What a ride that was... (Long story sorry, I need to let this out)
I'm sitting here almost 6 weeks to the day after the birth of my little boy, finally typing out my birth story. First off, he was a pill baby, so unexpected but definitely not unwanted even though I was only 20 and had only been with my partner for about 8 months. After a h***ish pregnancy, I had SPD and Hyperermesis Gravidarum from month 3 onwards warranting a trip to the hospital for dehydration, medication and a weight gain of only a few kilos all up, along the possibility of a c section being discussed because of a low-lying placenta and what the doctors were worried was a huge baby, I finally went into labor at 38+5 (not soon enough I was thinking :lol:). My first contractions were all in my back and started at about 6:30 in the morning, I hadn't had any Braxtons at all and being my first baby, I was told I would go late anyway, so I assumed that this was a false labour even though I had lost my plug almost a week earlier and started pacing. Much to my dismay they didn't go away after about two hours. I called the birth suite to let them know what was happening and the midwives told me to not get excited, this could go on for a few days yet :wall: So I wandered, and showered and walked and bathed and walked some more and probably nearly wore out my microwave and my partner with the constant use of a heat back (Which he was kind enough to go reheat for me every 15 minutes or so, bless him). This repeated itself over and over again until about 3 the next morning, while I was laying in bed trying to fool myself that I was going to get a few minutes sleep, up until then my contractions had been pretty regular but only about 15 minutes apart, my water broke, and boy did it break. Everywhere. I called the birth suite again and was told that since my waters were clear I shouldn't worry and just pop in a pad and try to get some sleep and call again in the morning around 7. I ended up soaking through a bunch of cloth nappies i had folded in advance because a pad just wasn't going to soak that up.
I called ahead at 7ish and went in where they timed my contractions which ended up still only being 8-15 minutes apart and was told my options now that my waters were broken, they have an 18hr time limit. 1 Go home. Come back in a few hours and we'll induce you if you haven't progressed 2. Wait here in a spare room and we'll induce you in a few hours if you haven't progressed 3. Get induced now and save yourself a few hours of pain since it doesn't look like you can do this on your own anyway within 18hrs. So I picked 3, hoping it would speed things up, I had already been having contractions and no sleep for over 12 hours already and I didn't think I could do it for much longer. I was put in a room with my partner and placed on a drip with a monitor around my belly to measure contractions and my baby's heart rate, all of my pain was still in my back so I had to lay on my side or it was nearly unbearable and I felt sick, unfortunately the monitor slipped off every time I moved to deal with the pain and I was told to either stay still or they will have to internally monitor him by sticking something in his head. Not. A. Chance. Nothing happened for hours except them turning up the drip every half hour and the pain getting worse. I had hoped to do this without pain relief but at about 7 that night I caved and asked for morphine. It didn't do anything except make me sleepy so around 8, hating myself, I begged for an epidural since I couldn't walk and shower to deal with the pain like I had planned anyway. They checked me and i was 2cm dilated but completely effaced. With the epidural in the pain dulled for maybe half an hour or so and I got a little sleep, but then the pains in my back came back worse than ever and I felt awful pressure in my hips. I called a midwife and asked her to check what was happening, I had to ask a few times since she told me that I shouldn't be feeling anything with the epidural and I probably wont have the baby for another 12-16 hours anyway. After convincing her finally she was even more surprised than I was that I was fully dilated and ready to go. Luckily my partner walked in after getting himself some dinner as she said 'let's get this baby out'. Another midwife was called in and they told me to get on my back and push when they said. That also was not happening and they finally believe the epidural wasn't working when I got up on my hands and knees without help. To avoid making this any longer, after about an hour of pushing (I only swore once, the midwife thanked me :P) my beautiful 8 pound 12 (nearly 4kg) boy was born, without even a graze.
Although thinking about it still saddens me, my labor was not at all what I had hoped for, I have the most precious thing in the world laying right next to me because of it. Thankyou for giving me the opportunity to write this even if it doesn't get read, it really helps.
