ferens06
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We arrived at the hospital at 11am on Monday 27th August for induction at term + 12. I was so nervous the whole morning but once we entered the hospital my fears went away and I began wondering about the unknown. We were shown to a bed on the induction suite and informed that there would be a delay due to a shortage of staff because of the bank holiday, and that induction wouldn't likely start until the afternoon. We sat and waited and eventually around 1pm I was given the prostin gel to start things off. I had been told at my membrane sweeps by my midwife that I was 1-2cms, however the midwife examined me and said my cervix was closed and posterior which I found quite disappointing (but not surprising as my mw is a bit dippy! 
)
The prostin gel took effect pretty much immediately and I was put on a trace to monitor contractions and baby's heartbeat. All was going well until around an hour when her heartbeat suddenly dropped dramatically to around 80bpm and a doctor was brought in. They believed that she had cord compression so after an examination (found to be 1cm dilated) my waters were broken at 14:20. I was kept on the monitor for a while to make sure baby's heartbeat was stable again and then we were moved to our own room to labour in. I spent a lot of time on the birthing ball, but I was desperately tired and in between every contraction I was trying to fall asleep. All I could say is how tired I was, I even got bored of hearing myself
Much to my frustration laying on my side was absolute agony and so I just grabbed a pillow to rest my head on. I remember at 16:49 I looked at my phone as I was trying to figure out how far apart the contractions were, and I then had a mini 'sleep'
. I 'woke up' again to find it was 16:50 and was having another contraction 
I couldn't actually believe my eyes, it felt like the longest minute of my life! I was genuinely convinced I'd been asleep!
At 6:30 my midwife came in to check my progress with the intention of putting me on the drip. I had already told her that I wanted to avoid the drip if possible as the thought of it frightened me, and so she decided to examine me and found I was 4cms and my cervix had gone from thick to paper thin. She then suggested we avoid the drip and move to the birth centre to get in the pool. I agreed and we moved down very slowly, walking made the contractions so much more intense. I got in the pool but it was just so hot, every contraction was so powerful and combined with the heat was making me feel extremely agitated. I remember shouting 'ITS TOO FUCKING HOT!' and was given a cold flannel but it was of no real use. After about 20 minutes the student midwife came to listen in to baby's heartbeat but by this point I despised the doppler and I had a contraction every time it was put on my stomach. I then decided I'd had enough of the heat and had to escape the pool! I got up really quickly and clambered out much to the surprise of the midwife. I then had a contraction and it was very strong so I was looking around for places to sit down and she gave me the birthing ball. Being soaking wet, I sat on the ball and immediately slipped off onto the floor! the midwife and my OH both let out a yelp of surprise and I was offered hands to help me up but I couldn't get up until the contraction had gone. I was then helped to some soft seating and propped against a beanbag as my back felt like it was breaking. I laboured there for about 20 minutes until they said they had cooled the pool and I got back in. The pool was much more comfortable now and my contractions were really strong. I was offered gas & air which I tried but I hated it as it made me feel drunk, so I laboured without any relief. After a little while in the pool I felt a strange uncontrollable sensation to push down. I had three contractions that involved pushing before I told the midwives what I was doing. They encouraged me to carry on what I was doing and just go with nature, but they were struggling to see if the head was coming down due to the distortion from the water and my position. They recorded my cervix as fully dilated at 20:46 and Niamh was delivered at 20:50 but I think I was fully dilated for about 20 minutes or so before this. She was brought up to me, absolutely smothered in vernix 
she was looking all around and gave out a little cry. I held her for a while and the midwives were so shocked they didn't know what to do and kept saying this whilst frantically dashing around and deciding what to do next they said they never thought I would have delivered her before their shift ended (22:30)!
Eventually my OH cut the cord and I was helped out of the pool. I had quite a lot of blood loss and was laid down to deliver the placenta whilst Niamh breastfed. I was then examined and informed I would need surgery for a third degree tear from my vagina through to the rectal muscle. I signed forms, fed Niamh and was wheeled off to theatre. Surgery was actually hilarious as I couldn't feel a thing and the anaesthetist gave some seriously good banter the radio was playing THE cheesiest love songs! The surgery should have taken about 20 minutes but I was in the theatre for 1.5 hours due to swelling making the stitching difficult. I was taken to the recovery ward where my OH and Niamh were waiting and was given her to feed again. I was then wheeled to the maternity ward and OH had to go home. I didn't sleep a wink as I spent the whole night staring at Niamh, grappling with her to feed and was basically pumped so high on adrenaline and excitement that I couldn't sleep.
She weighed 8lbs exactly at birth and was 56cms long.
