Tammi tells her birth story: 'I went in to be induced on the 24th June. After the midwife explained everything that would happen and there was a high possibilty that the gel would not work first or second time round, we prepared ourselves for the long haul.
I was given the first dose of gel at 10am and advised to stay mobile, walking around, and return to the ward at 4pm to be examined again.
Within an hour I had started to get pains although they weren't too bad and I just thought they were from being examined.
You can picture how funny I looked waddling round the hospital carpark having contractions!
At 4pm I was given the next dose of gel and advised to do the same, however after 30 minutes I was scared to leave the ward as the pains were getting stronger.
After kneeling on the bed with my bum in the air for an hour moaning in pain the midiwfe, advised that I could have a bath to help me relax. Ten minutes after getting in the bath I had a huge contraction and screamed so loud that the tea lady came running into the bathroom to see that Iwas ok, with a total look of panic on her face, lol!
At this point, I can truly say that you lose all your dignity and don't even care who sees you naked. There were about four or five midwives helping me get out the bath and dried.
At this point I was taken back to the ward and given diamorphine which numbed the pain enough for me to relax for a little while. By 11pm I was howling in pain as the diamorphine had worn off, and when I was examined I was 4cm dilated. Time to be moved to the delivery suite.
Another funny moment, me being whizzed backwards in a wheelchair down to delivery, crying and shouting that I wanted to be sick, with Pete running alongside struggling with my bags!
On arrival at the delivery suite I was given some gas and air and believe me this was the best bit! Get your breathing right and it's fab, I was on another planet.
After begging for an epidural, I managed about 2 1/2 hours on just gas and air before the midwife decieded that an epidural would be best so that I could get some sleep.
At one point I remember dozing on the bed and Pete was asleep in the corner and the midwife was dozing in the other corner, lol!
At 9am there was still no further progression of my labour so I was put on the drip to speed up my contractions which took 3 hours to reach 10cm. Unfortunately by this point the epidural had run out and I was contracting 7/8 times in 10 minutes.
To go from not really feeling any pain to full-blown contractions was horrible and the pain was making me throw up. After two hours of pushing and not really getting anywhere fast it was decided that the best option was to take me to theatre and have the baby delivered by forceps.
On arrival at theatre, my epidural was topped up and again I became a happy bunny! Within 20 mintures of arriving in theatre baby Ashton Scott arrived at 15.56 weighing in at 8lb 5.5oz.
Pete was the one to first look at Ashton and tell me what we had, which he did in tears, saying it's a boy and he's got nothing to be shy about, lol.
After being stitched where they had to cut me and cleaned up, we returned to the ward with Ashton happily feeding from the breast.
Although from arriving at the hospital to having Ashton it was a long hard 30 hours, I would do it all again tomorrow (or once my stitches have stopped hurting, lol).
Funniest moments that I can remember were having no control over when I farted - and they were loud farts, but luckily no poos! Telling Pete that the gas & air was great coz it told the pain to go away and when he asked me who took the pain away, me giggling because I knew I sounded like a prat at this point!
I was also pleased to find out that although I probably was too tired to push Ashton out myself he was actually stuck behind my pelvis and once the doctor knocked him down slightly with the forceps I actually pushed him out myself in 3 contractions!
So girls, it might not have been the planned water birth that I wanted but I can at least look back now and see it as a happy positive experience and one I wouldn't change coz at the end of the day I got my beautiful Ashton!'
