So it all started on Wednesday March 6th at 6:30am, my waters broke! Due to my gestational diabetes I had to ring hospital for advice straight away. They told me to come to DAU (Day Assessment Unit) at 9am. We got there around 9am and got checked really quickly, they confirmed that my waters have gone but they weren’t sure if that was main waters or the front ones 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️. They gave me an option to induce me straight away or wait for the contractions to start on it’s own (nothing was showing that they will start on it’s own). If there were no contractions within 12hrs I would need to get back and get induced anyway so we have decided to stay at hospital and get induced straight away! They admitted me to birth centre first and inserted a tablet at 12pm which was meant to bring contractions and help me dilate. Let me tell you, the pains were so weak I knew this thing won’t work on me! At around 9pm I got checked and I was still at 1cm (I was 1cm when I got admitted to the ward) so they told me that they will give me more time and try to find a bed for me in delivery suites so I can have hormonal drip to get things going. Finally on Thursday March 7th at 3:30am they moved me to the delivery suite! I got so excited that I’m going to meet my little guy so soon, oh how wrong I was 😳😩. They took their time with all checks etc and got the drip installed by 7am. They were trying to persuade me to get epidural straight away but I declined as I was hoping I won’t need it, hoping for quick progress. Yet again, I was so wrong! Contractions become really bad and coming really regularly, worst part was that I couldn’t be mobile on the drip and every time I tried to move my babies pressure was switching to mine! I got checked after 3 hours and I have progressed to 3cm but cervix was still at the back and hard. After 6hrs pains were unbearable. I got checked again and I was still stuck at 3cm. At that point midwife was begging me to take epidural as she knew it will take ages and she could see how painful it is. I was crying and passing out during contractions and having 30second breaks didn’t help at all. So finally my husband asked me to accept epidural and I agreed. After epidural everything was so chilled, I could still feel the tightening but not the pain! After another 6hrs I got checked (I was getting checked every 2hrs) and I progressed to 5cm! My midwife asked doctor to come and check me as she wasn’t too happy about slow progress on oxytocin. He came in and as he checked me he said I’m definitely not a 5cm, I’m 4cm! And then he went to have a chat with consultants about what to do with me. While he was having a chat midwife came in and told me that most probably I’ll get a choice of either waiting another 4hrs to see if I profess or caesarean. She knew that caesarean was my very last option but after 32hrs I was shattered. I spoke with my husband and cried for what seemed like forever decided to go for caesarean. And then consultant comes in and says that he isn’t giving me any option and that we are waiting another 4hrs! I wouldn’t mind waiting those extra hours but he mentioned that even if I don’t dilate more than I am but my cervix will get a bit more softer we will continue waiting for the vaginal birth! Thanks God there was a swap of staff in between.. after 4 hours consultants and doctors came in to assess me and it came up I am still 4cm and nothing has changed me. Just to clarify by that time I was on the hormonal drip for 16hrs and 10hrs on epidural! They decided to do emergency caesarean! 🙌🏻 Friday March 8th at 12am they started getting me ready for the caesarean, the epidural they give at the theatre didn’t work on my left side so they had to do loads of top ups it made me shiver so much! My beautiful baby boy was born at 1:16am and the riddle behind my slow labour is that he was wrapped in his cord and couldn’t go any lower! After they took him out epidural started to wear off and I could feel everything 🙈😓 they did so many top ups as they could because I begged them not to put me under general anaesthetic. I’ve lost 1.5 litres of blood and had to be checked so many times if I need blood transfusions but I stopped bleeding 🙌🏻.

It was really hard labour but definitely worth it! Meet my little buba!

Antoni born on the 8th March at 1:16am 8lbs 7oz and 22 inches long!