Quick update, my boy Nash arrived 8 pound 9. Quickish back labour with only gas, 7 cm when I got to hospital. Feeding well

Congrats darkstar, I'm glad you are both well. Looking forward to hearing more of your birth story.

We have just come back from the hospital after appointment this afternoon. Was on monitor for a while before MW doing an internal exam. She could see from the trace that I'm contracting regularly and confirmed that I'm 5cm dilated with a 'non-labouring cervix'. She said my membrane was bulging and I'm ripe for labour and she can't understand why I'm not in labour already!? She couldn't break my waters because the appointment was just an assessment rather than induction, I have to go back in on Tuesday morning to have my waters broken if I've not gone in the meantime naturally.
Since coming home, I've had a bloody show and some crampy contractions so I'm hoping things are imminent.

Getting fed up now but seeing light at the end of the tunnel, finally!

Hiya Ladies,
Congratulations to all you new mummies
Sorry I am only just putting my update on here I have been so busy! Well after being induced on the 5th January at 6:45am after a long and painful labor Isabel was born on the 6th January at 4:46pm weighing 6lb 8oz xx

Here is the link to my labor story ...

My little girl is here :)

also I got it wrong Isabel was born at 4:42pm xx

Hi all super quick update after my last post, baby Eli was born 20/01/13 at 2:16am weighing 6 pounds 11. All way very dramatic and will update with some more details soon but he is just lovely and so pleased he is here safe and sound.

Congrats to those of you who have also had your little ones and good luck to those of you in early labour/ being induced soon. It really is worth all the pain!

Sounds very close!

Congratulations new mummies / mommies!! can't wait to see pics!

It was the start alright! Waters broke in bed at 10pm, got to hospital for 11pm and she was born at 3.55am with just a bit of gas and air. She weighed 8lb 4oz and is breast feeding like a trooper! I will update with full story once I have more time x

Congratulations to all of you who have had your babies... I dont think there are any of us still waiting, is there?

Congratulations Mrs A, and to all the other new mummies

I think you're right Mrs A, I think everyone in the thread have had their babies now

Right I have 5 minutes (thanks to our swing) so will write a quick labour story.

So basically it all started on the Friday. We went to the birth centre for a sweep and to take part in what I thought was a reflexology research project. When we got there I found out that it wasn't reflexology as such and that I couldn't take part anyway as they had already attempted a sweep. My midwife had basically sent me there as she didn't have time to do another sweep herself. Anyways the midwife said she would do a sweep anyway. She measured my tummy and looked all confused, looked though my notes. Then felt for baby and then said to me she was just going to get someone else to measure me. Well this midwife agreed with the first one, by this point I was a tad worried so asked what was happening. They were worried because I was measuring 5 weeks behind and from my notes hadn't grown in 4 weeks. They were also concerned that baby could be breech as they could feel something hard at the top of my bump which moved like a head should.
They ended up sending me to hospital for a scan just to check positioning and size. We decided to take our hospital bags with us as the hospital is 40 mins away and it was a good job we did.
After lots of waiting and midwifes taking bets on whether he was breech or his head was just really low they finally did a scan. The doctor wasn't trained to do measurements but said she could see he was head down but that there was low fluid around him. She went away and spoke to another doctor and they agreed it wasn't worth waiting as I was already a week overdue and they would induce me that night. The doctor did a sweep- which got contractions started. After putting me on the monitor for a while they then because concerned about baby's heart rate and decided they needed to do a 'quick induction' and took me straight to delivery.
Well it all became very stressful from there. They tried to break my waters and couldn't I was in so much pain I was screaming. They then decided to put in a pessary to get my cervix to begin opening because I just wasn't ready for labour.
They monitored baby constantly overnight which meant no sleep at all. The next morning they checked me and said the pessary had been put in wrong and was doing nothing, then without telling me broke my waters. The doctor told me I was 3cm dilated. They put a clip on baby's head to monitor him so I had to stay in bed, bye bye the natural, active birth I wanted. They needed to take some bloods but it took 7 attempts to get a needle in me- the final attempt was from the anesthetist who managed it straight away.
3 hours later they checked me again and said there was no progress. So put me on a drip to make my contractions stronger. At this point the midwife recommended I had a epidural as I was so tired and the contractions were going to get a lot worse very quickly. I agreed as I just wanted sleep. The midwife put the wheels in motion for the epidural... well near 3hours later I finally got it. In these three hours the contractions had got stronger, I hated the gas and air as I just felt I totally lost control whilst on it. Baby began getting distressed so they gave me an injection to stop the contractions- I was in tears at this point after all of that pain they told me I was still in early labour, not making progress and had now stopped the contractions. They were very busy on the ward so it was taking hours to be seen by a doctor even when they were concerned. Oh and I wasn't allowed to eat anything in case I had to have a c-section.
Go forward another 3 hours, the epidural hadn't worked, baby had calmed down again and I was still having mild contractions on my own. The doctor decided to put the drip back on and then monitor 4 hours after the contractions were strong again. My husband and mum went home being told that it would be at least 6 hours before they would check me and that I was still in very early labour. I got another epidural which worked this time (was the same anesthetist from earlier). By this point I was shattered and felt so defeated. Being told I was still no further forward 15 hours after they broke my waters and after a day of contractions really got me down.
I managed to get an hours sleep before they woke me up to ask me to turn onto my side. They then moved me again 15 mins later. They turned off the epidural and the midwifes were looking worried again. Baby was getting distressed. They managed to get a doctor in who said to move position again and give it half hour, if baby wasn't happy again they would 'have to make a decision'. They lowered the drip to see if that helped.
The epidural had worn off totally by that point and I was in a lot of pain. After 15 minutes the midwife said we need the doctor back here- baby was getting more distressed. I text my husband at this point and said I needed him (it was about 1:30am at this point). After waiting for the doctor who didn't arrive the midwife asked if she could examine me, I agreed- to everyone's surprise I baby was on his way! I was fully dilated and ready to push. I rang my husband crying that he needed to get to the hospital (I was crying because they were still examining me and I was in pain!) the midwife shouted to my DH that he didn't need to rush it would still be a while. It was a good job he didn't listen to this! They then cut baby's head to take some blood and see how distressed he was. They couldn't do it because of all his hair- I was shouting at them it was all my DH's fault because he is hairy, at this point they were still considering a c-section if he was distressed enough. It takes 40 mins to get to the hospital from home, my DH did it in 19 mins (my mum was a tad scared by the time they got there as it was snowing and icy out). It was a good job he did, when he got into the delivery room baby was crowning and was only 2 minutes before Eli was born!

The final pushing him out actually wasn't too bad compared to the rest of the labour!

Eli is fine, showing no signs of his eventful arrival into the world. He only lost 20g in the first week and feeds well. I am in no hurry to go through all of that anytime soon but am surprised how quickly I have got over it all. Well that's my not-so-quick labour story! Hopefully have attached a picture of Eli when he was just a few hours old.