Amber8
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So my DD was 18th Jan, was booked in for stretch & sweep at 9.30am. Woke up at 3.30am with soaking pj bottoms, went to the loo & had started loosing plug. Went to mw appointment & explained about loss of water so she sent me to triage as didn't want to do s&s incase waters had gone. Checked out in triage, waters hadn't gone so s&s done & sent home.
Sunday 20th Jan, woke up at 4.30am with period pains. Couldn't get back to sleep so got up, by 6am I was having contractions. Got a bath about 9am to see if it eased it, still coming so knew this was it. Informed triage & was just told to stay at home until they were coming quickly or until pain wasn't bearable.
Contractions were every 3-4 mins lasting about 45 seconds, had tens machine on all day. Got a bath about 8pm, bath really helped & was so relaxing. Triage just kept telling me to stay at home as long as possible & as I was managing I stayed at home.
Started to get pretty unbearable early hrs of the morning, got another bath & labour ward talked me thru my breathing which really helped. Lasted til 4am & just couldn't take it so went to hospital. Examined & was told waters had gone, didn't even realise but think they went about 10.30am Sunday as did feel something & had a trickle of water down my leg. Only 2cm dilated so was sent home & told to come back at 2pm to be induced but he said I'd probably be in before that due to contractions coming quicker.
1.30pm phoned hospital to check bed available, no beds!! Told to come in at 5pm. 5.30pm was examined & 4cm, so down to labour ward & didn't need to be induced.
Waiting to find out if birthing pool free, yes it is. Mw then comes to tell me I can't have it due to waters been broken for more than 24 hrs, abit gutted but not as much as I thought I'd be. Put on ECG to check Ava's hb.
9.30pm examined & 6cm dilated, so far just had some cocodamol.
1.30am Tues, examined but still about 6cm. Contractions really slowed down to about every 10 mins, was told they need to put me on a drip to speed them up.
This is where timings are abit hazy!
Drip put in & took about 40 mins or so to start to speed contractions up. Once they got really close together pain was pretty bad so asked for pethadin, said to go on gas & air because pethadin wud take 15-20 mins to kick in, so gas & air it was. Didn't take long for that to kick in, before I knew it I was in la la land & felt like I'd had a few too many wines.
Decided to stick to this for a while without the pethadin. Not sure how much long later but pain was really bad & needed pethadin so they gave me it. It didn't feel like much longer later that the pressure in my bum changed & next contraction I was getting the urge to push.
So the urge to push just got stronger & stronger, mw didn't think I'd be fully dilated. But they cud see I was pushing & realised she was on her way. Ava's hb started to drop quite low & she was getting distressed so suddenly I had 3 mw's in the room who were getting ready to have to step in.
My pelvis is apparently arched so Ava was struggling to come down, which is why her hb slowed down. They ended up having to cut me to give her more room to come out because I'm only small. Within 25 mins of pushing she was out & being placed on my chest. I couldn't believe she was there, I just couldn't stop crying & dh had a tear in his eye (even tho he says he didn't).
Dh was amazing & really helped me thru it, he was telling me what to do wen I was pushing because I wasn't concentrating on what the mw were saying. He helped me get her out & calm me down.
Even tho it was long I wud do it all again, the whole experience from start to finish is so surreal now to think about it. We still can't believe how small she is, 5lb 5oz, just within the 'ok' weight range.
So Ava is settling in really well, Amber just gives her sniff every now & again but generally isn't bothered. We went for our first walk today.
Xx
Sunday 20th Jan, woke up at 4.30am with period pains. Couldn't get back to sleep so got up, by 6am I was having contractions. Got a bath about 9am to see if it eased it, still coming so knew this was it. Informed triage & was just told to stay at home until they were coming quickly or until pain wasn't bearable.
Contractions were every 3-4 mins lasting about 45 seconds, had tens machine on all day. Got a bath about 8pm, bath really helped & was so relaxing. Triage just kept telling me to stay at home as long as possible & as I was managing I stayed at home.
Started to get pretty unbearable early hrs of the morning, got another bath & labour ward talked me thru my breathing which really helped. Lasted til 4am & just couldn't take it so went to hospital. Examined & was told waters had gone, didn't even realise but think they went about 10.30am Sunday as did feel something & had a trickle of water down my leg. Only 2cm dilated so was sent home & told to come back at 2pm to be induced but he said I'd probably be in before that due to contractions coming quicker.
1.30pm phoned hospital to check bed available, no beds!! Told to come in at 5pm. 5.30pm was examined & 4cm, so down to labour ward & didn't need to be induced.
Waiting to find out if birthing pool free, yes it is. Mw then comes to tell me I can't have it due to waters been broken for more than 24 hrs, abit gutted but not as much as I thought I'd be. Put on ECG to check Ava's hb.
9.30pm examined & 6cm dilated, so far just had some cocodamol.
1.30am Tues, examined but still about 6cm. Contractions really slowed down to about every 10 mins, was told they need to put me on a drip to speed them up.
This is where timings are abit hazy!
Drip put in & took about 40 mins or so to start to speed contractions up. Once they got really close together pain was pretty bad so asked for pethadin, said to go on gas & air because pethadin wud take 15-20 mins to kick in, so gas & air it was. Didn't take long for that to kick in, before I knew it I was in la la land & felt like I'd had a few too many wines.
Decided to stick to this for a while without the pethadin. Not sure how much long later but pain was really bad & needed pethadin so they gave me it. It didn't feel like much longer later that the pressure in my bum changed & next contraction I was getting the urge to push.
So the urge to push just got stronger & stronger, mw didn't think I'd be fully dilated. But they cud see I was pushing & realised she was on her way. Ava's hb started to drop quite low & she was getting distressed so suddenly I had 3 mw's in the room who were getting ready to have to step in.
My pelvis is apparently arched so Ava was struggling to come down, which is why her hb slowed down. They ended up having to cut me to give her more room to come out because I'm only small. Within 25 mins of pushing she was out & being placed on my chest. I couldn't believe she was there, I just couldn't stop crying & dh had a tear in his eye (even tho he says he didn't).
Dh was amazing & really helped me thru it, he was telling me what to do wen I was pushing because I wasn't concentrating on what the mw were saying. He helped me get her out & calm me down.
Even tho it was long I wud do it all again, the whole experience from start to finish is so surreal now to think about it. We still can't believe how small she is, 5lb 5oz, just within the 'ok' weight range.
So Ava is settling in really well, Amber just gives her sniff every now & again but generally isn't bothered. We went for our first walk today.
Xx
well done you xx
What an epic labour you had Amber, but you did so well! Sorry you didn't manage your water birth, but I bet you couldn't care less now! Hope your stitches aren't too painful - I got a travel pilow to sit on which helped... Enjoy your little baba and see you in the parenting section 
