Many many congratulations to all of you who have had babies so far, so exciting. Well here's my birth story, I'll try to keep it short:
Contractions started on the night of 10th Oct and were 20 mins apart all night, so I got little sleep. They died away at 0900 the next morning annoyingly as I'd told my DH at 0600 not to go to work. They returned at 1830 on 11th and were regular as clockwork all night and we were up from 0200 having fitted the tens machine. By 0730 they were 5 mins apart so we went to the hospital where of course they died away. So I went home and they did not start again until 1430. I was under strict instructions not to go in until they were regularly 5 mins apart, so I held out until 1730 on 13th when I could not get them regular but they were between 3-5 mins apart. We arrived at the hospital at 1830 and were admitted as I was 3 cms thank God!
We had a marvellous midwife who was with us throughout as her shift started at 2015. Unfortunately my blood pressure rose so I couldn't get in the pool despite getting the one available room with a pool. They fitted an IV line just in case then by 0230 we discussed using a Syntocinol drip as my contractions were still too random and I was only 5 cms. I then rose to 7cms but was dilating unevenly. As I'd been awake since Sunday night apart from catnaps between contractions on Tuesday night (not fun as I had to get up for each contraction every 8 mins), I opted for an epidural to get some rest and I knew the drip would make my contractions even more painful. By that point the tens machine was adding to the pain rather than helping and gas and air made me pretty uncommunicative which my DH hated.
The epidural did not work completely first time and I still had pain on the right hand side, so after I don't know how long, it was adjusted and sorted. I still had sensation and with monumental effort could move my legs about. We got some rest, not sleep and by 0700 on 14th I was fully dilated. Their policy at the JR is to let you wait an hour at full dilation before pushing so you're absolutely ready. As the midwife was due to go off shift, I got the green light to push early, but nothing was happening. It turned out the baby's head was ever so slightly at a funny angle and they think she had turned in labour from back to back but hadn't fully made the switch.
They called in the consultant who after letting me push for 30 mins discussed helping me out. Then the baby went into distress, but nobody told me until I happened to see my notes afterwards. Terrified of forceps and episiotemies, the consultant promised me that there would be no heroics at getting the baby out and if it looked like I needed an episiotemy and high forceps she would go for a c section. As it was all the baby needed was gentle forceps round her little nut to get her into the correct position and she was out in 2 pushes. I was numbed up to an unbelievably high level as despite my size I kept feeling the spray the doc was applying so that took an age to wear off and I was finally allowed up to post natal from recovery at 2100 that night. 3 sleepless nights later I was allowed home as my blood pressure was worrying them.
Silversky The JR is great. They were very understaffed but really did their absolute best.
I had a 2nd degree tear which after a week of very much painful agony is finally sorting itself out. Slightly worryingly one of the perineal stitches popped yesterday night and bled a bit, but it looks ok and is no longer that painful. I am exhausted from blood loss, low hb levels and high BP and it feels like I've run a marathon when all I've done is walk 50 yards. To make up for that the baby is a dream.
What do you think of Holly Bronwen or Bronwen Holly?
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