Phew, finally made it to the bottom of the thread on my iPhone... Have mostly been updating my much shorter birth saga thread as a lot easier.
Not quite the straightforward home birth i'd expected after the last three for me. My waters broke first thing on Sunday morning and I merrily waited to go into labour and deliver later that day as had happened with the others.
Monday pm and still nothing so I pobbled in for some monitoring. Baby seemed fine, do I declined induction and went home to wait it out, as supposedly 95% of women will deliver within 48 hours of membrane rupture.
Spent a virtually sleepless night plagued by worries that the baby was going to be stillborn. Decided first thing on Tuesday morning to go in for induction instead of monitoring later that day. Had pessary tuesday pm, brought on a few very minor contractions (although it will kickstart labour in 70% of women apparently). I seemed to be joining a vanishingly small number of women by this stage.
By wednesday pm, still nothing and pessary thing fell down the loo, so it was time to go on a drip. After they had finshed stabbing me randomly to get a line in (6 attempts!), baby's heart rate had risen from 125 to 170 and was running a temperature. After three days of ruptured membranes, these things usually mean infection, so I had iv antibiotics first, followed by the synto.
Was 1cm dilated from Tuesday to Wednesday. Four hours of synto with very slighltly uncomfortable contractions brought me to 2 cm. Baby's was still high and she'd stopped reacting to contractions. They turned down the synto, cx died back and I felt an overwhelming to lie down and sleep.
At that point her heartbeat dropped to something stupidly low, the room was suddenly full of midwives trying to pick it up again and the obstetrician came in saying that she really thought it wise to do a c section NOW. I opted for a general as a lot quicker and already had a line up, was in theatre moments later.
Baby was born at 2am. Obs said she wishes she'd taken a picture as the baby was very impressively tangled in her cord. It looped around her body, then 5 times around her legs and thighs. Bottom line was there no way she making it out through mother nature's route alive. She had been bungee jumping and just couldn't reach my cervix let alone start labour off by pressing down it, hence the failure to progress.
So not quite the peaceful home birth If had in mind, but we're both safe even though the baby Is in nicu on antibiotics due to infection and breathing problems. She's on the mend though, weighed a healthy 7lbs 6 oz and is trying to feed from me a bit now. As yet nameless but possibly Matilda.