06-2-2011 - Birth Story

My mood while writing this blog: Reminiscing

Hi ladies, been reading a lot of birth stories lately to prepare me for Dylans birth and it's made me think a lot about my first labour so I wanted to write out my birth story from her (it's very long and mainly just for my own reference but if any of you want to read it let me know what you think!)

=)

I had been having braxton hicks all the way through my pregnancy and they had become rather painful at around 24 weeks. So, when I started getting painful contractions at around 11pm on Saturday 11th July 2009 (five days before my due date), I didn't think too much of it. My husband and I went to bed but the contractions made me uncomfortable and I couldn't sleep so I went for a bath then spent the rest of the night padding around the flat on my own, thinking about what motherhood would be like.

By about 6am the next morning I was still getting contractions and they were coming every 5 minutes, lasting 90 seconds each. I called L&D and they told me to come in to get checked out. My husband called a taxi and, very excited, we headed to the hospital. As soon as we got there my contractions stopped all together. The midwife checked my cervix and told me to go home as I was only 1cm dilated. When we got home I went to the toilet and had my "bloody show." (It looked like a lump of bloody jelly...sorry if that's TMI!)

After that the contractions started again but they were very irregular and I thought it could be days before my baby put in an appearance. It was a hot day so we went for a walk along the sea front to try and speed things up a little, with me leaning on Wayne (the husband) whenever a particularly painful contraction hit.

When we got home my husband made lunch for us both and we got on with the day as if it was any other. Bedtime came but I was still too uncomfortable (and excited!) to sleep. I lay down on the airbed we'd set up in the living room (in case of an emergency home birth!) and watched rubbish TV for a while, had a bath and then spent the rest of the night pacing the living room and on all fours, rocking back and forth.

By about 5am I was feeling pretty tired, having been up since 6am on Saturday, so I decided to try and get into bed. I lay down on the bed and was suddenly hit by the worst contraction yet. It was so powerful I bolted out of bed in a blind panic and flew across the room, smashing straight into the closed bedroom door! I woke my husband up at that point and said I didn't think I was in "established labour" yet (as the contractions were completely random and, other than that one, not very painful) but I wanted to go to the hospital to get some pain killers and sleeping tablets so I'd be well rested when "real" labour did start.

We arrived at the hospital at around 6am and the midwife examined me and said "You're 5cm dilated, we'd better get you to a delivery room!" I was so excited and happy that I'd made it all the way to 5cm at home and with hardly an pain! (I'd even ran up three flights of stairs to the L&D dept of the hospital...I'm scared of lifts and didn't want to get in one!) Before she showed me to my room I called my Mum to let her know what was happening. (I wanted Wayne and my Mum to be my birth partners.)

As soon as my Mum arrived at the hospital the midwife took me through to the delivery suite. Once there she took my blood pressure and said my heart rate was a little high. I still wasn't in a lot of pain but she suggested I use some entonox to calm myself d