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I went in on the Monday 23rd to be induced at 37 weeks because I had gestational diabetes. They gave me one prostin at about 7pm and I was on a monitor for about 2 hours. Andy left about 10pm and I tried to get a few hours sleep here and there but probably ended up with about an hour in total as the m/w kept coming in to check me all the time and take my blood pressure.
The consultant came at 8am and I was just expecting another prostin when she declared I was 2cm dilated and proceeded to break my waters. Andy came back at about 10am and I was moved into the high dependency labour room - contractions were coming about every 5 minutes at this point so I felt quite positive. I was examined again about 11am and told I was still only 2cm - huge dissappointment. They then hooked me up to the syntocin drip and also the glucose and sugar drip for the diabetes. That was it then I couldn't move until I'd delivered the baby.
Contractions were getting steadily worse with the drip so I started on the gas & air (marvellous stuff!). About 1pm I was examined again but this time the SHO couldn't even feel anything, I was starting to panic a bit then, I'd been contracting for a good 3 hours so I would have expected to have moved a bit - no.
They upped the syntocin drip to the maximum at which point they were about every 2 minutes and horrendous I can tell you, I was screaming in pain at one point, poor Andy didn't know what to do and just kept asking me was I okay, I won't tell you my reply as it wasn't very nice!! I was constantly taking in the gas & air as they were just so painful. Another two hours passed and another examination which revealed still 2cm. I was getting very stressed and very tired and very very dissappointed that I hadn't moved any further. At this point I'm on my second bottle of gas and asked for more pain relief as I was beginning to lose it a bit!!
I hadn't wanted any other pain relief really as I wanted it to be as natural as possible, but the m/w was a bit worried at how tense and stressed I was so they gave me some pethadine which calmed me down and sent me a bit funny. My Mum turns up at this point - I had no idea she was coming and was really away with the fairies! At one point I asked Andy why they were cutting the grass (!). We were in a room with no windows but I was adamant that I could smell grass so sent him off to investigate - poor chap!
At 5pm they examined me again and still I was only 2cm. I could hear the SHO's talking to each other and one proclaimed that I should never have had my water's broken as I was clearly no where near ready. They said they'd come back at 7pm to assess me again.
After another 2 hours of painful contractions, mass hysterior cos the gas ran out again, they eventually came back about 7.30pm. I told the SHO, if I'm still 2cm I'll kill you - yes, you guessed it, still 2cm. By this point I'd been in labour for nearly 12 hours, has been up for nearly 24 hours, was competely exhausted, fairly traumatised and just wanted the whole thing over. She gave me two options, to carry on as I was, although I could have been there for at least another 3 days (!!!), or have a c/s. We chatted it through for all of 2 seconds and decided a c/s was the only way to go. I knew that the baby hadn't moved, I could feel him still near the top of my tummy and just thought that mentally I couldn't go through another 2 hours never mind 3 days.
The SHO went to find the consultant and came back waving this piece of paper which she asked me to sign and at which point I just completely broke down. I could see that the end was in sight but was terrified of having the epidural. It was one of the things I'd said I didn't want all along and now I had very little option.
We arrived in theatre and there were just hundreds of people there - well about 12 I suppose, all being very nice to me but I was still contracting, probably every couple of minutes and was just in so much pain. They took Andy away to get him gowned up and had sent my Mum off to the waiting room.
The anaesthetist (sp) came and started to prepare me for the epidural, I was bent over this table, still having contractions, while he was trying to put in the spinal block. He managed it eventually, in between contractions but it took him quite a while! What a wierd sensation it is though, they were tipping me up and moving me around and I couldn't feel a thing. At the same time the nurse is hooking me up to the glucose drips and the blood pressure monitors and at that point I caught sight of all the instruments at which point they immediately put up the screen. They sprayed this ice cold stuff to see if I could feel anything but I couldn't and I presume this is when they started my op.
Andy came back in at that point and sat looking very very nervously at the side of me, I don't think he had a clue what was going on! After about 5 minutes I asked the consultant when she was going to start the op as I couldn't feel anything. I was told it would feel like rummaging but I hadn't felt a thing, at which point she told me she was just about to pull the baby out and sure enough I heard the cry and then just saw this bottom being lifted above the screen - my beautiful baby boy was born!
Apparently he'd had the cord wrapped around his neck which Andy had seen and it freaked him a little bit! They offered to let him cut it but he declined, very politely!
They briefly showed him to me and then they took him off to recovery with his Daddy to clean him up, weigh him and test his blood sugars (which were fine) and make him look lovely but it seemed like ages before I got to actually hold him - I found out afterwards it was about 45 minutes. At this point they were sewing me up and having a competition to see who could guess the weight - at that point I knew he was going to be a porker!! and at 9lb 4oz he wasn't small!
We had a pretty rough time in hospital too, Oliver wouldn't feed from me at all, we perservered for 2 days but he dropped to 8lbs 8oz so eventually he went on formula.
My recovery hasn't been great. They persuaded me to leave hospital after 2 ½ days cos they were desperate for beds. I felt okay when I came home but I think you tend to forget you've had major surgery! I then got an infection in my wound which wouldn't go away, had two lots of antibiotics and it's only just really sorting itself out. It was gaping too and about 2 weeks after I'd had him, I woke up about 4am and there was just blood everywhere. Andy called an ambulance (how embarrassing!) and they took me back to the labour ward were they said it was just the serus fluid and send me on my way. It turns out that it was infact a heamatoma and the size of an orange too.
So all in all it wasn't an ideal experience. My last words to my consultant at my last antenatal were that I'd rather have an elective c/s than go through hours of labour and then end up with an emergency c/s. I guess you just don't know what's going to happen but I'm just so relieved that we're now all okay and Oliver is such a good baby and beautiful it was all worth it. As for a second?