My Labour Story!

Its something we all love to share, our pregnancy and labour stories.

Im going to be quite honest I was dreading giving birth. The contractions, pushing her out, the bleeding after all of it I was dreading.

I didn't want to tear, I didn't want anything to go wrong I just wanted a plain sailing labour - Little did we know this was not going to be the case.

Me and Kyle (Mr Eskimo) had planned to "try for a baby". The prospect was so exciting and I couldn't wait to fall pregnant. It only took about 6 months to fall pregnant but every month leading up to that felt like a lifetime. When I saw that period turn up I was gutted. Every month it happened I used to get myself in a right 2 and 8 about it because I wanted a baby SO badly and it just wasn't happening soon enough for my liking. I have always wanted everything to happen yesterday, patience is not my thing.

After about 5 months I decided that I was going to detract myself from thinking about baby making and look to further my education. I had always wanted to be a coroner since I was a kid - at 5 I was watching Dr Quincy after school (just don't ask). When I was 13 I landed myself a Saturday girl job in a local salon thanks to my cousin and just had a natural flair for hairdressing ( I think it runs in the family as both my mum, cousin/pretty much big sister and my little sister are hairdressers). And from secondary school I went and did hairdressing and fell into that. I moved to Essex, worked for an absolute hag of a woman and she put me right off! when I moved back to Devon I got a job with an energy company and I've been there since.

However.. I had decided I wanted to go to uni and train to be a GP. I looked into the options and had decided I was going to go for it.

That weekend I told my mum about my plans of what I wanted to do, we were all in the car on the way up to north Devon, I remember it like it was yesterday. When me and Kyle got home we were just in the bathroom and I thought ah well I may just do a pregnancy test I didn't expect what was to come.

My boobs had been killing me but I just thought I would be coming on my period soon and they've always been a bit up and down, sometimes I would have 2 periods a month sometimes I would have one but because I had sidetracked myself falling pregnant wasn't at the forefront of my mind and I hadn't really thought too much about it. Kyle passed me a test out the bathroom cabinet and I was like well here goes nothing. I gave Kyle back the test and we carried on chatting away. He checked the test and asked me "What does 2 lines mean?" I honestly thought he was taking the piss so I just said " it means pregnant" he showed me the test and there were those 2 lines!. I couldn't believe it, we did another 2 tests and the feeling in my stomach was something I will never forget. We got in the car and drove to Tesco, bought another 2 sets of clear blue tests and I was like "How am I going to tell my mum, do we tell them?!" After debating what to do we went to my mums and broke the news. She already knew we were trying for a baby and she knew as soon as I walked in what we were going to say. She was made up for us. The next day we told Kyles mum and step dad and they were over the moon for us also.

I was 3 weeks pregnant when we found out and we had to sit tight for our scan at 12 weeks. It felt like a lifetime! The scan went well, we started to buy bits for the baby as you do and I felt absolutely fine, I didn't even feel pregnant (if that even makes sense).

I got to 16 weeks and the morning sickness started to kick in - why they call it morning sickness is beyond me because this was an all day affair. If I wasn't throwing my guts up I was sleeping, if I wasn't sleeping I was throwing my guts up. So this continued until I was about 30 weeks. Pregnancy migraines, on crutches because I got SPD (basically your muscles around your pelvis soften for labour but the hormone decided to kick in early so your pelvis is unstable and it feels like someones kicked you in the poof constantly when you walk) and then pre eclampsia. I knew something wasn't right from about 22 weeks but my midwife dismissed my claims I thought I had it because "there isn't protein in your wee constantly" little did I know this isn't actually how it should be ruled out but there you go. So at 36 weeks I was in hospital for a week with pre eclampsia, they thought they may have to induce me early if my blood pressure didn't come down because of the risks it poses to the baby etc. Anyway.. after some very lovely midwifes and doctors working hard my body decided it would finally play ball and I was able to go home.

By the time I was able to go home I was 37 weeks and I had a stretch and sweep - not as bad as I was anticipating! But still not the most pleasurable of experiences. With that.. nothing happened!.

At 38 weeks I went to see my midwife - this was a Tuesday I remember it as clear as day. I took my pretty much adopted big sister with me (Nicky Nacky Noo) and toddled off down to the hospital for my second stretch and sweep. The midwife did my blood pressure and rang through to the hospital I was due to have the baby in and they wanted me to go down straight away. The second stretch and sweep didn't happen, well not then anyway.

Off I pop to the hospital, my nan with me my hospital bag at the ready just incase anything happened and its a good job I did, I was admitted there and then. I had been booked in for an induction at 39 weeks anyway because I was diabetic it carries more risks if you carry your baby full term so they very often induce you early. With that I rang Kyle and explained the situation and he came to the hospital. At 1:50am on the weds morning I was induced, I was given a pessary and there was a "show" on the midwifes gloves. YES!!!! I'm going into labour I thought. Oh how naive was I.

I remember Kyle going home and I was put into a ward with some other ladies. My contractions started about about 5 in the morning, a dull period pain sort of ache, they started to come every 10 mins, by 9 in the morning my nan was in the hospital with me and I was contracting every 3 minutes. Come midday - the contractions completely stopped. I was gutted.

