So the last time I updated I knew I was going to get induced just before 40 weeks due to baby's size. Last Thursday (13th), we went to the hospital to find out the plan of action. To try and start labor off, you're given two sweeps, two pessaries and then if none of them have worked then they get you on the drip. I had two sweeps, one on Friday and one on Monday, which resulted in me getting strong Braxton Hicks and signs that my body was preparing for labour, which didn't materalise into established labor. I was dilating a little but not progressing. Over that weekend I was on a mission to try and get myself into labor naturally, but no such luck and I just had to accept I'd be getting induced! I'd heard so many horror stories about induced births and how they're supposed to hurt so much more because your body isn't ready and hasn't had the opportunity to build contractions up, so I really wanted to avoid it. I was pretty upset when I was told I had to check into hospital on Tuesday afternoon for the pessaries to prepare my body for induction on Wednesday morning.
Tuesday afternoon me, my mam (who, for those of you who don't know, was delivering the baby) and Craig got to the hospital at 3:30. I got my pessary inserted at 4pm and Craig and I just hung out in my room. About twenty minutes later I started getting cramping, which I was told was normal, so I tried to ignore it and watched TV and had some food. By 7pm the pains were getting worse so I went in the bath for half an hour which helped - I do see why a lot of people go for water births now! But when I got out and back to the room is when things started to go downhill. The pain was spreading to my back and getting a little hard to take, plus visiting time was over at 8pm and Craig had to leave. My mam left at the same time and said she'd be back in an hour to check on me because she needed to go home to do some things. That next hour on my own was possibly the worst of my life, I must have pushed that orange button that alerts the midwives that you need something about 20 times! They gave me codeine and paracetamol and I kept trying the different positions they were showing me to help with the contractions but nothing was helping. The best way I can describe them is that I was splitting in two, my back was on fire!
I don't remember too much of what happened next (apart from the pain!), I was very tired and codeine tends to make me a bit drowsy anyway so I was a bit out of it. My mam and a team of midwives appeared all at once, I could hear her telling them that I was 5cm already (0 - 5cm dilated in the space of 4 hours - no wonder I felt like I was splitting in two), that she needed to get changed and that she was ringing Craig telling him to come back. He'd only been at home for an hour! I was then popped into a wheelchair and rushed to delivery. I think I was mumbling something about how it wasn't time to go and have a baby yet because I hadn't been to sleep yet, again, I was very drowsy and not making a lot of sense!
I've made it known that I'm not a fan of needles and I was told a few times that when the time came I wouldn't care what they did to me, well those people were right. I was aware that they were putting a drip in and I didn't care, even though the lady couldn't get a vein so I ended up being stabbed multiple times. My absolute hero, the epidural man, also came in and vowed to end my suffering. Again, I was aware of what he was doing but it didn't hurt. By this point the contractions were too strong and close together for me to be able to speak so I was very quiet as I used the gas and air. I mentioned in a previous bump blog that I went to Lazy Daisy birthing classes. Eventually - better late than never - some of what I learned came back to me and I either visualised waves on a beach, or being back in that warm candlelit room where we did the classes, and it really helped. We never learned anything about breathing in the antenatal classes at the hospital so I'm glad I paid extra money to take a class especially for that. It obviously didn't take the pain away but it was a good distraction!Another three hours later I was at 10cm. My hero returned and topped up the epidural which took all the pain away completely and that was when I started to perk up and could stop using the gas and air. I spoke to Craig probably for the first time since he burst into the delivery room a few hours earlier and then I started feeling the urge to push. At 12:45 it was just me, Craig and my mam in the room and she said if I was feeling the urge to push then we should get going, so I just bore down whenever I felt the urge to and pushed when she said I was having a contraction. Craig had said all the way through my pregnancy that he was staying at the waist up and didn't want to see anything - he was standing at my left leg while my mam was holding my right one watching the whole thing! I knew he would!The pushing part was actually the best part of the whole labor for me - my pain was gone, and it was just us three in the room with no screaming (from me) or chaos, and the fact that I knew it was almost over probably helped! 25 minutes of pushing later Flynn popped out and I finally met the little person who'd been kicking and wriggling around in me for so long! He was a little slow to start as the cord was wrapped around his neck so needed some oxygen, it felt like a lifetime before we heard that first cry but in reality it was probably only a minute or so. It was lovely when he was handed back over and he was looking up at me and grabbing my finger, I couldn't (and still can't) stop staring at him!Finally, mam assessed the damage 'downstairs' and thankfully I didn't tear or need any assistance with delivery so my recovery shouldn't take very long at all. I have a lot of muscular type pain in my pelvis and back but that's it. We are now at home with our little bundle of perfection and I'm loving my new role as a mammy. I can't get enough of him, I get so excited whenever he wakes up because that means it's playtime! Everything he does fascinates me! My hormones however are all over the place and I've already cried my eyes out to Craig telling him I don't want Flynn to get bigger because then he won't make those cute noises when he sleeps anymore (yes he did remind me he is barely 48 hours old), and just realising how much I love him reduces me to tears as well, I can't help it. It's all a bit overwhelming at the moment.Overall I think I had a pretty positive birthing experience, even though it did hurt and yes, it's true that all reservations go right out of the window during childbirth - I've decided to spare you the gory details but it's pretty much impossible to come out the other end of labor with your dignity still in tact! But it was all worth it to get the end result, a beautiful, perfect little baby boy!
