So I woke up at 5:30am on 11/2 with contractions, they were painful enough I had to breathe through them. By 9am they were 3 minutes apart so we headed to the hospital. I was 3cm dilated but they wanted to keep me in as I was so close to active labour. I was having bad heartburn and sickness so couldn’t keep down any food or pain killers (paracetamol & codeine)

By 6pm I was 4cm dilated and taken to the birthing pool, unfortunately it was too early for this and my contractions slowed down. We were kept in a bed on the observation ward overnight with contractions coming every 5/6 minutes.

Morning of Wednesday 12th I was told to walk round the hospital to get things moving, I had zero energy as still unable to keep anything down 🤢🤮

We walked and walked but at 11am a midwife told me if I didn’t start progressing I would have to go back home, she didn’t check me as contractions were still too far apart. However, at 12.30 a consultant checked me, he said that even though contractions were still far apart I had progressed to 6/7cm dilated and we were taken to a delivery room.

Gas & air helped to ease contraction pains and they broke my waters. 4pm I was put on an oxytocin drip which made the contractions come thick and fast, I had diamorphine which completely took the pains away. 6.30pm I was completely dilated but baby was back to back so I got on the birthing ball to try and turn her and started pushing an hour later.

9.30pm, after 2 hours of pushing, baby was coming sideways so we were taken to theatre where I was given a spinal injection and she was delivered after just 2 more pushes at 21:53 using forceps, weighing 7lbs 5oz.

Over 40 hours from beginning to end but she is perfect and worth every single minute of it 😍

💗 Marissa Rose 💗