you consider this experience. Make no attempt to ‘think’ about it consciously or to edit what you write; just record whatever comes to mind and keep the process going for as long as it feels comfortable.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow! What an eventful birth! I’m exhausted just reading that list! hmmm… now I have to think of something else to write about though…. :/
Good work!
you can write about the same thing – I love a good birth story!
Fantastic. I love this story. Great start to the writing exercise. x
thank you, I’m really looking forward to taking part in this course x
Brilliant, just goes to show that you don’t need long sentences to show you exactly what happened. Well done you on getting through that too!
Thanks Kelly, it was a long and lonely labour! But it was all worth it
Oh wow, I love that idea…..those were the best five moments of my life although after number five I vowed to never ever do it again!
Great list even if some of it made me wince. :0)
Yeah, sorry about that (but it made me wince too!)
Phew, having read that, I’m so glad I held out against having my waters broken to induce. I remember not trusting the doctor who said “just a little pop… a very little pop…” Sounds as if I was right to be mistrustful.
You’ve chosen your words so carefully, and it tells the story, even without sentences.
I’ve had my waters broken before and it wasn’t too bad, but that’s because I was in early labour, but this time I was induced two weeks early because of problems and my body was not ready for labour. The pain was because the doctor was manually dilating my cervix and even two years on I remember every agonising moment.
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