My Labour & Delivery Story & Pictures

So after being in the early stages of labor for the past 5 days, the day finally came..I was worried I wouldn't know I was in labor..boy do you know! Ha, here is my story...It started on the morning of the 18^th, I woke up a few times in the night with what felt like back pains, the first one was at 2am and it actually woke me up it was so strong, I managed to get back off to sleep till 6am but couldn’t get back to sleep as the feeling was every few minutes, I just had a little hunch that this was it, I woke Ben up and told him how I was feeling and that I was going to phone the hospital and see what they think, so I got myself up and ready, I went over my hospital bags and packed the last little bits all ready to go, I got my makeup on and got dressed and brushed my teeth (all whilst having contractions that were taking my breath away) I was determined to look good during labour, ha. So I phoned the hospital who said to go in and get checked over, so off we went, hospital bags in tow, excited, tired, nervous, scared, anxious, happy, so many different emotions. We stopped off and got some snacks and some water as we didn’t know how long the day was going to be or if I was dilated or even progressing! The contractions were every 5 minutes and boy were they strong, it felt like pressure, all in my lower back, a strong aching is how I would describe it, I’d feel them build up and wouldn’t be able to talk through them, I used breathing techniques to get through them which I believe helped, although I got annoyed when we stopped in traffic with a car next to us, there was me trying to not look like I was in pain…tough thing to do! Ha.We got to the hospital and got taken to the labor ward and got hooked up to the machines to check on baby, check on contractions and my heartbeat etc, and sure enough I was having contractions, some of them were off the scale on the chart…I think I remember the number on the screen rising to 127 (0 is no contraction..). I then had to have an internal check to look for dilation, this was the part that scared me to death, I wasn’t very good at having my smear test let alone this…so she tried once and I just couldn’t take the pain, I think me being so tense just made things worse) so the midwife got some gas and air for me which made me relax and took most of the pain away.. it also meant she could then have a good feel, so the news was that yes I was having contractions and yes I was dilated to 2cm but my cervix was still in the wrong position so not considered ‘’active’’ labour, she said I could walk around for a few hours and come back if things get more painful or I could go home if I think I could handle it as I could be 2cm for days! So we decided to go for a drive, I was hungry as was Ben, we found a McDonalds but I just couldn’t eat anything, the contractions were already a lot stronger in the space of an hour, we then ‘attempted’ a walk, which didn’t work out, the contractions were far too strong now and we got 100yds down the road and I needed to go back, so we phoned the hospital and said we were coming back, I was in a lot of pain right now, the contractions were still the same aching feeling, but this time in the tops of my legs as well, felt like someone was squishing my back down and pushing my legs up with brute force, I was still breathing through them though. Got to the hospital and got checked out again and thank god I was now 4cm dilated and considered in ‘active’ labour! Yay! I was so happy that I had progressed so quickly! The midwife was lovely and straight away found us a room were we got settled in. She ran me a bath with bubbles and I sat in there for about 5 minutes, but had 2 of the most painful contractions so far that I just had to get out, again I breathed through the contractions for a bit longer then asked for an epidural, I was quite proud of myself for getting that far without complaining!Getting the epidural seemed to take forever, the only part that hurt was the initial anaesthetic they use to numb your back, and also there was one part where he told me to prepare for an electricity feeling..and wow he was not wrong..it felt like an electric shock shooting through my spine, but after 20 mins I was numb and could only feel the pressure of the contractions..which was so much easier to deal with..I got checked again by the midwife who told me I was now 6cm this was at around 6.30pm, she said she expected me to be a bit further along by now so offered to break my water, which she did and it didn’t hurt in the slightest, I then felt a lot of warm water between my legs, lovely! Ha. To cut a long story short, my epidural started fading (I will make a separate post about my whole experience of the epidural as it didn’t work 100%) and I could suddenly feel all the contractions again and A LOT of pressure down below, that’s when I got checked again and I’d gone from 6cm-10cm dilated in an hour and a half! The midwife then said the 3 words that made me so nervous ‘’lets start pushing’’. I told Ben I wasn’t ready and starting welling up, but he really egged me on and kept saying ‘we’re gonna meet our little girl very soon’.My first few pushes were crap if I’m honest, obviously I’ve never pushed before so wasn’t sure what to do, but as the epidural had worn off, I could feel the contractions so I knew when to push which was actually nice as most people can’t feel that after having an epidural. I finally got the hang of the pushing and it’s true that the pain stops when you start pushing, you feel pressure but no pain as you’re pushing with the contraction rather than fighting it. This might be TMI but I could literally feel her head moving down, it was so strange, when it came to the crowning part, wow…that was the only moment when I let out a noise, I remember saying (well, almost shouting…) ‘I can feel her head, OW that really hurts’, and I burst out crying with the pain, it was only for about 30 seconds whilst I pushed her head out, as soon as It was out I relaxed so much, the worse was done the midwife kept saying...after 35 minutes of pushing, our beautiful angel was born, I remember seeing her for the first time and thought ‘Wow she is so beautiful, oh my god she’s actually gorgeous’ :). I cried and before I knew it, she was on my chest crying away, I’d done it, I’d just given birth, that instant bond they talk about was there, this little girl was going to rely on me for the rest of her life and I couldn’t wait for the journey! She latched on perfectly and we had our first feed! Then I had to deliver the placenta, I was so wrapped up with Abigail but I did feel it fall out of me. Sometime in the future I will make another post with more details on certain parts.For the first few days after giving birth I was determined I would never had any more children as the pain was horrible, but now I’ve had time to bond with Abbie I would absolutely do it all over again, it really is completely worth it ladies!