Hi All,
Seen lots of negativity around inductions and so just wanted to pass on our positive induction Friday.
After weeks of growth scans our little man was measuring around the 4th centile and so after lots of chats with consultants and midwives we decided to go ahead with an induction.
We were told on the Wednesday 36+6 we would be called in on Thursday or Friday and low and behold Friday we were called in for 12pm.
Bed was ready for around 1pm and around 4pm after monitoring was completed we were called in for a cervix check.
The cervix had moved forward but as expected was largely closed.
The cooks balloon was inserted and we had to hope for the best.
Around an hour after the ballon was inserted I had pretty intense contractions/ tightening for around 2/3 hours that was only helped by a TENS machine (buy one they save lives haha).
This ended abruptly at the end of this period however and I slept well.
24 hours later we went for removal and much to our joy it had worked and popped straight out with my mucus plug on.
Shortly after I had a show and continued to show over the next 36 hours whilst I waited for a bed on the labour ward.
We were called down to the labour ward at 9am on Monday.
I had my waters broke at 10am and the hormone drip started at 11am.
I managed on a TENS machine only till around 1pm then added gas and air in the mix around 2pm.
Things got pretty intense around 16mg per hour and I asked for an epidural to be inserted.
Unfortunately the anaesthetists were called into emergencies and I had to wait two hours for this (the hardest two hours of the day 🤣)
But I managed to breathe through it and keep calm.
The epidural was finally inserted around 4pm and I felt instant relief (was v tired and spaced out by this point).
At 4.15pm I had a check and was 5cm dilated.
I was told the next check would be around 9pm where we would expect me to be around 7.5/8cm dilated.
I mostly slept/ drifted from 4-8pm then around 8.30pm I started to feel pressure in my bum.
At 9pm I was checked and discovered to be 10cm dilated (I put this down to how relaxed I was on the epidural).
We gave him another 50 minutes to drop down and by 9.50pm I was pushing and out he came at 10.02pm.
I only had two little tears inside and nothing on the perineum (I put this down to an intense massage programme from 35 weeks).
He was little (2nd centile) so we were transferred to a transitional ward where we have been ever since.
It has been amazing as we have had the support of nursery nurses and midwives.
We are both doing really well and are well on our way to establishing our breast feeding journey and heading home.
I honestly found my labour journey cathartic and pretty beautiful.
I really would do it again and the whole process was nothing like I was preparing myself for based on a lot of horror stories I read.
Just wanted to spread some positivity regarding inductions because I thoroughly enjoyed mine 🥰
This is my little one, Elio born on 5/6/23 at 10.02pm weighing 5lb 1oz at 37+4