The Eagle has Landed!

So apologies first up for being sooo long between updates!! Baby Ashton has arrived and with Christmas, my birthday and having Peter home I just haven't had the chance to jump on properly!!

Ok so hopefully I can get my birth story in before Peter needs the computer then I can come on and update the rest!

So where to start:

To begin with I had 2 stretch and sweeps in an attempt to get labour started. The first one I started losing my plug but not much else then the second one when I was 4 days past my due date I feel really kicked things off!! It felt a lot more uncomfy and I felt she really gave it a good sweep!

So that was on the Monday! Wednesday morning I woke up at 6am with what was definitely contractions. They were stronger than BH but not getting any stronger or closer together! They remained 6-8 minutes apart the whooolllee day!! IT was frustrating because I spent the whole day wondering if it was going to go forward or fizzle out into nothing! I'd been booked in for an induction on Monday the 27th but I really wanted bubba out before xmas!!

I woke up at about 2am on Thursday 23/12 with much stronger pains but tried to get some more sleep! 4am I woke up in much more pain and they were coming on about 4-5 minutes apart! I got up, had some panadol and a heat pack. No luck...it still hurt so I jumped in the shower and still no luck!! It hurt!! When they say you;ll definitely know the difference between BH and the real deal they aren't kidding!!

Woke mum and Peter up to say it's time to go to the hospital! By this stage I could barely walk through the contractions and would just have to stand bent over on the spot stamping my foot on the floor!!

Got to the hospital at about 6am. They put the monitor on me, and did an internal at about 8am - still only 1cm dialated!! I was not impressed as I was in a lot of pain!! They decided to send me home but as I had an appointment booked with the midwife for 9.30 that morning they got me in early! They wanted to do a fluid check to make sure all was good around the baby!! So during the scan I had 3 morevery painful contractions! The midwife thought she should probably do another internal to check before sending me home so this time only an hour later I was 3cm! YAY things were moving!! But I still went home with some panadeine forte and some sleeping tablets!

Got home about 9.30am hopped straight into bed...this lasted an hour until the pain was UNBEARABLE!! So back in the car we went! Got to the hospital and back into the delivery suite where the midwife suggested I have a bath which soothed the pain for a little while! Was nice and peaceful just lying in there with DP sitting next to me! But after 45 minutes (which I thought was only 15 minutes) the contractions were too painful and I had to get out! So back to the room we go and I'm asking for the gas!! Again...unless you timed it right didn't do much as it takes a bit to kick in! Plus it made me want to throw up so that was horrible!! I needed something stronger - there was no way I could imagine walking through them or anything like they suggest! The pain was all in my back and even being on all fours it HURT!!!!!

I was the loudest on the ward by far but I just didn't care! I just wanted the pain to stop!! So I got the pethidine (Slowly working my way through each level of painkiller!!) But again.... the pain was ridiculous!! Until eventually I just yelled out wanting an epidural! I have no idea what time it was as time has no meaning by this stage!!

So they moved me into another room and gave me the epidural! I was so out of it by this stage I could barely hold my head up! Peter was holding me still but unfortunately the sight of the needle made him queasie so the dr's suggested he lie down for a little while!! As soon as that epi was in I was a whole new person!! I managed to get some sleep and then had a sense of humour about it all!!

Eventually the midwife broke my waters for me and when feeling for the head let me know he had quite a bit of hair!! hehe

So the time came when she decided it was time to push! They turned down the epi so I could feel some sensation so I knew when I was having a contraction but not having any pain! So we watched the monitor - cx came on - I pushed and pushed and pushed! This went on for over 2 hours of just pushing my hardest (all the while being paranoid about pointless things like pooing or bursting blood vessells in my eyes! hehe) Eventually he had moved down but not enough and they were getting concerned about bubs heart rate!! Dr John appeared decked out in his plastic apron and gumboots!! Legs up in stirrups (definitely not one of my finer moments in life!!) Vaccuum attached and I pushed and they pulled.... BAM!! Vaccuum pops off and blood goes EVERYWHERE!! Talk about scary! So they decided forceps was necessary! By this stage there were 2 midwives, my ob and then the paed needed to be in as well so I was getting a little scared!! Fortunately I felt nothing!! So with one big push from me and a pull from the forceps baby Ashton was brought into the world! Turns out the little guy had turned posterior and no one had picked it up - hence why the labour was sooo painful as it was all in my back and also why he didn't want to budge!!!

So they pulled him out, put him on my chest and the monkey pooed all over me! AWESOME!! haha But then they had to whisk him away to check him as he was cold (fortunately he was crying though so I knew he was breathing!!) He was fine though!

They gave him to me to cuddle but after about 5 minutes I needed to throw up so eventually after it had all settled down I gave him a breastfeed and he was awesome at it!!!!

So happy to have my little man in the world!!