I've finally had my Baby!!!!! :D

Hi everybody,

Just wanted to share my happy news and tell u my birth story as my baby finally arrived on Thirs 26th July (my OH mums bday) it made her day bless her, at 2.49am weighing in at 9lb 4oz. I was not a happy bunny when i went into hopital on the mon and they did another sweep and told me my bishops score was still a 3 (same as it had been 6 days before that!!) and that it may take a while to get things going. I had the gel that night and then again the next morning but becuase i had the highest dose, i couldnt have any again until wed and my score wasnt high enough for them to break my waters so i just had to wait around for something to happen and although i was getting contractions and they were painful they wern't regular so it was annoying because all these women kept coming in and having babies and i was just getting more and more fed up!!!!

Anyway, the doctor came round on wed and told me they couldnt use anymore gel until that evening and i could go home! i started crying because i really didnt want to leave hospital without my baby!! i wanted them to do an internal to see if they could break my waters coz i felt really ready and had a couple of shows plus my contractions were coming more frequently, and finally at about 4.30 wed afternoon somebody came and did one as there were no mummies in the delivery suite and it was really quiet and i was right- i was 3cm dilated and my cervix was really thin and babies head very low down. I had my waters broken about 5.30pm and by about 6 o clock my contractions were coming every 5 mins and lasting about 1 min. I made best friends with a birthing ball at that point and then a tens machine (i would recommend these if u get contractions in ur back due to babies position becuase these really helped - oh and i also got my OH to massage my back with one of those wooden roller things and it really took my mind off the contractions. He was great bless him. I think the rasberry leaf tea worked coz i was dilating quite quickly and at one point i had dilated from 5cm - 8cm in less than an hour! I had a gas and air (which made me feel very drunk and loved the feeling but unfortunatlly i decided to be sick everywhere because i obviously got too carried away like i do usually when i go out on the town!! I then got in the shower and started crying because i didnt fancy any other form of pain relief (i said from the beginning that i was determined to avoid having an epidural) and i remember thinking at this point 'im never having any more babies - theres just no way!'

In the end i had a shot of pethidine which was the best! i was actually falling asleep between contactions and talking about a bus!? apparently i kept shouting to my OH to get on the big red bus... i just remember it being a very funny drunk feeling and not caring about anything or who was in the room seeing me in all my glory! By about midnight my contacrtions had slowed right down so they put me on the dip when i was fully dilated and i kept getting the urge to push but didnt have strong enough contractions, this was when i gave up all form of pain relief and thought i need to concentrate on getting her out, my midwife kept trying to get me to have more gas and air but i actually didnt feel like i wanted it, just like i needed to go for a really huge poo! If u are worried about loosing ur dignigty during labour- dont be- its going to happen, i've never seen as much blood, mucus,sick, wee and even poo within the space of a few hours in all my life, but i just didnt care as i was too busy concentrating on the contractions!! (sorry- dont mean to scare u with all the details there, WAY TMI) :roll:

Anyway, i finally pushed her out into the world nearly 3 hours after that (with no more pain relief) and i remember it being the most hardest work ive ever done but with the biggest reward afterwards when they held her up in the air and she started crying very loudly! It really is the best feeling in the world and nothing could compare it... if u are eagerly awaiting the birth of ur baby right now, u have a lot to look forward to im telling u!

The only thing that went wrong during my labour that i was disappointed with was that my placenta (with a mind of its own, like my babies) didnt want to come out either and my midwife snapped the cord tring to get it out so i lost about a litre of blood in total and had to go into theatre to have it manually removed and ended up having a spinal block in the end after all that avoiding the epidural all along! At least i didnt have to have to be cut (like in a c sec) and it was quite relaxing being numb from the waist down just after giving birth natually lol! I only had to have a few stitches and they wern't large tears so they allowed me to come home today providing i take my iron tablets... and maybe some guiness! So we are home now with our LO and we are so happy she is finally with us. Hope all of are doing well and i will be on here still when i get the chance to catch up with u all.
Take care
Hannah + Richard (proud mother and father) and little baby.... Shayla Fae Sutton xxx