We arrived at the hospital at 7am on the 22nd. They broke my waters at 8am and said they’d wait to see if anything happened…. nothing happened! So at midday they put the drip in (yuk!) and at 12:30pm the contractions started. I was pretty much confined to the bed because I was attached to the drip and also had to have constant fetal monitoring. By 4pm the pain was unbearable. I begged for pain relief and was given some pethadine. It didn’t do very much at all. The midwife told me that I was progressing well and that I should be fully dilated and that my baby should be here by 6pm! That was enough to motivate me!!! I was told the doctor would be in at 5pm and then I should be able to start pushing.

5pm finally came and the doctor did an internal. “You’re only 3cm dialted”??????? NOT HAPPY JAN!!!! I went bananas at him – poor guy, not really his fault I wasn’t dialting
By 5:30 I had had ENOUGH!!! I told them I wanted an epidural. Scott told them that I didn’t really want one (I told him under no circumstances did I want one) but when they heard me demand one in some sort of foreign voice they promptly called for one!
By the time they had finished mucking around with my back, I felt a very strong urge to push. I was surrounded by 3 doctors and the midwife because my baby’s heart rate was dropping. I was very scared and they were only giving me a few minutes before they were going to take me into surgery. The epidural only worked down one side so I felt her coming. The doctor told me I would damage my cervix if I continued to push and in the end he manually pulled my cervix over my baby’s head! Finally my beautiful daughter Ella was born at 7:41pm on Wednesday 22nd December weighing 5lb 3oz and measuring 46cm. I was told at the end of my pregancy that she would need special care for a few weeks after her birth (NICU), but she was fine! Small, but totally fine! She fed straight after she was born. I was even able to take her home the next day Just in time for Christmas!