you asked for it ...
ok... so finally the birth story! Scroll to the very bottom for the short version
well, as you saw from the thread, I laboured at home for a day, and thought I'd left it pretty late and that the tens wasn't cutting it enough so time to go in.. well...
Got to the hospital labour ward at 8.15 pm. Sadly shift change time, so plenty of midwives milling about, me and another pregnant lady groaning against the walls in the corridor for two hours. DP and I ate
anya potatoes out of a plastic tub as we got so hungry waiting! Very odd. At 10.15 transferred to another ward for checking.
Finally got the check and it hurt very badly as cervix still closed and posterior . They couldn't give me anything as I wasn't in labour. Horrendous and heartbreaking.
Fortunately at this point, where things could have got nasty, we had our first piece of luck. Even though it wasn't labour ward, nobody said anything about DP staying out of hours on the ward and going to sleep on the bed whilst I went and had a bath. It got so painful in the bath, I came out and asked for pain relief again. They made another good decision here and offered gas and air whilst they examined me (my shouting from the first examination had to be heard to be believed, though I think the lady had pretty wide hands).
So..more luck..now using gas and air found to be at 2cms, stretchy to 3cm so we were off. Stayed there until about 7am using gas and air. I had a fabulous time using the gas and air - took a while to get used to though, overdid it at the beginning and thought I was snogging the cat in the hat! Also told DP to stop shaking my hand 'as if it were a penis'. Then apologised for the comment, whilst cackling. Said it wasn't like me to make comments like that. DP disagreed strongly.
Transferred to labour ward as stretchy to 4. New midwife, all the shock of being introduced to new ward, talk of cannulas (my pet hate, consultants coming in and telling me I was risking my life, yadda yadda, told I had to have monitoring etc). Things stopped and got more painful. Made a very good decision and asked for pethidine so I could calm down, lie down and have a rest. I'd been doing 'active labour' ie tried to remain moving and standing up since 6am the previous day and was pretty shattered.
9.30, best piece of luck yet. New midwife. Male. Thanks to pethidine I was very calm and happy. He was great, had a fantastic manner and attitude, and I trusted him straight away (lol, posted on a thread only a couple of weeks ago how I'd never want a male midwife!). Laboured for several hours with strong, regular contractions. After examination still nothing had happened and the head was still quite high.
Midwife a little concerned as he reckoned that once the head came down, things would be pretty quick. We discussed breaking the waters as they were worried both about the scar and about my stamina. He brought in the registrar and we went for it. When the Waters broke, as predicted, I started having very strong contractions very quickly. This is where I defnitely went completely out of it... I remember convulsing with the contractions on the bed and being extremely bossy. What was odd is that provided I had the right position, it didn't hurt at all (with the gas and air). After about an hour, I had got to 6cm, but it didn't seem to be going further and the head was still high. I was even trying to push and seemed to be going through transition, which was quite odd. Apparently the cervix was getting hard on one side and they could see the vbac slipping out of sight...
We discussed a possible epidural as they thought I still might have 5/6 hours of active labour and wanted to give me a break, and presumably to stop me trying to push against the closed cervix. Again, I suggested pethidine as did not want to go down the spiral of intervention. Whilst relaxing and trying to chill on the opium, I started to contract really hard and need to push. I remember just repeating the mantra oh god oh god, don't push I need to push agggh, over and over again. very odd. everything a bit blurry at this point, but do remember anytime they tried to talk to me it really hurt, and otherwise I couldn't feel a thing, so kept telling DP and the midwife to shut up, and only talk when I was directing them!
Once again a turn around point; they checked me again and I was 10cm...but the head was high so they wanted to do some direct pushing. This is the only bit I'm not happy about in the entire labour as I do feel had I been left to do my thing, the baby would have turned and come down, but the monitor had now started to show baby was unhappy and this was the real end game....
Anyway...did some directed pushing, could feel the head bobbing down, but not enough for the midwife to work out the sutre lines. Cue registrar team, talks of caesarean, spinal blocks, people flooding into the room, the whole deal. Apparently at this point I went a bit floppy and yellow. I can just remember thinking that this was it, c-section after all the hard work. Registrar told me they were going to
try and use forceps, she didn't want to try ventouse as the baby's head was already bruised from my pushing. They were really concerned about whether they would be able to do the forceps as the baby kept bobbing high and there was a concern of shoulder destocia (nothing was said to us at this point though!) This would mean episiotomy and preparation for c-section in case it didn't work. aghhh. So, into theatre, me still contracting and trying to push, them trying to get me still for the spinal block, me hopping on and off the table and being told off!
Final piece of luck... my decision to keep standing and try pushing in the theatre had an effect, the head came down enough for them to reach it and H finally was push/pulled out very quickly. Apgar 6, 9,
10. Registrar was telling me all well as she sowed me up and that I would be fine for number three. The whole team in the theatre were so positive and kept on saying you can do it, we'll get the baby out and willing me on, that even the last traumatic bit felt very victorious as everyone was rooting for the vbac and held off and was patient with me. What a fantastic team. Best of all was DP who stuck with it throughout and endured (and saw) more than most men should be expected to . He has a renewed respect for his mother .
Sorry this is really epic, have edited it down, but still on a high and literary criticism and distance needed for true story writing - with my last labour I left it so long to get it right I never posted it at all.
If you got this far... thanks for sticking with me and for your support. What an amazing experience!
In brief: 11.5 hours (1st:9.5 2st:1.5 3st:2 mins w forceps... owwcha...gas, air and ahem, pethidine, spinal block for forceps and episiotomy)