Hi again everyone,
Apologies for radio silence - suffice to say the last 9 days have been rather busy! But after all the kindness and support I've been shown on this thread I wanted to give you all an update with the eventual outcome.
I ended up with an emergency C section in the end after various different types of induction failed (Propess, prostin, artificial rupture of membranes, synto drip for 8 hours, plus a particularly savage stretch and sweep after the prostin finally got me to a whole 2cm dilated). I was admitted on Tuesday and my daughter finally arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning. At times it was very demoralising, and times very painful. the Propess was in 24 hours, gave me bad cramps (not really contractions as such) and by the end still no dilation. Prostin didn't feel like it did much but it did actually work a bit. I took the epidural in the end and was pretty glad I did as my contractions were quite frequent then and some quite strong apparently but because of the epi I didn't feel them, hooray! I still couldn't get past 4cm, and by then time was running out. The epidural took two goes to get in, and took over half an hour, first time it wasn't in deep enough and I felt a nasty shooting pain which was apparently them probably catching against the bone, eek! So overall, objectively I didn't have the best birth experience and the sad thing about it is that the delays have meant that my husband, who only gets two weeks off work, has now had four days less with me and our new daughter than he would have done if I'd gone with an elective C section early on as I'd suggested to the hospital. They talked me out of it though and overall husband feels happier that everything we did was based on medical advice.
One thing I wasn't prepared for was the indignity of certain aspects of the procedure. I hadn't realised with artificial rupture of membranes that you basically still leak your waters out for hours afterwards so essentially spent 8 hours lying hooked up to my synto drip, my epi, unable to move anywhere, catheterised, leaking, and with an absorbent mat under me collecting my waters which the midwife had to change every so often so that I wasn't just sat in a big puddle. It felt pretty undignified.
The C section itself was actually not bad at all. Despite technically being an emergency c section and thus not having long to prepare for it emotionally, it was well managed, I felt well looked after, at no point did my daughter exhibit foetal distress, and the lovely anaesthetist played 80s music, so my gorgeous baby girl was born to Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder, which is actually kind of perfect when you think about it. I was also lucky that one of the top consultants in the hospital was on duty that night and did my C section. Recovery has been fast and good. The scar is incredible - it looks now the way I'd hoped it would look in three months time! It's like he's somehow managed to extract an 8lb baby by micro surgery?!
The most important thing though, as several of you correctly pointed out in advance, is that now my baby is here, I don't care. I am besotted by her. My birth experience wasn't objectively what anyone would choose, but I've survived with no lasting adverse physical consequences and the most gorgeous baby girl, so it's all good! 😍
Many thanks to all those who offered advice, support and reassurance on here. It was VERY much appreciated.
Xxxx