Congrats gobbo and blue! How lovely.
Well, they def were ctx. Twenty one hours of them, with pessary pains as continuous on top. By ten pm on the Friday night after no sleep I insisted in being examined, was 3cms dilated and in a lot of pain.
They took me down to labour ward and I managed on G&A for three hours until 4cm and mw breaking my waters which was the biggest relief, made the pressure pains go.
Got to 5cm, pain was overwhelming, and I asked for an epidural. Mw was keen to give it as I was 26 hours in and running on no sleep in that time.
Managed to catnap and chat to DH on and off between exams and a resiting of epi which wasn't working on LHS.
At 8am sat morning I was apparently fully dilated, and they were going to let me push from 9am, but exam at 9 said in fact I had a cm or two to go. That took until 10.30, cos of epi needing adjusting again.
Pushed for two hours but made v little progress, meconium in waters meant they wanted labour over, so we went for forceps. Bloody weird sensation, but at 14.02 my little girl popped out. I say little... 9lbs 13.5oz...
All blurred after that, womb wouldn't contract, lost two litres of blood in delivery room, rushed to theatre, lost another litre.
Finally stopped bleeding by means of a pack and balloon catheter, two hours later.
Finally got proper cuddles at 5pm in recovery suite, and we managed a first feed.
I have an episiotomy and two lateral tears from the forceps, I haven't slept since weds night, and I feel like the luckiest woman alive. On labour ward overnight, have had hours if skin to skin, fed again, and now watching her sleep.
Provisionally calling her Genevieve Beatrice, but waiting to make sure it suits her.
On phone, so excuse typos.
Those of you still waiting, I had the opposite birth to what I planned, and a pretty horrific time, but I feel so blessed (and soppy and sentimental) that none of that matters. Good luck!