We got to the hospital at 2.30pm on monday after faffing about in sainsburys stocking up on drinks, snacks etc. mieow then dashed off to get her kids from school. i was monitored for an hour, then the midwife went to get the pessery to start induction. but when she examined me i was already 3cm so went off to delivery room where my waters were broken. which ensured much laughter from me as it felt like i was constantly peeing myself. dh also found it very funny. Midwife said best thing was to keep moving which was what i was planning anyway, so was watching the snow outside and found a CD player in the room as well as a bunch of cd's, so put on Enrique Englasis (??) and chatted to dh for a bit. The plan was if by 5 the contractions hadnt started then i was to be hooked up to a drip. just b4 5 i got dh to buzz for midwife as the contractions were getting stronger and i was breathing through them. i was put on a monitor for a bit, and yet again it wasnt reading the contractions (same thing happened with dd1), i explained this to the midwife and she said they would ignore that reading and just keep an eye on the babies heartrate reading, which was good as the contraction reading was going into negative numbers at times.
About 6-ish i was offered gas and air i wasnt able to cope with just breathing through contractions. i asked to be examined and was 5cm, thought it'd be hours at that point and was wondering how i'd cope. mieow phoned about 6.30 and asked if she should come in, i told midwife yes but be quick as the contrations were stronger by then. asked to be examined again as the pain was lower and could feel pressure in my back. was 8cm, so had done 3cm in about 30mins. knew by then that if mieow didnt get there quickly she'd miss it. The student midwife who had been there the whole time was very good, but about 7pm he got the full brunt of woman in labour when i was telling him i needed to push and he wouldnt let me as at the point he was alone. later on he told me he thought i was gonna deck him lol. midwife came back with everythign needed, and i could start pushing. The pain was different this time to my last labours, more in my back. Dont know how many pushes i gave, but Serena Dixie arrived at 7.25pm weighing 7lb 13 and half oz, with agpar score of 9 and 10. she looks tiny, has masses of dark hair and sleeps lots. in fact the midwives on the ward didnt hear her cry till tuesday afternoon when then did blood tests. shs is already adored by her older sisters, dd2 has renamed her Nina as thats the best she can say .
I was planning on being home tuesday, but they did a routine glucose test on serena tuesday and her levels were very low. I didnt really want her to have formula, so we tried upping breastfeeds and managed to express an extra 5mls and for a while her levels picked up, but by tuesday evening the glucose level was dropping again and we couldnt get it back up, so she went down to SCBU where they put a feeding tube in, and gave her hourly feeds of Aptimil (13ml). I went down to give her breastfeeds as well, and they then did 2hourly feeds (26ml) and by yesterday afternoon she was back with me and we were meant to give her 39ml of formula at 4.30pm. but as she was sick after the 2.30 feed we agreed that we could possibly just give her 20ml. which we did and towards the end of the 20ml she looked uncomfortable and i didnt feel she would tolerate an extra 19mls as she had just breastfed for ages b4 that. So from 5.30pm last night she was abck to breastfeeds only. and didnt i know about it, she fed from about 10pm till 1am pretty much solidly and i woke up this morning with huge boobs full of milk, as she slept 7hrs solid after finally stopping feeding at 1am.
we are home now, and have hardly heard a peep out of her.