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I got ready for bed as normal on Thurs night, but after I'd been to the loo I noticed a tiny streak of what I though might be a show on the loo roll, it was ever so slight though. Went to bed but couldn't really get off to sleep, I kept thinking was that a show! I must have gone to sleep for a while, but every time I turned over in bed I was sure I could feel myself having a little leak! but this was also so tiny I couldn't really be sure. I got a little bit of sleep here and there but all through the night I had strange twinges and feelings very low down, I suppose it must have been in my pelvis (I'm not medically minded at all!) I thought it must be the baby engaging some more , I made a mental note that I probably wouldn't go shopping the next day. I started getting lots of tightenings but they didn't feel like contractions at that point.
At 5:30am I thought I felt a very mild contraction, so thought I'd start timing, they seemed to becoming regular and were about every 20 mins up til 7am, I still wasn't sure if this was the real thing though, I'd been to the loo a few more times at this point and there was some pinky blood colour on the loo roll which was gradually turning into what I thought must be a show, it looked different to how I imagined it would! also my knickers were a little bit wet and it didn't smell like wee so I was more sure it must have been my waters or a bit of them.
I said to Colin (my H) maybe I ought to ring my parents and tell them to be on standby, just in case as they would be looking after Adam, H said to ring the labour ward first so I did and they just said to put a pad on and see if that got wet and not to go into hospital til the contractions were 5 mins apart. Rang mum and told her, I said there was no rush as we weren't sure it was happening yet - think I'd been reading too much on BGH about people and their latent labours .
Had a coffee in bed, contractions seemed to be getting closer together but not that regular some 10 mins, some were 8 mins, some were lasting a while, some were really short! Thought we'd better start getting up, had a shower, H got Adam up, fiddling about upstairs getting dressed etc, contractions were about 7/8 mins apart and getting very regular, had my breakfast, 8am feeling like the contractions really were real contractions so rang mum again and said could they come over soon as poss (they live about 45mins away). I took a couple of paracetamol.
Mum and dad arrived sometime after 9am, we were still fairly relaxed as H was making them a cuppa tea! contractions were getting closer together and much more painful, I was needing to hold the underneath of my bump and my face was in a fixed grimace expression!! But in between times everything just felt fine and normal. My dad was looking a little bit worried and said he thought maybe they should be off, they left just after 10am. I said to H I didn't think we should wait much longer before we went to the hospital, so he went to find the camera. He rang the labour ward as the contractions were 4 mins apart and very painful and were very constant at this point, they said to come in straight away, H had to put my trainers on for me with me saying HURRY UP, we need to go NOW.
Luckily a very short drive to the hospital, but as usual we couldn't find anywhere to park, H dropped me off at the entrance whilst he tried to park and I waddled up to maternity clutching my bump and grimacing, was shown a delivery room to wait in and someone said a MW would be down soon to assess me, at this point I thought she'd better get a bloody move on!! (being polite here), I was in constant pain now, I was hot and sweaty and not coping too well, so I went back out and said can I PLEASE have something for the pain, its really bad, the person said no you have to wait to be assessed, I was well pissed off at this point. It didn't help that there was another woman screaming and shouting in the next room, sounded awful!! H had just arrived and found me after going to the wrong place, MEN!!! I was ranting a bit at this point saying they wouldn't give me anything,blah blah blah, then there was a gush and my waters went, I was panicking for H to get my trainers off so I could take my jeans off as I didn't want them to get messed up, I didn't have any other clothes with me!
The MW came back in and said she couldn't find a MW from my team so I'd have to put up with her, I didn't care who my MW was I just wanted anyone to give me DRUGS, she said to get on the bed and she'd examine me, she'd given me the gas and air at this point, I said its not working, ITS NOT WORKING, she said it is breath deeply, with the contractions, it worked then, she poked about a bit and said I was 10cms dilated and said did I feel any pushy feelings, I didn't, then I did it was an incredible feeling so powerful (I never had it like that with Adam) I pushed a little bit, I was a bit scared TBH as I'd never felt anything like it, the next contraction came, the gas and air was working fantastically, I can't really remember what happened next but I know I only had to do a couple more pushes and the baby came out almost like a torpedo! - it really was amazing , I couldn't believe it, I just kept saying, what, thats it?!! what the baby's here?!! I did talk quite a bit of gibberish at that point, LOL. Jacob was born at 11:07am
H cut the cord, mw wrapped the baby up and handed him to me, can't remember at what stage we asked what it was!! but Jacob was here , H held Jacob, and the mw gave me the injection for delivering the placenta, that was done a bit different from before she was kind of pulling it out, and gently working it out, I had to push a bit as well, didn't take long. She checked my *bits* and said I had a small 2nd degree tear and said it was upto me whether I wanted stitches, she said it'd heal quicker with the stitches but it would heal fine without, I chose without .
She weighed Jacob, he was 7lb 13 oz. Then we were left on our own , they bought us tea and toast in, I couldn't eat anything so H ate all the toast!! We were able to have a 6 hour discharge , so we just sat about for those 6 hours cuddling Jacob, watching telly and chatting, I had a shower and some lunch, that's about it really. They popped in and out to explain about different things, we have to go back for Jacob's hearing screen, and they said we didn't need to wait for peads, we could make an appointment within the week for Jacob's baby check.
We left the hospital soon after 5pm. It really was a very good birth experience, with hindsight I would have left home slightly sooner than we did that day, just to be on the safe side but luckily we did get there in time! we noticed our car park ticket said 10:28am on it the time H parked that morning and Jacob was born only 40 mins later.
Just in case you're interested, Membranes to delivery: 00.37 (hrs:mins) First Stage : 05:35 (hrs:mins) Second stage : 00:02 (hrs:mins)
Was funny though, H was telling me after, about the woman in the next room, she was really shouting and screaming, at one point she shouted " LET ME HAVE A CAESARIANNNNNNNNNNNN" her screaming subsided and some much littler screaming started.