Meet Charlie George!

My waters started to leak on the 19th January at around 9pm, phoned the hospital and they said if no contractions or active labour to come to the hospital 24 hours later to be examined and maybe induced. Finally my waters exploded (literally) at around 11pm the same night and I started to bounce on the ball to get this baby out.

Contractions started around 3:30-4am from 5-10 minutes apart so I decided to get some sleep thinking this baby would be on his way soon.

Contractions started to get painful around 5:30am, I started to time them more carefully but still inconsistent so my midwife came out to check me over and to make sure baby is okay, everything was okay but baby was still comfortable so they were leaning towards an induction just incase.

9pm on the 20th January (24 hours after water broke) I went to the maternity ward to be checked over and they decided to induce me the next day in the morning instead as the labour ward was quite full and not enough staff was on to help out. This night I had no sleep at all due to the contractions being so goddamn painful and they actually went to 2-3 minutes apart! Here’s me thinking no induction this baby is coming naturally😅 I told the midwife who put me on a monitor to check the baby, he was all good but the contractions weren’t lasting long enough to actually start labour so bubble=burst.

Finally, the 21st January (36ish hours after waters being broken) my midwife came over and told me I was being moved to the labour ward! I text my partner to get his arse over here as we’re going to meet the baby soon. Took three pokes of a needle for a cannula and two nearly fainting sessions over I had my drip in ready for the hormone drip oxytocin to get my baby here. While waiting for my partner a student midwife asked if she could check me and oh my god no one told me you would feel it in your stomach🤢 one of the most painful things ever but I found out I got to 3cm on my own!

Partner finally got his arse in the hospital and they started me on saline and the hormone drip at around 10:30-11am to speed up the contractions. About half hour to an hour in I was on the gas and air and it is THE best thing ever. Made me miss feeling tipsy from drinking so much 😅 for me it also made my mouth/tonsils tingly and part of upper lip and nose as if you had a local from a dentist.

The contractions started to hurt so much more now as they turned up the dosage twice and baby wasn’t liking it at all. The whole time on the labour ward I was labouring back to back with my baby and I thought that was so painful until I had to move to my side to help my baby heart rate, I wouldn’t wish that pain on my worst enemy.

The pain got so so bad and sharp I was basically like an eel out of water sliding all over the bed trying to ease some of the pain if possible.

Around 3:15-3:30ish I had my cervix checked and was told it was only 4-5cm dilated and remember thinking I’m going to be here for so long in pain. Another midwife walked in and asked if I needed to push which i did, they were like no no too early but they ended up checking me again 5 minutes later and I went to 6 stretchy 7. The doctor in the room didn’t like the look of babies heartbeat so decided to get a scanner to check on baby, from the time it took them to get a scanner, and the doctor to put the gel on I shouted I needed to push and the babies head was pretty much there. I went from 4cm to fully dilated in at least 15 minutes which was so painful but I was ready to meet my baby!

The doctor injected some local anaesthetic ready in case they had to cut me to get the baby out faster and I’m so glad he did, it felt like I was pushing against a wall. One cut later and his head was out and that’s when the doctor saw the babies cord around his neck three times and decided to cut me again to get him out as fast as possible.

Charlie George was born at 16:13 on 21st January after causing a whole lot of pain and trouble but we couldn’t be more in love