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Saturday morning we went in to be induced, arrived at hospital at about 9am, and went into the induction room. It was really nice -- they have a sofa-bed for partners, and en-suite bathroom, really quite nice. I was monitored for an hour or so, before being given an internal, and a 1/2 dose of prostin, as I was already 1-2cm dilated. I was then monitored again, before being told to go for a long walk. We walked all around the hospital and the hospital grounds, before returning for another monitoring session. Contractions were starting then, and I was in mild discomfort. I was examined again at 4ish, after a really boring afternoon watching rubbish telly, going for the odd walk, and reading my book. The midwife thought I wasn't much further on, but got a registrar to come and examine me. After the most painful internal ever he said I was ready for ARM, and to go down to delivery when they had time. It was about 5.30 by now, and I was getting very bored, as was H. Contractions continued, and were fairly regular, and quite painful. Delivery was very busy that night, and at about midnight, they said it was unlikely that I'd go down there before morning, and to get some sleep. So we went to bed. Unfortunately contractions then stopped!
When I woke the next morning, I did lots of bouncing on my birthball to try and get them going again, but without much success. At 9am, 24 hours after arriving at hospital, I was taken down to delivery for ARM. This was REALLY painful, and the midwife wasn't convinced I was dilated enough for it. But eventually she managed. I had another internal at about 11am, and I still hadn't really made much progress, so I was put on syntometrin, with a skull monitor to keep an eye on the baby (didn't want US as that would impair my mobility). I managed for about 4 hours with just entonox and TENS before my next exam, when I still had only progressed to about 4 or 5 cm dilated. At this point I demanded an epidural, I couldn't cope with another possible 12 hours like the last 4! WIth the epidural I could finally get some sleep.
It all gets a bit hazy then, about midnight I was declared ready to push, and spent the next 3 hours pushing, it was horrible! The epidural didn't stop 2nd stage hurting in my bottom. Eventually I managed to push Sam out, with only a 1st degree internal tear and some grazing, which didn't need stitching. The midwives were on the whole great, but I still haven't forgotten how much it hurt!
I've left out loads of details, but on the whole it was a horrible experience. I'm sure if I hadn't been left overnight and the contractions hadn't stopped I might have managed without the syntometrin and the epidural, and it wouldn't have been a 48 hour ordeal! Though I was actually in labour for 16 hours 50 minutes according to my notes.
Anyway, we survived...