Ok. Short story cut long here:
Labour was heralded by an entire night of a violent tummy upset, which started at 1.30am 30th June. By 6 in the morning, this had turned to being accompanied by regular contracations every ten minutes, and I began to think it was labour. Apparently, a stomach upset is quite normal: I had no idea beforehand!
I went to the hospital to be checked and monitored because of dehydration and having strong contractions between 2 and 4 minutes apart. Obviously, this wasn?t established labour, but the midwife predicted there would definitely be a baby in 24 hours. She was right! She offered to keep us in but we went home until about 5.30pm, with contractions 2-4 minutes apart all day. I couldn?t feel the baby moving so went back in. The monitor showed a sleepy heartbeat, so the doctor asked for me to stay in although the midwife thought it wasn?t necessary and I did. Contractions almost totally disappeared until 9 o?clock. Typical.
At 10.15 the midwives began monitoring me, and again showed the baby with a sleepy heartbeat. It also showed that I was having regular and painful contractions every 4 minutes. I wasn?t at all dilated though, so the midwife thought it looked like a c-section. After a whole day of contractions and all my hopes this was difficult to swallow, but I did my best.
I was coping ok with the pain but the midwives kept asking me if I wanted painkillers. I was very proud of myself saying, no I was fine. At 11pm, they suggested (and yes, I was phenomenally lucky to be looked after by two midwives to myself all night. Women on the days either side of me were nowhere near as lucky) I had some pethedine, either to stop the labour and let me get some rest before a c-section or to speed it up dramatically. Speed it up dramatically it did and within minutes I was in full labour. Not so proud of myself now as I was absolutely beside myself with pain. I walked down to the labour ward, full screaming. When I got there they presented me with my pain relief options and I really felt I wasn?t coping so went for an epidural.
I don?t know if they were just being nice to me, but they said that full labour had come on so rapidly that my body had had no time to adjust and I was overwhelmed. They said they had called DH and I really didn?t want him to be there, seeing me like that. Fortunately, the epidural man turned up and did a truly excellent job. The pain was taken down, but I could still feel everything and move my legs. DH arrived about 5 minutes afterwards, so never saw the howling she-beast version of LaT! So, to cut a long story short, I rested for a bit then the pushing began. Baby?s heartbeat was still sleepy in periods so a c-section was always on the cards. However, I managed to escape it. At the end I had two midwives and a doctor cheering me on through most of it. If they had been busy on the ward that night, I'm pretty sure they would have just sectioned me. I have really been very fortunate. DH was happy because one of the machines was going wrong every time I had a contraction so they asked him to press the right buttons and make sure it was in the proper limits so he had something to look at that wasn?t too scary (suited me fine: I was beyond hand-holding)! First stage of labour lasted 5 hours, second stage 48 minutes. Daniel was born with his cord quite tightly around his neck so he needed oxygen, but they did put him straight on my chest, so I got my mucky cuddle in the end. He was a bit stunned but came round well. He took some milk at some point, though I don?t really remember it. Fortunately, they still weren?t busy so we both had a delicious sleep with him on my chest on the delivery table. Just gorgeous. One tiny tear and no stitches. One very happy and totally loved-up LaT.