Birth of Leah

This is the birth story of one of the stubborn September babies!

I was booked into being induced (13 days over!) at 10am on the 16th, but the hospital was so busy that day I didnt get seen and 1st lot of gel inserted till 2pm. Mild contractions started basically straight away and we were left with a monitor on the baby and one on me. Leah's heartrate was quite fast so we were kept under obsorvation for a few hours. We were then sent upstairs to like a 'holding room' to wait till the next lot of gel was due at 8pm. Leah's heartbeat was still not steady so was monitored closely.

At 8pm I was checked and second lot of gel was given. This really sent Leah's heart racing and we were kept downstairs to be monitored till it settled. Regular contractions getting stronger now. Somepoint in the early hours of the morning I was put into another room to be near the nurses station so Leah's heartbeat can be watched, (and to give the other patients some peace from my groaning!), given a dose of morphine to help with the pain... after a few min I was chanting "morphine is my friend!" managed to get a little rest.

Cervix was checked at 7:30am and was 3.5 dialated, they broke my waters, given another shot of morphine but this one didnt have the same effect as the 1st dose, the pain factor was still very intense.

At about 12o'clock was taken into a delivery room to shower and get comfortable in there. Leah's heartrate still very high. I was checked again and only 4cm. It was the most disappointing news, going through all those hours and all that pain and only dialating another .5cm. All I could think of is Ive got a long way to go and Im so exausted.

Started to use gas to help with the pain. At 2pm they opted to put the drip in to speed things up, I'd had enough and couldn't handle any more pain, so asked for the epi - against all my wishes going into labour, but I couldnt take anymore and had now hit the 24 hour mark.

After the epi and the drip things really moved along and I was able to get a little rest before the real work began. At 4pm I was checked and was +1cm I let out an almightly WOO HOOOOO. So at 4:30pm I began to push and Leah was born at exactly 5pm.

I could hardly keep my eyes open to feed her and shower I just had nothing left.... she was perfect.

We were discharged on Tuesday afternoon and I cant say enough good things about the hospital and midwifes at Blacktown.

Leah was without a name for 6 days until we finally decided on what suites her best.

Congrats on the wonderful birth of your Leah; even if it didn't go to your original birth plan.

BTW - the photos are absolutely gorgeous! :)

Congratulations Amanda!
Thankyou for sharing your beautiful birth story, you have done really well!! =D>

That's a lovely story Amanda and Leah is such a cutie pie!

Thanx for sharing your story & your little girl is gorgeous.

Congratz and thanks for sharing her story.

Congratulations Amanda!!!!!Our September bubs seem to be even more stubborn when it came to the deliveries!My labour was 23 hours!

P.S Love the pics of Leah!!!!!!!What a cutie!!!

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations Amanda, I'm having my baby at Blacktown too and I had Kat there.....the midwives are nice (well most of them....I did run into a couple I didn't like at all.....mind u they thought I was making up a bladder infection!)....
Welcome to the world Leah!!

What a marathon for you =D> bet you'd do it again though. Well done.

Well done, Amanda!

Thanks for sharing your story with us :)

Well done! Thanx for sharing the story with us...

Well done Amanda, I can only imagine how tired you were, what an epic labour. So glad little Leah came out safe and sound after all that. And I really think you have chosen a pretty name for your little treasure.
CHeers michelle

well done amanda!! thanks so much for sharing your story

Your story was great - the photos (before and after) are beautiful. Such a little cutie!