Here goes the details........
I had a show on Sunday night (1 July) and saw the midwife on the monday and she confirmed. I had a few contractions on the Tuesday morning and felt pretty rough in the morning, but by the afternoon felt fine.
Regular contractions started at 9pm on Tuesday night, about 10 mins apart but not getting any stronger or closer together. Most of the pain was in my back as baby was back to back.
I got into the bath about 2.30am as I could not get comfortable anywhere else, but the contractions were still manageable and 10mins apart. This continued until 5.30am, when I had a loose movement, and the intensity started to increase. We phoned the labour ward at 7.30 as they were 4 mins apart, but they said not to go in until I couldn't talk through them. This happened about 11.30 - they were really painful by then so we went in for an assessment. The drive to the hospital was horrible - I was trying to have quiet transactions to avoid distracting my husband driving!
Once we got to the assessment room, they monitored the feotal heartrate and the contractions for about an hour, and then did an internal. I was only 2cm dilated, but fully thinned and effaced. I was half expecting not to be too far along, but it was pretty dispiriting to be told after so many hours that I was only 2cm.
She gave us the option of going home and coming back, but given that this would have been a round trip of an hour at least, we decided to stay.
I had yet another bath, and after another couple of hours I was finding it difficult to breath through the contractions. They examined me again and I was 4-5cm, which meant I could go to the labour ward.
The water birthing pool was free, and it was my plan to have a water birth. I wanted to limit other pain relief to gas and air. Before they could let me in the pool, they had to do a risk assessment which meant a trace of the heartbeat and the contractions for an hour. I discovered the gas and air while we were waiting and that was such a relief. I found the contractions were much more managable - they were still every couple of mins.
Once they had done the trace they decided I couldn't have a water birth as the FHR was too stable - they like it to go up and down with the contractions. TBH, by the time they had decided this I was past caring and just wanted to get on with it. Things progressed much quicker by then anyway, and I was in the first phase for 3 hours to get fully dilated, and then pushed for 1hr22 mins. The doctor appeared once when I was pushing and was thinking about an assisted delivery, and said he would stay for the next push. Fortunately, that was the last push, and out came my little girl, all at once! Apparently I did pant in the right places, but she had obviously decided she'd had enough. She was born at 8.37pm
I had a second degree tear, which took the next 2 hours to sew up. We had immediate skin to skin contact and she had a feed will this was going on, and then skin to skni with my husband while I puffed away on the gas and air and the registrar recreated the Bayeaux tapestry down below.
Congratulations to anyone who has made it to the end of this - I feel better for getting it all catelogued and I'm sure all the visitors are sick to death of the story. It was defineatley the hardest and best thing I have ever done and I am very proud of myself - I didn't swear at anyone! The midwives at the delivery were great and seeing my daughter for the first time was the best feeling in the world. I'm still finding it difficult to believe she is mine.
I had a show on Sunday night (1 July) and saw the midwife on the monday and she confirmed. I had a few contractions on the Tuesday morning and felt pretty rough in the morning, but by the afternoon felt fine.
Regular contractions started at 9pm on Tuesday night, about 10 mins apart but not getting any stronger or closer together. Most of the pain was in my back as baby was back to back.
I got into the bath about 2.30am as I could not get comfortable anywhere else, but the contractions were still manageable and 10mins apart. This continued until 5.30am, when I had a loose movement, and the intensity started to increase. We phoned the labour ward at 7.30 as they were 4 mins apart, but they said not to go in until I couldn't talk through them. This happened about 11.30 - they were really painful by then so we went in for an assessment. The drive to the hospital was horrible - I was trying to have quiet transactions to avoid distracting my husband driving!
Once we got to the assessment room, they monitored the feotal heartrate and the contractions for about an hour, and then did an internal. I was only 2cm dilated, but fully thinned and effaced. I was half expecting not to be too far along, but it was pretty dispiriting to be told after so many hours that I was only 2cm.
She gave us the option of going home and coming back, but given that this would have been a round trip of an hour at least, we decided to stay.
I had yet another bath, and after another couple of hours I was finding it difficult to breath through the contractions. They examined me again and I was 4-5cm, which meant I could go to the labour ward.
The water birthing pool was free, and it was my plan to have a water birth. I wanted to limit other pain relief to gas and air. Before they could let me in the pool, they had to do a risk assessment which meant a trace of the heartbeat and the contractions for an hour. I discovered the gas and air while we were waiting and that was such a relief. I found the contractions were much more managable - they were still every couple of mins.
Once they had done the trace they decided I couldn't have a water birth as the FHR was too stable - they like it to go up and down with the contractions. TBH, by the time they had decided this I was past caring and just wanted to get on with it. Things progressed much quicker by then anyway, and I was in the first phase for 3 hours to get fully dilated, and then pushed for 1hr22 mins. The doctor appeared once when I was pushing and was thinking about an assisted delivery, and said he would stay for the next push. Fortunately, that was the last push, and out came my little girl, all at once! Apparently I did pant in the right places, but she had obviously decided she'd had enough. She was born at 8.37pm
I had a second degree tear, which took the next 2 hours to sew up. We had immediate skin to skin contact and she had a feed will this was going on, and then skin to skni with my husband while I puffed away on the gas and air and the registrar recreated the Bayeaux tapestry down below.
Congratulations to anyone who has made it to the end of this - I feel better for getting it all catelogued and I'm sure all the visitors are sick to death of the story. It was defineatley the hardest and best thing I have ever done and I am very proud of myself - I didn't swear at anyone! The midwives at the delivery were great and seeing my daughter for the first time was the best feeling in the world. I'm still finding it difficult to believe she is mine.
