I'm pleased to announce the birth of my beautiful (I am biased!) baby girl who came into this world at 9.14am on Thursday morning.
The birth was completely different to what I had planned. I was hoping for a home birth but unfortunately as I went over due I was booked in for an induction at term plus 12.
On arrival in hospital on Wednesday morning I was found to be 4cm dilated so they planned to break my waters and see how I progressed. Unfortunately the antenatal ward were unable to perform ARM (artificial rupture of membranes) until labour ward had a delivery room available.
The day dragged! We were given hardly any information or any updates on when they might be able to get things started. I was extremely anxious and nervous and felt as though we'd been forgotten. I ended up getting really upset and kept bursting into tears. The final straw came when I asked for some paracetamol for the pain I was starting to feel and two hours later we had to ask again as nothing had materialised. At this point we had been there 10 hours and were very fed up so asked if we could go home as it seemed pointless being there.
Strangely, having threatened to go home, labour ward were suddenly able to fit us in! So my waters were broken and I was taken through to a delivery room. From this point on things started to get better.
The midwife happened to be the same community midwife I'd seen for the last five of my antenatal checks which immediately put me at my ease. She left me for an hour to see how I was progressing but unfortunately, although the contractions were getting very strong and painful, I hadn't dilated any more than I had that morning. At this point the decision was made to put me on the syntocinon drip and I decided I'd have an epidural as I had heard that contractions can get extremely strong very quickly when syntocinon is given.
The epidural was great! I still felt the pressure of each contraction and I wasn't completely pain free but it did enable me to get some rest - much needed after days of sleepless nights worrying about being induced!
After about 8 hours of labour, I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. We let the epidural wear off so that I was able to feel the contractions, get onto my knees and push effectively.
40 mins later, Olivia was born - head and hand first in a superman pose.
The whole experience was amazing and nothing can describe the joy I felt holding her in my arms for the first time, watching her crawl to my breast for her first feed.
After one night on the postnatal ward we were discharged and were able to go home. We've had a few days of visiting grandparents but today, finally the three of us are having a lovely chilled out day together. Grant is being a fantastic Daddy, changing the majority of nappies and generally looking after us, what ever time day or night.
