After reading so many amazing birth stories on here I thought I would share mine:
Our baby was due on 4th September 2011 (team yellow). However after a very difficult pregnancy (pre term labour was stopped at 30 weeks and was admitted to hospital on numerous occasions for high blood pressure) my consultant made the decision to induce me on 26th August. Initially I was disappointed as i wanted a September baby for the school dates lol and didnt want the baby being so young in the year, plus I was also petrified of being induced. My toddler came on her own on her due date so I had been hoping for the same again. However once I got my head around things I knew it was for the best, I just wanted our baby with us healthy. I have group b strep so I also knew it meant it was more likely I would get the iv anti biotics in labour as I would be in hospital from the start.
Myself and my hubby prepared ourselves for the possibility it would take days to be induced so we packed a lot of things for my little girl who is 2 to stay at her nan's. I was panicking about how she would cope as the longest she has stayed at her nan's is one night.
On 26th August at 7.30pm we arrived at the hospital, only to be waiting for an hour before even being shown into the induction suite. At 9.15pm I was given the gel, most ended up on the bed as the mw accidentally squirted it at me lol! I asked if hubbies were allowed to stay or whether they went home, she said they can stay but given I was less than 1cm dilated given it was baby number 2 and my cervix was very posterior it may be better for him to go home and get some rest and that way I could sleep as well. At about 9.45 I felt some niggles and noticed the trace was showing some peaks so I wondered if my body was doing anything. The mw said it was highly unusual for people to start contracting from gel alone so advised us to both go for a walk around 10pm to help things along and I would get next lot of gel in 6 hours. We walked up and down the corridor for around half an hour, I was having bad back pains every 2 minutes but given what mw said I thought it was false labour. We went back to the induction suite and I told the mw that i was in pain and they were coming every 2 minutes. She said it will almost definately be false labour and gave me some paracetamol and codeine. By 11.30 I was nearly crying with the pain but the curtains were drawn around us and the mw nowhere to be seen. Eventually around 12ish she came back to see me and said she would get me some pethadine, I was not sure I wanted it as I know it can make babies drowsy but as she was saying it was false labour I decided it may be useful to help me sleep. She said if pethadine helped with pain then it was definately false labour, I am petrified of needles so I was a bit of a wimp with needle as it was in my leg, i remember apologising to mw saying 'sorry i know im being pathetic' to which she replied 'yes you are!'. Erm thanks for that!!!
Anyway after the injection I started to feel really drowsy and pain started to ease off so i thought yup mw must be right, its false labour so at 1am I sent my hubby home to get some rest. However at 1.30am i woke up to awful pains again and shouted for mw that the pethidine didnt seem to be working. She came in and said she would examine me. Turns out i was 3-4cms dilated!! She said I needed to ask my hubby to come back in! So i rang him and told him he needed to come back-he had literally just got home and put his head on the pillow! Next thing mw comes back in with a wheelchair and takes me down to the delivery suite. I text my hubby to say what room I was in. At this point I was in major pain and wondering how I was going to cope so i literally arrived in the delivery suite and said to new mw 'i really need an epidural asap!'. She told me everyone was in theatre as there were 14 women labouring at the same time as me!!! At this point I was distraught as I had an epidural with my little girl due to all the pain being in my back. I have a bad back so wonder if it causes my labours to feel like back to back labours as I never had any pain in my stomach at all. My fear with not having the epidural was the pushing part, reading so many stories on here about the 'ring of fire!' and the major fear of tearing. I got to the delivery suite at 2am exactly and they got the canula in my hand (ow!) for the iv anti biotics around 2.15am, my hubby got to me at 2.20am. I dont think he realised just how fast things were progressing, neither of us did as I presumed that with being nearly 4cms I still had a long way to go. He was looking pretty scared for me when he realised an epidural was a long way off as he knew how much I was scared of the pushing part but he was so great and just kept saying I would be ok.
Next thing I know around 2.40 I felt the urge to push (something I had not experienced before!). I was seriously scared at this point and thought nah i must be imagining the feeling but mw just said that if i was feeling the need to push then maybe i was ready. I went through the classic transition stage of saying I couldnt do it but clearly I had no option as mw examined me and said i was ready to go! The gas and air was doing zilch but it did help me focus on breathing instead of the horrendous pain. My hubby at this point was in shock I think! He later told me he had debated stopping off for a macdonalds on his way back to the hospital as he was starving and had no idea how fast it was all happening!!! I could just imagine telling our child when they were older that daddy had missed the birth for a big mac!
