Oh inspired by Dandy, here goes.
Tuesday 2nd June went into hospital at 4pm. Was examined and found to be 1-2 cm and soft so had first dose of prostin. 6 hours later was contracting every 2 mins and strapped to a monitor in antenatal ward. Either side of me there were people snoring. I was trying my best to breathe in the golden light. Was examined about 2am and still 1-2 cm but because of the frequency of the ctx they didn't want to give me the 2nd prostin dose in case it caused over contraction so had some paracetomol and a bath while we waited to see what happened (DH had gone home and they were on the verge of calling him back). Contractions subsided at about 2.30am so was decided to wait until morning.
9am next morning (Wed 3rd) had 2nd prostin and walked about 5 miles in circuits around the hospital having irregular contractions. By 1pm they were regular again and coming every 2 mins (was back on the bed and monitor again!). Was examined about 3pm and told that I was 3cm and that we could go up to the delivery unit where they would break my waters. At 5pm mw came to see me and said that because of emergencies there was no room for me and were waiting to see what happened. Ctxs had subsided to irregularity again so went for yet another walk around the hospital. 10pm still no bed so DH went home. I managed some sleep (snoring woman was one of the emcs's as I found out the next day!)
9am on Thurs (4th June) they finally had space for me in delivery unit. MW who looked after me was the mw who booked me in on Tues which was nice because she was lovely. Waters broken at 9.30am. Went for another walk around the hospital during which I had a massive row with my Mum as she had rung the hospital found out I was in the delivery unit and therefore presumed she should drive over as I must have had the baby (no pressure then!). Still having irregular ctxs. 1.30pm and waters leaking like mad I was 4cm so decided to start the synto drip to speed things up a bit. 5 attempts to get a canula in resulting in v dishy anaesthatist coming in and getting one into my left wrist meaning I couldn't mend my wrist or make a fist properly. By 3pm I was having mahoosive ctxs 2 mins apart and on the gas bouncing on a ball while DH held monitor to my stomach (the wireless one was broken).
4pm too much pain so had an epidural. Horrible horrible lady anaesthatist came in to do epidural and told me to quit moaning. I almost punched her. Senior MW also in room by this point , she was like Mme Ramostwe and so lovely and hugged me while epidural put in. About 5 mins later, lying on bed my face went numb. Epidural had travelled upwards. Horrid anaesthatist comes back, incredibly apologetic and resites epidural much more nicely. Epidural numbs my right leg from the knee down and that's it!
Loads more ctxs and by 8pm started feeling like I needed a big poo. Then A's heart beat dropped massively so they tried to attach a monitor to her head... while doing so they discovered I was fully dilated and the monitor started to pick up her heart rate properly again (the drop was that it was picking up mine!!). Was such a relief to know that I could start pushing that DH said I started grinning like an absolute loon (I don't remember this at all).
Synto drip was turned down a bit as ctxs were too close together for me to push enough with each one. Big mistake as they slowed right down again! Did a lot of pushing. At one point I turned to DH and said 'I feel like I'm doing a poo, not having a baby', he didn't have the heart to tell me that's exactly what I was doing at that point!
By 9.30 I was exhausted as epi didn't work and couldn't use the G&A anymore so asked for some assistance. Consultant came in to do a KIWI (manual ventouse thing apparently). It was also a shift change so although lovely MW who had been with me since 3 said she would stay, I also had the shift senior mw in and her student as well as the Dr. Was still pushing with each ctx at this point and holding onto DH and lovely MW for dear life. During one particularly big one, lovely MW caught the canula and ripped it out of my hand. Cue emergency call for another anaesthatist to resite that in other hand which caused a big horror movie fountain of blood to shoot all over her and the floor of the room. DH was at this point down the business end with the Dr grinning and shouting at me that he could see A's head with each push (and he promised to stay head end before this all started!).
So at 10pm with canula still being held in my arm by Anaesthatist, MW holding my other arm, Senior MW and Student almost chanting at me to push the Dr gave me an episiotomy, and had everything ready to yank A out. I gave it one more big push and half her head came out! Student Mw then delivered her onto my tummy 2 more pushes later.
Had the injection for the third stage and got to see my placenta which was cool - I must remember to tell my 6th form students about it (DH wouldn't take a picture!). Was stitched up with some local anaesthetic so didn't really feel much and anyway was far to busy gazing at DH holding beautiful DD to care.
Fed her with some help from another MW who I used to go to yoga with in the delivery room before being taken down to postnatal ward at about 1.30am where I gazed at Alys until the sun came up. Oh yeah, snoring woman form the antenatal ward was in the next bay to me so I wouldn't have got any sleep anyway!
Next morning, we became a project for yet another student MW which was lovely because we basically had one to one care until discharge at 2.30 that afternoon and she was fab.
So - not at all how I wanted to do it. I felt v helpless being tied to a bed for the duration because of monitoring and exhausted from the lack of pain relief and two previous nights in noisy ward. The lack of movement was what I hated - especially when pushing because all I wanted to do was get up and squat and probably would have got her out a lot quicker if I could have. If there is a next time I will resist induction completely unless there is a medical reason not too as I didn't feel in control for most of it. I won't bother with an epidural either!
Woah, an epic... sorry!