On the Sat before Finn arrived, I had another show, this was more significant than the others and I went in to the hospital on the Sunday to be checked out. They checked me over and said nothing was happening and I should be back on the Monday for my second sweep. On the Monday I went for my second sweep and this one was more intense and hectic than the first. The doctor said there had been no progress from the week 39 week scan and I was still only 2/5's engaged and 2cm dialated. My cervix was of a medium softness and she told me she wanted to see me at 41 weeks to discuss other options because it did not look like Finn was ready for the world.
Anyway, I went home and had my usual tummy ache and a bit of spotting but nothing to severe.
On the Tuesday night however, I started passing having more of a show. This time it was far more than light spotting and was like mucus fluid. I went to bed and at about 10 started having contractions. They were intense but manageable and I decided to just time them and see what happens. I went to the toilet all night and passed more and more of this fluid and continued to have contractions. They were sporadic some 6 min apart, some 14 min apart. There was no obvious pattern. At 4am I decided to have a cup of tea and a bath and they dissappeared. I went to sleep at 5 and slept until 9. When I woke up I call the hospital and they told me to only come back if my contractions got regular or if my waters went. I continued to pass this stuff all day long and that night decided to sleep in Josh's room to give Errol some sleep.
I had contractions ALL NIGHT and they were worse than the night before. I decided not to time them because I really just wanted to get sleep in between rather than watch a clock all night like I had done the night before.
By 6am I went to find Errol because it was now really painful and I was in tears. I was convinced something was wrong because of the amount of fluids coming out of me.
I called the hospital and they told me to come in. I was still having contractions but we were still not timing them.
We got to the hospital at 7am and they put me on a monitor and we waited for the doctor to come and check me out. He was coming in at 9am.
The monitor was showing Finn's heart beat but not my contractions so Errol finally started timing them. At this stage they were 6 min apart. The midwife came in and was concerned about the peaks and lows in Finn's heart beat and I told her it was when I was having contractions and she then realised that the monitor was not monitoring my contractions. Once she sorted that out we were able to watch everything happening on the monitor.
The doctor came and gave me an internal examination, he realised that it was my back waters that had been leaking for the passed 2 days and they told me they could only allow this to happen for 48 hours or else the risk of infection is high. I was still only 2.5cm dialated and 3/5's engaged so he wanted me to get induced to speed things up.
They wanted me started on the Oxytocin for 4 hours and then if Finn was not out naturally they were going to review things at 13h30 and decide whether to do a c section again.
If they were to give me the Oxytocin they needed a midwife to be dedicated to me and to be able to sit with my 24/7 because of my scar from the c sec and fear of scar rupture because they cannot tell how heavy the oxytocin will affect me.
Just my luck the hospital was extremely busy and my midwives kept been called to emergencies in other rooms. I was quite happy because I was having regular contractions and I was hoping that by the time they next looked at me I would have done half the work myself.
Anyway, by about 11h30 they still had not given me the oxytocin and I was on my 3rd midwife Elsie. She was a staunch elderly midwife who looked like she was not going to do anything that she did not want to do.
She took ages to get herself ready and prepared for her day with me. She examined me again and told me she was going to break my front waters to avoid it bulging and causing problems.
This procedure is not pleasant but is manageable again. I also thought this might speed things up a bit. I was now having 3 contractions in 10 min and they were very intense.
I told Elsie that I wanted to have another internal exam before she started the drugs and I want to see how far I am and if I can do the labour without pain relief.
She said she would but recommended that I have an epidural. Purely because I managed to go to 9.5cm's with Josh and without drugs and then had to have a c sec because he was in distress. What she wanted was for me to not be distressed and to have my natural birth that I so badly wanted. Also, she could not say how fast things would happen on the oxytocin and how intense things were going to me.
She also mentioned how busy they were and that by 16h00 I would not be able to get an anesthetist to see me. With all this weighing in my mind, I decided to go for the epidural.
Oh and I was still only 2.5cm dialated and 3/5's engaged so figured I was doing a lot of hard work and not getting anywhere on my own.
So at 13h30 I had the epidural and they started the oxytocin at about 14h00. The epidural was not working as well as I had hoped and I was also sucking on gas and ear at this stage to manage my contractions which were now on top of each other. At 15h00 the anesthetist came back to top me up because though the contractions were shorter and and slightly less intense I was still feeling them.
The next hour passed with me working hard breathing through my contractions but they were becoming more and more intense. I was not feeling them all over and only in one place on my left side of my groin. The midwife called the anesthetist back and he decided to pull the epidural out slightly to try and disperse it more as it was clearly only working on the one side. He was also concerned that the pain I was feeling was actually my scar ruptering from the inside!
Well at 16h15 he left and said he would come back at 16h30 to do the epidural again as I might be one of the 1 in 20 people where the epidural does not work.
He left and the midwife checked the monitor and to her horror Finn's heart beat had dropped to 78. It was usually around 145. She got extremely alarmed and told us ( which I did not appreciate as she got me in a right state)
Finn's heart beat was not recovering, the pain was intense and Errol had decided to go for his first walk of the day....
She ran off to fetch the doctor.
He came in and checked me over immediately and told me to look at him and said the words I will never forget:
"Look at me, you are NOT having a caesarean, you are fully dialated and your baby is ready to come out now!"
I was so relieved and happy and everything. Errol was there again and I was about to push Finn out.
He said that Finn was a little shocked as to how fast things were happening and thats why he was in distress. He told me he wanted to act fast and get him out so asked permission to do a episiotomy and use forcepts.
Welll, at 16h25 Finn was born. It was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. Just writing these words now has brought me to tears. My wonderful husband who was there at my side whom I could not have done it without. His face looking at me and his eyes telling me to just keep looking at him the whole time. The hand that I squeezed so tight! I never thought I could love my Errol more, but at that moment in time, I did, I loved him more than anything on earth. Our beautiful Finn was hear and healthy and crying beautifully.
So that is how Finn arrived. Fast and furiously... The doctor said that he actually did not need to use the forcepts and do the episiotomy in the end as I would have done it on my own fine but they did it out of precaution rather because of Finn's heartrate.
So now I have two BEAUTIFUL Son's and my life is complete. Both births were completely different but I will take natural birth over a caesarean anyday. Sure there is a bit of discomfort for a few days but nothing like the pain I experienced and the first few days of being drugged up on morphine with Josh.
Now it is time to enjoy the fruits of my labour!
