Blake's Birth Story

I have decided to share with you the story of Blake's birth, although a more edited version for my 
blog on the basis I want to keep some things private after all. 

I had been having pains from time to time from the 4th of December and when I spoke to my midwife about
it she told me there was a chance I could be in pre-labour. 
A week later and still no baby; I just thought that it must have been strong braxton-hicks rather than pre-labour. 

On Sunday 14th of December my mum had come over with my sister and helped to put up the Christmas tree and to see how I was doing. We were joking that now the Christmas tree was up maybe baby would come! 
 We had also been over at Stuart's mum's for a dinner later that day and after I had eaten
I felt the pain a bit again and asked Stuart if he minded us leaving as I felt rather uncomfortable
and wanted to be in my own home. 
We had even joked about the bumps in the road bringing on my labour as we were dropped off back to the flat. 

Once home I just relaxed, read a book and then headed for bed about 11pm. 
At approx 1:30am on Monday 15th of December I woke up for the 2nd time in the night to go to the toilet.
I just made it in time to the bathroom before my waters broke. 
At the time I was unsure if it was my waters but I kept dripping so assuming it was 
we rang the delivery suite who told us to come in straight away. 

On arrival we were shown to a room and I was allowed to go to the toilet to sort myself out and then 
I was checked over by a midwife who told me she thought baby might be distressed so they wanted to put us both on a monitor to see baby's heartbeat and if I was getting contractions and also to monitor my blood pressure. 
Luckily baby's heartbeat was fine but they decided that they wanted to induce me to get my contractions started but eventually before they had a chance my contractions had started on their own so they chose to see if my contractions would progress on their own. They kept monitoring my blood pressure though as it was higher than normal. 

At about 7am I was checked over and told that I was 2cm dilated so they would check again to see how I was progressing a little after 1pm and then if nothing had progressed I would be induced. 
It was at this point that I needed gas and air which was the only pain relief that I had planned to use. 
After lunch when I was checked over again. I was told I was still only 2cm dilated so they would be putting me 
on a hormone drip to be induced. 
Throughout the afternoon the pains gradually got worse and I was using gas and air a lot combined with 
Stuart helping me to do deep breathing so I could get through some contractions without the need of it. 
A lot of the rest of my story is a blur from then onwards as I was very tired and of course there was the effects of using gas and air so Stuart has filled me in so I can complete this story. 

At some point during the day, I'm not sure of the exact time but I was put on a saline drip to 
make sure I didn't get dehydrated. At 4pm I was checked over once more and was told I was still 2cm dilated and that they would keep putting up the dosage on the drip to make my contractions more closer together. 
I was told as the machine monitoring Blake wasn't picking up his heartbeat well as it kept coming off (I think he kept kicking it off!) so
I would need to have a monitor attached to his head. 
So once this was done I was then given the epidural. 
I can vaugely remember the epidural being done but finding that it only worked on one side of my body and 
I could still feel pain on my left side so had to continue with gas and air. 

I was checked again at 8pm where I was told I was now 9cm dilated which was a huge relief.
At some point during labor I had a temperature and my blood pressure was still high. 
Also as I suffer from absence epilepsy I had a few blank outs which in general tends to happen when I am tired anyway. By 11pm I was still 9cm dilated and exhausted so they started having discussions on what was
best for me and Blake. 

I was told that it was in mine and Blake's best interests that I had an emergency C-section. 
I signed the consent form and then preparations were made and I was sent to theatre at 11:50pm.
At 12:16am on Tuesday 16th of December Blake Philip Miles was born weighing 6lb 9 oz. 
I can remember a tugging sensation whilst they performed the C-section but still felt a tad of discomfort as
they sewed me up so had to have gas and air briefly.
Once Blake was born they took him over to see us and that's when Stuart told me that we had a lovely baby 
boy which was such a lovely moment. 

Once out of theatre I was able to show him to my mum who was my 2nd labour partner so she got to have lots of cuddles before she had to go home. Luckily for me I was told that Stuart was able to stay with us since 
I was unable to move around due to the C-section. It wasn't until later in the day when we were up in the ward 
that I was able to gradually get up and move about. 

I had to stay in hospital up until after 9pm on Thursday 18th of December which was really frustrating and
I absolutely hated it. I had to have an antibiotic drip in my hand as when my temperature went up in labour it was
apparently due to infection and then eventually was given antibiotic's in tablet form which I had to have 
for a week after leaving hospital. I also had to have daily injections to prevent blood clots after having the C-section.

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