It’s now a week after I gave birth to my beautiful girl. A girl! Everyone had told me it would be a boy so although I secretly was thinking how much I’d love a little girl, I had only really been looking at boys clothes and imagining life as mummy to a little boy. We’d even chosen a boys name but had nothing for a girl.
Anyway rewind a week and it was my induction appointment. I turned up thinking it was just an appointment and they would let me go home until my labour kicked in, as I’d read on the NHS website, but when I got called in, it turned out I was staying for the duration until the baby arrived. I hadn’t even brought all my bags and wasn’t mentally prepared for the fact that the next time I went home I would have the baby!
I had to send my mum home as I had stolen Dave’s car keys by mistake so she took them back to him so he could join us and bring the rest of my bags. I was then waiting on my own in my tiny cubicle in the ward.
At 1pm, they had returned and it was time for the actual pessary. I must have the worst pain threshold because it took ages for me to relax enough for them to fit it. If I couldn’t handle that, how would I get through labour!?
They told me that the pessary needed to stay in for 24 hours to soften my cervix and bring jt forward, and then the next day a second pessary would be used to actually induce the labour! So I was going to be waiting on my tiny bed for days for the baby to come! There was no chance the first pessary was actually going to bring on labour and they had definitely not seen that happen in a first time mum before.
So after lounging around and chatting, we decided to get some food. I went with Dave and his mum and attempted sausage, mash and beans, but whilst eating I started to get cramping pains in my tummy.
By the time I had got back to the ward, the pains were more defined and I decided to put my Daisy Birthing training into practise, breathing through the pain. I asked the midwives about the pain thinking that maybe labour was starting, but they said it was just my cervix softening and moving forward.
At 6pm, the ‘mums’ left which gave Dave and I two hours together until visiting hours finished. But I spend the whole two hours in pain, rotating on all fours and acting out the different breathing techniques whilst Dave massaged my back to reduce the pain. At 8pm, I asked the midwives if Dave had to go home and they said they would make an exception because of the pain I was in. By this point I was screaming through the pain and the breathing techniques wern’t helping very much. I was really scared that if I couldn’t handle this, or the internal examinations, how would I get through actual labour.
Dave eventually convinced the midwives to check me over (with a little bit of gas and air to relax me) and to everyone’s surprise, I was 2cm dialated! Hooray – I was actually in labour!
For the next couple of hours, the contractions got worse and worse and I still wasn’t on any pain relief. At 23:15 I swang my legs ovet the bed to get up to go to thr toilet and that was when my waters broke. I was relieved as I didn’t want my waters artifically broken. I was then given some pethadine and moved to a separate room as the other women on the ward were probably fed up of me!
The midwives told me the pethadine would give me about 4 hours rest but to be honest all it did was made me sick through the night without reducing the pain at all! I asked for some gas and air as that had really relaxed me throughout the internal examination but I wasn’t allowed that back for some reason.
I can’t remember why but at some point throughout the night, the contractions had got so bad that I was screaming. The breathing and massage techniques really did help as well as keeping active and walking around the room. (This gave Dave a chance to rest on the bed whilst I walked up and down the corridors and around the room). But I think the main problem was the tiredness – I just wanted to sleep and the contractions were only seconds apart giving me no time to even catch my breath invetween.
So Dave eventually got the midwives to come and check me again. I think my second waters might have broken by then. I was given some gas and air to get through the internal examination again and finally I was 5cm dialated – enough to be taken to the labour ward.
I was finally allowed to keep my gas and air and was swiftly wheeled to my own room on the labour ward where I pleaded for an epidural. It all happened pretty fast but before I knew it, the pain was gone – along with any feeling from my legs down!
We were introduced to Yve who was the lovliest midwife! She had recently graduated but I felt completely comfortable with her and she was amazing!
After a quick nap, I was checked again and was 8cm. I resumed my nap and by 11am I was 10cm! Almost time to push. Because of the epidiral, I had to wait an hour before pushing started, so from 12pm – 2pm I waited for the contractions to appear on the screen and pushed through them. With no feeling from my legs down, it was impossible to know if I was pushing properly.
After two hours, the baby hadn’t moved and they realised it was at a funny angle. They suggested a ventouse delivery would be more appropriate so I was taken to theatre and Dave was taken to get dressed up in his scrubs. After only about two or three contractions (and an epistiotomy) the baby was out!
Then came the moment I’d been waiting the whole pregnancy for… Was it a boy or a girl? I firstly asked if the baby was OK, and it was, so then I looked at Dave and he told me we’d had a beautiful little girl!
