Well, I had a sweep on Mon 12th September as I was 4 days over due. The midwife was not sure if it would help, as she said she couldn't quite reach high up enough as she had short fingers (I thought her fingers were plenty long enough and that they were about to pop out the top of my head!!) Anyway, I asked her if there was anything else I could do to help speed things along and she looked at dh and raised her eyebrows, so there it was, dh HAD to do the honours. She said, you helped get the baby there, now you help get baby out Later on that evening dh did the honours and I woke up 2 hours later at 2.26am having quite strong period like cramps 10 mins apart. Dh woke as I think I groaned at one of them as they were quite painful. I told him that I thought this was it, and told him to get some sleep. By 4am I decided to have a bath as they were coming every 6 - 7 mins apart and were even stronger. After I had the bath they were back to 10 mins apart again. At 6am I decided to ring labour ward to find out when I needed to contact them to go in. I was told to call them back when I couldn't take the pain anymore, or if my waters broke, so I sat there watching Discovery H&L birthing programs... lol. By 8am I tried going back to sleep but everytime I dozed off, another contraction came along. By this time they were now about 12 - 15 mins apart, but when I got them, they were strong. By 9am I decided to go for a walk to the park to try and get things going more regular. This didn't really work so when I got to the park I decided to have a go on the swings and a rocking hippo thing, now this worked as when I got off, the contractions were 3 mins apart and I knew it was time to get to the hospital. On arrival they didn't think I was in labour as I had the biggest smile on my face and all I said was, I'm going to meet my baby today They made a joke that only I could have a baby on the 13th. Anyway, I was examined and found that I was 4cm dilated, I felt well chuffed that I had managed to stay at home until then. My contractions were still every 3 mins. I was given a room, and a birthing ball to bounce on (absolutely fantastic I must say!) I was also given gas and air - wow, what brilliant stuff! After taking it in, you talk funny which made dh really laugh at me. After a few hours of bouncing on the ball, walking around the hospital and doing what felt like 1000 trips up and down the stairs to try and get things moving faster my contractions had gone back to about 7 mins apart. It was at 5pm that they were very irregular but extremely painful and I asked for pethedine I found that this didnt help the pain one bit but it made me feel really out of it (by this time I had been in labour 15 hours). I was given the option of having my waters broke or going home. I knew I couldn't go home as I needed the gas and air to help through contractions. After a discussion with dh, we decided that the waters would be broke. At around 8pm (I think) I had my waters broken and the contractions stopped all together. After about 5 hours I was told I would have to have an oxytocin drip and that I couldn't have that without an epidural, me and dh looked at each other horrified. Neither of us wanted me to have one but I had no choice. Anyway, had epidural which I actually thought was fantastic. It completely got rid of my contractions but I still had an urge to poo sprry for tmi but all through my labour I felt like I needed a giant poo! Anyway after a few hours (I was out of it really from the epidural) I remember shaking really bad from top to toe. I don't know what caused this but I was shaking uncontrolbly and I felt a bit scared. The midwife didn't seem bother by it so now I'm guessing its normal with the two shots of pethedine and epidural? After another couple of hours I was told its time to push - Great I said, I just kept going on about meeting my baby and that all the pain meant I was getting nearer to seeing her (I was convinced I was having a girl) Anyway after 3 hours of pushing my gorgeous baby boy arrived into the world, I was so pleased that I had a boy and even more chuffed that dh got his son. Vinny was born at 7.18am weighing 8lb3 on 14/9/05. The epidural only effected my contractions so I could push my son out myself without any assistance which was great.
It hurt and the the labour lasted 29 hours, but I'd do it all over again. We are already talking about giving him a brother or sister in a year or so (If we can).
Dawn
It hurt and the the labour lasted 29 hours, but I'd do it all over again. We are already talking about giving him a brother or sister in a year or so (If we can).
Dawn