Right, I promised I'd write my birth story, so here it is, although already details are fading away, or being blocked out!
Things started off at about 4am on Thursday when on one of my numerous night time loo visits I found my mucus plug had come out. Went back to bed fine, and woke up at about 6ish with strong backache (i.e. stronger than I'd been having previously) accompanying my constant braxton hicks. I sent DH off to work, as although I was fairly certain things were moving, I didn't want to jinx anything, or lose a day's paternity leave for no good reason. As the day wore on the backache turned into definite contractions - the pain was almost entirely across my lower back. I was told this was referred pain, because that's where I get my period pain cramps, but it turns out that it's more likely that it was because LO was back to back!
I had a reflexology session already booked for 12pm - originally it was to try and kick start labour, but as that had already happened I just took the opportunity to have a lovely foot massage and be "energised". I don't know how much of an effect it had on the intensity of the labour, but it was pretty intense!
By 1pm, things were definitely happening, so when DH called up to see how I was I suggested he let work people know he might have to leave in a hurry. Half an hour later he was home - his boss had given him the afternoon off
At 2:30, I rung the labour ward to have a chat, and they suggested I came in to be checked out, but did say if I wasn't progressed far enough it was likely I'd be sent home again. At that point the contractions were lasting approximately 45 seconds to a minute, and every 5 minutes. I was examined, and found to be fully effaced with a paper thin cervix that was already 2cm dilated. When she examined me, she asked me if I wanted her to sweep the membranes as this might speed things up a bit - sounded good to me, and although it wasn't exactly comfortable, it wasn't too bad. Certainly no more painful than my contractions were at that stage!
After the sweep I went home again, but things were definitely getting more intense, and a LOT more painful. I took 2 paracetamol, and "settled" to watching TV while leaning on my birthing ball. The next couple of hours are a bit of a haze in all honesty - things were starting to get really painful, but the contractions were varied - some were 30 seconds long, some were 2 minutes long, and sometimes there'd be a 5 minute gap, sometimes a 1 minute gap, although I was pretty much getting 3-4 contractions every 10 minutes. I decided now was probably the best time to go back to the hospital - I felt I should have progressed enough by then, and I really wanted some pain relief!
Arrived at the hospital at about 7pm and was examined again - the midwife took me into a delivery room rather than triage for the examination as she could see I really needed some pain relief! By this point I was measuring 5cm (thankfully passed the magic 4cm cutoff!) and again after the examination the contractions started getting even more intense. After about 30 minutes a student midwife was introduced (I was still quite nice and polite at this point, although quite high on G&A!) and was politely asked if I'd mind her examining me (apparently I have an interesting cervix ). She measured me as being 7cm dilated at which point the main MW was a bit surprised and on her examination found me to be 6cm - my bag of waters was also bulging out quite temptingly at this point, and she asked me if I wanted them breaking. I said go for it - they'll probably go soonish and might as well prepare for it! As soon as they were broken the pressure of the contractions eased a bit although they sped up alarmingly!
By 10pm things had risen to a whole new level of intensity (and pain!) and I decided to ask for an epidural. This was OK'd and the anaesthetist came along to rig me up. By ten to eleven he was ready to go, so the MW gave me a last internal examination (which was horrible - she was really rough this time - just because I had gas and air didn't mean she had to try and turn my cervix inside out!) and told me that I was already 10cm, time to push and I wasn't allowed an epidural! I was pretty gutted with this, as I felt I was really struggling on gas and air alone. What made it worse, was that 10 minutes later the MW decided I wasn't focusing enough with G&A and didn't let me have any more. In all honesty, I was having trouble working out what was a contraction and what wasn't because everything hurt so much!
The next hour and a half was a complete haze, and in all honesty was horrible. I hated it - it made me feel weak and powerless. I was having to push this whopping baby out who was in a poor position to come out (back to back) with no pain relief, and because I couldn't always work out when the contractions were (constant pain), I wasn't always sure when to push and when not to. Anyway, after an hour and 20 minutes of this, I finally got the head past the bit where it stops slipping back, and felt like I was actually getting somewhere, although it was still very very unpleasant. This was when they decided to try and introduce a consultant and a student midwife - if they'd just stood at the back and watched it wouldn't have bothered me (I probably wouldn't have noticed!) but they were all "This is Catherine, she's training to be a midwife, do you mind if she watches?". I responded with something very rude that I immediately felt bad for and did apologise for afterwards! Thankfully, two more contractions and a whole lot of pain later (ow - the burning sensations as crowning takes place is just phenomenol - like someone has sprayed burning acid up your fanjo) and my darling LO finally arrived!
They quickly wiped him (as I'd requested), cut the cord and placed him on my chest. I just couldn't stop looking at him. He was very quiet at first, although did give a bit of a half-hearted cry after a few seconds, but was evidently all healthy and well.
I had to be snapped out of my reverie, as unfortuately I had a large amount of bleeding and they didn't know where it was coming from. They gave me a syntometrin injection to speed up the 3rd stage (I wasn't fussed by this point) and the placenta was delivered within 5 minutes. The next 3/4 of an hour was spent with various midwives and consultants rooting around inside me (to try and find the source of the bleeding) and stitching my 2nd degree tear. Unfortunately, they also had to catheterise me to check my bladder wasn't perforated which was very unpleasant, and not only because I have a strong phobia of catheters.
Anyway, that bit was all over soon enough, and me, DH and little Ben were left alone together for nearly an hour - lovely
I'd just like to say as well that my DH was absolutely astounding throughout the whole process - always very supportive, and gave me real encouragement through the hellish second stage. He also assures me that I didn't poo myself, and is fully understanding as to the reasons why I dont want to have sex any time soon! He said it looked very different at the end down there as to what it did at the beginning!
Looking down at my LO sleeping in his moses basket I can assure you it was totally worth it, but the labour experience alone is seriously putting me off having any more children, and I can't see that changing soon.
Sorry for the marathon post - if anything it's more of a cathartic process for me, as like I said at the beginning, I've blocked an awful lot of it out.