my waters broke at 3:30am, went in at 5am to be checked, was on monitor until 6am 'not in labour', she went to swab for infection and found out i was 4cm with NO contractions at all. Waited until 7am to get a bed in labour and delivery, started getting slight pains at 7:30 and contractions at 8:30. Had the drip put on at 9am coz i hadnt progressed in 3hours, had epidural at 12:30, needed to push by 12:45, started pushing at 1:30pm, born at 1:50pm.
so 10'5hours from waters breaking and 5.5hours of contractions - the last hour of that was on epidural.
tore really badly, nearly had to go to theatre, almost wished i had coz i'm not happy with the stitching i got - far too tight!
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
my labour was easy, I was lucky, only took 4hrs from strat to finish, just got to he ward on time, after rushing in the ambulance. I tore badly though.
Hi all. Just to let you know I gave birth last Monday the 22nd. Went really quickly - I went to bed Sunday, had some cramps and couldn't really sleep. I was pretty thick and didn't really twig and ring the midwife until gone four. She said - take two paracetamol, go back to bed and ring her back about eight! I took two paracetamol and made Mar ring back and tell her she'd probably better come over and I didn't mean to sound quite so calm. She came over at seven and Linnea was born at ten past eight. No tears, no complications, no crying even. She's really, really lovely and well-behaved (though she tends to have her longer sleeps during daylight hours and her shorter sleeps at night - oh well!).
I know I'm not really a regular here but I have appreciated having somewhere to vent when I needed to! You guys are a great sounding board for everything. xxx
chloe is not going to sleep very well tonight either. she is sucking the life out of an empty bottle (too frightened to leave her with juice etc coz she would choke or better still make it leak everywhere!) to occupy her until she sleeps. she wont take a dummy at all but will happily chomp on a bottl. hope it works, am desparate for her to sleep through. mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
advice: take it easy and get lots of sleep. Eat plenty of ice cream if you're getting heart burn. Milky things really help with that, and liquid gaviscon is better than tablet gaviscon.
I read lots of books and stayed in bed a lot in my last few weeks. I moved house two weeks before the birth! Maybe that helped speed things up a bit? She came 1 week early, I was really really pleased I can't imagine going over the due date...
are first births normally difficult? has anyone had a water birth? i think ive trapped a nerve in my back too is there anything i can do to get rid of it do u think?
it could be the start of labour hun - back pain that is, especially if the baby's back is next to yours.
a lot of our ryl mum's had straightforward first births... but some had complications/reluctant babies (poor stacey!), it is a case-by-case thing, everyone is different.
Lou, you are tiny compared to me and i dropped at 37+3!
Scan dates are estimated from your baby's measurements, but they think that even by 10weeks (dating scan) that Chloe was a big baby and could be as little as 5 or 6 weeks along as she looked earlier than the dates and scans suggested.
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
they estimated 11lbs for Chloe, but i had her early (18 days before due date) and she was 7lb1oz, but the midwife said she looked like a 7 or 8 week prem baby and thought my scan dates could be wrong.
'dropped' as in - gave birth.
good luck and if your back pain become spasmic or on and off getting more regular... call the midwife!
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
I was told Madeleine felt small by the midwife (by feeling my tummy) but she was a very healthy 8lbs. They can't always tell.
You could try putting a hot water bottle on your back? I had back pain throughout my pregnancy and the only thing that worked was having a lie down for a bit and not walking too much. It felt nice to have hot things on it though.
