Hi everyone - I'm back! Sorry its taken me so long... Congrats to everyone else, especially Laura for the 06/07/08 birth.
Right, where do I start... Went in for induction on the Saturday night, had first dose of gel, came home, watched Dr Who on sky plus, went to bed and had a good nights sleep. Arrived at hospital 9.30am next day, as arranged, then waited in waiting room until 11.30 until they had an LDRP room ready for me. Was getting waves of pain in my back (only later did I realise these were contractions!). MW examined me and said I was 2cm. She did a sweep instead of 2nd dose of gel and told me to have some lunch and go for a long walk. On my 'long walk' the contractions started coming pretty thick and fast. Basically, as one finished another one started within about 30 seconds. I went back to the labour suite and told the MW that I absolutely couldn't take hours and hours of this non-stop pain. She asked what I wanted to do pain relief wise (clearly, reading my very basic birth plan was too much to ask) and I said that I was quite open minded but was happy to consider birthing pool for pain relief when in established labour, gas and air, and that I was open to epidural if labour prolonged and difficult. She told me that it was really early on and if I was having trouble managing the pain already then I might as well go straight to epidural I was in way too much pain to argue so off I went to a higher risk room, feeling like a complete lightweight for needing max pain relief before I even got started.
Thankfully, in the higher risk room I had a much better midwife. She was happy to let me have an epidural, but suggested that I might want to try other methods first. She examined me and I had jumped to 4cm. There was no way I would sit still for an epidural so we went for the gas and air and diamorphine route. Like Laura the diamorphine seemed to wear off pretty quickly (within an hour and a half). The midwife told me there was no way the doctor would sanction another dose so quickly. She examined me and I had jumped to 8cm - I got the diamorphine . Before labour I had been pretty adamant that I didn't want the diamorphine but I have to say after the first half hour of it, I didn't feel too out of it and was able to cope with labour quite happily.
I pushed for about an hour and a half, and a very bossy doctor took over and insisted that I should have an episiotomy and that I was going to need to go to theatre for a forceps delivery. Suffice to say that gave me the incentive to push Struan Blair in the closing minutes of 06/07/08. It took me days to realise what a cool birthdate that was.
Cant complain about the birth - I always viewed it as a fairly functional process and it was exactly that. Barely used anything from my labour bag - arnica, straws, dressing gown, nightie, stuff to shower in and one magazine. Must write that down somewhere just in case I ever go through this again!!!!
Post-natally things weren't quite so straightforward (sorry, this is really long). Struan had to be taken away (his score was only 5). When he came back he was already wrapped up with his hat on. I asked for him to be unwrapped so I could have some skin to skin. They then took him away to clean him before giving him back to me for a brief cuddle. Then they took him and gave him to DH while I was stitched (2nd degree tear - more on that later). No-one thought to suggest to DH that he should have some skin to skin, and poor DH was exhausted and didn't think about it himself. Almost two hours after he was born I finally got to have a proper cuddle with my son. Then they very quickly shoved him to the breast, confirmed that he attached but as he was 'fussing' a bit, they admitted me to the post-natal ward.
Struan was screaming (he hadn't fed at all) and DH was sent home. I was on this new ward in the middle of the night with a screaming baby who wouldn't feed. Midwife after midwife came along and pulled, pushed and prodded my boobs. Struan wouldn't feed and they hand expressed me. The ward nursery nurse took the baby for a cuddle to try and calm him down, then someone came back a short while later instructing me to look after my baby because he was upset. It's fair to say the whole experience was pretty distressing.
I struggled through the next day with Struan still not feeding, and still unable to hand express myself (I just couldn't get the hang of it). This carried on through the Monday night as well. By Tuesday morning it had been a straight 48 hours since I had slept. Struan was hysterical everytime someone tried to get him to feed and my head was in a complete spin.
Thankfully, there was a great midwife on during the day and after a long chat with her and DH, we decided that I would stop trying to put Struan to the breast and would attempt to mix feed with expressed milk and formula. The hand expressing suddenly started working and I had a great night on the Tuesday night as I was actually able to look after and feed him all by myself.
Got home on Wednesday and everything been going ok with Struan. It's taken a while to get our heads round the feeding, but its working so far.
Unfortunately, my stitches were a bit botched and have since been removed and I developed an infection. I'm much more comfortable now, but worried about how I'll heal with no stitches! There is a bit of an issue about anti-biotics, but I think I'll save that for another post!
Anyway, sorry this is so long - will go in search of the post-natal thread.