We went in at 6.30pm and my ob came and broke my waters around 7.30am and did a VE which said I was 2-3cm dialiated and cervix very soft. DH and I then spent the next couple of hours walking the halls, doing accupressure and bouncing on a fitball with absolutely zero results. Not so much as a twinge! We took in a short point form birth plan and the middy assigned to me had a good read and discussed it with me. She was fantastic and told me that even if I was begging for an epi if I was 7cm or more she would just say no. She also told me that having the synto was no reason to think that I would be in more pain or not able to cope and that I could definitely do it without one if that is what I wanted. Both she and the student middy assigned to her were with me for the rest of their shift and they even hung round after for while to see if anything happened.

By 10am they were keen to start me on the drip so after a couple of failed attempts to get a drip in they called in an anesthetist and finally got the drip in and going by 11am. The dosage was slowly increased, but when lunch came at 12.30 I was still only getting mild contractions and starting to think it was never going to happen! She was quite happy in there and did NOT want to come out. They kept saying that my cervix was very soft so when things happened it would be fast. By about 1.30pm I was rocking on a fitball with my head reasting on the bed and DH doing accupressure on the points on my but, which was keeping them really low key and I was pretty relaxed and feeling really in control. By 2.30pm I was in the shower with both jets on really hot and DH still doing the accupressure. It was amazing because on the contraction while I was moving from fitball to shower (they were about 2mins apart at this stage) he could not get into position and I realised exactly how much it was doing to cut the pain.. pretty much halving it! At the end of an hour in the shower DH was counting backwards from 30 during the contraction so I could hear how long I had to hang on. Then at 3.30pm they wanted to move me back to the bed to do a VE and some monitoring on bub as her heartbeat had been a little high earlier so they put me on full monitoring a few times and kept checking with a hand held.

Getting on the bed and laying on my back was absolute agony as DH could not do the accupressure and it was a really painful position so I ended up on the gas and absolutely begging them to let me roll over and kneel on the bed. They did a check and told me I was only 5-6cm which got me down a little as it seemed so far to go! When they finally finished and I could it was heaps better but I stayed on the gas I started asking for an epi at the end of each contractioin. The pain was pretty intense and I was starting to wonder if I was going to make it, but the new midwife and DH were amazing, telling how great I was doing and that I totally did NOT need an epi. I don’t know if I was serious or not, but it gave me something to do, thinking about it!

My Ob came in and I said to him "what was I thinking not to have and epi?" and he just laughed and said it would all be over soon. Little did he know how soon cause it was only a few minutes later that I started to feel like I was bearing down during each contraction and then I could feel the head moving down and each contraction seemed to move it down. I was not really pushing consiously it just felt natural and nothing that I could stop or start and then I felt her crowning (burning pain just like people say) and they were telling me to just pant a little and with the next contraction she was out! Turns out my Ob missed the whole thing it happened so fast. He was still sprinting down the hall when Carys Ashley made her entrance at 4.22pm. He arrived in time to do some lovely stitch work (according to the physio next day) on my little tear.

Stats:
Name: Carys Ashley
Weight: 4kg
Height: 51.5cm
HC: 34.5

Perfect!