I went to the obstetrician at 36 weeks to have a check up. He examined me and Liam and told me that I was already 4cm dilated and the cervix was soft!! That explained the period type pains I had been having for almost a month!! He booked me in for an induction on the following Wednesday (28th January) as I am (was) gestational diabetic and live 2.5 hours drive away from the hospital.
He also did a blood test a few days later and some of my results came back suggesting preeclampsia. Seems I am one of the rare few that does not get the elevated blood pressure as a symptom and it only shows up in blood tests. So the obstetrician was happy that he had already booked me in.
To cut a long story short, the induction was started at 3pm (not 8am like planned!!) with the breaking of my amniotic sac. The drip was then started an hour later.
The birth of Liam started
It took a long time for the contractions to feel any worse than I had been getting for the past month, but when they came, they came on hard and fast!! I decided that visualisation (although helping) was just not cutting it so asked if I could try the gas. The midwife examined me and said that it wouldn’t work so early (only dilated another centimetre!) and that an epidural, if I wanted it, would be a better option. I thought this was a GREAT idea and she called the anaesthetist, who arrived 10 minutes later.
After about 15 minutes of the epidural being inserted, I started to get a stabbing pain in my butt cheek — almost like you had been sitting too long in the one position or someone stabbing a knife in the butt cheek. It certainly wasn’t a “need to poo” pain! The midwife felt my belly each time I got the pain and said it was contractions and decided to examine me as the pain was getting worse. To her surprise I was fully dilated and ready to push!
No wonder I was “feeling” the contractions — I had gone from 5cm to 10cm in just over 20 minutes!!
Anyway, after 14 minutes of pushing, our beautiful baby boy Liam was born and placed on my stomach. My labour lasted just over 2 hours and was a positive, thrilling experience — a lot different to Cairenn’s birth and no stitches this time round (woohoo!!) Mark cut the cord and Liam was given back to me for a cuddle. I was just ecstatic that our darling little baby was here — and VERY surprised that he is a “he” as we were told twice that it was DEFINITELY a girl!!
We are so blessed to have a beautiful healthy little boy (Liam) to be a little brother to our gorgeous daughter Cairenn and to love forever.
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