Gigi01's Birth Story - Mimi Louise finally arrived...LONG
Hi all,
Thank goodness for this thread because it is going to feel good to put this down in words....sorry if it's a bit long...
My first birth will Ella, I went into natural labour and she came on her due date, so my OB was hopeful that I would do the same again, if not early then pretty well on time hopefully and it should be quicker than the first....
Well - clearly that didn't happen!
My due date came and went and the post date frustration set in. I had been feeling very regular and stronger BH and thought that things would have happened by then. I also had some severe pelvic separation pain in the weeks leading up to my due date and was offered induction at 37 weeks. I was able to get the rest I needed to alleviate the pain and soldiered on to the due date, fully expecting and hoping that natural labour would commence.
once I went post dates, I was sent to foetal monitoring at Monash. All was good but the amniotic fluid level was on the lowest side of normal and initally my OB said "yes, let's get things moving" but then changed his mind and said, "no, we can wait another couple of days - if you want to try and labour naturally". By this stage though, I have to say that I was ready to meet "the alien" and so I called back to be booked in.
We were booked in for ARM Friday 4th May but the hospital called at 6am to say that they didn't have any beds and I had to wait til the next day! Annoying - was in the shower getting ready to go in and had psyched myself up for it - anyway....So, the waters were broken at 7.30am Saturday 5th May. OB was confident that as I was 10 days over, I would labour naturally from there. However, he said that my cervix was completely unripe and thick - there was not a milimetre of prelabour dilatation - nothing! I couldn't believe it. Noon came and FINALLY something that resembled a contraction hit me. I then laboured strongly til 6pm with no drugs when they decided to check my progress. Contractions were getting pretty full on by this stage and 3 mins apart. only 1.5 cms. unbelievable.
The fabulous midwife conferred with OB and they recommended that I have an epidural and the drip put in to get things happening. I laboured for almost 24 hours with my first to get to 8cms and still had to have the drip to get me the rest of the way and they advised me that with a toddler at home and already being exhausted and incredibly sore in the pelvis anyway, I would be better off having the rest that the epidural provides while the drip does its work and gets me to 10cms. There was no point labouring for 24 hours and completely wreck myself.
I felt totally in two minds about this. My expectations had been such with this birth that I thought I would be quick, no drugs and it would all be over by then. The disappointment I felt at making this decision was awful. But DH was brilliant and supported me and we decided to do it.
Epidural was put in at 6pm, along with the syntocinon drip. Brilliant anaesthetist - highly recommend him (not only because of the service during birth but post birth - fantastic.) I then only took 3 hours to get to 10cms. By 9pm I was ready to push. Thankfully with this epidural (last one totally numbed me so I felt nothing and hated it - but that's another birth story...) he tapered it right off so I could still feel the contractions and could also feel to push - which I missed out on last time. Unfortunately, we had another problem - the baby was posterior and the head was so moulded to my pelvis that the presenting part was just not going to budge - no matter how hard I pushed.
So.....an episiotomy and Keilland rotation forceps later, Mimi Louise finally made it into the world. Poor little darling - had the hugest cone head you have ever seen (which thankfully went down overnight) and one heck of a headache.
Postscript to this - I am happy and content now with the way that the birth went, despite the unbelievable pain I have gone through with stitches and repairs. I know it's only been a week and a half but boy, it still hurts terribly! As my OB said, I now have "a history" with births. a) my body does not labour well naturally, quickly and effectively by itself and b) my pelvis is such that my babies do not turn (first was also quarter posterior). I am lucky though that I can still deliver vaginally and not have a CS. If we decide to go for number 3 (huh - not likely at this point in time!), I have been advised that induction is the way to go.
Mimi is completely divine and feeding and sleeping well and we are totally in love with her.
Thanks for reading. Feels good to get it all out.
Gigi xx
