MOVED FROM PF - APRIL 2010

CONGRATULATIONS!!
You did great! So what about the epidural!
55cms - wow - she is tall! Beautiful name too!
Thanks so much for sharing your birth story!
Sorry about your cervix - that sound hectic - I hope it heals up nicely. That is so great that you didn't even tear though wow.

Hello to everyone... so - I AM A MOM!!! Tayla was born at 1842 on Friday 23 April... 3.085kg and 55cms in length...

The birth story is as follows:

Arrived at hospital on Friday morning at 0715 by docs orders if I did not come in overnight. We checked in - well sort of - everyone was very hesitant to check me in saying I didn't appear to be in labour and I could not be at full term! So proceeded up to labour ward and again was met with hesitant midwife who would not believe I was in labour and insisted that we go back home and go for a walk. I dug in my heels and said Doc wanted to meet me at 0800 and that is that. So we got comfy and doc came to have a look - he said I was 4cm dilated and membranes were bulging. He offered to break membranes - but i chose to wait it out and bounce around a bit to take it the natural route. He returned at 12:00 for another check up and we were still 4cm and no ruptures... so he ruptured membranes for me and said he'd be back at 5pm.
All this time the one midwife kept saying that I should have gone back home and walked on the beach - not very motivating! And was more concerned with her daughter in labour in the UK...
Anyhoo - contractions started getting more regular and a lot more painful - although managable while bouncing on the ball and using my hypnobirthing breathing techniques. Every hour I was popped onto the foetal monitor to check that baby was doing well. At 3:30 the midwife told me the foetal monitor was showing baby in distress because during each contraction the babies heart rate dropped. The cause of this could have been the cord being squashed in the contraction - but who knows. She proceeded to tell me that I need to keep an open mind as a c-section may be imminent. This and the news of baby in distress put me in a panic - and this is where my hypnobirthing went pear shaped. I had to lie on my back from here on out too which also didn't help much... So the contractions became unbearable At 4:00pm I succumbed and requested the epidural.
This took approximately an hour and a half to arrange and for the aneasthetist to arrive. As soon as I sat up to have the epidural all i could feel was immense pressure - like i needed to go wee really badly... They administered the epidural and waited 25 mins for it to work and then Doc did another internal.
Amazingly I had fully dilated from 4cm at the time of the epidural to the time of the internal. And I was given 10 minutes to prepare for pushing!
It took 3 contractions/pushes to get baby out... and again here i used my hypnobirthing technique rather than pushing.
I managed to deliver her without tearing at all which was the best news ever.
Unfortunately due to the speed of the dilation and my body not having sufficient time to prepare for the birth my cervix tore in 3 places. So an hour and a half after giving birth I was still bleeding and had to be rushed into emergency theatre to be stitched up. I must say this is the part that is still sore and uncomfortable.

But I have to say after all that - I am very very pleased that i went the natural route and I have experienced natural birth...

We battled with feeding with her latching - but I went to the breastfeeding clinic this morning to get some help and feel a lot more confident and happier today. One day at a time!

congrats claudia,what a lovely birth story! enjoy your LO...all the ladies who are close to their due dates good luck hope all the babies come on time

@Mel: I will definitely update as soon as I can. I hope that you have some activity before Wed as waiting and making this choice isn't great at all!
I can tell you that I've decided to do the induction as it's still natural (so to speak) and seeing as though I've already come this far - it seems like the 'right' thing to do. I hope that it's the right choice after all I guess I'll only know tomorrow.

Take care and wishing all us preggy fairies a busy night.

Wow NickyMG, only one more day until your baby is in your arms! I'd love to know how your induction goes as I have to make that decision for our baby as well. If he/she is not here by Wednesday, we're either cutting or inducing. Still not 100% sure which option is safest and best...

Hi ladies

I'm so tired of waiting...only 1 day overdue, but still - just my luck, isn't it lol.
Hubby is out with a friend watching some or other football match and I'm just sitting around surfing the net...hoping that every ache or pain becomes a sign of labour. Oh well, guess I'll take solace in the set induction date and know that whatever happens, my baby will be in my arms on Monday

Congrats to all the new mommies and all those in labour (here's hoping you are Beansmom).

howzit going, beansmom???