Pregnancy

Welcome Edith Grace… Birth Story

Since we last spoke I have had a baby…. that seems so surreal especially now she is 1 week old.

My Due date came and went and every day I woke up with disappointment. Another night had gone by and no baby. I had 5 sweeps and lost my mucous plug 7 times! I didn’t think it would be possible for it to take so long. At 10 days overdue I was to ring the hospital to be induced. My biggest fear.

My Midwife Led birth quickly flew out of the window. I was scared. This wasn’t the way I wanted it. We arrived at the hospital at 9am after a tearful goodbye with Erin who was taken to school by Matt’s mum, I think she was worried about the fact I was going to hospital and that her routine was changing. Once we had gone she was absolutely fine and happily skipped off to school.

The hospital was much better than I thought and didn’t feel as scary as I had made out in my head. I had the gel Pessary at 10.30am and went for a walk to try and get things moving. unfortunately after two hours nothing had happened. I was given a second pessary at 6pm and again went for a walk. I had a few contractions and started to get excited. There was a queue for delivery as they were really busy as they thought about breaking my waters but I would have to wait. Matt was still with me in our room at 1am and the midwife was lovely and said he could stay.

I genuinely thought things may ramp up during the night but instead my contractions stopped and Matt and I were able to get around 4 hours sleep. We were awoken at 7am by a midwife who knocked on the door and said ‘ready for delivery’ I was quite shocked as nothing was happening.

They took me to delivery and very quickly broke my waters. It took a few tries which was quite painful. The midwife said she could feel her hair through her fingers and that i was 4cm dilated. We made the delivery suite as ‘hypnobirthing friendly’ as possible with essential oils and fairy lights. My midwife read my birth plan and asked me questions which was really great as she took everything on board and was absolutely fantastic.

We went for a walk up and down the stairs to get things moving. I got quite a few contractions. So I knew things were moving. In the mean time I had really fat hand (doubled in size with sausage fingers and arm-think Club arm!!) which had happened as my cannula missed the vein and my GBS antibiotics were put into my arm instead of vein. They quickly removed it and put another in my other hand which was much better.

At 2pm my contractions had stopped again. I thought it was never going to happen. Matt had been so supportive throughout, he must have been so bored and he was still making me laugh and assisting me in all my needs.

2.30pm came and I was given the Syntocin drip, I was petrified of this as I had heard how much it had hurt others and that contractions would come thick and fast- and that they did. At 4.45pm I asked to be examined- I was still 4cm, I actually asked the midwife if she was joking as i was in pain.

I asked for Pethidine. I felt I needed it. I had gas and air through contractions and the rest was a bit of a blur. I had used my TENS machine throughout and Matt was there to cool me down and give me drinks. He was my rock through the whole thing.

At 6.17pm I gave birth to our beautiful baby girl. Things really went quickly in that hour and a half and she made her way into the world back to back and the wrong way up.

She’s a beauty if I do say so myself. Erin was able to come and meet her as were her grandparents. She was 7lbs 11oz and in tiny baby clothes with lots of brown hair. The complete opposite to Erin. We are so smitten its untrue. She’s completed our little family unit.