The Induction – Part 3

It’s just after 4pm and the midwife I am with is on until 8pm so following previous births I am confident that baby will be here before the shifts change, although I did have a niggle that something wasn’t quite right.

We go through the birth plan – natural delivery, onto chest. I opted to let them know about pain relief as I went as although I have delivered both Isaac and Eliza with none, I’d never say never!

By the time we had gone through everything it was gone 5pm and the midwife was ready to put a canula in my hand and break my waters, although it wasn’t that simple.

I had to be constantly hooked up to the monitors as I was being induced which was a pain, and the portable set wasn’t charged!

I was 2cm dilated but the baby was so far down that the waters were really tight to his head so she couldn’t do it.  She thought she may have nicked them so we waited to see if they would go as baby continued to put pressure on them.

Turns out she hadn’t, and nothing happened so she had to track down the consultant who was busy with other emergencies on the delivery suite.

When she finally arrived with her SHO in tow we instantly recognised each other, as she had been involved in Isaac’s delivery.  We had a chat and she advised she had a couple of other ladies to see and she would be back to break my waters before she went home.

I have to admit, it did feel like we were waiting forever but we got to meet our new midwife Emma, who was lovely, and have a good chat with her.  It did feel a bit weird going through the birth plan again but at least we would get the experience we wanted.

The consultant came back just after 8pm and “gave me a good sweep” as well as breaking my waters, which they did by pushing the baby downwards through my abdomen to make the waters bulge.  Baby’s heart rate was high and I was also put into a drip to re-hydrate me as they believed that was the cause and his heart rate soon began to come back down.

If you have read my pregnancy diary you will know that I had polyhydramnios (excessive amniotic fluid) so we joked there would be a tidal wave.

Luckily it wasn’t that bad, but the poor midwife did have to change the bed and pads a few times!!

Still no contractions to really note. I had a few tightenings but nothing that felt like it was getting things moving.  I felt reassured by the baby monitor as I could hear baby’s trace.

We did have one small scare that evening when I changed position, the baby’s heart rate went really slow all of a sudden, but I was rolled into my left side and it immediately righted itself and they think baby was laying on his cord.

A good couple of hours after my waters had been broken they decided to review my care plan as it was clear that things were not happening as they expected.  It was decided to start me on a very low dose of oxytocin through a drip to see if it would kick start my body into remembering what it should be doing.

By now it was close to midnight and I was exhausted so I decided to get some sleep to see if that would help recharge my batteries and spent much of the early hours dozing on and off.

By 4am it was clear that although I was having contractions, they weren’t as regular as they should be and after an examination I hadn’t really moved anything on.

The consultant doubled the dose and we hoped that this would do the trick. I spend at least an hour on my feet trying to encourage gravity to do its thing, and although my contractions did come slightly more regularly they still weren’t doing their job.

Baby was perfectly happy though and was giving the perfect trace readings throughout the night so at 6am the dose was doubled again.

By 8am it was time for the shift change, so we wished our midwife Emma a very happy holiday to Mexico and were introduced to Danielle who would be our new midwife for the day and waited to see the consultant who was on shift that day.

I had a thorough examination (again) and things still hadn’t moved on as much as they should, so again the dose was doubled.  They didn’t want to increase too much as my body should know what it was doing and they didn’t want to over stimulate the uterus so the midwife was on strict instructions to monitor me carefully and consult him on any changes.  I hoped this would be enough to make baby arrive!