The birth of our little Emily Kathryn :)
It all began when we were admitted for induction at King Edward Memorial Hospital at 4:30pm on Friday 17th February. DragonTurtle (DT) went in at the same time to be induced. She was in Bed 3 and I was in Bed 6 :) We spent a lot of the time texting each other back and forth about our progress, updating on the FB group and she came to visit me in my room several times. She knew she was having a girl, but I didn't know my baby's gender. I was 90% convinced it was a boy ;)
The original plan for me was to have a Foley’s catheter to induce labour, but they discovered DD's head was off to one side a bit and decided it would push it further away, so they changed it to gel, which they put in about 6pm ish. That evening DT and her DH came to my room and the 4 of us sat chatting for ages, it was quite a party! 12 hours after the gel (very early Saturday morning) the gel had not done anything to my cervix, but I was having contractions that I couldn’t feel. The monitor was picking them up but I wasn't! I was thinking 'Excellent!" lol. They didn't want to overstimulate my uterus and cervix, so they decided to wait a bit longer to see if I should have a second round of gel. Saturday morning around 10am they they decided, yes, another round. They said "I'll just go and get the doctor" and we waited and waited.... DT came by again and told me she'd been waiting and waiting for her waters to be broken. Apparently they had 4 other women in advanced labour and 2 emergencies and were flat out. Finally about 1pm they came in and the shift had changed and the people who were on told me I could have another gel. I told them I knew and I'd been waiting.
So that was given and another 12 hours later they checked again. Still hardly any progress and this was Saturday evening. Foley’s catheter was now an option though as her head had moved to the right position. This was inserted at some point during the night 10pm ish? (it’s all a blur now) and was due to be checked Sunday morning. Foley's gave me painful contractions right from the get-go so after they did it I had Panadeine Forte and a sleeping tablet. When the contractions continued to keep me awake they gave me a morphine injection in my bum and I finally slept... and very well! Sunday morning came and yes, by 10am there was 2cm dilation, enough to break my waters. But then they were flat out busy again. At 2pm, finally they were able to break my waters and put me on the oxytocin equivalent (forgotten its name) drip and true labour began. I lasted 6 hours relying only on a heat pack on my back and breathing techniques. Finally I opted for an epidural and that was put in at 8pm. Contractions were still making slow and erratic progress and by about 3:00am - 4:00am Monday morning (exact time?), I was still only 3cm dilated. That was when they decided to do a Caesarian section and I was totally fine with that. I was prepped and taken to theatre and Emily emerged at exactly 5am on the dot, 20th February 2012. 3750g/8lbs 4oz, HC 34cm and 51cm long. A beautiful bundle of joy with a lovely head of hair. She is just gorgeous :D
