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I woke up at 3 am on Tuesday morning (6th April) for one of my numerous nighttime visits to the toilet and realised that I had a much heavier discharge than normal and my knickers were pretty soaked (sorry if tmi!). I did think it was weird as it wasn’t like the discharge that I had been having towards the end of my pregnancy, it was a lot runnier. Anyway, I changed my underwear and went back to bed. I then work up at 6 am to find my knickers soaked again so mentioned to DH that something wasn’t quite right. I didn’t think my waters had gone but wasn’t sure what was happening. I told him to go to work and I’d call him if anything else substantial happened. He thought I should ring the hospital just in case and wanted me to do it before he would have to leave for work just in case they wanted me to go in. I rang them about 7.15 am in the end and described what had happened and they told me to go in to be checked out and monitored.
We arrived at the hospital about 9 am and I was hooked up to a monitor to check if I was having any contractions and to check all was well with baby. Everything was fine, and no, I wasn’t contracting. I was then examined by a doctor. He confirmed that my cervix was still closed but that it looked favourable for labour and said that although I didn’t have any fluid running through my cervix at that time, from what I had described my waters had probably started leaking. I was told to go home and go for a long walk and if labour hadn’t started naturally by 9 am the next morning I should go in to be induced.
We then (bizarrely, looking back) did our weekly shop in Tescos and went for lunch at a Harvester all the time with me checking myself for wet patches cos although I had on a sanitary towel I was convinced that everyone could see that my waters were leaking as I had light grey tracksuit bottoms on!
When we got home I re-packed my hospital bags and then decided to go for a long walk. I only managed 30 minutes cos it was so uncomfortable and I could feel a lot of pressure. By the time I got home I was in agony! I then had some fresh pineapple, had a nice long soak in the bath and had an early night, mentally preparing myself for the fact that I was more than likely going to have my baby the next day which was very strange, especially as I was still 10 days before my due date and although I was fed up of being pregnant I really didn’t think that I would have her early.
The next morning I woke up at 6 am, swung my legs over the side of the bed and my waters broke in spectacular fashion! I couldn’t believe how much fluid came out of me, sorry to be gross but it was absolutely everywhere, completely soaking the bed, carpet and anything within range! I woke DH up and told him that they had definitely gone this time and then managed to waddle to the bathroom to have a shower to clean myself up! I then (again, bizarrely) cooked us bacon sandwiches for breakfast because I wasn’t sure if I would be allowed to eat whilst being induced and I was starving!
We arrived at the hospital at 9 am as planned and I explained what had happened that morning. It was still decided to induce me rather than wait and see what happened as my waters had started going the previous morning and there was a risk of infection if they had gone for longer than 24 hours. I was then examined (which was one of the most painful experiences of my life as the midwife had to feel through my cervix which was still closed to touch the baby’s head - ouch!) and was then given a pessary to start off my contractions. I was told that I would be re-examined in 6 hours and then possibly given another pessary if the first hadn’t worked (which was highly likely in first labours).
After about 3 hours or so I was starting to feel uncomfortable so was given some paracetamol for the pain and then after about another hour the contractions were getting a bit stronger and more painful. I told the midwife and was offered pethidine which I think was a bit premature considering I hadn’t even had any gas and air and didn’t really want to start taking anything that strong this early on especially as I didn’t even know if I was in established labour. I asked for gas and air and found this to be the best thing in the whole wide world! It definitely helped and made me feel really drunk and happy which was excellent, I couldn’t get enough of the stuff.
After 6 hours (so by this time about 4 pm) I was examined and was told that I was 3-4 cms which I didn’t think was too bad - at least I was making some progress. It was decided that I should be put on a syntocin drip to help speed things up and make the contractions stronger. I was to be re-assessed after 5 hours (so at 9 pm). It definitely had the desired effect but I was still coping fine on gas and air and really thought that I might be able to deliver without having any other kind of pain relief (before I went into labour I thought I’d be screaming for an epidural at the first opportunity but at the time, strangely enough, I didn’t want one!). However, by about 7.30 pm things were really beginning to hot up and the contractions were coming thick and fast. I was just about managing on the gas and air but was in quite a lot of pain and by 8 pm I decided I had had enough and asked for an epidural. By the time the anaesthetist arrived and it was put in (which didn’t hurt nearly as much as I thought it was - the hardest part was keeping still during contractions) it was about 9.30 pm and I was so glad that I had asked for it cos I wasn’t coping with the pain very well at all by this point. The contractions were coming every 1-2 minutes and were extremely strong and the midwife couldn’t believe it when she examined me at nearly 10 o’clock I was still only 4 cms - so no or very little change from nearly 6 hours before! I thought there was something wrong cos she seemed to be taking ages to examine me and she said she couldn’t believe it as she thought that I would be at least 7 or 8 cms by then!
