Well after much discussion with my consultant over the best route to take after Nathan's birth with shoulder dystocia and a bad nuchal cord, looking at growth scans for Leo we decided to go for a vaginal delivery with earlier induction to keep his weight down.
Both my boys had been late and were larger so we agreed on 40+5 as the day to start induction with Leo.
I rang the hospital at 8am and was told that as this was my 3rd baby and I had a bishops score of 6 at 38+6 then induction should be quite easy so to come on in.
When we got there they did an internal and the midwife said my consultant must have been feeling festive by giving me a 6 as my score was more like a 3. I wasn't very happy as I know anything under 5 means induction wouldn't be too successful.
The midwife explained about the Propess pessary and that it is in for 24 hours then they check the cervix and if it isn't open enough to break the waters they will put another in for 24 hours.
In went the first tablet followed by 24 hours of hospital rest and not even a twinge.
I knew that nothing would have changed when I was examined and I was right. I asked the midwife what would happen if the second dose did nothing and I was told it would be classed as a failed induction and they would elect a c-sect or I could come back on Monday and have another pessary. The section sounded extreme now and I had decided on just coming back on boxing day or leaving myself to go naturally.
The midwife inserted the tablet and said it was fairly unlikely it would work as I hadn't changed at all since the first tablet. Gosh what a nightmare was to come. I really can't explain how much pain was to come.
Within 5 minutes of the next tablet going in I started to get hugely painful contractions lasting for almost a minute every minute.
The midwife hooked me up to the monitor to make sure Leo was ok and to get a look at the contractions scale.
They were strong and coming think and fast and I was sure he was going to pop out any time!
The midwife told me that she was sure it was just a hyper stimulated uterus from the propess and it was most likely doing nothing so she refused to check me. After an hour of the pain I demanded that she took the pessary out as the pain was unbearable and they wouldn't give me more than Paracetamol with me not being in established labour.
The pain was far worse than any contractions I felt with my other two at any time.
Fast forward 10 hours later to 8.30pm. The 1 minute contractions going on the whole day and me so, so tired and worn down the midwife agreed to check me out as I said hubby might as well go home to get some rest if not much was happening so wanted to know if it was safe to let him go home.
I warned her that if not much has happened I was going to loose control.
She checked me and I was still 1-2cm long and still fully closed. Well I just broke down in to tears. The worst pain of my life for 10hours and nothing had changed. I was a right mess.
The midwife felt so sorry for me, she gave me a huge hug and promised she would look after me really well and went and ran me a bath with Lavender oil.
My husband then went home as I wanted him to be there for the kids when they woke up in the morning as they had been passed around for a couple of days and Nathan was starting to ask for me and had been getting upset. I would rather deal with it on my own until I really need hubby there just to know the kids weren't getting too distressed.
So anyhow, I got in the lavender bath and had it red hot and it really helped with the pain. Everytime I tried to get out the pain was so bad that I sat down again.
After what seemed like about half an hour the pain seemed to get slightly less intense and space out a bit more and I was so relieved so I stood up to get out of the bath and I felt a huge gush. It was blood and loads of it.
I panicked at this as I have never had so much of a speck of blood during any pregnancy but a midwife assured me it was normal and that if I went back to my bed someone would come and check me out soon. It turns out it was 11pm and I had been in the bath 2 and a half hours! It was the best bath I ever had.
I was laid in my bed on the ward and trying to sleep but waking up with every contraction until around 5am when the midwife finally came to check me. She said she couldn't do it earlier as she didn't want to pop my water by accident as the ward was too full for another woman in labour!
She checked me out and I was just under 5cm dilated so she took me over to break my waters saying they were tense and bulging.
We got to the labour room and I walked around and dealt with contraction for a while with breathing then I got hooked up to the IV as I had to have some antibiotics for GBS so they were put through for half an hour and as I had to sit still which really hurt I started on the gas and air.
After around 20 mins the pain got worse and the gas and air didn't really touch it so I started to think of the epidural. I also started being sick quite bad at this point and the midwife thought that an epi would probably be best for me due to how long I had been in pain for and to regain some energy for the pushing stage.
