Before I go to bed I am going to paste my birth story. It is long so feel free to ignore.
I was booked for an induction on Saturday 20th Dec so by the 17th I was getting desperate. Despite three sweeps nothing appeared to be happening. I booked an appointment for acupucture in central London at 11am and afterwards I went shopping in Selfridges. When I got home I had some regular braxton hicks which I timed but although they were promisingly regular they were not painful.
That evening the PiLs dropped round with a christmas tree. While we were eating I got a few painful cramps that felt different to what had gone before. I didn't dare believe they were the real thing. The PiLs left at 9pm and the pains were getting more noticable. DH timed them and they were about every 8 mins lasting 45 seconds. Throughout the night they continued and I got no sleep although they were not bad enough to get me up. I timed them on and off. At 3.30am they were getting so bad I decided it was labour and DH woke up and brought me paracetamol and cereal. At that point I thought we would need to be at the hospital before DD woke. However, at about 6am they started to fade and I even drifted off. When DD got up at 7am they all but stopped and I was so depressed that it seemed I had been up all night for no reason.
At 9am DH went to work so he would not waste his paternity leave. However the regular pains started again as soon as he left and I strapped on the TENS. At 11am I called DH home and we spent a few hours decorating the christmas tree and watching christmas music videos while I bounced on the birthing ball and used the TENS. I was scared I would continue in low-level labour until my induction.
Finally at 3.30pm things kicked-off as I tried to head upstairs for a nap. Suddenly I was in a panic, I felt sick and thought I could not cope. I burst into tears as I thought the hospital would not admit me as the pains were still not two every ten minutes. DH called the labour ward and explained I have a phobia of being sick and wanted an anti-emetic shot. They said to come in. However, at first I refused as I was torn between feeling I was in too much pain to move and feeling I had not made enough progress to go to hospital.
We finally got to the hospital at 4.30pm and I must have looked a right state as I was in tears and had a contraction right outside. I kept shouting at DH to hurry. Finally we were allocated a delivery room and a midwife gave me an anti-emetic injection. As soon as I knew I was not going to throw-up I could just about cope with the contractions. I was examined and was disappointed to find I was only 4cm dilated, but was told it was establsihed labour. They asked if I wanted an epidural and despite intentions to go for a natural birth I realised I wanted one more than anything. The anaesthetist and her lovely male assistant arrived pretty quickly but because I am allergic to diamorphine the actual epidural took about 90 mintues to have its full affect. Meanwhile the midwife helped me breathe through the contractions.
Once the epidural was working I was calm and pain free and DH and I watched some crap telly and chatted about names. At 9.30pm I was examined and they realised my waters had broken without us knowing and I was fully dilated but needed to wait for DD's head to turn. The midwives changed shift and we got a man called Graham who turned out to be great. At that point the epidural started to fail and despite a moment of panic this acutally meant that when I was told I could start pushing (at 10.20pm) I could do so effectively. I told Graham how much I feared another forceps birth and after seeing me push once he said I would be fine. He helped me push slowly and calmly with lots of coaching. My legs were totally numb so DH and Graham held one each while I held my knees.
After pushing through four contractions Graham told me to pant as the head was half out. I could acutally see DD emerge which was amazing as I saw nothing with DD1. As soon as she was put on my tummy.
Graham did not rush to cut the cord despite the doctors having said they would incase I bled again. Instead he let DH and I say hello and then he got DH to cut the cord and we cuddled her for about 20 minutes before she was taken to be weighed (all 10lbs 2 oz of her). Meanwhile Graham delivered the placenta and ensured I did not bleed again.
I had one small external tear which Graham got a doctor to sew up because I told him how badly I had previously suffered. The doctor was a star and said she could see the damage done from last time and offered to fix it while I was still under the epidural. So I got painles (and miraculous) minor surgery while I gave DD her first breastfeed.