rumors from the old thread re discharge I advan increase in quite wet discharge that seemed to come out in little gushes in the week or so prior to the birth so fingers crossed for you and anyone else getting it!
So this is long but will paste sandys birth story for anyone interested
Alexander's birth story
In the week before his birth I was experiencing period type pains and some back ache very low down, especially on the Sunday. During Tuesday night (38+4) I woke up twice with back ache. When I went to the toilet on Wednesday at 4am I got my show. Called maternity assessment as it was watery and pink so they asked me to see if it changed in an hour. During this hour I started getting mild back pains every 5 minutes. Went to maternity assessment and put on monitor baby was fine, midwife did speculum and internal found it was show, waters weren't gone and was surprised that I was 2-3cm dilated. Gave me a sweep while in to encourage contractions. Walked home and called my mum (other birth partner) to tell her. Contractions got worse and used tens which was really good for those early pains. Mum came over and the contractions seemed to be coming stronger and very painful in the back. When they were coming every few minutes went up again. However when I got there at 12 they found I was still only 3cm and not in established labor so went home. Laboured in the house from 1pm on Wednesday til 4am on Thursday morning. During this time I took cocodamol 3 times for the pain. The pain became very bad and while it was fine and manageable on the front and I could feel the cervix thinning, the back pains became unbearable. It was like being stabbed right round my lower back. Contractions were generally every 5-7 minutes and lasted about 2-3 minutes. At around 3am though I had an hour with none and then an epic one lasting 6 minutes which was the sorest thing I have ever experienced made me feel dizzy sick and shake. Decided was beginning not to cope so went up again. Was assessed and was 5cm dilated, contractions very irregular and while in established labour not progressing well. Turns out this is because baby was back to back which explained the horrific back pain. Blood pressure was a bit high and had protein in urine so they decided to send me to the labour ward to break my waters.
This is when it all went a bit insane. I had an awful midwife who was totally not compassionate and didn't care what I wanted. By this time my back pain was unbearable and I was writhing about with each contraction. The midwife acted like all hell was breaking loose and basically demanded I let her break my waters, put monitor on baby's head and give me the induction drip. It was all getting out of control so I tried gas and air which worked on front but hardly at all for back pain. The back pain came before contractions did but midwife wouldn't let me use it unless in a contraction despite me being in agony so I asked for an epidural. Got the epidural and was stabbed like a pin cushion with tubes all over etc as expected but finally got some relief from the back pain.
Then the horrible midwife went off duty thank god and I got a lovely midwife and a great student midwife. That was about 6am and by 10am I was fully dilated due to the drip but wasn't feeling too much in the way of pain due to epidural. Thankfully the midwife managed the epidural very well which I think is why it was successful, she got it topped up early enough that it wasn't as strong by pushing time. They gave me an hour to wait before pushing for baby to come down and turn a bit. Started pushing at 11am and was beginning to make progress, by almost an hour in baby's head was clearly visible but by this time the epidural was wearing off enough for my back pain to come back. It came to such an extent that I couldnt push as the back pain came just before the front pain and the pain in the back made everything all fuzzy and so I couldn't focus enough to know how to breathe etc when pushing. It got so bad that I asked them just to get the baby out as I couldn't manage the pain anymore. They topped up my epidural and slowly prepared for the registrar to come with forceps but told me I was to push while they got ready. As the epidural came back I was able to properly push and finally began making real progress and baby's head was really close to coming out. The registrar was ready but I kept asking for another contraction to try and avoid forceps. They gave me them and the midwife suggested an episiotomy which I would. Have needed anyway with forceps so she did it and on the next contraction his head came out, the next after that his shoulders and the rest and then he was on my chest! They put him under my gown and he just lay there making little sniffly noises and then the midwife was about to take him as he hadn't cried but then he did one cry and he stayed on me. Later he was taken for a minute to weigh etc, was exactly 7lbs, and they then gave him back to me and we cuddled while the placenta came which happened no bother and I was stitched up. He managed to root around and tried to latch on very early and managed a few sucks which was great, he now feeds amazingly which is probably done to that!! Then we got tea and toast and the person who brought it put him in the cot but I wolfed down the tea and got him back on me ASAP. Got a quick wash and was then taken to the post natal ward where he has been very content and easy going.