On Thursday 4th May we were booked in to be induced

We were asked to call the ward at 8.00am

Which we did

Having been induced before I thought the process would be the same

And was expecting to go straight in

So I was more than a little disappointed when told

We were not wanted until 12.30

Bea was off to preschool anyway

But I made the most of a quiet morning with Esther and William

Consisting of Top Trumps

And looking after Baby Annabell

At 11.15 Granddad arrived for the twins

And David and I set off for the hospital

I was eager to get going

A little apprehensive

But mostly excited at the thought of our little girl

Soon being in my arms

David was convinced she would be with us before the night was out

My more conservative estimate was Friday morning

We were both sure we would be home by Friday night

Our assumptions were not without substance

When we were induced with Bea from start to finish

The process lasted just six hours

However this time that is proving to be very far from the case!

(I have been micro blogging our journey on Instagram)

We arrived at the ward at 12.30

Lunch in hand

We were shown to our room

And then I had a set of obs done on me

Blood pressure, pulse, temperature

We met a lovely student midwife called Lottie

Who was incredibly friendly and a good listener

She is going to be an AMAZING midwife

In my humble opinion

Another midwife came to talk to us

She talked us through the likely induction process

Explained that the ward was busy so their approach might be slower than usual

We talked about the reasons for me being induced

And then she carried out an examination and a sweep

She found me to be 2cm dilated

With a Bishop Score of 4

She thought that my waters could quite easily be broken

Confirming what my community midwife had said

She then put the Propess tab (a bit like a tampon)

Into my cervix to slowly release hormones

To soften my cervix and hopefully kick start some contractions

With Bea this was all I needed and only for around 5 hours

Not the 24 that it is able to be used for

With Baby 5

Our Sprinkle of Stardust

The Propess was inserted at 14.30

After this David and I did lots of pacing and walking

Climbing up and down the stairs

Doing all the things that had worked so well with Bea

I was excited and keen to help the process along

I was enthusiastic and energetic

Hopeful and positive that the induction was going to work

From around 6.30pm I was having pains

I could feel them mostly below my bump

The pains were not regular

But the pain was definite

At 20.14 the pains became shorter and more intense

I started writing down timings

I thought that things were progressing

I was definitely feeling spikes of pain

20.21

20.24

20.33

20.35

20.43

20.46

20.50

I was getting tired

It seemed so quiet on the ward

My pains were more constant if I was upright

If I laid down they stopped

I was torn between trying to sleep

And tirelessly pacing the corridors

Trying to get things moving

By 21.30 I was feeling disappointed

Disheartened

By this time with Bea

She had already been here for two hours

I realised that things were not going to be the same

And my heart sank

A new midwife came to see us at 22.30

She monitored baby and all was well with Sprinkle

I told her that I thought the Propess might have dislodged

I was right so she put the tab back in to the correct place

And pushed all the tape inside me to try and stop it moving again

The Propess being displaced

Probably means the induction has not been workins

As well as it could have been

The new midwife was lovely

She confided in us that all the wards are very very busy

She told us that 16 ladies had been induced that day

And any one of us could go in to labour over night

And yet the labour ward was full

And the postnatal

There was nowhere for anyone to go!

The lovely midwife suggested sleep

But I couldn’t

I was having definite tightenings

They were too close together

And too mild to be true contractions

But something was definitely happening

At 1.30am I was still awake

I did not want to sleep

I wanted to have a baby

My baby

But as the new day dawned

So too did the realisation

That this day was not the day

No Star Wars baby for me

No super quick and easy induction this time around

It was time to give in to sleep