Failed induction turned 4-hour labour - Teddy born on Christmas Eve!

Due to GD, my doctor wanted to induce me on Dec 19, so baby would be born on Dec 20 (my due date). After two days of a failed induction, they sent me home to return in a few days (part 1 of my story is here). We went back on Monday afternoon - quick cervix check - STILL 2 cm, high, but midwife was confident she could break my waters if she had to. They weren't going to use anymore prostin gel, but decided to give it another attempt. First dose was inserted at about 3pm and I felt no contractions. Second dose was inserted at about 10pm and I instantly started feeling VERY strong contractions. I mentioned to the midwife that these were much stronger than before and she said it was just cause of the gel and not to worry about it. Okay. I managed to get some sleep but woke up a few times during the night due to the pain.

The next day (Christmas Eve!) I was up bright and early to be taken to the labour ward at 6am. This was make or break time - if my cervix hadn't changed they were going to give me the strongest doe of prostin (5mg, I'd previously only been received 1mg doses) - but I was going to refuse that as I'd had zero changes after 4 attempts and didn't want to go through with it anymore. Or they were going to book me in for a caesarean that day. I wasn't too keen on a c-section, but had come to accept that was probably my fate. The midwife checks me - still 2cm. But! It's slightly lower and she's 100% confident she can break my waters and we can continue. Okay! I'm feeling better. She breaks my waters and... oh, I'm actually 6cm. No, 7cm! Sweet. This was at 7:30am.

There was no point putting me on the pitocin drip at this point, since my body was in labour on its own. We had the radio playing in the background and they had Christmas music on all morning, so we were all singing, dancing and joking around. (This was a totally different experience from my daughter's birth which was also an induction - 12 hours of cervidil, waters broken, 19 hours of pitocin and 14 hours completely numb from the epidural, ending in a forceps delivery. That was not fun.) I'd mentioned to the midwives that I wanted an epidural but the anaesthetist was stuck in theatre and couldn't get to me yet. By about 10am the contractions were becoming unbearable. I was using gas but at that point it was just a distraction to cope through the contraction and it wasn't providing any pain relief. I was starting to feel the need to push but I was in so much pain from the contractions that I couldn't channel my energy to do anything about it. Finally finally finally the anaesthetist arrived, the midwives checked me and I was 9cm - they recommended not getting the epidural at this point but I was simply too blindsided by the pain to be able to push correctly. I got a very mild epidural (my first was totally numb from the waist down, couldn't feel a thing) - I could feel contractions and how I was pushing, but the pain wasn't quite as mind-numbing. And then it was time to push! I tried on my back for a while but that wasn't working at all. A midwife suggested lying on my side and that was instantly better - I could feel exactly where I was pushing and how effective it was. After about 30 minutes of pushing, my little Teddy bear was born at 11:38am! No joke, the next song played on the radio after his birth was "When A Child Is Born".

He weighed in at a hefty 4.295kg (9lb 5oz), 51cm long and 38cm head circumference (!!!!!!!). He was also born with his arm next to his head, so I had a LOT of stitches. The midwives said my placenta was possibly the biggest they'd ever seen, which I was oddly proud of. We did lots of skin to skin, he had his first feed, I ate some lunch and we just hung out in the delivery room for a few hours. I felt absolutely fine afterwards. After my daughter's birth last year I was on pain relief for days, could barely sit or walk and was just so uncomfortable for at least 3-4 days. This time I was up walking around within hours (as soon as they let me out of the bed), had a shower and haven't had any pain relief at all despite all my stitches. I can't believe the difference! We're back home now and are having a few issues with breastfeeding and the baby blues have made an appearance, but overall we're doing quite well.

And now after all my rambling, what you're really here for: photos! http://imgur.com/a/9z1VN