Gruesome Details
A summary of the labour:
Sat pm - Curry #1 (Woodlands, Leicester Sq.). Not intended to act as a kick-start at this stage seeing as bathroom and nursery were/are not finished!
Sun am - show and waters break, but not much in the way of contractions.
Sunday pm - Curry #2 (Bangladore, Cuffley). This time to try and get the contractions going. Speed bumps, A197 Northaw to Cuffley). Increased contractions (every 20-30 mins). Attended hospital for monitoring (11pm) and came home against midwife and doctor's advice - had to sign self discharge papers (1am).
Mon am - contractions continue very irregularly. Call hospital as arranged and decline warm invitation to go in for observation. Want to give ourselves as much time as possible for things to take-off naturally. More speed bumps and Raspberry tea.
Mon pm - Community midwife visits (informed of recalcitrant couple by hospital) and agrees with our plans - we agree that at 48 hours we need to go in and progress things artificially as required. So Mon night stayed at home despite continued pressure from hospital. Curry #3 (Rani, Finchley). Contractions increasing, but weak and irregular.
Tues am - Contractions still irregular (10-40 mins apart). Hospital keen for us to be admittted due to risk of infection because of broken waters. Admitted mid-am. Informed that if less than 3cm dilated will need pessary to "soften things up" plus a drip to power-up the contractions. If more than 3 cm dilated, then drip only required... 3cm dilated, so was put on drip to speed things up (2pm). Contractions ramp up to 1 every 2 to 3 mins quickly.
Tues pm - First stage complete (8pm). TENS machine batteries holding up. Robert born (just amazing!) (9.25pm). Active 3rd stage management injection administered. Placenta fails to deliver (cord snapped whilst trying to coax it out) so manual removal is required with a spinal block and sedation (recommended). Later the doctor says that it had been quite an effort to remove.