xxbeckyxx
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2010
- Messages
- 3,497
- Reaction score
- 0
Ok, this might not be particularly accurate but I will try my best to remember what was going on! Sorry it's so long but I'm gonna print this off as a memento so want to get everything in that I can.
As most of you probably know I was aiming for a homebirth and was desperate to get things moving over the weekend as was going to have to be induced on Tues 21st if baby hadn't arrived naturally! So on Friday 17th, OH and I went trawling on the net to make a list of all the things we could do. I personally think the best thing for me was actually something that I was a bit dubious about at first - acupressure. My opinion was kinda like 'rubbing my skin?How will that start a labour?'. However, OH was insistent and kept rubbing the webbing between my thumb and forefinger throughout the day. It may have been psychosomatic but every time he did I swear I got period pains within a minute of him doing it.
He was due to work an early shift Saturday so went to bed at about 9, but by this time I was secretly thinking to myself, 'this could be it!'.
A few hours later I rung the midwife because it was -13 degrees and the roads were rubbish where we live, so I wanted to inform her what was happening. She was very brisk and unsympathetic and told me that she was the only one on duty therefore I couldn't have my baby until at least 8 am Saturday when there was another midwife! Several times she said 'Just go back to bed and wait until morning'. There was no way I was gonna sleep through what had definitely turned into contractions!
So I phoned my mummy at about 3 and she came over. Also woke up OH and told him he needed to get up - he thought it was time for him to go to work!
We tried a bath to slow the contractions down a bit but I found them really hard to deal with whilst in the bath - I needed heat on both my back and front and couldn't have both at the same time! Put on my tens machine which really helped, although I couldn't use the mode for contractions, I just liked the pulsating mode and the fact I had buttons to play with
By half 6ish contractions were really painful and 3 minutes apart. I thought I could hang on till the midwife changeover if we were guaranteed someone at 8. However, no one could tell us if there would be enough staff, no one knew who was working, where they had to drive from etc. So it was this point that I completely lost faith in the community midwifery team, they were so unhelpful! So we decided to go to the hospital just in case, as it was an hours drive at least in this weather!
I was seen as soon as I arrived which was great, but unfortunately only 2cms! MW also said my cervix was incredibly thick so it would take longer for anything to happen. She gave me a sweep to try and stretch things and said I should probably head home. By now I was knackered as hadn't slept all night and contractions were horrible and very frequent! I was hanging off OH's shoulder for every one, have managed to stretch his favourite t shirt lol
We finally got a midwife come to the house at 11am and she said I was now 3 cms but still very thick. She said the dilation didn't really count until the cervix was effaced so I was a bit disheartened! She left to do local house calls and we next got a couple of midwives at about 5pm, who were absolutely lovely! One of them reminded me I should probably try to eat something, but I promptly threw back up anything I tried. Bless them, I think they really wanted things to be happening for me as they could see how much pain I was in. But I saw the midwife's face when she did the internal and wasn't surprised when she said things hadn't changed much. She said she could just about stretch my cervix to 4 cms but it was still thick
Changeover was due at 9pm and we were given the news that AGAIN, only one midwife was on duty so we couldn't have baby at home. The lovely midwife with me tried ringing around her colleagues to see if anyone would come out and managed to find a lady who would, result!!
BUT, this was shortlived as that midwife tried to get petrol before she came to us, skidded on roads and rung back to say she couldn't get to us after all. By this time contractions were pretty much unbearable so we didn't know what to do! We decided to do another internal to see what was going on...STILL 3-4 cms and thick. I was so disappointed that the pain wasn't even leading to anything and soooo tired, I just couldn't cope for that much longer. So we decided to go to hospital as at least then I could have a bit of pain relief - I'd only had paracetamol up till this point.
The drive to the hospital was honestly the worst experience I've ever had in my life, I couldn't move to cope with contractions and was finding it really hard to breathe. It was only when I remembered the hypnobirthing stuff (MASSIVE THANKS TO RAYOFLIGHT!
) that I was able to calm myself down. Managed to slow contractions to one every 10 minutes by 'letting go' of my body, although this was still too much for my liking!
