My L&D Story

I don't know where to start with Archers birth story to be honest. It was all so different than Lily's in just about every way. The whole experience was a total whirlwind and luckily I got James to write down everything that happened on his phone otherwise I wouldn't have remembered much at all. 
I suppose it makes sense to start from the beginning.

I've mentioned in my pregnancy updates that I was being induced on Fri 29th Jan at 10am and that I had a good feeling about that date, however in the end I ended up being induced a day early on Thursday the 28th due to my cholestasis levels unexpectedly rising. I didn't find this out until late afternoon on Wednesday so that night was spent panicking and madly rushing about trying to get everything sorted for the next day and as a result I literally had no sleep. 
I then spent the morning full of anxiety about how I was going to go through an induction with such little energy. We dropped lily off at my mums early morning and I came home to try and nap before we had to go in but despite feeling exhausted I just couldn't sleep a wink, I think it was the adrenaline of what was going to be happening later that day! 
We got to the induction suite at 1am and it was totally packed so we had a lot of waiting around to do before we were seen. Whilst we were waiting there was another lady on the ward who was having her waters broken and having to lie there and listen to this poor woman absolutely terrified me, not going to lie! After about an hour of waiting the midwife finally came to introduce herself and put me on the monitor. She was one of the midwives from One Born Every Minute which was nice because I felt like I already knew her in a way, and she was lovely. She told me that because it was my second baby she'd come back after the monitoring and try and break my waters and that if she could then there'd be no need for the induction pessary, which I'd had with Lily and hated.  It all sounded a bit good to be true because with Lily I'd had the pessary in and then had to wait around for ages until I was dialated enough to have my waters broken so to be able to chop out that time consuming first stage sounded ideal.  Midwife came back at around quarter past 3, did her internal and confirmed that she would indeed be able to break them which I was dead chuffed about haha. The whole experience of having my waters broken this time round was much better than with Lil. She managed to break them almost straight away and it was much less painful than with Lily. She said they were easy to break as they were practically bulging so they probably would've broken on their own if I hadn't been induced. So much water came out because of the polyhydramnios and it was the weirdest feeling..literally like I was deflating and I could breathe again!
We were then told that we could take a walk around the hospital until contractions started so we went down to costa coffee on the first floor and just like with Lily's labour my contractions started within minutes of getting there and having my cuppa. Totally embarassing moment occured when I made to get up off the leather sofa in costa and realised my waters had leaked through my leggings and on to the sofa!! Me and James scarpered pretty fast after that haha.. I can laugh about it now but was mortified at the time!
When we got back up to the induction suite my contractions were coming thick and fast, every 3-4 minutes lasting over a minute and I could not get comfortable at all. I asked the midwife to run me a bath and being in the water did help a lot pyschologically although not as much for the pain as I was expecting. It was also so hot in that tiny little bathroom with the heating on that I ended up throwing up a fair bit, poor James!

By the time I got out of the bath it was about 5pm and my contractions were soo painful I can't even tell you. I asked for an internal at about quarter past 6 thinking I'd be about 6 or 7cm dialated and I nearly cried when she told me I was only 2-3. I couldn't believe I was in that much pain for only 2 measly cm! It was exactly the same as Lilys..my contraction pain at 2cm is the same as when I'm at 10 which is really disheartening as you feel a bit like you're falling at the very first hurdle.

The midwife could see how much pain I was clearly in though so she took us over to the labour and delivery suite a little early so I could start on the gas and air. It all became a bit of a blur after getting there. I vaguely remember my new midwife introducing herself but I was in so much pain I couldn't even speak to her at all. She was called Abbie too which was pretty cool and after having the baby and finally being able to speak properly to her I found out she was really nice! I laboured on the bed with the gas and air for about an hour - longest and most painful hour of my life, I had to have my eyes shut the whole time which helped me for some reason and after about an hour of being in the labour suite I needed to push. Needing to push is the weirdest feeling ever. I never had that sensation with Lily as I'd had the epidural long before this stage with her and never got that urge but this time it was like my body was just taking over and telling me what to do.

I told the midwife this and I think she was pretty skeptical as I'd only had an internal an hour ago and was at 2cm. She put me off pushing and told me she'd go and get me some stronger painkillers (dyhydracodeine?) and that she'd check me when she got back. She spent ages giving me that internal when she got back and I was contracting so fast it was horrible! After what felt like the longest internal ever she asked me if I had fast labours and then told me she couldn't feel any cervix left and that the baby's head was right down meaning id gone from 2cm to fully dilated in little over an hour.

To be completely honest I didn't believe her as I didn't even think it was possible to dilate that fast and so I thought she was lying and just telling me I was fully dilated to make me feel better ha. I begged for the pain killers but she said she couldn't give me them as the baby would be here before they even kicked in and to just go with my body's pushing urges instead. 

The pushing experience this time was completely different to Lily's. With Lily I had the epidural in and couldn't feel a thing. Her head was practically out without me realising and she was born in 3 short pushes. This time I could feel everything! I felt like focusing on the need to push made the contractions less painful, or at least gave them some sort of meaning which helped. That being said I was pushing and pushing and felt like nothing at all was happening although the midwife was assuring me she could see the head every time I pushed. After about 40 minutes of pushing (it somehow felt like both way more and way less time) Archer was born and having him placed on my chest and being told he was a boy was one of the most amazing moments of my life.  
I think the fact that after some skin to skin I was able to get up and have a shower and then wolf down tea and toast (tea and toast is the most British way to celebrate having a baby isn't it!?) shows how much better my recovery was this time round. With Lily I still had the effects of the epidural going and couldn't move my legs for hours after delivery so a shower was out of the question and I still felt so sick afterwards that I refused all food and drink until the next morning. I know I keep comparing the two labours but it's really hard not to when they were so different!
When I look back on Archers birth I feel so positive about it. I still can't quite believe I did it on just gas and air. It was fast and intense and by far the most painful experience of my life but it was exactly the labour I was hoping for and thought I'd never get.     
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