It was then decided that they would leave me another 2 hours and they would re-assess the situation at midnight. The drip was turned up to 96, the highest setting, which I would never have been able to cope with had the epidural not taken effect by then cos the contractions were just crashing into me, one on top of the other. I was surprised by the epidural actually - I thought I would feel completely numb and not be able to feel the contractions but it took a surprisingly long time to take total effect and for the first 10-15 minutes I was still having to use the gas and air to get through the contractions. Even when it got to the stage where I couldn’t actually feel the pain of the contractions I could still definitely feel the tightenings and was able to wriggle my toes and move my legs to some extent so I didn’t feel completely helpless laying there.
Anyway, at this point I realised that DH hadn’t eaten all day so I sent him off for a McDonalds shortly after 10 pm and just lay there watching TV, feeling the contractions, but not any pain which was great! By about 11.15 pm however I realised that the epidural was wearing off on my left hand side and by about 11.45 pm I could pretty much feel the whole extent of each contraction, but only on one side which was extremely painful! I was re-examined at midnight, by which time I was back on the gas and air to help take the edge off the pain on my left hand side and surprise surprise I was still only 4 cms! The midwife consulted a doctor and before I knew it my calves were being measured for surgical stockings and a doctor was explaining the risks associated with a c-section and getting me to sign a consent form. By this stage, I really didn’t mind having a c-section as I was in pain and was extremely tired. The midwife explained that the reason I wasn’t dilating was because they thought the baby was on the large side and my pelvis was too small. She said they could let me go another couple of hours but they doubted that it would do any good. The only thing for it was for me to have a c-section.
The anaesthetist arrived again and topped up my epidural and I was then wheeled to theatre - with DH in tow having been attractively decked out in blue scrubs complete with rubber shoes - very dashing! Once in theatre, I was tested with the cold spray but could still feel on my left hand side. The epidural was topped up again but only had the effect of getting higher and higher on my right side and not taking effect on my left. I was then given the option of having a general anaesthetic or having a complete spinal block. At first I said I wanted a general as I just wanted it over and done with but then it was explained that if I had a general obviously I wouldn’t see/hear my baby being born and it would also mean that DH wouldn’t be able to be present and I didn’t want to rob him of the opportunity of seeing his little girl born so I opted for a spinal. This meant though that I had to have the epidural taken out and then the spinal put in (why they couldn’t have gone in through the same hole I don’t know!). The spinal took effect almost immediately and I completely lost all feeling from the chest down but I really didn’t care, it was such a relief!
A few minutes later, at 1.14 am on Thursday 8 April, my gorgeous little girl, Abigail Briany came into the world amidst a lot of screams! She was absolutely perfect and handed to her Daddy for a cuddle and was then weighed in front of me and it came as a bit of a shock to us and the theatre staff when the needle whizzed round to 9 lbs 3 ozs! I thought she would be on the big side but I don’t think we thought she would be quite so big considering she was 9 days early!
I was then in recovery for a couple of hours as I had the shakes, a side effect of the anaesthetic, which was nice in a way cos it gave us a chance to get to know Abbie and have some time, just the three of us. It also meant Daddy got to cuddle his little girl for a fair while before I went off to the post natal ward and he was sent home at 4.15 am.
All in all, my birth experience wasn’t too traumatic - it was just pretty long and frustrating. Abbie is worth every single second of it though and I wouldn’t change a thing about her.
My tips for having a c-section - you can never have enough bibs or clean vests/sleepsuits. Abbie was extremely mucousy the first couple of days as the fluid on the lungs isn’t pushed out in a c-section baby as it is when a baby descends down the birth canal. This meant that we got through hundreds of bibs and on the first day I think we got through about 6 sleepsuits and a similar number of vests! DH had to take a bag full home to wash and bring back the next day! It’s lucky we got so many lovely presents bought to the hospital as I completely ran out of my own supply very quickly and had to use her new ones!
Also, make sure you have a good supply of maternity towels cos when your waters break, boy can they go! I was having to wear 2, one on top of the other and the amniotic fluid was still soaking through them. Think I got through about 10 before we even left for the hospital! Also make sure you pack at least a pack or 2 in your hospital bag because although I don’t think you probably bleed as much as you do with a normal delivery, I still needed to wear maternity towels for at least 3 or 4 days after the birth, after which I switched to normal sanitary towels. Think my bleeding completely stopped after about 11 days.