I got the epidural in at 6.30am and finally breathed a sigh of relief to be able to have a break from 20 hours of bad pain.
A new midwife took over and examined me straight away and broke my waters at just over 5cm dilated. Straight away Leo's heart rate started dropping really low with every contraction. I rang hubby at 7 am and told him to come in.
He was getting his step mum over to baby sit and his dad was bringing him over and he got to me at 8am.
By now the midwife had told me that she had spoke to the doctors and they were coming around and I would be going for an emergency section. I was devastated and just thought I should have gone for section in the first place and Leo wouldn't be in trouble and all would be ok.
She then lost his heartbeat completely even with a clip on his head to monitor him. Me and hubby were just crying thinking he had gone but it turns out it was a faulty wire. Although I was beyond relieved I was furious at the same time that equipment for such an important job was faulty.
Waiting on the doctors who were taking ages to say we were classed as an emergency, I started feeling huge pressure in my bum. I was trying not to push as when she checked me I was still just over 5cm. I told her I needed to push and she said well if you feel like it then do it. I was confused as I didn't think I should be pushing at 5cm but another check 5 mins later and I was fully dilated and he was coming.
So from 5cm to 10 in 5 mins all before the doctors had come. I started pushing and the pain was far, far worse than my other births. He felt like he was splitting my pelvis in half. It was agony. And as my contractions were irregular in strength and length I had to wait in between some contractions for what felt like ages.
Leo's heartbeat stopped with every contraction and his head was in a deflexed position and faced up to the side, back to back, face up which is why the midwife thinks he was in such distress.
It was so hard but I got there in the end after what felt like hours pushing but in fact was around 10 minutes, Leo Thomas was born at 9.06am just over an hour after hubby got there weighing 7lb 13oz!
My gosh what a relief. They say third babies are unpredictable well that was just horrific from start to finish. I was so, so relieved he was here and crying. He actually opened his eyes and cried before his body was born which the midwife said was very rare and she hadn't seen it before.
Leo was born with a tongue tie that was severe so he had trouble feeding at first but he has had it snipped now and is feeding much better.
Thanks for reading if you got through all that! Here are a couple of pics:
Both my boys had been late and were larger so we agreed on 40+5 as the day to start induction with Leo.
I rang the hospital at 8am and was told that as this was my 3rd baby and I had a bishops score of 6 at 38+6 then induction should be quite easy so to come on in.
When we got there they did an internal and the midwife said my consultant must have been feeling festive by giving me a 6 as my score was more like a 3. I wasn't very happy as I know anything under 5 means induction wouldn't be too successful.
The midwife explained about the Propess pessary and that it is in for 24 hours then they check the cervix and if it isn't open enough to break the waters they will put another in for 24 hours.
In went the first tablet followed by 24 hours of hospital rest and not even a twinge.
I knew that nothing would have changed when I was examined and I was right. I asked the midwife what would happen if the second dose did nothing and I was told it would be classed as a failed induction and they would elect a c-sect or I could come back on Monday and have another pessary. The section sounded extreme now and I had decided on just coming back on boxing day or leaving myself to go naturally.
The midwife inserted the tablet and said it was fairly unlikely it would work as I hadn't changed at all since the first tablet. Gosh what a nightmare was to come. I really can't explain how much pain was to come.
Within 5 minutes of the next tablet going in I started to get hugely painful contractions lasting for almost a minute every minute.
The midwife hooked me up to the monitor to make sure Leo was ok and to get a look at the contractions scale.
They were strong and coming think and fast and I was sure he was going to pop out any time!
The midwife told me that she was sure it was just a hyper stimulated uterus from the propess and it was most likely doing nothing so she refused to check me. After an hour of the pain I demanded that she took the pessary out as the pain was unbearable and they wouldn't give me more than Paracetamol with me not being in established labour.
The pain was far worse than any contractions I felt with my other two at any time.
Fast forward 10 hours later to 8.30pm. The 1 minute contractions going on the whole day and me so, so tired and worn down the midwife agreed to check me out as I said hubby might as well go home to get some rest if not much was happening so wanted to know if it was safe to let him go home.
I warned her that if not much has happened I was going to loose control.
