(and here's how she arrived...)
I went in to be induced on Tuesday morning at 12 days overdue. When they examined me my cervix was still long but was ripe so they administered Prostin gel and monitored me for a bit. The change in frequency of tightenings was immediate, they went from the 10 mins apart I had been getting to 5 mins apart. They didn't want to examine me again until late afternoon so we went for a wander into town for a couple of hours!
When they re-examined me at 4.30ish the cervix had completelt thinned and although I hadn't dilated more than 2cm, she could stretch it open further so they transferred me to Central Delivery to have my waters broken.
Waters were broken just after 6pm and the pains immediately got much worse, I asked for gas and air and shortly later I had a small shot of Pethedine. I wished I'd asked for more though as it just got more and more intense. By 7.30 I could feel pressure and by 8.30 I was getting the urge to push, I resisted the urge but my body pushed gently anyway and when the MW examined me baby had started to descend by itself.
Then it all got a bit hairy, LO's heart rate started to drop seriously and I was told I needed to roll from my side to my back. I refused and got on all fours - I was determined not to give birth on my back due to my SPD! - but baby didn't like that either so I had no choice but to get on my back. I also had to start helping with the pushing as baby was getting distressed.
Pushing baby down the birth canal was fairly straightforward but then baby's nose got stuck, MW fished it out but then asked DH to press the buzzer (turns out she had some Paediatrics on standby as they knew baby was likely to be large and the SPD could cause a problem). Once baby's head was out I was told to pant but her shoulders got stuck (MW had guessed they would because of the nose) and in a matter of seconds they pushed the bed (and me) flat, pushed my legs and hips up and back and pulled her out.
It truned out that the cord was wrapped twice around her neck and tightly too. Thankfully they hadn't told me that or I am sure I would have lost focus and panicked. She was very shocked at first and they had to hold her upside down and tap her feet and then rub her all over to revive her enough to cry. The MWs were superb and did not tell me any of this until she was safely in my arms so it was probably all far more traumatic for baby than for me. She recovered well though and she was feeding superbly from me about 15 mins later!
So Evie May was born at 9.32pm on 08-01-08 weighing a lovely 9lbs 15oz! Have put a pic on my profile!