Got straight in the delivery room and on the gas and air but it was rubbish! Didn't do anything for me, I found it a lot easier to do my own breathing technique of inhaling and exhaling the word 'Shoes', really elongated. Great word to exhale!! Although I'm sure everyone thought I was mad
Contractions were 2 mins apart and 1.5mins long at this point and I was very tired and teary. I got a bit of a boost when I heard the midwives whispering about how well I was coping - I figured it must be true if they were saying it to each other and not just to reassure me!
At about 1am Sunday I was 4-5 cms, which wasn't a great increase, and surprise surprise, still with a thick cervix!!!
By my next internal at about 4am, I said I actually couldn't go any longer without more pain relief if things weren't moving along. Sure enough, I saw the midwife's face and just said 'Epidural now please!' lol!
I was sooo lucky because the anaesthetist had literally come out of theatre and was about to go in for another operation when the midwife managed to catch her. She told her I was nice and skinny so could just pop the needle in quickly, no worries
BEST THING EVER! I was able to go to sleep! I needed it so badly at this point, so once the epidural kicked in I slept like a log. Gave mum and OH a bit of respite too as they had both been up with me all this time.
At half 7am I was woken for an internal, fully effaced and 8 cms!! So without any extra hormones, just a little nap and I got that far, whoop! By 9am I was fully dilated and ready to push
However, the epidural had slowed my contractions right down so the midwife was concerned that I would push a bit of baby out and by the time the next one came along, baby would've 'slid' back in. So had a hormone drip to speed things up again.
OMG, pushing my baby out was the best feeling, the epidural had worn down quite a bit by this point so I could feel the contractions enough to know when to push, and could feel babies facial features as she came out
I found this stage so empowering, and time passed really quickly while I was pushing.
At 10:32am Lizzie's head was out, and then feeling her body 'flump' out of mine was so weird I burst out laughing! It felt like my insides had just fallen out lol. Laughter turned to tears as I realised my baby was on my chest looking up at me! So overwhelming, wouldn't change anything for the world!
Aretha Franklin 'say a little prayer' was on the radio so that is officially Lizzie's song
Again, massive thanks to all you girls here, and thanks to Monkei for announcing her arrival! Better go, she's just woken for a feed! xxx
As most of you probably know I was aiming for a homebirth and was desperate to get things moving over the weekend as was going to have to be induced on Tues 21st if baby hadn't arrived naturally! So on Friday 17th, OH and I went trawling on the net to make a list of all the things we could do. I personally think the best thing for me was actually something that I was a bit dubious about at first - acupressure. My opinion was kinda like 'rubbing my skin?How will that start a labour?'. However, OH was insistent and kept rubbing the webbing between my thumb and forefinger throughout the day. It may have been psychosomatic but every time he did I swear I got period pains within a minute of him doing it.
He was due to work an early shift Saturday so went to bed at about 9, but by this time I was secretly thinking to myself, 'this could be it!'.
A few hours later I rung the midwife because it was -13 degrees and the roads were rubbish where we live, so I wanted to inform her what was happening. She was very brisk and unsympathetic and told me that she was the only one on duty therefore I couldn't have my baby until at least 8 am Saturday when there was another midwife! Several times she said 'Just go back to bed and wait until morning'. There was no way I was gonna sleep through what had definitely turned into contractions!
So I phoned my mummy at about 3 and she came over. Also woke up OH and told him he needed to get up - he thought it was time for him to go to work!
We tried a bath to slow the contractions down a bit but I found them really hard to deal with whilst in the bath - I needed heat on both my back and front and couldn't have both at the same time! Put on my tens machine which really helped, although I couldn't use the mode for contractions, I just liked the pulsating mode and the fact I had buttons to play with
By half 6ish contractions were really painful and 3 minutes apart. I thought I could hang on till the midwife changeover if we were guaranteed someone at 8. However, no one could tell us if there would be enough staff, no one knew who was working, where they had to drive from etc. So it was this point that I completely lost faith in the community midwifery team, they were so unhelpful! So we decided to go to the hospital just in case, as it was an hours drive at least in this weather!
