Sophies forceps delivery

So it began Sunday night around 6:30 pm on the 19th of April while I was eating dinner. I started to get a few twinges and just knew this was the beginning. As the evening went on the contractions got stronger by 2 am I had told my partner to go to bed and get some rest before it got serious. I sat up in my living room moving from chair to sofa trying to get comfortable as the contractions got stronger and stronger! 6 am on Monday morning I called my partner in as I just couldn't handle it anymore, but as COVID-19 was upon us I didn't want to go into hospital too early for my partner to be sent home so we put some classical music on and he rubbed my back. I'm pretty sure through the next couple of hours my waters broke as I felt an almost pop and little trickle, It got to 10.10 am and I needed to go in!

So we got to the hospital at 11, I got monitored and they wanted to check if my waters had gone which they didn’t think had. But when they checked i was already 5cm! This took just over an hour to establish, I was in agony... Yay! This is it, my partner could come in and we got taken to the delivery room. Another hour or so passed and the midwife checked again, I was now 7cm. Time for an epidural! I couldn’t take the pain anymore, Within ten minutes as the anthesitist was nearby I had the epidural and felt amazing. I then progressed to 9cm over the next two hours, but then that was it... we got stuck there. We tried hormone drip, 6ish pm on 20th April and I'm still 9cm, so I kept topping up my epidural, by 10.30 pm the midwife had managed to get me to 10cm by wiping cervix.. whilst still fiddling with the hormone drip as my contractions became too strong! time to push! So whilst not being able to feel much I gave it my all pushing in where I think I needed to push, hour and a half later not much had changed and I couldn’t push any more as I was exhausted, so the consultant and doctor came into asses me. They wanted to take me down to the theatre for forceps delivery, I was told it was a 95% chance it would work, but if it didn’t (5%) then Ian would need an emergency c section! Ok so I signed the dotted lines, I was so tired and just wanted me and baby safe. Knowing that these doctors and nurses know best I trusted them!

So into the theatre, we went and I was petrified. My partner was allowed to be with us every moment which made everything easier. More drugs and a little time later our lazy baby was here! Our baby boy was out by 1.29 am on 21st April! I didn’t feel a thing and we were both perfectly safe! My partner went down with our new baby boy to special care to get him assessed whilst I was getting finished up in theatre (perineum stitches) and then we all went down to special care. My partner then got to stay with me until morning (9/10 am) which was lovely. The nurses looked after me so well! They promise tea and toast after the ordeal which was lovely! But my temperature had spiked during theatre which caused concern, but also made me worry! I was very hot, so I couldn’t manage my tea and toast without all these soaking wet cold compresses over me which my nurse had sorted out for me! Because my temperature spiked just that once and my heart rate went too high just that once (i was petrified in theatre) I and baby boy had to stay in the hospital for at least two days on antibiotics being treated for infection just in case. That was the hardest part! Not being able to see my partner, who has had children before, trying to learn as a new time mum what I’m doing with this little human!

Before I went into hospital I didn’t have a birth plan, I wasn’t fussed how I fed baby although I knew I just wanted to try breastfeeding. But I wasn’t going to beat myself up if it didn’t work out! So we are down in recovery and they ask me if I want to breastfeed. Yes! I want to try, wow, he latched straight away and it was an amazing latch apparently!

So for the next few days, I had this amazing bond with this little human being I never could have imagined! I never thought I wanted to do or achieve but we did it! 🙂 after two days I was ready to go home to see my partner and begin our little family. I will always remember every little detail of our special moments! But the pain is and will always be forgotten! Because once you see that little face, nothing else matters 🙂