She checked me and I was still 1-2cm long and still fully closed. Well I just broke down in to tears. The worst pain of my life for 10hours and nothing had changed. I was a right mess.
The midwife felt so sorry for me, she gave me a huge hug and promised she would look after me really well and went and ran me a bath with Lavender oil.
My husband then went home as I wanted him to be there for the kids when they woke up in the morning as they had been passed around for a couple of days and Nathan was starting to ask for me and had been getting upset. I would rather deal with it on my own until I really need hubby there just to know the kids weren't getting too distressed.
So anyhow, I got in the lavender bath and had it red hot and it really helped with the pain. Everytime I tried to get out the pain was so bad that I sat down again.
After what seemed like about half an hour the pain seemed to get slightly less intense and space out a bit more and I was so relieved so I stood up to get out of the bath and I felt a huge gush. It was blood and loads of it.
I panicked at this as I have never had so much of a speck of blood during any pregnancy but a midwife assured me it was normal and that if I went back to my bed someone would come and check me out soon. It turns out it was 11pm and I had been in the bath 2 and a half hours! It was the best bath I ever had.
I was laid in my bed on the ward and trying to sleep but waking up with every contraction until around 5am when the midwife finally came to check me. She said she couldn't do it earlier as she didn't want to pop my water by accident as the ward was too full for another woman in labour!
She checked me out and I was just under 5cm dilated so she took me over to break my waters saying they were tense and bulging.
We got to the labour room and I walked around and dealt with contraction for a while with breathing then I got hooked up to the IV as I had to have some antibiotics for GBS so they were put through for half an hour and as I had to sit still which really hurt I started on the gas and air.
After around 20 mins the pain got worse and the gas and air didn't really touch it so I started to think of the epidural. I also started being sick quite bad at this point and the midwife thought that an epi would probably be best for me due to how long I had been in pain for and to regain some energy for the pushing stage.
I got the epidural in at 6.30am and finally breathed a sigh of relief to be able to have a break from 20 hours of bad pain.
A new midwife took over and examined me straight away and broke my waters at just over 5cm dilated. Straight away Leo's heart rate started dropping really low with every contraction. I rang hubby at 7 am and told him to come in.
He was getting his step mum over to baby sit and his dad was bringing him over and he got to me at 8am.
By now the midwife had told me that she had spoke to the doctors and they were coming around and I would be going for an emergency section. I was devastated and just thought I should have gone for section in the first place and Leo wouldn't be in trouble and all would be ok.
She then lost his heartbeat completely even with a clip on his head to monitor him. Me and hubby were just crying thinking he had gone but it turns out it was a faulty wire. Although I was beyond relieved I was furious at the same time that equipment for such an important job was faulty.
Waiting on the doctors who were taking ages to say we were classed as an emergency, I started feeling huge pressure in my bum. I was trying not to push as when she checked me I was still just over 5cm. I told her I needed to push and she said well if you feel like it then do it. I was confused as I didn't think I should be pushing at 5cm but another check 5 mins later and I was fully dilated and he was coming.
So from 5cm to 10 in 5 mins all before the doctors had come. I started pushing and the pain was far, far worse than my other births. He felt like he was splitting my pelvis in half. It was agony. And as my contractions were irregular in strength and length I had to wait in between some contractions for what felt like ages.
Leo's heartbeat stopped with every contraction and his head was in a deflexed position and faced up to the side, back to back, face up which is why the midwife thinks he was in such distress.
It was so hard but I got there in the end after what felt like hours pushing but in fact was around 10 minutes, Leo Thomas was born at 9.06am just over an hour after hubby got there weighing 7lb 13oz!
My gosh what a relief. They say third babies are unpredictable well that was just horrific from start to finish. I was so, so relieved he was here and crying. He actually opened his eyes and cried before his body was born which the midwife said was very rare and she hadn't seen it before.
Leo was born with a tongue tie that was severe so he had trouble feeding at first but he has had it snipped now and is feeding much better.
Thanks for reading if you got through all that! Here are a couple of pics:
and then cried am soooo glad u are both ok 
xx
xx
Congratulations again honey.