So there it is, my birth story! Sorry if I've bored you to tears! A few things I remember saying are 'I want to be a man', 'I'm going to be walking like John Wayne for weeks!' 'I wish this contraction would F**K OFF!', 'is she ginger?' and 'my pooooor bummm!!!'
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
xxx
)The prostin gel took effect pretty much immediately and I was put on a trace to monitor contractions and baby's heartbeat. All was going well until around an hour when her heartbeat suddenly dropped dramatically to around 80bpm and a doctor was brought in. They believed that she had cord compression so after an examination (found to be 1cm dilated) my waters were broken at 14:20. I was kept on the monitor for a while to make sure baby's heartbeat was stable again and then we were moved to our own room to labour in. I spent a lot of time on the birthing ball, but I was desperately tired and in between every contraction I was trying to fall asleep. All I could say is how tired I was, I even got bored of hearing myself
Much to my frustration laying on my side was absolute agony and so I just grabbed a pillow to rest my head on. I remember at 16:49 I looked at my phone as I was trying to figure out how far apart the contractions were, and I then had a mini 'sleep'
. I 'woke up' again to find it was 16:50 and was having another contraction I couldn't actually believe my eyes, it felt like the longest minute of my life! I was genuinely convinced I'd been asleep! At 6:30 my midwife came in to check my progress with the intention of putting me on the drip. I had already told her that I wanted to avoid the drip if possible as the thought of it frightened me, and so she decided to examine me and found I was 4cms and my cervix had gone from thick to paper thin. She then suggested we avoid the drip and move to the birth centre to get in the pool. I agreed and we moved down very slowly, walking made the contractions so much more intense. I got in the pool but it was just so hot, every contraction was so powerful and combined with the heat was making me feel extremely agitated. I remember shouting 'ITS TOO FUCKING HOT!' and was given a cold flannel but it was of no real use. After about 20 minutes the student midwife came to listen in to baby's heartbeat but by this point I despised the doppler and I had a contraction every time it was put on my stomach. I then decided I'd had enough of the heat and had to escape the pool! I got up really quickly and clambered out much to the surprise of the midwife. I then had a contraction and it was very strong so I was looking around for places to sit down and she gave me the birthing ball. Being soaking wet, I sat on the ball and immediately slipped off onto the floor!
the midwife and my OH both let out a yelp of surprise and I was offered hands to help me up but I couldn't get up until the contraction had gone. I was then helped to some soft seating and propped against a beanbag as my back felt like it was breaking. I laboured there for about 20 minutes until they said they had cooled the pool and I got back in. The pool was much more comfortable now and my contractions were really strong. I was offered gas & air which I tried but I hated it as it made me feel drunk, so I laboured without any relief. After a little while in the pool I felt a strange uncontrollable sensation to push down. I had three contractions that involved pushing before I told the midwives what I was doing. They encouraged me to carry on what I was doing and just go with nature, but they were struggling to see if the head was coming down due to the distortion from the water and my position. They recorded my cervix as fully dilated at 20:46 and Niamh was delivered at 20:50 but I think I was fully dilated for about 20 minutes or so before this. She was brought up to me, absolutely smothered in vernix she was looking all around and gave out a little cry. I held her for a while and the midwives were so shocked they didn't know what to do and kept saying this whilst frantically dashing around and deciding what to do next they said they never thought I would have delivered her before their shift ended (22:30)! Eventually my OH cut the cord and I was helped out of the pool. I had quite a lot of blood loss and was laid down to deliver the placenta whilst Niamh breastfed. I was then examined and informed I would need surgery for a third degree tear from my vagina through to the rectal muscle. I signed forms, fed Niamh and was wheeled off to theatre. Surgery was actually hilarious as I couldn't feel a thing and the anaesthetist gave some seriously good banter
the radio was playing THE cheesiest love songs! The surgery should have taken about 20 minutes but I was in the theatre for 1.5 hours due to swelling making the stitching difficult. I was taken to the recovery ward where my OH and Niamh were waiting and was given her to feed again. I was then wheeled to the maternity ward and OH had to go home. I didn't sleep a wink as I spent the whole night staring at Niamh, grappling with her to feed and was basically pumped so high on adrenaline and excitement that I couldn't sleep. She weighed 8lbs exactly at birth and was 56cms long.
So there it is, my birth story! Sorry if I've bored you to tears! A few things I remember saying are 'I want to be a man', 'I'm going to be walking like John Wayne for weeks!' 'I wish this contraction would F**K OFF!', 'is she ginger?' and 'my pooooor bummm!!!'
Thanks for reading if you made it this far!
xxx
just try to mentally prepare yourself xxx
hehe
doing it without any pain relief! 
