gem_wilko
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So.. where do I begin.. I hope you don't all mind a loooong labour/birth story, as I think this will be just that..
My due date was Christmas Day, but due to high blood pressure and SPD I was booked in to be induced on the 17th December (Friday)
Was told to ring the pre-labour ward at 9am, of which there were no beds, and I was asked to ring back every few hours to see if any came available. At 6pm they said there was a bed, but not to go in til 7pm. So all ready and packed to go in, got there for 7pm. At 2am i still hadnt been seen by the midwives.. 2.20am (Saturday) I had the pessary - propess put in, and told to wait the 24 hours.. which we did.
I had a few niggly pains initially after it was inserted, but the pain started once I woke up.. basically it got so painful i had to stand up to have a wee. I told the midwives numerous times, and asked if it was normal to feel such pain (it wasnt like contractions, more like a razor had been put up there instead of the propess of which hurt me every time I moved) Midwives said "oh its just your SPD" of which I was like, "No its not.. this pain is completley different" 3 hours later, pain not improving, I literally had to beg the midwife to check me internally to make sure everything was ok. Of which lo and behold.. pessary was inserted incorrectly, was nowhere near my cervix and was grinding against the inside of my vagina! After many apologies from the midwife, she had to take it out, and re insert it again. *ouch*
So had to wait til 2am ish for this pessary to be fully effective and be taken out *again*.. so a really nice midwife (one of very few..) woke me up at 2am to remove the pessary and check me, but said I had to keep it in for another 8 hours as it hadn't done anything.. So 10am (Sunday) I had it taken out completley and was told I had to wait to have the 2nd one in (if nothing happens beforehand) of which on checking I was only 1cm dilated at the most...
So for the next 24 hours, Rich and me paced the hospital grounds as told to, to try and kickstart things (we were sort of stranded at the hospital because of all the snow we had) which pretty much did sod all.. so.. we waited for the next pessary to be put in at 10am (Monday) By this time we were getting a bit frustrated, and getting a bit of cabin fever - with the "neighbours" from hell I was sharing with did not help either (one woman snored day and night whilst awaiting her c-section date, and a 16 year old "vicky pollard" character opposite me was on the phone to her mates ALL day and was swearing and slagging them all off to each other.. she was only in for observation but didnt we all know it!)
So.. at 10 am, pessary was in, and this time after a few hours I started getting really bad back pain. Co-dydramol was given.. pain started getting more intense, so much so I needed to be put on the trace. The pessary was working extremley well, and I was having contractions after contractions without more than 30 second break inbetween for over an hour. Midwife decides that pessary needs removing.. ya think??? So it was removed, and within half an hour contractions fade away to nothing.. Apparantly the propess caused false contractions, and midwife said that it may have been a "stronger batch" produced?? At this point I was like WTH? As a nurse myself, I do not say to my patients, "oh by the way this drug may be stonger today than yesterday because of what box i used.." So, again... they said I had to wait 24 hours for ANOTHER pessary! I was questioning this with the consultant at the time that if that is how they react with me now, I really did not want to go through that again, if its not even triggering "real" labour (as it did not even dilate me after all that!) Consultant said that before the pessary would be inserted, if i was 2cm or more, they would take me to delivery suite and break my waters.. This however I was told could be very painful (my cervix was very far back, so every internal I had was very painful.)
Here I was, waiting again.. so we did the same thing, walk round the hospital etc.. then things started getting interesting..
....everyone still with me?
I started bouncing on the birthing ball whilst watching Friends on the evening, and was pretty much exhausted from the last few days, so went to sleep around 9pm.. At around 11.30pm I went to the toilet, and my waters broke. Most of it however went down the toilet, only some went on the pad I luckily put on (never put one one before that night strangely)
As I was told by the consultant that because I was an induction, and because I had Group B strep, that as soon as a bed became available on the delivery suite, I would be sent down there.. so I plod down to the nurses station and let my midwife know whats happened. I leave my wet pad in the sluice for her to "check" (even though most of my waters broke down the loo) and about an hour later she came back to me and said she didnt think my waters had broke and to just go to sleep and rest as tomorrow things may happen.. I disagreed about my waters, but was too tired to argue at that point..
