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The longest week of my life

On Tuesday 15th I was awake half the night with Braxton Hicks. I wasn't overly worried because I had been getting them intermittently and  anyway baby still had a while to cook . I didn't get much sleep though because they were coming all night on and off. DH was snoring loudly alll night and in the end I just got up and went downstairs.The next night I banished DH to the spare room so that I might at least get some sleep in between if the Braxton Hicks started up again. That was a mistake. The pains started again in the night but now  had totally changed. They were stronger, longer and really low. Through the course of the night they started coming about every half an hour or so. By now I was getting worried but I am very stubborn and obstinate so woyuldn't go and get my hubby back even though I really wanted him so I just sat and cried feeling sorry for myself and desperate for a sleep. I rang the midwife the next morning and she said it sounded like contractions and to time them till they were 5 minutes apart before calling the hospital.To cut a long story short my contractions carried on for days. They were really random though and ranged from 30 minutes down to 3 but when they were 3 for a prolonged time the hospital told me to come in. They put me onto the machine but the contractions had slowed down by then. They examined me and said I was in ''false' or 'early' labour and it was just a waiting game.This went on and on every day- it was driving me mad. For the rest of the week I was up in triage. It went on and on.  Every time they hooked me up to the machine it was at a time they had slowed down but then would speed up again later.  Co-codamol kept me sane.On Sunday the contractions sped up- they were never less than 10 minutes apart. By Sunday night they were some were less than a minute apart- one was starting before the other was finished. I couldn't stand up and was literally bent double. Off we went to triage again only now we were snowed in and couldn't get off the drive. My brother turned up in his 4x4 and got us there in one piece.At this point  I was wailing again because by now there was no gap in the contractions and was convinced she was coming in the car. Once we got into triage they had slowed back down to about 8 minutes so I was getting really frustrated. The midwife examined me and said I was 2.5cm dilated but had to go home till I was 4. Right on cue my waters broke. I was told I would have to be induced within 18 hours and couldn't go home because the snow was so bad. Cue me wailing. Again. I cried a lot this week but then I hadn't had one wink of sleep since Monday so I think I was just exhausted. Through the night the contractions did the whole one starting before one finished thing so I called a midwife. She said I was 3cm and still not ready. She said that the contractions couldn't posibly be that close or I'd be further on and informed me that the pain I was on a scale of 1 to 10 is only 1 compared to where it was going to be later. Well eventually the induction moment came. I was put onto the drip and finaly given gas and air. Now I was monitored constantly the midwife (a lovely new one) said my contractions were piggy backing and coming in very fast and overlapped. At last they had picked it up! She said I was in far too much pain and recommended an epidural. I finally conked out and has a sleep. I woke up to find the room full and these doctors were making me sign papers for a possible emergency section.  I didn't know what was going on but it turned out that I was just not dilating at all so they had  turned the drugs up but baby didn't like it. Her heart rate had dropped down very low and if they didnt get it back quick I was off for a section. Luckily she did recover quickly but they had had to stop the induction. They eventually restarted it back on the lowest dose and it was a bit iffy whether it was going to work. I don't know the ins and outs of the whole thing but I know that it was pretty frightening for my birth partners and not the nicest experience for any of us. I feel sorry that my hubby was so worried and upset instead of enjoying the experience. My second birth partner kept him going as much as she did me.  Eventually things happened and Baby Amelia was born at 8:48am on Tuesday 22nd one week after it all started and she was well worth it. Shes absolutely adorable so I'm going to sign off now and give her another cuddle xxx

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