Imogen Hazel was born on Saturday the 17th May at 7:37am weighing 6lbs 5oz after 32 hours. Here is her labour story... I forewarn you, is a very long one
At midnight on Thursday 15th (2 days overdue) my waters broke and contractions started almost immediately. They were pretty intense, 2 in 5 and no real let up in between. We called the midwife suite as I thought baby was going to arrive before breakfast.
We had planned a home birth so my other half started putting the pool up and rearranging the room while I started to focus on the task ahead. At about 3am a midwife arrived to examine me and told me I wasn't quite 1cm. I thought I may be 1 or 2 but not too surprising. The contractions were coming harder and faster though and I was very quickly finding it really difficult to get comfortable or relax. I felt I was starting to struggle and the surges were getting closer together and more regular. At about 7am, I decided to get in the pool and my other half started to time the surges. They were coming 3 in 10, regularly, intense and for a good minute each. We called the midwife suite again.
When the midwife arrived I was having to work hard to hypnobirth through the surges and expected to be around 5/6cm. I was 1 and a half! I had a cry. We were starting to feel a little isolated and clueless at home. The surges said we were making progress but I wasn't dilating. We asked to hear some options and decided to go into hospital to get some meptid to allow me to get some rest as we were exhausted and hadn't slept since Wednesday night. I was really upset and disappointed that we were going to hospital but I was really struggling to breathe through the surges.
We got to hospital about midday, 12 hours into Labour and I had some liquid morphine. I was feeling a little sad and struggling and wasn't getting any rest still and the surges weren't dying down in between. my OH saw how down I was and suggested we really focus and work hard to put what wed learnt at our hypnobirthing classes into action even though we weren't at home. He was fantastic and managed to get me really focused and I started controlling the surges really well.
The midwives wanted to monitor us and they noticed baby's heart rate was dropping when I was having surges. But they also noticed that my pulse was going from 122 in between surges to 80 during surges. We explained we were hypnobirthing and they all seemed really amazed that we were actually calmer during surges than in between.
The midwife examined me again at 3:45pm and we were 4cm and officially in established Labour! Hooray! We were so pleased and put it down to a few hours focused hypnobirthing and visualisation. Baby's heart rate was still dropping though and the doctor decided to send us to consultant care. My OH and I had decided that it no longer mattered where we were, we'd carry on doing our thing and thinking positively.
The surges were still 3 in 10 and still very intense but we were managing them really well. At 7:45pm we had progressed to 6cm and were starting to feel confident we might get her out before midnight. By this point though, baby seemed to be struggling and we were getting absolutely exhausted after being awake for around 42 hours and labouring for 20.
By 11:45pm, 24 hours into Labour I could barely support my weight any more, my OH was struggling to stay awake to talk me through the surges and baby seemed exhausted too. We were examined and remained at 6cm. The surges were tailing off and the doctor wanted to give me syntocin. We decided at this point, the most sensible course was to accept an epidural if only to get enough energy together to get her out. We knew the surges were going to start coming harder and faster and although we thought we could manage the pain, I no longer thought I was able to remain upright and had enough energy to carry on without rest.
We had the epidural and my OH managed to get 5 hours sleep and though I didn't sleep I managed to rest. I was still breathing through the surges but wasn't in pain any more.
At 6am on the 17th the doctor told us we were fully open +1. Because my waters had broken more than 24 hours ago and I was getting a temperature and high pulse rate, we were given 1 hour to push before they would want to give us a vontuse.
We started pushing at 6:15am and were making really great progress in the first 20 minutes. She was moving down well and we could see her head. But then it all slowed down and baby and I were both so exhausted it didn't look like she would be coming along without help. At 7:15am the doctor came back and we agreed to a vontuse.
After a couple of pushes her head was out but then I was told to stop. She had the cord wrapped tight and pinching her skin round her neck 3 times as well as a true knot in the cord. The doctor clamped and cut the cord and I was told I had to get baby out very quickly. I was given an epistiotomy and It was all a bit of a blur and we got her out but she wasn't breathing. The emergency team were called in to resuscitate her. She needed help for about 1 minute 30 seconds before she was breathing on her own and she was rushed off to neo natal. I sent my OH with her and unknown to me I was hemorraging. I lost about a litre and a half of blood and given an iv drip to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately it meant I wasn't able to meet Imogen for about 4 hours after she was born.
4 long hours later they finally let me get in a wheel chair and go meet baby. We were both put on antibiotics but she was doing so well and I was able to breast feed her. I was put on the ward and they called me down to feed her when she cried. By 4am she'd done so well that they took her off the monitors and put her in the nursery in a cot. By the next afternoon she was well enough to come up on the ward with me which was wonderful.
On Monday we were told she'd done so well we didn't have to give her her last dose of antibiotics and we could all go home. Since then she's been pretty good. She isn't a fan of sleeping in her crib and wants to sleep on one of us all the time but she's getting a bit better and I think she'll be okay to go down on her own in a couple of weeks. We have struggled with breastfeeding and it turns out she's tongue tied so she's waiting for an appointment to have that snipped. We're feeding with nipple shields and its still quite painful but since my milk came in its become a lot easier for us both so once she has her tie cut I hope our problems will be solved.
I've struggled a little emotionally and found it a bit harder to bond as we missed that first skin to skin and when I got to meet her she was all rigged up to wires. But she's so cute it's difficult not to cuddle her all day! My OH is besotted and completely soppy for her. He's doing an amazing job and has been so hands on with her. He's a natural. He was the most incredible support through my Labour too. I think I would have given up after 10 hours if it wasn't for him but we managed to successfully hypnobirth for 24 hours on no pain relief and really controlled surges which was totally down to him.
We were both amazed at how successful the hypnobirthing was and even though it wasn't the natural home birth we planned, we know how much of a difference the technique made and would definitely recommend it to anyone. I'm not sure I would have coped very well without it.
Well doneif you made it to the end of this post! Thanks to everyone who helped me through my pregnancy xx
tired but well x
How long did second labour's last? 
The birth of cheeky Emily :-)
