I had a little boy on January 10th. We called him Zachary.
It's been a bit of a ride. I had a short sharp labour (niggly contractions for days then my waters broke a few moments after a self-VE had revealed i was about 4cm, fully effaced with the water bag bulging through) and he was born 80minutes later. I had 6 contractions every 10 minutes, all over a minute long, until about 20mins before he was born, when they slowed to 4-5:10. It was my hardest ever labour in pain and intensity for sure! I pushed really carefully as he felt huge, and got his big head out without tearing but i really felt i was tearing my fourchette right open as the pressure there was immense, to the point that i literally had an orgasm when his head was out! He turned for his shoulders (3rd baby, first to come out NOT direct anterior!) and slid out. His apgars were 8 and 9, i had to blow on his face to let him know he was born, he was a quiet wee thing at first.
I suffered a PPH of about 1300cc. My placenta wouldn't come and i had a firm fundus but no afterpains and no blood. Then a separation bleed of about 300cc but still no placenta. Eventually (after over an hour and when both of us felt it needed to be done) my midwife gave me sintocinon and used cord traction to extract the placenta. I felt it only fully separating when she was doing so. It was massive and had a lobe attached down one edge so it looked like a mushroom. There was a valley between the main body and the lobe which made a sort of "hinge" - possibly why it didn't detach though obviously my lack of afterpains indicates my uterus was exhausted too. I didn't gush, just trickled but on and on. Zac was born at 9pm on the dot and by 11.30pm it was obvious it wasn't stopping. By then my MW had checked for internal injury and thought perhaps my cervix was a little damaged, but it was hard to see (my OH was holding the torch as she heaved huge clots out of me and tried to see amongst the blood where it was coming from). By then i wanted to transfer so we went in. My BP was very good in the ambulance - fear was keeping me normal! I'd lost about 700cc at home, the rest i lost in the ambulance and on labour ward. Sintometrine did nothing, eventually IV sintocinon got some afterpains going and the bleeding stopped. My mw felt there was a small (1cmx1cm) piece of placenta missing but they didn't look for it and wrote it as "complete" on the hospital discharge summary. They weighed Zac (my MW had been too busy to do his checks at home) and he was 8lbs14oz after 2 big wees and poos, so i expect he was about 9lbs at birth. He was 22 inches long and had a 14.5inch head circ.
I stayed in until the evening of the 12th then came home. The next morning i lost a large clot but mw and hospital agreed to observe me at home. I recovered slowly and felt weak (due to bloodloss i thought). My milk came in normally so we didn't worry about the placenta any more. My MW had had a look at the large clot but in retrospect wonders if she'd investigated it more thoroughly she may have found the small piece of placenta in it.
On the 13th day after the birth i got ill with what i thought was winter vomiting virus, but which turned out to be a uterine infection. I was not pyrexic and had normal lochia (no smell) so it wasn't until i had a secondary PPH of about 300cc that i realised what was wrong. I went back into hospital for another night for IV antibiotics and more fluids. FInally i began to recover!
From when i came out of the hospital the second time i got much better but Zac got steadily less well, with green slimy nappies, frequent large vomits, a scaly rash on his face and terrible colic which left him screaming so hard at one point he had a bleed in his eye (just when the THREE he had from his rapid birth had healed). It turns out he is allergic to dairy, so i'm now dairy-and-beef free and finally finally we are both well and recovering! He was very sleepy and "absent" until i came out of hospital the second time. I don't know if he was waiting to see if i'd make it or if he's just a laid back guy - he fed well but rarely made eye contact and seemed fixated on lights but disinterested in everything else. Now he is smiling at me and turns his head eagerly towards familiar voices.
As a family we're all a bit battered by the experience, but we're all appreciating and loving one another a lot so i'm sure time and distance will heal. As births go it was fairly traumatic, but as traumatic experiences go it was very low-key. Everyone was kind, even the most unpleasant things they had to do to me were done respectfully, i felt cared for at all times. It just wasn't the lovely birth my other 2 got.