Well I have handed a sleeping Mia over to hubby and have both hands free and a proper laptop to type up my birthing plan for you ladies. I am not putting as a spoiler.....so please skip over if you like....it is not too traumatic I promise.
Ladies with inductions being booked and worried about them....this is both positive and negative I guess from my experience.
So as you know on Saturday I was 40+4 and my induction had booked for the 25th March (+12 days).I woke up Saturday morning feeling a little unhappy about the amount of movement I had been getting for the last 12 hours or so....especially Saturday morning where I had one flutter and that was it. I thought well its Saturday, hubby is here...I am sure its nothing to worry about....phoned the hospital and they said to come straight in in the next 30 minutes. Very quick shower (thank god) and chucked hospital bag in car and off we went. Got there...they popped me on CTG to check babys HB and any contractions etc. She seemed fine to me.....then they took my BP where it all went a bit pear shaped. Bottom reading was over 94, 93 and 97 on 3 separate readings and she went to get registrar. Registrar said they wanted to proceed to induction that day and hubby should go home and get any bits I needed. Slightly panicked at this and felt all teary as I didnt feel good about evicting her early (although I was overdue). Doctor actually did a S&S there and then to see what was what.....all closed up and didnt get good contact but I had bleeding and a bloody show afterwards.
Moved to antenatal ward about midday......they explained that induction involved a pessary for 24 hours......if that doesnt work then 2 lots of the gel (6 hours apart) and then to IV syntocinin (probably wrong spelling). So LONG process but wouldnt let me go home at all. I was in for duration. So pessary went in around 1pm after another S&S. Hubby went home for while. My NCT friend was still in maternity ward so at 3pm I popped around to see her and her LO.....whilst I was chatting and for about an hour before that I had started to get really bad lower back pain and gentle contractions. She said thats how her natural early labour started.
Things moved very quickly (and then slowly and then quickly again!!) after that.....
Baby was showing signs of distress - lowering of HB at every contraction caused by pessary....they moved me to labour ward so they could monitor me more closely. Decided 5 hours after pessary went in to take it out again as baby not happy.....I was very disappointed but happy that baby was being looked after. They then said that the new plan was to move me back to antenatal ward....check me in morning....see if waters could be broken and go straight to IV induction ...no gel
.
Contracting every 4-5 minutes for 40-60 seconds all night so they gave me some pethidine to help me sleep through them....makes you dead drowsy so good for this purpose but AVOID in labour. By morning I was 1cm dilated and she said that they would try and break waters....this was at 11am and I was EVENTUALLY moved to delivery suite at 7pm!!!!!!!!!!!! Not happy...still contracting ALL day
So here I was all good to go.....midwife went to break my waters which they do on a contraction...very uncomfy
. BUT the first needle was blunt and she had to do again!!!! Waters broken....but then you continue to lose the waters on each contraction. So the waiting game started.....by 9pm I was contracting ALOT and painful....gas and air didnt touch it for me. Made me feel great and a little drunk between but didnt help pain of the actual contractions. I was really desperate for more pain relief but they offer me epidural until 4-5cm dilated cos it could stop labour if not established. They were not going to reassess dilation until 11pm (their policy) but I begged for her to check......mmmmm still only 2-3 cm dilated
. I was inconsolable and in so much pain so I took some pethidine offered.....big mistake, so drowsy but did cut down the contractions.
By this time I wasnt on IV induction but knew they were going to use it SO I said once IV induction has started it wont stop until baby comes....YES!! Well then give me the epidural now then.....oh yes they said OK then. Mmmmmm made sense to me. Luckily the anaethetist was out of surgery around 11pm.........to managed the next couple of hours of pain and got myself the first person to get epi when she came out (turns out there were 3 people behind me....sooooo pleased). So epidural was AMAZING!!!! Yes I had numb legs, lady bits and tummy (up to below boobs/top of uterus) but I could still feel them and move them around if I wanted to....just were heavy. Dont think I could have walked. Midwife confessed at this stage baby had moved back to back and thats why my contractions were so unbelievably painful from about 8pm onwards......
...thanks for telling me!
So epidural in.....contractions could still be felt...more tightening rather than painful. Syntocinin put on drip....off we go...this was 1am. Still only 2-3 cm dilated. I said to MW what time you reckon I will delivery 'from experience about another 4 hours to 4-5 cms...then probably another 8 hours to fully dilated'....OK fine...just keep epidural coming. Was worried about being so tired and not able to push by midday on Monday and I guess thats why inductions can end up as forceps assisted or c sections (including big babies of course).
MW was excellent.....I got a side effect from epidural which was the judders...just uncontrollable shaking...annoying more than uncomfortable. Chattering teeth but I wasnt cold...then werent too worried. Oh just to say my epi was PCA (patient controlled) so I could alter / increase dose...she told me roughly when to push button to keep pain at bay. With the judders ongoing around 3am she said I will just check your dilation....8cms!!! OMG.
I started to feel really cold with judders and they chucked 3 blankets over me to warm me up before doctor came in the they did a temperature check.....sky high 38.9....ooops off came blankets....and cut me right back on epidural....luckily pain still at bay but if I continued til 12pm Monday...what then!!!???
Midwife checked me and I was already 10cm dilated at 4.25am.....she was very very surprised. She said right lets get this baby out (worried about her with my high temperature). Doctors were taking blood for culture for possible infection (reason for high temp) and continued to do so whilst I was pushing....WTF!!!!!!
So I could feel contractions......and midwife was feel tummy too to double check.....started pushing at 4.30am.....after first round of pushing I could feel the pressure but no pain. Doctor then announced that he would let me push for 15 minutes then off to theatre for instrument delivery as baby getting distressed and high temp issues. Midwife said 'NO!!!! I dont think so - this baby is coming NOW!' (love her
)......
On the 4th contraction and round of pushing there she was out and put on my chest with a towel not wrapped....fan was on behind my head which they directed to her. So rather than wrapping her they had to get temp down (she had been cooking inside me....hubby said hindwaters and other 'bits' came out with her and they were really hot liquids!!!!!)...her temp was 39.6.
I asked about leaving cord for a while but cos of her high temp they wanted it cut in case they needed to take to the other side of the room quickly...fair enough...I was glad I asked. Hubby cut it. She stayed on me for a good 20 minutes and temp was good again.
She looked amazing but crying alot with high temp. So 10 minutes out.....4 hours established labour. So in terms of induction - it didnt started well but ended amazingly for me. I had one stitch and MW said a little graze
....lucky girl.
Maybe RLT and EPO helped me with uterus doing its job. It has already gone right back apparently.....
I was on IV antibiotics for 24 hours (well three doses in 24 hours) due to the infection that caused raised temp....but Mia is totally unaffected. Bless her.
I feel fine considering.....downstairs not so tender....bit bleedy still but much much better
Sorry ladies that was an essay and just written as I remember and not condensed at all.
Sorry I have been off radar for a while and not catching up on everything......feeling really bad about that
. You girls have been amazing over the last 9 months and however and whenever your babies come into the world, it will be the best experience of your lives. My birthing plan was read but I couldnt follow alot of it....no birthing pool! Only G&A mmmm! dont cut cord immediately! And they injected me to get placenta out due to wanting to get on with treating high temp.....took 10 minutes and didnt feel a thing.
xxx
not a settled night last night. I really need to wake up better for the night feeds and wind better as I'm putting her back to sleep too fast and then the windiness wakes her up 
so think 40+9 is earliest i can hope for 
