The perfect birth
We'll for me the perfect birth would have been a relatively short natural labour with hardly any pain relief, but what we want and get are sometime worlds apart.
So at 39+6 weeks pregnant I woke up with the usual alarm of builders arriving and my dad's voice booming into the house so got up and made tea for everyone and toast for me and grant. This was around 7.30am and whilst the kettle was boiling I could feel a tightening deep inside like a period cramp but carried on and ended up cleaning the newly grouted tiles in the bedroom. At around 10am the cramps had progressed slightly and I was starting to think could this be labour! Joking around with Grant I said you might want to pack a bag just in case today's the day, poor Grant was helping manhandle steels in the extension in heavy rain.
I decided to have a lay on the sofa to see if I could feel a pattern as I know lots of people who say you can have early labour symptoms for weeks and it never progresses so I just thought as the sensation was bearable I would carry on as normal and not stress until I needed to!
At 11am my dad coming in saying the window guy was here to measure the windows and did I want to show him around I stood in the hallway and couldn't really speak through the contraction to which my dad then said I think your in labour.
I had a small panic about my unshaven legs and decided to shower and wash my hair and then blow dry it so it was nice and straight if nothing else it was taking my mind off the contractions which had started to settle into a pattern, at one point I was crouching over the bed breathing deeply through each contraction. I downloaded a contraction counter app and started timing. I then went downstairs and sat on my ball which made me realise the contractions were starting to hurt and the pain was also mildly in my back. So at this point they were 5mins apart lasting 30sec really not bad at all.
Grant went out to pick some stuff up and by 1pm I thought it might be best to ring the hospital, after asking all the relative questions including have you felt baby move (I really wasn't sure as all my focus was on the contractions) they said to make my way in. Grant slightly panicking made his way home and picked me up to go to hospital.
We arrived at Lister around 3.30pm and triage finally checked me at 5pm putting me on the monitor and reading
each contraction, yes I was definitely having contractions! The midwife then sent me upstairs to be assessed.
Mid contraction
Still at this point the pains were fine and an internal revealed I was 2cm dilated the midwife did a sweep and asked if I was ok to go home, grant went to get the car and I was left alone. Wow the sweep moved things on and after what felt like a lifetime of me in quite a lot of pain the midwife came back. At this point my building site of a home didn't seem so appealing and i asked if I could stay, grant re-parked the car and came back. I tried a bath but the back pain made it hard to get comfy so they moved me to a pool.
The birthing pool was great it helped my pains and i could also focus better, using a flannel with lavender to relax and music to get into a zone. Unfortunately my body had other plans and started to involuntary push to which baby's heart rate rocketed sky high upto 180bpm and the decision to move me to the consultant ward was made. We were moved downstairs at 9pm (time goes so quickly when your in labour). The move and atmosphere changed my focus and I was begging for an epidural (this was the last thing I thought I would be asking for) and so the long haul was upon me..............