I was seen as soon as I arrived which was great, but unfortunately only 2cms! MW also said my cervix was incredibly thick so it would take longer for anything to happen. She gave me a sweep to try and stretch things and said I should probably head home. By now I was knackered as hadn't slept all night and contractions were horrible and very frequent! I was hanging off OH's shoulder for every one, have managed to stretch his favourite t shirt lol
We finally got a midwife come to the house at 11am and she said I was now 3 cms but still very thick. She said the dilation didn't really count until the cervix was effaced so I was a bit disheartened! She left to do local house calls and we next got a couple of midwives at about 5pm, who were absolutely lovely! One of them reminded me I should probably try to eat something, but I promptly threw back up anything I tried. Bless them, I think they really wanted things to be happening for me as they could see how much pain I was in. But I saw the midwife's face when she did the internal and wasn't surprised when she said things hadn't changed much. She said she could just about stretch my cervix to 4 cms but it was still thick
Changeover was due at 9pm and we were given the news that AGAIN, only one midwife was on duty so we couldn't have baby at home. The lovely midwife with me tried ringing around her colleagues to see if anyone would come out and managed to find a lady who would, result!!
BUT, this was shortlived as that midwife tried to get petrol before she came to us, skidded on roads and rung back to say she couldn't get to us after all. By this time contractions were pretty much unbearable so we didn't know what to do! We decided to do another internal to see what was going on...STILL 3-4 cms and thick. I was so disappointed that the pain wasn't even leading to anything and soooo tired, I just couldn't cope for that much longer. So we decided to go to hospital as at least then I could have a bit of pain relief - I'd only had paracetamol up till this point.
The drive to the hospital was honestly the worst experience I've ever had in my life, I couldn't move to cope with contractions and was finding it really hard to breathe. It was only when I remembered the hypnobirthing stuff (MASSIVE THANKS TO RAYOFLIGHT!
) that I was able to calm myself down. Managed to slow contractions to one every 10 minutes by 'letting go' of my body, although this was still too much for my liking!Got straight in the delivery room and on the gas and air but it was rubbish! Didn't do anything for me, I found it a lot easier to do my own breathing technique of inhaling and exhaling the word 'Shoes', really elongated. Great word to exhale!! Although I'm sure everyone thought I was mad
Contractions were 2 mins apart and 1.5mins long at this point and I was very tired and teary. I got a bit of a boost when I heard the midwives whispering about how well I was coping - I figured it must be true if they were saying it to each other and not just to reassure me!At about 1am Sunday I was 4-5 cms, which wasn't a great increase, and surprise surprise, still with a thick cervix!!!
By my next internal at about 4am, I said I actually couldn't go any longer without more pain relief if things weren't moving along. Sure enough, I saw the midwife's face and just said 'Epidural now please!' lol!
I was sooo lucky because the anaesthetist had literally come out of theatre and was about to go in for another operation when the midwife managed to catch her. She told her I was nice and skinny so could just pop the needle in quickly, no worries
BEST THING EVER! I was able to go to sleep! I needed it so badly at this point, so once the epidural kicked in I slept like a log. Gave mum and OH a bit of respite too as they had both been up with me all this time.
At half 7am I was woken for an internal, fully effaced and 8 cms!! So without any extra hormones, just a little nap and I got that far, whoop! By 9am I was fully dilated and ready to push
However, the epidural had slowed my contractions right down so the midwife was concerned that I would push a bit of baby out and by the time the next one came along, baby would've 'slid' back in. So had a hormone drip to speed things up again.
OMG, pushing my baby out was the best feeling, the epidural had worn down quite a bit by this point so I could feel the contractions enough to know when to push, and could feel babies facial features as she came out
I found this stage so empowering, and time passed really quickly while I was pushing.At 10:32am Lizzie's head was out, and then feeling her body 'flump' out of mine was so weird I burst out laughing! It felt like my insides had just fallen out lol. Laughter turned to tears as I realised my baby was on my chest looking up at me! So overwhelming, wouldn't change anything for the world!
Aretha Franklin 'say a little prayer' was on the radio so that is officially Lizzie's song
Again, massive thanks to all you girls here, and thanks to Monkei for announcing her arrival! Better go, she's just woken for a feed! xxx
Last edited:
