On Wednesday, 19th March 2014 James and I headed into the SAN hospital at 7:45am to be induced. Because of my blood pressure, and with Andrew going away on the Saturday, it was decided that I would be induced. Mum came around to look after Daniel for the day which was lovely. As soon as we walked in the door, they had me get changed and examined me to see where I was at. Andrew attempted to break my waters, however, after the first attempt where he said 'there will be a gush and it won't feel very comfortable' there was only a little trickle of liquid so he wasn't sure he had broken them. After 2 more attempts and no 'gush' he decided to leave it for an hour and check again. While breaking the waters Andrew said that it is a lot of fun and if not, then lie about it. I told him that it was more fun than James and my wedding day. This made all of us laugh (awkward situations make me be sarcastic/silly). Sometimes when the waters break, the baby's head acts as a plug and so stops the liquid coming out - and he thought this was one of those times. Our midwife Amelia put a monitor on me to check my blood pressure, heart rate and also the baby's heart rate and we then sat around and waited. To pass the time, James and I started doing a crossword puzzle in one of my magazines.
After an hour Amelia told us to go for a walk so we headed down the street. Nothing much was happening. It was nice to get outside though. After more sitting around, crossword puzzle work and chatting it was decided that they would put the drip in to begin trying to induce labour (at 10:30). I asked the lady if I would be able to get changed or have a shower when the drip was in and she said no, so I got changed into the hospital gown and lay on the bed. I really don't like needles and this one really hurt when it was put into my wrist. After 15mins some small contractions started but doing the crossword was a good amount of distraction for me. After 30mins they upped the dosage in the drip which made the contractions become stronger and more frequent. I was able to breathe through the contractions, while using James for support. Each contraction I would hold his hand in an arm wrestling grip and squeeze it to help me through the pain. (After Eliza was born I saw James' wrist and felt a bit bad about the nail marks that were there. Oops.) Around now the crossword was put away as the contractions were becoming more intense. At 11:50 they put the dosage up again and the contractions continued to be intense. It would have been nice to have a shower or try different techniques but the drip wouldn't allow it. I tried using the exercise ball, but the monitor kept slipping up a little bit, measuring my heart rate, not the bubs which set alarms at the nurses station. While Amelia knew it was ok, the others didn't and so it wasn't working. I asked if she would prefer me to stand so that the monitor would work properly because it was important to look after the bub and she said whatever I wanted to do. I decided to stand up and lean over the bed so that they could keep an accurate eye on bub. I was also starting to experience tingling in my fingers and down part of my right wrist. Amelia wasn't too sure why this was happening and she asked the other midwives if they had encountered it (as she hadn't heard about it before during labour). She thought it might have been my body's reaction to the pain or it might have been that I was hungry, because I hadn't eaten since breakfast at 6:30am. Overall it wasn't a concern.
At around 12:15 the contractions were quite strong and painful and, while I was breathing through most of them and squeezing James' hand like nothing else, I asked to have an internal examination done to see how far along I was and how much further there was to go. I was saying to James that I didn't think I could keep doing it. Amelia asked James if I wanted gas which he said no to because I didn't like it with Daniel (we had discussed this previously). She understood. With the examination I was 5-6cm dilated. Andrew came in a couple of minutes after when we were talking about epidurals. I didn't think I could keep going but I didn't want to have an epidural if it was going to stay at the same level of pain. I wanted to do it drug free as I have heard a lot of people who have done that, but if labour was going to continue over a long period of time, then I wanted to have an epidural. I basically asked Andrew if the pain was going to get worse or stay at the same level and he said 'I'm not going to lie to you, it's going to get worse'. I told James that he needed to decide if I got an epidural or not as I didn't know what to decide. Andrew said that basically I needed to decide then. If I left it, it would probably be too late so I needed to decide now. James wanted me to make the decision. He said I was doing really well with my breathing but he could see that the pain was going to get worse and was going to support me with any decision I was going to make. I decided that I wouldn't be able to do it without an epidural as the pain was getting too much and I remembered how I felt after getting one with Daniel, so we decided to get one (at 12:25pm). At 12:45 Dr Booker examined me again and I was 6-7cm dilated, still able to breath through the contractions but had a lot of movement - kicking my legs, bending over, squeezing James' hand, etc.
Amelia tried 5 different anesthetists who all said that they were booked up and wouldn't be able to make it for a while, but she needed one now. Then one called back and said that he had organised something for his other patients and he would be down. 10mins later the anesthetist arrived. He was lovely and talked us through everything he was doing, as he was doing it. He also was patient and understanding that I didn't want to have it administered when having a contraction, like last time, so worked around them. It was hard lying down and having contractions, but atleast the needle going in was done in between them (I was still very scared to have one during the process). At 1pm the epidural was administered but it wasn't really taking effect. The inside of my legs felt a bit tingly but that was pretty much all. I could still feel each contraction in my abdomin, different to Daniel where each contraction was down my back. The contractions were still quite intense and I was starting to feel the need to push. Amelia kept saying that I needed to just breathe. I didn't understand why the epidural wasn't taking the pain away like last time, but as it turned out, they didn't actually administer the whole epidural medication because the process happened so quickly.
At 1:20pm, James said that Dr Booker walked into the room and he and Amelia shared a look of 'it's happening now'. Andrew then said to push on the next contraction. I asked if he was serious and he said yes. The next contraction I started to push and Andrew said to just keep pushing. I tried my hardest but I couldn't get the bub out. With the next contraction I pushed and Eliza was on her way out. Dr Booker told me to pant, which was very hard to do when still having a contraction. Then he said to do another little push and to look up. It was crazy seeing her come out - quite surreal actually. She was crying (which was different to Daniel) and they scooped her up and put her on my chest. She was born at 1:30pm.
 |
| So much love! |
 |
| Daniel's first meeting of Eliza |
 |
| Giving her a hug |
 |
| Pointing out her nose |
 |
| My beautiful family |
 |
| More hugs for Eliza |
As they were very busy on the Maternity Ward, I had to stay in the delivery room for the night. We were still allowed to have visitors come in which was good. My family came in and got to have cuddles with Eliza, play with Daniel and chat with James and I. It was nice to see them.
 |
| Mum meeting Eliza |
 |
| Poppy's first cuddles (after reading with Daniel) |
 |
| Auntie Jenny was so excited that Eliza was a girl! |
 |
| Very happy Uncle Awesome |
 |
| Another cousin for Oscar |
It's pretty crazy that we're a family of 4 now... I am excited to have a little girl, but not there are lots of new things that I will need to learn - including how to do girls' hair - but I am excited that my dolls house that Grandpa made me will most likely be used by her. I'm sure Grandpa would be happy to know that it is being passed onto the next generation too.
