Well, after posting in prelabour asking about synto induction, I thought I'd let everyone know how labour panned out.
After 2 days of having to wear a pad because of such a heavy show, I started getting contractions on Wed afternoon. By dinner time they were quite regular & strong enough for me to call the mw and ask what they thought about coming in. They said that as I was 45mins away from the hosp, & 2nd bub's can be unpredictable, I should go in & at least get checked.
I got in & was given an internal at 9pm. I was 1.5cm dilated, and contractions had slowed down. I was offered sleeping tablets, but declined not wanting to slow things down. In retrospect, maybe rest was more important than getting it going. But I was just so excited.
Anyway, I tried to rest through mild contractions but after about 11pm they were getting strong enough to keep me up. At about 1am I had to wake DH up for support, and we laboured together for a few hours. At 5:30am the midwife offered to do an internal. I was getting tired, and although I didn't want a disappointing result from the internal, I wanted to get an idea of how much longer I might be going. The contractions were pretty painful by this stage.
She checked & said I was 8cms & as I'd dilated about 1cm an hour so far, I should have bub in about 2hrs. I was chuffed I'd gotten so far with no pain relief :)
But, the next 2 hours passed & then another, & then another... No waters breaking, no urge to push.
At 9:30am the mw told me that bub was OP, facing the wring way. All the contractions were doing nothing to push her down :(
By this point the contractions were about 3mins apart, lasting over a minute & very intense back & front.
I couldn't manage the pain anymore. I was tired from no sleep, dehydrated (was told I needed to be put on IV fluids) and there was talk of an emergency Csection if bub hadn't moved down in a few hours. I turned into a big sook & got DH to call my mum in for extra support.
Then, I requested the epidural. It was just so disheartening to know that the strongest of contractions were not making any progress & I needed to rest.
Then, after the fluids were absorbed & the epi kicked in (at about 9.5cms) my body was recovered & relaxed enough to labour on properly. A few strong contractions turned the bub the right way, and she headed on down herself. The epi was light enough that I could sit up & push. And out she came at 1:30pm on Thurs, with a full head of dark hair (her sister is completely blonde).
4kgs, 52cm long, head circ 34cm - a biggish little girl.
I never thought I'd have my mum there in labour & to see the birth, but you can never predict how it will go & how you'll feel at the time!
It was a long labour & the OP factor complicated it (it took 7hrs to get from 8-10cm!). I don't regret having the epi, as it actually helped to relax me enough for her to turn around. And I'm happy there was no synto & I could labour naturally. And in the end it was all worth it as soon as i got to hold my little Leah :)
