Announcing the arrival of our daughter Iona Lily, born on Sunday 8:46pm weighing in at 6lb 6oz.
What a traumatic experience! Please forgive for the long posting, but really need to share the experience with others.
Woke up at 5:30am Sunday morning with a few pains and woke up DH at 6am thinking it could be the start of things. They were coming every 5-10 minutes so rang hospital to forewarn them that I could be in at some point.
Was coping quite well with contractions - very different to what i expected them to feel like. At 2:30pm they were coming every couple of minutes so decided to go to hospital to get it checked out. I was really terrified that they'd tell me I was only 1cm and to go home! However, when I got there they told me I was 7cm - yippee!!
Couldn't believe that I'd laboured that far without the need for any pain relief. I had a bit of gas and air to get me to 10cm but was coping really well - until things started to go pear-shaped.
After over an hour of pushing, DD still hadn't moved in the slightest down the birth canal and the doctor was called in to examine me. DD was presenting face first and had basically got her head stuck and was going nowhere. At that point people started appearing from nowehre asking me to sign forms and sticking canulars and catheters into me. Poor DH was given scrubs and looked terrified - at which point I knew we were experiencing problems.
I got taken to theatre (leaving behind the lovely gas and air) and they prepared me for a spinal block. At this point the contractions were too much to bear and I was begging someone to give me some form of pain relief. Just as they were about to start the spinal, someone who needed an emergence c-section was rushed into the theatre and everyone left me to concentrate on this other women. I was left in a side room for about 30mins having full blown contrations, trying to push and with no pain relief at all - I became banshee wailing women at this point!
When I did get back into theatre they had 20 attempts at giving me a spinal block - all of them failed. In the end, the top consultant bloke at the hospital decided that it was going on for too long, and gave me an episiotomy with a local anaethestic and got out DD by kiwi.
Iona was absolutely fine - bump on the head but pretty perfect apart from that. I looked and felt as if I'd been steam-rollered!
Was recovering OK (apart from painful stitches) until Monday when I got a crushing headache that has continued pretty much up to this point. I haven't been able to stand or sit - only lie down. Went back into hospital yesterday and was told that at least one of the 20 attempts at a spinal had caused me to leak spinal fluid since that time. Normally it heals itself, but I was one of the unlucky ones.
I'm now on strong painkillers and if it hasn't rectified by Momday, then I'm back in theatre where they'll give me a blood patch.
Can't bear the thought of going back into hospital again, especially for a procedure involving injecting stuff in my back to cure the botched attempt the first time around. Am quite scared that it could make things worse - and I don't want to even think about what would happen if they couldn't get the needle in again.
Still, here I am at the computer and I'm praying that by tomorrow I'll be completely healed up and won't have to go in.
The first part of the labour was so easy, but I feel quite traumatised by what happened after, and it's really affected how I feel about DD. I feel so guilty, but i actually quite resent her at the moment. She's an absolute cutie and everyone keeps saying how lovely she is, but I feel so unwell and tired that I'm really not coping with looking after her at all. DH is tending to her every need and she really responds to him. I'm just feeding her when necessary but not wanting to interact with her at other times.
Anyone out there felt the same?
Sorry for the long posting, but in need of a bit of support. Still, I do feel very fortunate to have a DD who is well, and I keep telling myself that by this time next week things will seem a lot better.