"My baby was due on 23rd August, which came and passed completely uneventfully (apart from hearing that 2 of my friends had their babies on my due date... just what I needed to hear in my complete uncomfortable state!). I had 2 unsuccessful cervical sweeps - yowza - where I was informed that my cervix was too far back for the midwives to reach and given an induction date of Saturday 4th September, if nothing had happened before then.
On Thursday 2nd September, at around 7am, I had my first contraction. My OH had just left for work, and as he drives a Vespa Scooter, he wouldn't hear his phone ringing, but I called him anyway. I thought that when he saw missed calls from me, he may ring back to find out what I wanted. Ha! No such luck. The switchboard at his work doesn't open until 8.30am so I knew calling him via that would be pointless. The only other option I had was to email him!!
With OH finally contacted and making his way home, I began timing my contractions which were now strong and regular and about 8 minutes apart. We waited until they were five minutes apart before making our way to the hospital, grabbing a lift from my good friend as OH doesn't drive.
Upon arrival at the hospital, I was examined by a MW who advised that no dilation was happening and sent us home... This occured a further 6 times before...
2am, Saturday morning, my waters broke. I was asleep in the rocking chair in the nursery as my contractions were still going strong every 5 minutes, keeping me uncomfortable and the OH awake. I went to the toilet, saw they were green and rang the hospital. They advised us to come straight up, so I woke up my husband and phoned my dad who picked us up and drove us the short journey to the hospital.
I was examined by another MW who advised us that yes, my back-waters had broken and confirmed that they were green which could indicate the baby was in distress. They monitored me on the ward, attaching me to the Syntocinon drip before my fore-waters broke and confirmed that my meconium was present.
The next part of my labour remains a blur of being moved to the labour ward, contractions, gas and air, being monitored, speeding up the drip and slowing down the drip as I was contracting continually and in huge amounts of pain. I remember being dressed in a hospital gown as they warned me that I may end up in theatre having the baby via cesarean and being really scared. I really didn't want a c-section.
The MW was amazing, and advised me that to get the most out of the gas and air I needed to start sucking on it as soon as the contraction began building and stop as soon as the contraction began easing. As I was being monitored, the screen showed the start of the contraction before I could feel it, so my OH would nod frantically at me to tell me to start sucking! When the contraction was dying down I was off with the fairies, so the OH would rub my arm to tell me to ease off the gas and air... This code saw us through most of the day!
By 5pm, I was exhausted and only dilated to 4cms. I was offered an epidural, but had already decided that I didn't want one (partly due to my fear of needles, and partly due to the fact I wanted to 'feel' my labour.) I had a shot of Pethedine which really helped and then dozed between contractions until 9pm when I was due to be examined again.
The MW informed us that if I had not dilated to 5cm by 9pm, then I would need to go to theatre, as the labour wasn't progressing quickly enough. I hoped and prayed this wouldn't be the case, and someone must've been listening as by 9pm I was 9cm dilated and almost ready to push. I had another Pethedine shot after the MW examined me.
Dylan Christopher was born at 9.43pm. I gave birth to him naturally, lying on my side with my foot on the MW's shoulder! My OH was amazing. The man who can't watch 'Casualty' without feeling queasy cut the umbilical cord and watched our gorgeous son come into the world. I am an incredibly proud mummy, who, although I didn't get the water birth I had originally wanted, is incredibly relieved my boy was born naturally, without the need for an epidural!"
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