I'm sorry I haven't rtft. I'm dropping off my birth story, which I've also posted in the fb page. It took me ages to write and now I need to feed her again! So will rtft SOON! Thank you HUGE AMOUNTS for all your support getting me through the conception, pregnancy, birth and onwards! I love you viroids!
Huge long birth story shared in celebration of just delivering my first poo baby since the birth without rupturing my stitches 🎉🎉
Went in for induction on Thursday 8am and by 2pm they'd only done BP and monitoring. Felt frustrated. 2.30pm MW finally came to put the pessary in, making a total bruised swollen hash of my vag in the process - didn't listen to me the first two times I told her she was doing it wrong and when she did it right I had just minor discomfort. This swelling affected procedures later on in the birth and her not listening to me made me afraid for every VE I had (also I'm a survivor of csa and rape so I found it triggering as fuck).
First 9 hours of pessary not much happened. I was very nervous about what was to come and had a slow gradual increase in period cramps that I'd been having for a week and then sporadic contractions varying in intensity and length.
11.30 Thursday night - contractions became more regular and painful. This is the point from which I count myself as "in labour".
Friday - contractions more frequent and even more painful. DP away overnight and swapped out for my sister for 6 hours during Friday daytime to give him another rest and a break from each other (we were doing fine, but it was refreshing to have a new face there for a bit). All this time using daisy breathing to cope and it really helped.
They were due to examine me 24hrs after pessary but didn't come till 5.30 with much nagging. I know they were busy with emergencies and I'm grateful that I wasn't one, but I was exhausted and in pain, knew the hardest bits were likely still ahead of me. My contractions had also started tailing off in frequency and strength since the 24hrs was up despite the pessary still being in and I felt that if another pessary was needed it was best to do it ASAP, not wait for everything to wind down and start again.
When the MW came to examine me (after monitoring) I explained about the MW who mullered my foof the day before and how she needed to proceed to not muller me again while doing the VE. I requested to remove the pessary myself which was fine. She did the VE slowly and once she was past the swelling it was fine, she was patient and great. She had the next pessary ready to go in but agreed that we'd discuss it once we knew progress because I was so tired. I was very much expecting to need the second pessary and potentially more after.
To my delight my cervix was thinned to 1cm and had come forward - still 1-2cm dilated, but she said that was enough to break my waters. Because it was so busy (and as I was tired anyway) we made the plan to take me along to delivery suite to break my waters the next morning (Saturday) and then add the drip if needed and I'd have Friday night to rest, which I thought was sensible. At some point they monitored me for ages as the baby's heartrate dropped and took a while to come back up but it didn't happen again thankfully.
My sister went home and DP came back around this time. The MW had done a sweep with the VE (although she hadn't asked first, she told me as she was doing it - make sure you tell them if you don't want this! They are really meant to get consent BEFORE!) and I was getting even stronger contractions despite no pessary in any more! I wasn't sure if they'd stop after a while as I knew they were likely in response to the sweep. I had to use the tens machine and daisy breathing together to get through them. I was excited that my body was labouring on its own but daunted by the lack of rest. Being on the ball helped the pain but I was too tired to stay upright on it and too in pain lying down so had a pethidine injection which made me able to lie down through the contractions so I could rest in between using tens and breathing. DP went home at bedtime again, with a plan that he'd come back when I went to delivery suite and I'd call him if anything happened sooner (didn't expect it to). Instead of tailing away my contractions continued to get stronger.
The first lot of pethidine wore off and I was in agony again. They examined me again and I was 3cm. They gave me another shot of pethidine and it didn't touch the sides. Wasn't able to cope lying down or on the ball and was shaking and they agreed that I could go along to delivery suite.
4am I phoned DP to come back. Tried to walk to delivery suite and ended up having to be wheeled in a chair. In absolute agony. Got on the gas and air plus still on the tens machine and struggled through more contractions while we waited for anaesthetist and DP to arrive - we'd decided I should have an epidural so I could rest while I dilated the rest of the way as I was exhausted and hadn't had the planned rest over night (second night in labour).
DP arrived and took off the tens machine, held my hand while I used gas and air to get through contractions and tried to stay still while epidural when in. I was scared and had weird reflex twitches as it was put in. Everyone else was cold because I'd been boiling and got them to open the window wide for me.
Epidural took a while to work and I missed the tens while I used gas and air alone. Wailed on my out breaths. Talked about getting lots of pressure down below. DP said some lovely reassuring things. Once epidural was working they examined me. 9cm dilated. I'd gone to 9cm before the epidural! So glad they didn't examine me before, they might not have given it to me. Window was closed - soon there'd be a tiny baby who needed to be kept warm.
Waters were bulging as they prepared to break them. Used gas and air even though the epidural was working as I was finding the pressure that came with the contractions immense. Wailed on the out breaths and it helped. They finally managed to break my waters! Gush!
Baby's heart kept dipping with contractions (I was on constant monitoring anyway thanks to the gestational diabetes) and I was soon fully dilated (so much for a rest!) and pushing with each contraction but I had to do this on my back in stirrups because more gravity inducing positions upset her (too much pressure for her I imagine).
Pushed for an hour and a half with DP holding my hand for each push