Bum, I just wrote a whole big post and lost it. One more time ....
Hello everyone! Signing in for the postnatal thread - baby Joanna was born on Wednesday night, 7.13pm following induction. Had gone in for my midwife meeting on the Tuesday afternoon, taking my DP with me for backup, to say that I wanted to postpone and allow baba to come in her own time. But they took my blood pressure and it was raised again, so they basically said they wanted to bring it forward rather than back and start immediately - a bit of a shock!
They gave me another S&S and I was having what I thought might have been minor contractions, 2cms dilated and 80% effaced, so they gave me a 'half dose' of prostin gel at 8pm on the Tuesday to start me off, and said they'd give me a 'proper dose' at 6am on Wednesday if nothing had happened. Contractions started at 2am, though, and was transferred to labour ward at just after 6am at 4cm dilated. Was doing (I thought) really well on TENS, gas and air and my natal hypnotherapy 'dialing down the pain' visualisation technique. However they said I wasn't progressing quickly enough and were pushing to get things moving. I refused ARM once, but after 8 hours and still only 5cm I agreed they could break the membranes. When they did so, contractions failed to either slow down or intensify, and there was a small amount of meconium, so they put me on a synto drip, the thing I had been most dreading. Based on the advice of those on here, I insisted on an epidural being in place before they did. That's more or less everything I was hoping to avoid, so I had a bit of a cry about it, but actually epidurals are AWESOME! I had been in labour for 12 hours by this point, and hadn't slept the night before and was exhausted, and the epidural allowed me to just stop all the endless pacing of hospital corridors I'd been doing and actually get some sleep for a few hours (surprising how quickly I stopped giving a tinkers toss that people were staring at me when I stopped to lean on the wall and groan during contractions!).
After that it went very quickly - I started feeling pressure downwards so the midwife checked me, and I was at 9cm only 2 hours later and 10cm shortly after that. I did a couple of 'test pushes' and they agreed I was more or less ready to go but advised we wait an hour so that I didn't do any abortive pushing. Then they were all doom and gloom about the likelihood of me not being able to push the baby out because of the epidural, and the increased risk of caesarian because of high BMI, so I was feeling really full of trepidation. Also they had me flat on my back with my legs in stirrups. I asked whether I could get in another position but they refused because of the need to monitor the baby. So I was feeling very pessimistic. Started pushing at just after 7pm. Did three big pushes on first contraction, then the midwife said the baby's heartrate had dropped, and hit the 'panic' button - cue sirens and people coming running from all directions. We were terrified and the midwife was distracted talking to people about foreceps and stuff but I felt another contraction so just gave it as much welly as I could and the baby literally shot out like a cannonball. Don't think the midwife was expecting that all all and I CERTAINLY wasn't (they'd warned me I could be pushing for an hour) - little Jo went flying straight through her hands and landed face first on the delivery table! We were all completely shellshocked! And it didn't really hurt at all because of the epidural. I did get a second degree tear, though. I have to say, the stitches hurt far more than the pushing stage.
I have to say I was overwhelmed and shocked, but I don't think I got that 'rush of love' that I was expecting. And I felt quite oddly detached from her that whole night. But now - four days later - I am absolutely besotted! I literally think she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen 
We were in hospital two days, settling a pattern of medication for me to ramp down from the blood pressure tablets and also waiting for little Jo to do her first wee (we think she might have been doing them all along, actually, but disposable nappies being as absorbent as they are and meconium being as all-encompassing as it is, we couldn't be sure). So we were in for about 48 hours in the end, which was really frustrating, but we've been home now since Friday night.
I did the stereotypical crying and panicking the first night, wondering how I'm ever going to take care of her, and not wanting to go to sleep in case she stops breathing but hopefully I'm getting my groove now.
Breastfeeding is going OK, I think. I'm finding it a bit two-steps-forward-one-step-back. Can mostly get her successfully latched on now, and she's doing about 10-12 feeds a day of around 20-25 minutes. It does hurt a bit, though, and I'm not convinced I'm getting the best latch I can - going to review this thread for advice.
And finally did the Dreaded First Poo an hour or two ago. It was actually one of those things that was far worse in anticipation than practice. For what it's worth, I waited until I really needed to go, resolved to let it come rather than pushing it, held a warm wet flannel against me whilst going and then wiped the worst off with baby wipes and jumped in the shower to rinse properly rather than using dry toilet paper. It didn't actually hurt much at all, execpt for a little twinge, but it did bleed a tiny bit. Sorry for TMI, but I figure we're all past worrying about that now, aren't we?!
Looking forward to catching up with you all, and to the rest of the April ladies joining us ASAP xx