My birth story
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfie Mark Turner finally graced us with his prescence on 06/11/11 at 06:13am at 41+6.
On Saturday 5th November i went to the hospital at 08:30am to be induced as he was refusing to come out on his own. I was hooked up to a monitor to assess baby which was all fine. I was actually contracting but i couldnt feel them. They were really busy so left DH and i for a couple of hours. That couple of hours turned into 11 hours!
I finally had my waters broken at 19:30pm and everything went in fast forward after that. I went from mild contractions to agony in less than an hour. Gas and air was useless for me. It would only kick in after the contraction eased off, so i decided to do it all natural. In less than 2 hours my cervix had gone from 3cm to 9cm!
It all moved so quickly that the baby was really distressed during each contraction which were coming every 3 minutes for 90 seconds a time. It felt like they were constant.
I wasn't allowed to move off the bed as i was being monitored constantly. I was begging for an epidural at this point, but i was told it was time to push.
I was pushing for an hour when the doctor came in to assess me and told the midwife off because i wasn't actually 10cm and the baby was lieing sideways and wouldnt come out that way. DH and i were furious.
Now i was told i couldn't push anymore. It was physically IMPOSSIBLE to stop myself now, which was distressing me and the baby more. I was then told i should have the epidural to stop me pushing and wait for the baby to turn.
The epidural was AMAZING!!! It took them ages to put it in as my contractions were so strong, but once it was in, it was brilliant. I even managed to get some sleep.
Eventually after 3 hours of waiting, the baby had moved and it was time to push again.
I was so numb i couldnt feel if i was doing it right, but the midwife said i was. After 2 hours, the baby still wasnt moving down so i had to have a forceps delivery, which was exactly what i didnt want.
I was told i had 4 goes with the forceps or it was c section time. The doctor was a tiny woman and she literally pulled with all her strength to get the baby out. DH and the midwife even had to hold my legs as she was pulling me off the bed.
The baby finally came out on the 4th and final pull. He was very distressed from the pulling and was born with a gash on his head and facial palsy.
I had a full episiotimy which is painful as hell!
Alfie was checked over and was very jittery so bloods were taken. It turned out he had an infection and required iv antibiotics for 5 days and had mild jaundice. So we had to stay in hospital.
Once my epidural had worn off, i had the WORST headache of my life. It was horrendous. I couldnt lift my head off the pillow even though i was drugged up to my eyeballs. After 2 days, the doctors informed me it was a complication of the epidural where they had put the needle in too far and injected into my spine. I was leaking spinal fluid which was what was causing the pain in my head. It meant i had to have blood taken from my arm and injected into my spine.
I was very nervous, but i am so glad i did it, as after a couple of hours the pain had totally gone. It was like a miracle!
We were finally let home on saturday, and we are both doing brilliantly now. Alfie is a very happy little boy. And i really got established with my feeding while i was in hospital, so i am very grateful for that. The nurses were fantastic. I would highly recommend Salisbury hospital.
and hippy, when that sofa comes, you wanna tape a blackbag to yourself till it happens 
I decided (stupidly) to take kids to a fireworks display last night and started having contractions about an hour before it started. They kept up for 7 hours again then just stopped so kids missed out. Will be trying to take them out tonight again. I'm sure this wee fella is deliberately trying to cause as mush disruption as he can though. xx
