So my birth story starts on Tuesday 4th June
This is my birth story, far from what I had in mind!
So my birth story starts on Tuesday 4th June on my due date at my 40 week appointment. I had my midwife appointment and was not worried till they said my blood pressure was up and I had protein in my urine. The midwife wanted to take blood for testing my liver and kidneys. I knew this was bad and they were looking at pre-eclampsia.
Did not worry the rest of the day as they had booked to see me at home the following morning to check my blood pressure again.
7pm I got a call from the midwife at Good Hope Hospital who wanted me to go in for my blood pressure to be checked that evening as they were not happy with the reading earlier in the day. I tried to get out of it saying my midwife was coming in the morning to check it and me and Nick were just going out for dinner.
Got to labor ward at about 8pm, had my blood pressure checked and was hooked up to the fetal monitor for them to check on baby. They were not happy as my blood pressure was very elevated and a decision was made to keep me in and induce me. I was given a sweep at 10pm to see if that would get things started but it was not successful as the cervix was not ready.
I was moved up to the maternity assessment ward for the evening Nick brought dinner in so we had pizza take away in the dining room. Not quite the dinner i had in mind. When Nick had left i was again hooked up to the fetal monitor and was having my ob's taken every 4 hours. As you can imagine I got no sleep what so ever.
The following morning Wednesday 5th June the doctor came to see me, she had my bloods re-tested to see if the levels had returned to normal or if things were still elevated. Results in we're liver and kidney functions tests were elevated and I was advised I was being treated as high risk for pre-eclampsia and would be induced via the pessary gel suppository ASAP. The midwife in charge came to see me to advise they could not induce me right away as due to health and safety they can only have 3 inductions on the ward at a time and they already had 3 ladies going through induction. I would be next as soon as one of the ladies was moved to the labor ward.
9.30pm comes and I am advised a lady has been moved to labor ward and I would be induced if they were happy once they had carried out another fetal monitoring so I'm stuck on the bed again and strapped to the machine.
10.30pm and they are happy and induction is started. I go to bed hoping for this to work as I really don't want the hormone drip or c section.
Thursday 6th June 7.20am. Cramping/tightening a start 3 in ten minutes and did not stop. I walked round and got breakfast quick while I can still eat. Nick comes to the hospital to support me and times the contractions. I cant eat lunch as I had no appitite. The midwife again wants to check on baby after i had co-codamol as pain killers so back on the bed and strapped to the machine for another 2 hours. After 10 hours we are move to labor ward where again I was on the fetal monitor for another hour. I was examined and was 2cm stretching to 3cm. The suppository was removed and my waters were broken. The contractions more than doubled in pain and I could not get my breathing under control after spending so long strapped to the machine on the bed. Not what I had in mind for an active labor.
After speaking to the midwife about pain relief we decided an epidural would be a good idea as I had been in labor for over 12 hours and it would also help lower my blood pressure.
I had a lovely Dr who did the epidural for me and my blood pressure dropped to normal range right away. I was left to labor till 4am friday morning before being examined again. I was 5cm's. Yeah, things are progressing. They left me for another 4 hours before checking on me again. I was still at 5cm's. They discussed the hormone drip to speed things up as i was not really progressing. I was given the hormone drip to speed things up. By this time we are in the early hours of Friday morning.
After having the drip I was closely monitored and it was found baby was getting into distress. The drip was turned off for 20 minutes and babies heart rate returned to normal. The drip was tried again but again babies heart rate dropped from 145BPM to 88BPM. Again the drip was turned off.
Another Dr came to the room and it was decided they would check babies distress levels by taking a sample of fetal blood from his head. That came back normal and I was 7cm's.
Not long after and no progression from the 7cm's and heart rate dropping when on the drip again a decision was made that baby needed to come now and I was having an emergency c section after 27 hours of labor.
Nick was advised where to go to get changed and and put scrubs on. He asked when I would be taken down to theatre and they said 30 minutes so he said he would get changed shortly. The Dr said no get changed now. From the time a decision was made for a c section James was born 40 minutes later on Friday 7th June at 10.49am.
I would not change the way my labor went for the world. I have a wonderful happy and healthy little boy and would do it all again in a heartbeat.
They did 1 hour ob's on James for the first 12 hours due to him passing Meconium but all was well.
They were happy I was discharged from hospital just 24 hours after James arriving but as he had passed meconium they kept us in for another day as they wanted to see him poo in him nappy. Needless to say he did not co-operate and we were discharged the following day anyway.
We have made it out the house everyday so far and I even popped to asda on the way home from hospital to buy some formula and baby boy clothes.
Breast feeding not going well and he did not latch while in hospital but since we have been home I have purchased nipple shields and things have improved but we are having to combine breast and formula.