Over the night the contractions (as they do) sterted to get stronger and close together, but the pain was only in my lower back, nowhere else. All I was offered for pain relief was a co dydramol, as I wasn't in "established" labour to be given pethadine yet (although at that point I wasnt to fussed about pethadine as I didnt want LO to be sleepy, or to put back the labour) So at about 3am, Rich helped me have a nice hot bath, which did help for a little while. I kept wondering when I would be checked to see how far dilated I was, as I thought I should be on my way to the delivery suite at any point from there, as the contractions were getting worse. All I got from the midwife was "your'e not in established labour yet" of which Rich got a bit annoyed and said, "How do you know if you dont check her?" of which she was like "Oh ok then, I will just finish my notes here and I will be in" (It was about 5am at this point) So she checked me, and I was 5cm.. to which she just said "I will hand you over to the morning staff" At this point I was in too much pain to care, and Rich rang my mum to come down to the hospital for support for us both. This was when I had the 2nd bath of the day, but with my mum helping me, as Rich looked absolutley exhausted, and needed a bit of time for him to just get a quick bite to eat and get some fresh air, as he also hadnt slept for quite a while.. Of which the bath didnt really help me at all. My mum said I was funny in the bath as I just wanted the hot water to be continuously running, and she said I wouldn't take no for an answer, and kept saying "thats what the overflow is for".. lol.. When I got out the bath however, I lost a huge plug, and pretty much realised it wasnt going to be long...
Thankfully the midwife on the day shift (Tuesday) was wonderful and did things properly. But as I was begging for pethadine she needed to do a trace before she gave it to me, which meant lying on my back.. oh the agony was unbearable and I threw up the co dydramol I was given, so pretty much had no pain relief since 1am the same day
the trace was on which felt like forever because of every contraction I was squirming a bit, which meant it needed to be on longer Every time the midwife was around I was pretty much begging her to either let me go down to delivery suite so I could get the epidural I wanted from the start, or gas and air, or SOMETHING! Or give me the pethedine if there was a delay in me going down..
Eventually (around 1pm I was told) a space became available on delivery, so I was wheeled down there whilst I was in agony, contracting 3 times on the way to the next floor!
Delivery suite was soooo much better! I was pretty much handed the gas and air by the student midwife as I was wheeled in, and the relief was amazing. It still hurt, but took the edge off it. I was worried it would make me feel sick, but I really did not care at that point.. So I was doing my "darth vader" impression (as Rich said) on the gas and air, whilst the anaesthetist was setting up for my epidural. Epidural went in a treat, hardly felt it. The most uncomfortable thing was having to sit upright, and having the contractions in my back alone did not help, so I had to wait inbetween contractions for him to do it properly. He gave me a bolus, and within a few minutes the relief was lovely..
So with a fully working epidural, I felt like I was back to my "normal" self.. of which I then realsied, that I knew the anaesthetist, as he did a rotation on the PICU which I work on, not sure if I was embarassed or not by that point! I was checked to see how far dilated I was, and was 10cm and ready to go! So I pretty much got to 10cm without hardly any pain relief, which looking back I am quite proud of.. However I think I scared the poor girl in the bed next to me with the noises i was making with some of the more painful contractions, when I was made to lie on my back..
So, with the rules of the hospital I had to wait 2 hours til I was allowed to start pushing, which gave me a lovely 2 hours of rest, and being able to update people at home what was happening and ice chips a plenty! However when I started to push, I threw a LOT of green stuff up (as for not eating for 2 days..) so I held back on the ice chips lol..
2 hours later of pushing on demand, the doctors came in to assess the situation as LO's heart rate kept going from 200, down to 50, then stabilising.. so they wanted to get her out as quickly as possible. They had a look, and found that he head was transverse, so definatley needed a forceps delivery. So she tried.. and couldnt get her out safely due to the position of her head, and heartrate kept dropping, so they decided I needed to go to theatre to have forceps done under more supervision, and if it couldn't be done after 3 attempts, a c section needed to be done.... So off to theatre I went..
Thankfully, the forceps worked 1st time, I however had to have a 3rd degree tear in order to get her head out safely. Only a small price for when they showed her to me for the first time...
So after 4 days in hospital, 13 hours of labour with 2x co dydramol, eventual epidural and forceps delivery, our beautiful Amelia Juliet was born at 19.57 on 21st December 2010, weighing 7lb 4oz
So.. if your still with me.. so sorry its such a long post!! But it was a veeeeery long week!!
