After whinging I'd be induced next week I'm pleased to say that I gave birth to our baby girl, Hannah Florence at 1.40am yesterday morning. She weighed in at an eye watering 9 pounds.
I had a second sweep on Friday morning and on Saturday morning lost a bit of plug but didn't think much of it. Woke up with intermittent period pains at about 1am on Sunday morning and started timing them - they were a bit all over the place - between every 2-10 minutes lasting 30-60 seconds. Bounced on my ball and watched TV until about 8.30am when were closer to 3 in 10 minutes and then went into the midwife led unit to be checked. Midwife said I was in very early labour and was 2cm and cervix was still half a cm thick (at the sweep on Friday id been 1cm and 1.5cm long cervix) - was a bit disappointed and worried by how slow it was progressing but went home, strapped on the tens machine and bounced my way through a few crappy chick flicks, had a bath etc. Contractions still were not regular at 6pm but much more intense so went back to the unit where midwife said I was now 4cm and I was able to stay at the unit. The pool took was occupied which I was a bit gutted about but listened to some music and bounced on the ball. At about 8pm I had an injection of meptid which is not a pain reliever but makes you drowsy but doesn't cross placenta - basically made me really dosey for about 3 hours so I could rest between Contractions which was better than nothing. When they checked me again at 11pm I was getting quite a lot of pressure around my bum but they said I was now 8-9 cm and was nearly there. I got up to walk around and with th next contraction my waters literally exploded everywhere - it was a pretty special sight! Some of the pressure relieved instantly. I was on gas and air by this point too which helped a little bit. By this point the pool room was free and we were now th only people on the unit so we had the whole place to ourselves and the support of 2 midwives and a student midwife. I got in th pool to push and after about an hour and a half our daughter was born. We didn't cut the cord for about 25 minutes as it was still pulsing so we just sat in the pool - it was a lovely, calm environment. I had hoped for a physiological third stage but after an hour the placenta still wasn't detaching so they had to give me two doses one syntocin which still didn't work - they were close to transferring me to th hospital but luckily the midwife managed to get it out in a pretty undignified manner. This bit I found more painful than I expected but I think it's quite rare that they have that much trouble removing placenta. I also needed an injection for bleeding and some stitching for 2nd degree tears which took a while but they said I had been quite lucky considering Hannah was 9 pounds and it was a first labour. In total after the birth th midwives were messing around with me for about 3 hours so during this time hubby had skin to skin with Hannah which was lovely to see. Then they brought us both tea and a huge pile of toast which I scoffed in minutes and was the best thing ever. We were still the only people in the unit and were allowed to stay as long as we liked. In the end we stayed around until about midday and then came home. She isn't feeding well at the moment but hoping when th midwife comes today she can help with that.
It was without a doubt the most painful experience of my life - the feeling of that head popping out will haunt me for the rest of my days - but it's also already an amazing memory and I'm so proud of myself that I managed to do it, and I would do it again (although not for a while) makes you realise what an amazing thing the human body is. Hubby was amazing all th way through, I know I couldn't have done it without more pain relief if he hadn't been by my side all the way.
It's so strange not being pregnant anymore and having our little girl that less than 36 hours ago was just a big tummy! She is such a chunk already with lots of dark hair. Will post a pic later!
Lots of love, X
I had a second sweep on Friday morning and on Saturday morning lost a bit of plug but didn't think much of it. Woke up with intermittent period pains at about 1am on Sunday morning and started timing them - they were a bit all over the place - between every 2-10 minutes lasting 30-60 seconds. Bounced on my ball and watched TV until about 8.30am when were closer to 3 in 10 minutes and then went into the midwife led unit to be checked. Midwife said I was in very early labour and was 2cm and cervix was still half a cm thick (at the sweep on Friday id been 1cm and 1.5cm long cervix) - was a bit disappointed and worried by how slow it was progressing but went home, strapped on the tens machine and bounced my way through a few crappy chick flicks, had a bath etc. Contractions still were not regular at 6pm but much more intense so went back to the unit where midwife said I was now 4cm and I was able to stay at the unit. The pool took was occupied which I was a bit gutted about but listened to some music and bounced on the ball. At about 8pm I had an injection of meptid which is not a pain reliever but makes you drowsy but doesn't cross placenta - basically made me really dosey for about 3 hours so I could rest between Contractions which was better than nothing. When they checked me again at 11pm I was getting quite a lot of pressure around my bum but they said I was now 8-9 cm and was nearly there. I got up to walk around and with th next contraction my waters literally exploded everywhere - it was a pretty special sight! Some of the pressure relieved instantly. I was on gas and air by this point too which helped a little bit. By this point the pool room was free and we were now th only people on the unit so we had the whole place to ourselves and the support of 2 midwives and a student midwife. I got in th pool to push and after about an hour and a half our daughter was born. We didn't cut the cord for about 25 minutes as it was still pulsing so we just sat in the pool - it was a lovely, calm environment. I had hoped for a physiological third stage but after an hour the placenta still wasn't detaching so they had to give me two doses one syntocin which still didn't work - they were close to transferring me to th hospital but luckily the midwife managed to get it out in a pretty undignified manner. This bit I found more painful than I expected but I think it's quite rare that they have that much trouble removing placenta. I also needed an injection for bleeding and some stitching for 2nd degree tears which took a while but they said I had been quite lucky considering Hannah was 9 pounds and it was a first labour. In total after the birth th midwives were messing around with me for about 3 hours so during this time hubby had skin to skin with Hannah which was lovely to see. Then they brought us both tea and a huge pile of toast which I scoffed in minutes and was the best thing ever. We were still the only people in the unit and were allowed to stay as long as we liked. In the end we stayed around until about midday and then came home. She isn't feeding well at the moment but hoping when th midwife comes today she can help with that.
It was without a doubt the most painful experience of my life - the feeling of that head popping out will haunt me for the rest of my days - but it's also already an amazing memory and I'm so proud of myself that I managed to do it, and I would do it again (although not for a while) makes you realise what an amazing thing the human body is. Hubby was amazing all th way through, I know I couldn't have done it without more pain relief if he hadn't been by my side all the way.
It's so strange not being pregnant anymore and having our little girl that less than 36 hours ago was just a big tummy! She is such a chunk already with lots of dark hair. Will post a pic later!
Lots of love, X