Kyle came back to the hospital and the Drs explained they would see what progressed throughout that day and go from there. Nothing more happened but the baby was fine she was kicking away somersaulting she was having a right little rave in there

It got to the weds evening and the consultants took me over to the Labour ward at about 12:30pm and explained that I was going to be given a drip to try and bring my labour on. Brilliant! we should have a baby by the morning I thought! Oh no.. this was just the start. After a Dr trying to break my waters for a hour and a half which may I add has scarred me for life! mentally more so then physically but holy shit, that was worse then anything in my labour. I was adamant though I had come this far without pain relief I wasn't touching it now, our baby should be here soon!. Anyway the crochet hook breaking waters tool didn't work.. so the pain really wasn't worth it what so ever. I then decided I needed a wee and low and behold I stood up nearly off the toilet and there were my waters trickling into the pan beneath me. YEEEESSS! although my mum told me I was "just incontinent its not your waters Elle" little did she know that it was my waters ACTUALLY!. I remember thinking to myself right this is the real deal, I'm actually going to be pushing a baby out soon.

I Had the drip at about 3 in the morning and one of the registrar's came in and explained that it was important I weighed up pain relief because the drip could not work and I could have to have a caesarian etc. I was adamant I didn't want a caesarian. I wanted a natural birth, no pain relief no nothing.

I swear half the time they scare monger you into thinking the worst looking back on the situation now. After weighing up all the options and speaking with 2 anaesthetists I decided I would have the epidural incase I had to go down to theatre however I didn't anticipate on this happening. So the night passes me, Kyle and my mum all waiting to see what would happen and I think it got to about 4 in the morning and I told her to go home and sleep because clearly this baby was not fussed on coming into the world one little bit.

It got to the next morning and I just remember thinking ok I've been in labour pretty much for around about 3 days now something has to give. We were so fortunate to have such lovely midwifes and they continued to reassure us everything was ok and the doctors would be around soon. I remember looking at the clock expecting them to come round in the morning I mean I had pre eclampsia, id been in labour 3 days, the drip bought my contractions on so I was contracting about every 1-2 minutes and I honestly thought I would take priority. How naive was I!. At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon the team or surgeons came in and just explained if I didn't have a caesarian there was a strong probability me and the baby would die. The medications they had tried had failed to bring my blood pressure down so they had no option but to take me down to theatre. I was absolutely bricking it. I got myself so upset about it as well because I wanted a natural birth so badly, I felt like I had failed myself. My body didn't want to work to allow the baby to come so I just went in on myself a little bit because In my head this was me thinking I wasn't made out to have babies.

Around 2:50 I was gowned up, Kyle was scrubbed up and we toddled on down to theatre - well actually I couldn't walk due to the epidural but Kyle walked down beside me as I was leisurely pushed into the theatre. The only time id been into a operating theatre was to have teeth taken out and I was about 4, so this for me was pretty daunting despite the career I wanted to get stuck into. Its such a funny feeling having a epidural, you can feel tugging and pulling but you can't feel any pain. They kept running ice over my legs and tummy to make sure I couldn't feel anything and I found this really strange but the reason being; the pain receptors in your body work the same way as your cold sensation. So they know if you can't feel the ice you won't feel the pain basically in layman terms.

Im so glad I didn't have a general anaesthetic because I was pretty compus mentus when they tugged her out of me. I can't say it hurt... but then it was the weirdest feeling because it literally feels like someone has there hand in your belly and doing movements like a washing machine and funnily enough thats what they do- duh. I do remember feeling really sick though because the beds laid back slightly so your heads tilted backwards or that was how it felt anyway.

At 15:51 little Ivy Jade Ferguson made her way into the world screaming and having a huge poo - not much has changed since. Kyle bought her over to me and asked if I wanted to hold her and I just couldn't find the energy to hold her.

I expected to get this overwhelming sense of love immediately after id seen her but I didn't get that. I remember thinking holy shit theres no going back now I actually have a baby to look after, I'm a mum, I have her for life! And even now that to me is so surreal because having children was never top of my agenda. She was planned and I wanted her so so badly. But my ambition was to have a well paid job, a 5 bedroom house and cleaners (ask my mum she used to laugh at me too). Here I was with this 6'14oz bundle of squishiness. One of the first things I do remember is how gorgeous she smelt! It was like the most lovely talc powder id ever smelt in all my 23 years.

We got into recovery and gave her a bottle, and I was just in sheer astonishment that not even a hour ago I was sat in a room still pregnant. I wish we had videoed the whole thing so I could watch it back because I'm scared I will forget the little details. Thats another reason why I wanted to write a post on my labour so I could look back and read through it because you really do forget fast. So much happens in such a short space of time you do forget the minor parts.

For anyone worried about giving birth your quite within your rights to do so. But if I could give any words of advice it would be to enjoy the experience for what it is. We had a fairly rough pregnancy and labour but I would do it all tomorrow if it meant I had Ivy In my arms all over again.

Im not sure if this will even appeal to anyone but it is for my own benefit so that I don't forget that moment when our perfect little lady came into this world, even if it was a dramatic entrance. We will be forever greatful to the NHS for all there hard work and efforts to keep us both safe.

This has bought back some lovely memories and Im feeling a tad broody - id best stop writing before Mr Eskimo packs his bags and leaves because there is NO way he would have any more babies!.

Mrs Eskimo x