"Contractions carried on but the pain stopped!
We had tried for a baby for 3 years without luck. After 3 months of Clomid, I finally fell pregnant. I was delighted.
Then the midwife came to me for the booking in appointment, she was really miserable and snappy. Not what a happy first time mum wants. Anyway she apologised as she was pregnant too and feeling really poorly. I only mention this because it turned out we were in labour in adjoining rooms! The other reason for mentioning it was because she was so horrible at the beginning when she asked if I had a 28 day cycle and I said yes. I’ve never had a regular cycle!
Samuel’s due date was 31st August but that came and went. Everyone thought he was late but he could have been early due to my dodgy periods. The following Wednesday I went for doctor’s check-up and my BP was high. The doctor sent me home to rest and the midwife came to re-check me in the afternoon. It was still high so I was sent straight to hospital.
They checked my BP and got me straight to a bed. I really didn’t want to stay and got very upset. On the Thursday they decided to induce me but because the other 3 local hospitals were full and patients were being sent up, they couldn’t fit me in. 6am Friday morning some rotten nurse woke me to get me started. Apparently they were going to start me in the night but I was so deeply asleep they left me (good decision!!!).
I was taken to the labour ward and had some gel put in. I immediately got a very uncomfortable tightening around my middle. I was meant to be monitored for 15 minutes but after 10 I had to ask to be taken off because I was so uncomfortable. I went back to my bed and managed to get some sleep. At 8ish I had some breakfast and the contractions were mild but definitely there. At 9.30ish I decided to have a bath. Once I finished I got out and there was a gush of water – my waters had broken. All I was worried about was I hadn’t cleaned the bath out like it asked! I put on a panty pad – how naive is that! I slopped my way up the corridor and got a mega pad to sop up the water!
I put on my TENS machine but I should have really put it on earlier as it didn’t make any difference. By 11am I was in a lot of pain. I went to the labour ward and asked for pain relief. The lovely sympathetic midwife said “you can’t possibly need pain relief”. When she examined me I was 8cms dilated. I asked for an epidural. When he finally turned up to do it I was having such bad contractions I couldn’t bend forward enough to have it done. He managed to put some local anaesthetic in which took the edge off the pain for a short while.
They seem to leave me for ages in this transition stage. They said the longer the better because of my BP (which had been fine throughout labour). Finally I started to push. As soon as I got to that point my contractions stopped. Well they carried on because the trace was showing them but I couldn’t feel them. I just kept pushing!
At 3.43pm Samuel entered the world. Weighing in at 7lbs 15oz.
I had to have some stitches but nothing too serious.
I finally had my gorgeous boy.
My little man went straight to sleep. He stayed asleep until, at 3am, I woke him up for a feed. NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY! If they are asleep, they aren’t hungry! I had terrible trouble getting him to latch on. It didn’t matter too much at first but it became a problem very quickly and there was little support on the ward.
I went home on the Sunday which, in hindsight, was too quick for me. When I got home I broke down crying. I didn’t know how I was going to keep this little one warm (we didn’t have central heating).
For the next week I lived in a very unhappy bubble. I struggled to feed Samuel and I began to dread him waking up. I had a different midwife every day, none who picked up how badly I was struggling.
One morning I ended up back in hospital at 4am because I couldn’t cope anymore. I had an older midwife who got him latched on like a dream but once I got home I still couldn’t do it.
The next night I was being left on my own with Samuel for the first time. When he woke and I couldn’t get him to latch, I rang my mum. She came up and made up a bottle of formula for Samuel. A friend of mine, the only one to say I was having a boy, had got me a bag of baby bits when I was pregnant. She had got me a tin of formula and a bottle. I couldn’t understand why she would buy me that – breastfeeding is easy isn’t it? Anyway, after taking the bottle, my lovely lad slept from 10pm – 2am. Mum had made me up another bottle for the night which he took at 2am and then slept until 7am.
I was such a happier mum at that point so it was formula all the way after that and I finally began enjoying my lovely son."
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