Hi ladies
Seaside, you asked for the full story... something you might regret
Chooster, I haven't managed to put a pic on here yet - I did text those whose number I have with a pic and I have uploaded one onto facebook. When I get time I will try and pop one on here.
Ok, here is my attempt at my birth story? I am still processing it, how it all went, so things might not make sense, or seem rambly ? apologies for that.
Went in to the maternity unit on Tuesday evening to start induction process, which started out with prostin gel to ripen the cervix? next morning I was not ready, needed more gel, then 6 hours later they gave me my last dose of gel ? then I had to wait overnight to see if I was favourable for induction. I had very little sleep for the two nights of prostin as the pains were very hard to handle. Nothing to what would come later but impossible to sleep through.
Next morning WOO HOO ? I was 3 cm dilated so they would easily be able to break my waters that afternoon. So DH and I walked around trying to help nature (well, prostin) along. Went across at 2pm to have my waters broken with the big crochet hook ? all I can say is WEIRD. I feel slightly grateful for not having burst all over a supermarket aisle floor ? but disappointed that things were being so managed.
The midwife said to go and walk around for a little while ? so once the initial lot of waters had subsided, we went for a few laps of the hospital.
Went back at 3.15 and met the midwife who would be with me until 10pm, and she started me off on the syntocinon drip ? the synthetic contraction maker ? every so often they ramp up the dose and the contractions get stronger. I lasted about 5 hours without any pain relief ? much to the midwife?s shock ? if I had a pound for every time she said ?are you sure you don?t want any gas and air yet?? I would be rich . It was painful, and apparently more painful than natural contractions ? although I can?t compare, so I won?t try. I was coping well with DH just massaging my back and counting down my breaths through each contraction. He was awesome, I have to say. I was very lucky to have him there. He had done a playlist for us to listen to ? and it was lovely having music in the background. Something I will always recommend to people. At times I was even dancing and singing
At 8 o?clock they checked me and I had only dilated to 5 cm ? they would have preferred 7cm, but since there was some progress they were happy for me to continue, so that?s what we did.
I did move onto the gas and air at about 8.30 as the contractions were getting much harder to just breathe through, and if the end had been nearly in sight, I might have perservered, but I was worried about getting too tired to push, so thought I would give the gas and air a shot. I have to say it was quite good fun ? DH said that I turned into a stand up comic. I do remember laughing lots, and it certainly did take the edge off the contractions.
The midwife ramped me up to the highest dose of synto ? and this is where it started to go wrong. Not because of the synto, but because it was going to anyway, this just started the ball rolling.
That midwife was at the end of her shift, and the new one came through at 10 o?clock ? one that I had met already on the maternity unit, so it was lovely to see a friendly face ? and quite honestly, she was amazing.
My contractions started coming too fast between 10.30 or 11 ish - and at still only 5cm dilated I was getting too many contractions, one on top of the other almost, and certainly baby was not ready and neither was I for contractions of that nature. MW suggested I get up on the bed for a bit, but that was the start of when everything went wrong. I got up on the bed, and just felt terrible. Possibly I fainted, or something, not entirely sure what happened ? but basically I was in agony, and felt terrible and remember saying ?I can?t cope with this? ? then in the blink of an eye, alarms were sounding, doctors and midwives were running in, my legs were in stirrups, and an oxygen mask had been strapped to my face. DH?s face went white, and I had no idea what was happening ? I just remember saying ?I don?t want to lose my baby, and I don?t want to die?.
The baby had gone into distress, presumably because my blood pressure had dropped scarily low ? and the babies heartrate nosedived and disappeared ? they placed a clip on her head to monitor her, and then took blood from her scalp to see if anything was wrong. Thankfully there wasn?t. And we both recovered enough, so we were able to continue, but I said that I would probably need an epidural at this point because I was weak, exhausted and frightened. So they called the anaesthetist. Meanwhile they started the contractions again from scratch with the synto drip. It took the anaesthetist 40 mins and 6 attempts to get my epidural in ? he was very frustrated bless him ? he kept going into blood vessels ? kept asking if I was a horse rider or particularly sporty ? HAHA!
At about 1.15 I was still not any more dilated and the chief obstetrician decided that there was nothing to be gained from continuing as it was getting late ? and he because I was term plus 15 days he didn?t want to put the baby at any undue risk ? he suggested c-section.
So emergency c-section it was to be, I was prepped and taken to theatre ? and babyReady was born at 2.02am, weighing in a 9lb3 ? and she is worth every single ounce of effort that was put in.
Surgeon said, there was no way she was coming out naturally, her head position was in such a way that she was stuck. So glad we d didn't perservere any longer. As it turns out, her position coupled with too much synto was what caused the complications.