Thank you so much everyone for your replies.
She's here.
!!!!!!!!!
After my last update which was I think right after my waters went, dh and my mum came in. I was having strong contractions and was at nearly 4cm. When the midwife checked, she also gave me a sweep. I had to have gas and air and was screaming into the mouthpiece - she said afterwards it had been quite a "vicious" sweep but that it should help. Contractions continued for about 5 hours, I was able to deal with them but they were pretty bad. Then when they checked me...I was still at 4cm. I was so mad! Dh went home to shower, eat and see ds, said he would be 2 hours max and we decided that would be fine since I had been at 4cm for 6+ hours.
The midwife told me my waters had broken at the top and were trickling slowly and that's why I wasn't making much progress so she wanted to do ARM at the bottom and ramp things up. Again I had to have gas and air - my cervix was off to the side apparently, because baby's head was so low it was creating a hammock that was hard to reach behind. But she did say, baby's head is down so low that when it happens, it's going to happen quickly. Anyway after the horrible experience with the amnihook, I had a huge gush of waters all over the bed and within an hour my contractions were getting extreme. I was screaming mum help me. They asked if I wanted the epidural and I said yes, when the anaesthetist came in I was shouting in her face "I'm begging you, I'm desperate" 😳 She put my cannula in, got me in position on the edge of the bed...and got an emergency call and had to leave!! I was screaming NO but she was gone...my mum said to the midwife, please help her, so she said she would go and find an anaesthetist from somewhere else in the hospital and went off. I went into my ensuite bathroom (cannot fault the NHS, even the room was amazing) and started messing with the taps desperate to run some hot water for ANYTHING that might help. The contractions were bringing me to my knees and I couldn't move I was just crouching completely naked (except my compression stockings! Haha) on the bathroom floor screaming and screaming, my mum pressed the emergency button and told the midwife she couldn't cope alone with me because I was in so much pain and I kept screaming "somethings wrong" and "I'm going to die"....I was on all fours and the midwife just stuck her hand up me, she said she's at 8cm. This was a little more than an hour after she broke my waters at 4cm.
I started to push straight away, was screaming at the top of my lungs through every contraction and my mum was crying. The midwife was saying not yet you're just 8 but I ignored her, I couldn't control the urge to push, tried to crawl towards the bed because I knew the baby was coming despite what she said. Didn't make it to the bed, got nearly there and pain became so extreme I couldn't move and next thing I knew the midwives were crouching behind me telling me baby was nearly here. She was born about a minute after I was 8cm so it was fast.
Dh burst in the door about two minutes later. My mum had called him at some point, not sure when. Really sad that he'd missed it but he barely missed it plus I was completely out of it with the pain while she was coming so I wasn't aware. I bit my mum right before baby came out!! She made the mistake of putting her arm near my mouth during a contraction and I just sank my teeth in..! Oops. It was the most intense and painful experience of my life, worse than when I had ds and when I had meningitis. Could not believe I'd dilated so fast and that I'd pushed her out by myself. It was the biggest relief I have EVER felt.
Baby is perfect, 7lbs 2/ 3.3kg, and I had a second degree tear, had lidocaine and gas and air for the stitches then codydramol and they let us come home late last night. She weighed less than my son even though he came at 39+4 and she was 40+4!!
So happy and relieved. It was a horrible but special experience.
So...the pessary did work! Although what really did it was having the ARM. It was after that that things got intense fast.
Thanks so much ladies for being with me while I was in hospital feeling down!! Really happy to be able to make this update.