Gemma x
My due date was Christmas Day, but due to high blood pressure and SPD I was booked in to be induced on the 17th December (Friday)
Was told to ring the pre-labour ward at 9am, of which there were no beds, and I was asked to ring back every few hours to see if any came available. At 6pm they said there was a bed, but not to go in til 7pm. So all ready and packed to go in, got there for 7pm. At 2am i still hadnt been seen by the midwives.. 2.20am (Saturday) I had the pessary - propess put in, and told to wait the 24 hours.. which we did.
I had a few niggly pains initially after it was inserted, but the pain started once I woke up.. basically it got so painful i had to stand up to have a wee. I told the midwives numerous times, and asked if it was normal to feel such pain (it wasnt like contractions, more like a razor had been put up there instead of the propess of which hurt me every time I moved) Midwives said "oh its just your SPD" of which I was like, "No its not.. this pain is completley different" 3 hours later, pain not improving, I literally had to beg the midwife to check me internally to make sure everything was ok. Of which lo and behold.. pessary was inserted incorrectly, was nowhere near my cervix and was grinding against the inside of my vagina! After many apologies from the midwife, she had to take it out, and re insert it again. *ouch*
So had to wait til 2am ish for this pessary to be fully effective and be taken out *again*.. so a really nice midwife (one of very few..) woke me up at 2am to remove the pessary and check me, but said I had to keep it in for another 8 hours as it hadn't done anything.. So 10am (Sunday) I had it taken out completley and was told I had to wait to have the 2nd one in (if nothing happens beforehand) of which on checking I was only 1cm dilated at the most...
So for the next 24 hours, Rich and me paced the hospital grounds as told to, to try and kickstart things (we were sort of stranded at the hospital because of all the snow we had) which pretty much did sod all.. so.. we waited for the next pessary to be put in at 10am (Monday) By this time we were getting a bit frustrated, and getting a bit of cabin fever - with the "neighbours" from hell I was sharing with did not help either (one woman snored day and night whilst awaiting her c-section date, and a 16 year old "vicky pollard" character opposite me was on the phone to her mates ALL day and was swearing and slagging them all off to each other.. she was only in for observation but didnt we all know it!)
So.. at 10 am, pessary was in, and this time after a few hours I started getting really bad back pain. Co-dydramol was given.. pain started getting more intense, so much so I needed to be put on the trace. The pessary was working extremley well, and I was having contractions after contractions without more than 30 second break inbetween for over an hour. Midwife decides that pessary needs removing.. ya think??? So it was removed, and within half an hour contractions fade away to nothing.. Apparantly the propess caused false contractions, and midwife said that it may have been a "stronger batch" produced?? At this point I was like WTH? As a nurse myself, I do not say to my patients, "oh by the way this drug may be stonger today than yesterday because of what box i used.." So, again... they said I had to wait 24 hours for ANOTHER pessary! I was questioning this with the consultant at the time that if that is how they react with me now, I really did not want to go through that again, if its not even triggering "real" labour (as it did not even dilate me after all that!) Consultant said that before the pessary would be inserted, if i was 2cm or more, they would take me to delivery suite and break my waters.. This however I was told could be very painful (my cervix was very far back, so every internal I had was very painful.)
Here I was, waiting again.. so we did the same thing, walk round the hospital etc.. then things started getting interesting..
....everyone still with me?
I started bouncing on the birthing ball whilst watching Friends on the evening, and was pretty much exhausted from the last few days, so went to sleep around 9pm.. At around 11.30pm I went to the toilet, and my waters broke. Most of it however went down the toilet, only some went on the pad I luckily put on (never put one one before that night strangely)
As I was told by the consultant that because I was an induction, and because I had Group B strep, that as soon as a bed became available on the delivery suite, I would be sent down there.. so I plod down to the nurses station and let my midwife know whats happened. I leave my wet pad in the sluice for her to "check" (even though most of my waters broke down the loo) and about an hour later she came back to me and said she didnt think my waters had broke and to just go to sleep and rest as tomorrow things may happen.. I disagreed about my waters, but was too tired to argue at that point..