At this point, the mw broke my waters, something I had not experienced before as when I went into labour with my first little girl, my waters had mysteriously disappeared! This bit hurt as it felt like she caught me with the scissors she used to break my waters. I felt them gush out of me, very warm they were! I realised I then had no option but to push as the baby had to come out some how! So I pushed as hard as I could and to my surprise the head was out first push and then shoulders the second push! Although it was painful, it was not as bad as I expected, possibly as I didnt have a tear or graze. Freya Amelia arrived into the world on 27th August at 2.51am weighing 6lb 10ozs. I remember just lying there in utter shock, the speed of the birth was something else, just 50 mins from being 3-4cms dilated and also having another little girl surprised me as everyone had me convinced I was having a boy from the 4d scan pics. I remember the sheer feeling of relief that the pain had stopped as soon as she was out. It then took 10 mins for the placenta to come away.
I never for one second thought I would be able to give birth without an epidural as I am a major advocate for them! I did remember thinking there is no way I can do this without an epidural because if these contractions keep getting worse then im screwed but that was before I knew how close to the end I was. I did think at the time, I will never do this again as the back labour is not nice at all particualry when you have to remain on your back. On reflection as I was able to walk about straight after having Freya and felt amazing straight away, im kind of glad I didnt have the epidural now.
Freya is second and final child (i was diagnosed with PCOS just after having our first daughter and I was so scared of not being able to conceive again but thankfully we fell first month so it goes to show you just dont know what will happen).
My labour was recorded as lasting 2 hours 40 minutes. Due to the group b strep we stayed in hospital for 2 nights for monitoring and then we were allowed home. Freya is a very content gorgeous little baby who it literally the spitting image of her sister at the same age, it was like I had given birth to my first little girl all over again! Her big sister adores her, she thinks she is her mummy now which has proven interesting at times!!
Apologies for the long rambling birth story but its actually quite therapeutic writing it down! With it being a lot quicker than I expected it does take you by surprise. For me and our daughter at home it was the best thing that could have happened as it meant I wasnt labouring for days. I wish everyone happy and healthy pregnancies and pain free births lol!
Jayjay xxx
Our baby was due on 4th September 2011 (team yellow). However after a very difficult pregnancy (pre term labour was stopped at 30 weeks and was admitted to hospital on numerous occasions for high blood pressure) my consultant made the decision to induce me on 26th August. Initially I was disappointed as i wanted a September baby for the school dates lol and didnt want the baby being so young in the year, plus I was also petrified of being induced. My toddler came on her own on her due date so I had been hoping for the same again. However once I got my head around things I knew it was for the best, I just wanted our baby with us healthy. I have group b strep so I also knew it meant it was more likely I would get the iv anti biotics in labour as I would be in hospital from the start.
Myself and my hubby prepared ourselves for the possibility it would take days to be induced so we packed a lot of things for my little girl who is 2 to stay at her nan's. I was panicking about how she would cope as the longest she has stayed at her nan's is one night.
On 26th August at 7.30pm we arrived at the hospital, only to be waiting for an hour before even being shown into the induction suite. At 9.15pm I was given the gel, most ended up on the bed as the mw accidentally squirted it at me lol! I asked if hubbies were allowed to stay or whether they went home, she said they can stay but given I was less than 1cm dilated given it was baby number 2 and my cervix was very posterior it may be better for him to go home and get some rest and that way I could sleep as well. At about 9.45 I felt some niggles and noticed the trace was showing some peaks so I wondered if my body was doing anything. The mw said it was highly unusual for people to start contracting from gel alone so advised us to both go for a walk around 10pm to help things along and I would get next lot of gel in 6 hours. We walked up and down the corridor for around half an hour, I was having bad back pains every 2 minutes but given what mw said I thought it was false labour. We went back to the induction suite and I told the mw that i was in pain and they were coming every 2 minutes. She said it will almost definately be false labour and gave me some paracetamol and codeine. By 11.30 I was nearly crying with the pain but the curtains were drawn around us and the mw nowhere to be seen. Eventually around 12ish she came back to see me and said she would get me some pethadine, I was not sure I wanted it as I know it can make babies drowsy but as she was saying it was false labour I decided it may be useful to help me sleep. She said if pethadine helped with pain then it was definately false labour, I am petrified of needles so I was a bit of a wimp with needle as it was in my leg, i remember apologising to mw saying 'sorry i know im being pathetic' to which she replied 'yes you are!'. Erm thanks for that!!!
