I’m a bit late writing this, Arabella is now 4 weeks old and today we went to register her.
I thought it was about time I blogged my birth story before I totally forget everything.
Monday
On Monday the 12th of May I had my consultant appointment. I had been having episodes of reduced movement, consuls by basically went right, I want to induce you, and I was like, um ok, expecting her to book me an appointment for next week or something as I was 37+6. To our surprise she wanted to book us in for the following day! And do a sweep there and then, so she did a sweep and examined me. I was 1cm, my cervix was soft. They put me on a trace to check on baby, her heart rate was a bit high (due to being poked in the head no doubt!) and took about 2 hours to settle down, we left the hospital and were told to come back at 3pm the following day to start the induction process.
We went home and had a mad rush to get things ready, like unpacking the Moses basket and setting it up and checking and rechecking our hospital bags.
Tuesday
We didn’t have to go in till 3pm so I spent the day nesting/cleaning and being slightly overwhelmed that we were actually having a baby, after everything we had been through it still felt very surreal!
So, J finished work early and odd we went to the hospital, with 3 bags, one for me, one for baby and one full of food! Priorities right?!
We went up to the ward that I’ve been to many times before after being admitted with suspected preeclampsia (just a migraine luckily), gastroenteritis, and finally reduced movement.
I was shown to my bed (that I ended spending the next 4 days in!) and the did my obs and then took some blood, put me on a trace then left me for half an hour, came back, went through how the induction process works and examined me and put a 24 hour pessary in. I was still only 1cm after my sweep the day before, no change, I wasn’t really surprised.
So it came to 8pm, nothing was happening and partners aren’t allowed to stay on the ward so J went off home. Later on I started to get some mild period pains. Fast forward 24 hours and they examined me again, no change. We were now into Thursday.
Wednesday
So in they popped a 6 hour pessary, more period pains, checks again after 6 hours, I was now 2cm! Maybe we were finally getting somewhere. At my hospital they like you to be 4cm before they’ll break your waters, I had a long way to go. So another 6 hour pessary went in. We were now into Thursday.
Thursday
So I was checked again, nothing had changed. I now had to have a 24 hour rest period.
This included me sneaking out of the hospital to go home (2 miles away) for a bath and some home cooked food. Naughty me.
I have to admit at this point it was getting to be quite soul destroying watching woman after woman come onto the ward to be induced and go straight into labour.
Friday
I was examined by the midwife and she thought there was no point giving me any more pessaries as it wouldn’t make any difference. I then waited for my consultant. My consultant mentioned a c section, but by this point I had eaten so that wasn’t possible. She wanted to give me another pessary then examine me herself. So in went a 6 hour pessary. She came back later, examined me I was still 2cm but my waters were bulging and she was convinced she could break my waters. She said next free bed on the delivery unit they would take me over and break my waters.
Saturday
The next free bed didn’t come available till around 5pm I think it was. So off over the delivery unit we went, it was just a big relief to be finally getting some where!
And that’s it for today. Will blog again shortly about my actual labour!
And here’s my last ever bump picture on the day I went to be induced. Exactly 38 weeks.
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