Baby Inara is here!

As you may now know, I had our daughter on Tuesday 12th May. Here's how it happened:

I had a Dr's appointment on Tuesday at 11:30am. That morning, Mark was running late, so I took him to work, and then stopped at the supermarket to do a bit of shopping. I'd been feeling a lot of (what I thought were) Braxton Hicks's, really tight and occasionally a little uncomfy. Thought nothing of it, so went home and pottered about. BH's were getting a bit painful now, so jokingly sent Mark an MSN to say I might be in labour (!!!). I drove to the Dr for my appt, and she took one look at me and called the hospital. I hadn't really noticed, but my face, hands and feet has really swollen up since she last saw me. I knew I was a bit water retained, but didn't think it was that bad. She told me she wanted me to go to hospital for tests for Pre-Eclampsia. I asked how long I would be there, and she said 'Until your baby is delivered' !!! I nearly fell off my chair! She started talking about emergency caesareans which freaked me out. I went over to the hospital and called Mark to come straight away (stopping at home for my incomplete hosp bag!) then called my Mum in tears. I was really scared at this point, I felt nothing was ready and I wasn't prepared at all.

Anyway, the hospital booked me in and started monitoring my BP (which was very high) and took some blood. My magnesium levels were seriously low, so they said it was PE. Mark arrived (this was about 12:30pm) and they did an internal to check what was going on. The midwife said I was 2cm dilated and my plug had long gone! The contractions started getting quite painful then, and after two hours of this they asked me if I wanted a bath. I tried it, but the only position I could breathe/pant through the contractions in, was on my knees, so I was nowhere near the water! I eventually gave up and got out. My MW checked me again at 6pm and I was 4cm dilated, which meant I could have a walking epidural if I wanted it. YES PLEASE!!! OMG it was heaven. I could only feel a tightening towards my bum, which was a contraction, yay!

At 7pm I was 7cm dilated and the tightening sensation towards my bum was getting a bit uncomfy. They upped the epidural, but it didn't do much. I also had to go to the bathroom to prove I didn't need a catheter - this was fine, but my legs were a bit wobbly so I fell off the toilet!! I was in hysterics but Mark didn't see the funny side lol. At 9pm I said that they pains were actually getting up towards normal contraction pains again, and when the MW checked me she was surprised to see I was 10cm and ready to go! Then, they stopped the epidural..................what?! She told me I needed to feel the contractions to be able to push. I said I could, but they were all 'Oh, it's policy' so I came off the lovely drugs and back to reality. I tried sitting up at first, but the MW suggested it would be easier on all fours, which it was.

Mark was very supportive, but was doing things like poking me in the belly whilst I was having a contraction 'Just to see if it's hard' - I almost smacked him! Eventually, after a lot of pushing, screaming and pain, Inara Novall Letori-Doyle popped her way into the world at 10:15pm weighing 6lbs 2oz. Mark said he had never heard anyone make noise like I'd made; at one point I was undulating like Red Indians on the war path!

Now comes the bad bit... They gave the baby to Mark and then to me while I delivered the placenta, which was all fine. I'd torn a little, so the MW called the on-call Dr in to stitch me up. After he'd given me the local anaesthetic, he started poking about (which wasn't comfy), but then he started looking worried and said he wasn't able to stop me bleeding, so they had to call the head Dr in from home (luckily not far away) to help him. They packed me with gauze, used forceps to see inside (ouch), prodded and poked me. Then they started stitching. This would have been ok, but the local had worn off!!!! I nearly hit the roof. I had to endure 12 external and 4 internal stitches with no anaesthetic at all. I swear it was almost as bad as labour. I was actually screaming.

Afterwards, we went to the recovery room, where I discovered that our friends had been waiting. Poor Claudia is 6 months pregnant and had heard the whole thing!! She looked so shocked!

Because of the PE I was hooked up to a magnesium drip, which left me really weak and with double vision for two days. In the end they had to tranquilise me so I could actually sleep. I came off the drip Saturday night and was allowed home yesterday, although I still have to take magnesium tablets for a few weeks.

Having had all that, I would do it again in a heartbeat! Inara is perfect and worth every bit of pain I went through. Her weight was a little under because of the PE, and she was a bit jaundiced, but she's fine now. She's such a good baby! She sleeps quite a bit, and when she's awake she's happy to look about the room and interact with us. I actually have to wake her in the night to feed as she would sleep right through!