Anyway after the injection I started to feel really drowsy and pain started to ease off so i thought yup mw must be right, its false labour so at 1am I sent my hubby home to get some rest. However at 1.30am i woke up to awful pains again and shouted for mw that the pethidine didnt seem to be working. She came in and said she would examine me. Turns out i was 3-4cms dilated!! She said I needed to ask my hubby to come back in! So i rang him and told him he needed to come back-he had literally just got home and put his head on the pillow! Next thing mw comes back in with a wheelchair and takes me down to the delivery suite. I text my hubby to say what room I was in. At this point I was in major pain and wondering how I was going to cope so i literally arrived in the delivery suite and said to new mw 'i really need an epidural asap!'. She told me everyone was in theatre as there were 14 women labouring at the same time as me!!! At this point I was distraught as I had an epidural with my little girl due to all the pain being in my back. I have a bad back so wonder if it causes my labours to feel like back to back labours as I never had any pain in my stomach at all. My fear with not having the epidural was the pushing part, reading so many stories on here about the 'ring of fire!' and the major fear of tearing. I got to the delivery suite at 2am exactly and they got the canula in my hand (ow!) for the iv anti biotics around 2.15am, my hubby got to me at 2.20am. I dont think he realised just how fast things were progressing, neither of us did as I presumed that with being nearly 4cms I still had a long way to go. He was looking pretty scared for me when he realised an epidural was a long way off as he knew how much I was scared of the pushing part but he was so great and just kept saying I would be ok.
Next thing I know around 2.40 I felt the urge to push (something I had not experienced before!). I was seriously scared at this point and thought nah i must be imagining the feeling but mw just said that if i was feeling the need to push then maybe i was ready. I went through the classic transition stage of saying I couldnt do it but clearly I had no option as mw examined me and said i was ready to go! The gas and air was doing zilch but it did help me focus on breathing instead of the horrendous pain. My hubby at this point was in shock I think! He later told me he had debated stopping off for a macdonalds on his way back to the hospital as he was starving and had no idea how fast it was all happening!!! I could just imagine telling our child when they were older that daddy had missed the birth for a big mac!
At this point, the mw broke my waters, something I had not experienced before as when I went into labour with my first little girl, my waters had mysteriously disappeared! This bit hurt as it felt like she caught me with the scissors she used to break my waters. I felt them gush out of me, very warm they were! I realised I then had no option but to push as the baby had to come out some how! So I pushed as hard as I could and to my surprise the head was out first push and then shoulders the second push! Although it was painful, it was not as bad as I expected, possibly as I didnt have a tear or graze. Freya Amelia arrived into the world on 27th August at 2.51am weighing 6lb 10ozs. I remember just lying there in utter shock, the speed of the birth was something else, just 50 mins from being 3-4cms dilated and also having another little girl surprised me as everyone had me convinced I was having a boy from the 4d scan pics. I remember the sheer feeling of relief that the pain had stopped as soon as she was out. It then took 10 mins for the placenta to come away.
I never for one second thought I would be able to give birth without an epidural as I am a major advocate for them! I did remember thinking there is no way I can do this without an epidural because if these contractions keep getting worse then im screwed but that was before I knew how close to the end I was. I did think at the time, I will never do this again as the back labour is not nice at all particualry when you have to remain on your back. On reflection as I was able to walk about straight after having Freya and felt amazing straight away, im kind of glad I didnt have the epidural now.
Freya is second and final child (i was diagnosed with PCOS just after having our first daughter and I was so scared of not being able to conceive again but thankfully we fell first month so it goes to show you just dont know what will happen).
My labour was recorded as lasting 2 hours 40 minutes. Due to the group b strep we stayed in hospital for 2 nights for monitoring and then we were allowed home. Freya is a very content gorgeous little baby who it literally the spitting image of her sister at the same age, it was like I had given birth to my first little girl all over again! Her big sister adores her, she thinks she is her mummy now which has proven interesting at times!!
Apologies for the long rambling birth story but its actually quite therapeutic writing it down! With it being a lot quicker than I expected it does take you by surprise. For me and our daughter at home it was the best thing that could have happened as it meant I wasnt labouring for days. I wish everyone happy and healthy pregnancies and pain free births lol!
Jayjay xxx
