My Second Pregnancy: E's Birth Story

If you're a regular reader, you'll know that every Monday I post a Bump Update but you may have noticed a lack of post yesterday. Sorry, I was busy having cuddles with my 4 day old. Yep, she's arrived!

On Thursday 4th September (at 39+3), I went to the hospital for my routine weekly check up at the Antenatal Clinic. My appointment was at 3.45pm and Chris was due to start work at 6pm so I just went by myself so he could stay at home with C and I could just take over when I got back and he could go off to work. I was called in and all the usual checks were done. My blood pressure was the highest that it had ever been this pregnancy at 140/105 and there was 1+ protein in my urine. I felt fine in myself but as the preeclampsia symptoms were beginning to rear their ugly head again, I had a cervix check to see if I was favourable for induction. My cervix was long but I was already 3cm so they decided that induction was the way to go. The delivery suite didn't have a bed ready so I was able to go home, get my bags and see C before heading back in. 

Waiting to go to delivery suite

We arrived at the hospital just after 6pm and after lots of bloods and being on the CTG machine, the doctor broke my waters for me at around 7.20pm. I needed to wait for an hour so at 8.20pm I was given an IV hormone drip to bring on my contractions. This took a while to get going. I felt more comfortable sat upright in a chair at this point and I used the TENS machine and gas & air to get through these early contractions. I didn't use the gas & air a lot at this point. I didn't like the woozy feeling that it gave me. The midwife explained other methods of pain relief but I didn't want diamorphine as I didn't want the baby to be really sleepy after the birth and because I wanted to labour as naturally as possible after my Caesarean section with C, I didn't really want an epidural either. 

My contractions kept coming and were getting more painful and closer together so I wanted to move to the bed to get more comfortable. A short while after, I felt like I couldn't handle the pain and asked for an epidural. I told Chris that I felt like a bit of a failure but I really couldn't handle it. This was at around 12.30am and I was only 5cm but my cervix was now paper-thin. I couldn't believe that I had only dilated 2cm in 4 hours. I was given the epidural and then my contractions started coming really quickly. I was told that the epidural wouldn't make me lose all sense of feeling, it would just take the edge off the contractions. If I'm completely honest, it didn't work very well for me. I felt everything. 

At this stage, everything seemed to happen very quickly and I was using the gas & air more and more so I felt completely out of it and I didn't enjoy that feeling at all but it was the only thing helping me. I always said that I didn't want to be one of those ladies who didn't know what was going on and made a complete fool of themselves during labour and I always thought I'd revert into myself and not be very loud. I was wrong. I remember saying to the midwife that it felt like I was trying to stop myself from pooing. She left to speak to another midwife briefly and I shouted to Chris that I felt like I needed to push. He obviously panicked as he was there with me by himself so he told me to breathe the gas & air and breathe until the midwife came back in. 

The midwife came back and told me to go with what my body told me to do so I pushed. Holy dear God, the ring of fire is a real thing. I was using the gas & air like my life depended on it and I could feel myself wailing like a banshee but I knew I had to get through it. I even looked at Chris once she was here and said "oh my god, I did it!" He just laughed haha. After only pushing for ten minutes, our baby girl, Erin, was born at 01.50am on the 5th September 2014 weighing 7lbs 2oz. Her head circumference was 34.5cm and she is 49cm long. 

Unfortunately, I had a retained placenta so my epidural was topped up and I was taken to theatre to have it manually removed. I think they said that it was stuck to my previous Caesarean section scar. I also had a second degree tear which needed stitching. We had a two day hospital stay but now we are happily at home as a family of four :)