Hi Everyone :)
Just a quick update or not. I've had my baby boy :)
It was all a bit eventful really.
When I hit bang on 37 weeks, I was stood in my kitchen and sneezed and ended up with a puddle on the floor, I thought it was my waters starting to leak. I rang labour ward and was told to walk for an hour and if any more leaked to come in. It didn't.
In the week that followed, baby was very quiet and I was worried that something was wrong, I had an appointment with my gynaecologist at 38 weeks and 2 days and I was pretty inconsolable by this point. He agreed that it was best to bring baby out early so I was booked for induction at 39 weeks and 1 day. I was also given a sweep and was 2cm dilated of my own accord.
Unfortunately baby didn't make his own way out before the induction so I went in at 7:30pm on Monday 1 September to be induced and was given my first set of gel at about 9pm. It hurt, a lot. It wasn't contraction pains or crampy it was an ache. It felt just like my endometriosis pain. I got in the bath and it didn't help so I was given co-codamol to ease it, that didn't help either. Tim left the hospital about midnight and I tried to sleep but I couldn't, the pain was still there and as much as I tried rocking and panting through it, I couldn't. I was given a dose of Diamorphine which helped and some gas and air while they examined me, that is LOVELY stuff. The diamorphine knocked me out and I woke up the next morning sucking on the gas and air mouthpiece.
The Tuesday I was waiting all morning for something to happen or even be examined and nothing happened. Tim and I were bored rigid. At lunchtime I was told that I was 7TH(!!!) in the queue as they had 3 spontaneous labours and 3 emergencies before me. I was so upset. I was then told at 4pm that I would be given an examination at 6pm. Tim bought us some chips and at 6 I was examined. No change so I was given more gel. However by this time the first set of gel had worn off and I would need to restart the process making this effectively my first set of gel. Tim stayed until about 11 and I tried panting and rocking again but it didn't work so I had another dose of Diamorphine. I was given the gas and air back for my examination.
Again the Diamorphine knocked me out and I was woken at 7 on Wednesday 3rd for another examination. I still hadn't progressed so was given more gel and was told I would be given one more set of gel at lunch if nothing had happened and if that didn't work then I would have a cesarian section on Thursday morning. At lunchtime I saw a different doctor and she was able to pop my waters, it felt like I'd wet myself and there was loads of it! She advised that my waters would have been poppable that morning, it was just that my cervix was twisted. I went down to labour room and was put on a drip to ramp up my contractions. I had been adamant pretty much all the way through my pregnancy that the only pain relief I wanted was gas and air. However having two sets of Diamorphine had weakened my pain threshold. The first resort was to give me another set of Diamorphine, I did ask for gas and air but was told I wasn't far enough along. The Diamorphine wasn't helping and I ended up having an epidural, although even that needed topping up because it didn't take full effect the first time. I was examined at 4pm when I was given the Epidural and told I'd be examined again at 9pm. I started saying at about 8pm that I could feel pressure and was told that it was normal and it was pretty much dismissed. When I was examined at 9pm, unsurprisingly his head was just sat there - hence what the pressure was! I pushed a couple of times and his head came out, another couple of pushes and the rest of him followed. Baby was born at 9.18pm on Wednesday 3rd September 2014 weighing 7lb 2oz. Not that big a baby after all!
We named him James Freddie. Shortly after he was born he went blue and I feared he had died. He was rubbed with a towel and put under the heater and was fine. Because of three sets of Diamorphine he didn't wake to feed much for the first 48 hours but now he's a little gannet! I love him very much but I am finding being a mum very challenging and unfortunately have been put on anti-depressants for Post Natal Depression but I'm confident I'll get there.
