Ummm, yeah. Am a bit hesitant on sharing my birth story as I am dissapointed to say most of it is quite hasey because of what happened post birth but here we go.

After my last Aquanatal session, acupuncture the following day and a nice long walk with Mum, my waters broke (or maybe I should say “gushed”) at 1.30am Saturday 5th of September (2 days early!!) while my husband was at work down the coast, which I thought may happen. Mum drove me to the hospital, still gushing, and hubby arrived about 3.30am to nothing much happening, I was having tightenings and as I was hooked up to the monitor I actually knew when they were happening as I hadn’t experienced Braxton Hicks before. About 8am I agreed to have the Syntocinon drip to get things going, rather than go home. I was only 1 ? cm dilated before the drip and then 3cms after about 3 hrs with the drip. So things were progressing and I decided to go the epidural as the contractions were coming hard and fast.

Epidural went in like a dream and was so effective it took about 1 minute to work. Apparently that is rare and should’ve taken longer to work but I wasn’t complaining.
Contractions were coming consistently and bubs had moved head down and engaged yay!! By 3ish the midwife did a kinda “last check” of my cervix and it was either gonna be dilating nicely or if nothing was happening it would be c-section here I come. Unfortunately it looked like I was going to follow the curse of the women in my family and have a caesar as my cervix hadn’t budged at all. I was always told that I was "all baby" and was scared of pushing out a huge bub and though I would’ve loved to given a vag birth a go, I was kinda relieved that I really didn’t have much choice and that bubs would be out soon anyway.

So away I went, the epidural had worked so well I didn’t need a top up before surgery and our little boy Frazer Kenton entered the world at 4.45pm that afternoon weighing a hefty 9pnd 8oz, HC= 36cm L= 53cm I had guesstimated 9pnd 4oz, so I wasn’t far off.

Anyway, this is where it all gets a bit yucky.

The following Monday I started to have a really bad headache but was keen to get home and get into the swing of things and just assumed that I was sleep deprived. After a shocking night unable to stand up for very long and being extremely nauseas and vomiting while breastfeeding and trying to look after my bub, Mum rang hospital Wednesday morning and I was readmitted with a suspected Post-dural puncture headache. Basically means that there was a leakage of spinal fluid into the epidural space which causes nausea, and a severe headache when you are upright and stand but goes away when you lie down.

After being pumped full of fluids and under observation bedridden for 2 more days in hospital, I was finally given a blood patch (of my own blood) into the epidural sight to “plug” the leak. This procedure works instantly and I felt the pain in my head vanish within seconds of them starting but then you need to stay lying down for 12 more hrs to make sure it seals correctly. Unfortunately being able to look after Frazer was more detrimental to my mental health than anything and I found myself extremely distressed and alone in hospital and feeling utterly useless. For my well being, we decided to bottle feed as me getting better was my main priority at that time.

Long story short I finally got to go home on Friday 11th and am perfectly fine and healthy. Lucky for me, my family have been a god send and was so very supportive to my husband and I during my stay in hospital. He did a fantastic job doing everything without me for a couple of days. Absolute super Dad. We are all settled in now and are slowly getting there.