Over the night the contractions (as they do) sterted to get stronger and close together, but the pain was only in my lower back, nowhere else. All I was offered for pain relief was a co dydramol, as I wasn't in "established" labour to be given pethadine yet (although at that point I wasnt to fussed about pethadine as I didnt want LO to be sleepy, or to put back the labour) So at about 3am, Rich helped me have a nice hot bath, which did help for a little while. I kept wondering when I would be checked to see how far dilated I was, as I thought I should be on my way to the delivery suite at any point from there, as the contractions were getting worse. All I got from the midwife was "your'e not in established labour yet" of which Rich got a bit annoyed and said, "How do you know if you dont check her?" of which she was like "Oh ok then, I will just finish my notes here and I will be in" (It was about 5am at this point) So she checked me, and I was 5cm.. to which she just said "I will hand you over to the morning staff" At this point I was in too much pain to care, and Rich rang my mum to come down to the hospital for support for us both. This was when I had the 2nd bath of the day, but with my mum helping me, as Rich looked absolutley exhausted, and needed a bit of time for him to just get a quick bite to eat and get some fresh air, as he also hadnt slept for quite a while.. Of which the bath didnt really help me at all. My mum said I was funny in the bath as I just wanted the hot water to be continuously running, and she said I wouldn't take no for an answer, and kept saying "thats what the overflow is for".. lol.. When I got out the bath however, I lost a huge plug, and pretty much realised it wasnt going to be long...
Thankfully the midwife on the day shift (Tuesday) was wonderful and did things properly. But as I was begging for pethadine she needed to do a trace before she gave it to me, which meant lying on my back.. oh the agony was unbearable and I threw up the co dydramol I was given, so pretty much had no pain relief since 1am the same day
the trace was on which felt like forever because of every contraction I was squirming a bit, which meant it needed to be on longer Every time the midwife was around I was pretty much begging her to either let me go down to delivery suite so I could get the epidural I wanted from the start, or gas and air, or SOMETHING! Or give me the pethedine if there was a delay in me going down..Eventually (around 1pm I was told) a space became available on delivery, so I was wheeled down there whilst I was in agony, contracting 3 times on the way to the next floor!
Delivery suite was soooo much better! I was pretty much handed the gas and air by the student midwife as I was wheeled in, and the relief was amazing. It still hurt, but took the edge off it. I was worried it would make me feel sick, but I really did not care at that point.. So I was doing my "darth vader" impression (as Rich said) on the gas and air, whilst the anaesthetist was setting up for my epidural. Epidural went in a treat, hardly felt it. The most uncomfortable thing was having to sit upright, and having the contractions in my back alone did not help, so I had to wait inbetween contractions for him to do it properly. He gave me a bolus, and within a few minutes the relief was lovely..
So with a fully working epidural, I felt like I was back to my "normal" self.. of which I then realsied, that I knew the anaesthetist, as he did a rotation on the PICU which I work on, not sure if I was embarassed or not by that point! I was checked to see how far dilated I was, and was 10cm and ready to go! So I pretty much got to 10cm without hardly any pain relief, which looking back I am quite proud of.. However I think I scared the poor girl in the bed next to me with the noises i was making with some of the more painful contractions, when I was made to lie on my back..
So, with the rules of the hospital I had to wait 2 hours til I was allowed to start pushing, which gave me a lovely 2 hours of rest, and being able to update people at home what was happening and ice chips a plenty! However when I started to push, I threw a LOT of green stuff up (as for not eating for 2 days..) so I held back on the ice chips lol..
2 hours later of pushing on demand, the doctors came in to assess the situation as LO's heart rate kept going from 200, down to 50, then stabilising.. so they wanted to get her out as quickly as possible. They had a look, and found that he head was transverse, so definatley needed a forceps delivery. So she tried.. and couldnt get her out safely due to the position of her head, and heartrate kept dropping, so they decided I needed to go to theatre to have forceps done under more supervision, and if it couldn't be done after 3 attempts, a c section needed to be done.... So off to theatre I went..
Thankfully, the forceps worked 1st time, I however had to have a 3rd degree tear in order to get her head out safely. Only a small price for when they showed her to me for the first time...
So after 4 days in hospital, 13 hours of labour with 2x co dydramol, eventual epidural and forceps delivery, our beautiful Amelia Juliet was born at 19.57 on 21st December 2010, weighing 7lb 4oz
So.. if your still with me.. so sorry its such a long post!! But it was a veeeeery long week!!
Gemma x
xx
