My partner and I had just gotten back from our four week holiday in London, Paris & Amsterdam. I felt pretty nauseous on the flight back but thought it was due to jet lag. We decided to take a test as I had an inkling, and my poor nipples were so unbelievably sore. Surprise! I was five weeks pregnant. I had a pretty normal pregnancy, the morning sickness that lasted 24 hours a day eventually eased up around 20 weeks. Fast forward to 40+6 I didn’t think I would be this overdue. I was determined I was giving birth at exactly 37 weeks! BOY was I wrong.
I didn’t get the big gush of water when they broke, I truly was hoping for it. I got a ‘pop’, and a squirt of water came out, and I thought to myself ‘oh great I’ve gone and wet myself.’ My brother in law lives in London and was staying with us for a few days when I told him I was just going to head up to the hospital to be checked over as I tested positive to GBS (Group B Strep). He though the baby was coming right then and there! Men HA! Ran around like a headless chook thinking he had to catch it.
My waters had definitely broken, and they told me I was being induced. It was 5 pm, so my partner had just finished work and was surprised to get the phone call to get home ASAP because this baby was coming out tonight (WRONG). As my partner works 2.5 hours away, I was terrified I was going to labour with his brother in the room as my birthing partner! After 5 hours on the oxytocin drip, the contractions were extremely intense. I was contracting for 45 seconds every minute and a half but was only 3cm dilated. The midwife came in to speak about getting the epidural because my body wasn’t going to let me relax to dilate. I woke my partner up from his slumber, and we agreed it was probably the best thing to do. We tried for the epidural three times from midnight, but they were constantly called off for emergencies. Seven hours later, after being on the drip for 14 hours and still not dilating, I finally received it!!! It was a godsend. I slept for 6 hours, and I woke up to find my mum there. I told her I just wanted my partner in the room when I gave birth, but I was very happy to see her. My midwife checked, and I was 10cm and ready to get things going. So we sat up for an hour to get the baby to descend. The room was very relaxed we were all just joking around chatting about everything then after an hour I was told to push. My epidural was extremely strong, so I wasn’t able to tell when I was getting a contraction or if I was even pushing properly. I pushed for 2 hours with nothing. This little baby just wasn’t coming out. A doctor was then called in to do an ultrasound as they thought the baby was posterior, but nope she was in the most prime position. I had been pushing for so long that I needed to have an assisted delivery with forceps. At the time I didn’t think too much into it - I just wanted to get this baby out. After one forceps pull, I was told I was being taken up to theatre as nothing was happening. I don’t know what came over me, but I yelled at the doctor that I would give it one more go and then we could go up he yelled back and told me to try harder. Two pushes and two pulls later our beautiful baby girl was born, Adeline weighing a whopping 8 pound 15 ounces.
