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The Birth Plan was to stay at home for as long as possible using TENS then off to the local maternity unit for an active labour and water birth... Ben had other ideas though...
At 38+0, 31st October we went out for my sister's Birthday and my last night out on the town with everyone. At 9:30pm I went to the toilet and found I was bleeding... thought it was a show at first, but there was a lot of blood. Being the pg only person not drinking I ended up driving myself and H home and H called the maternity unit. The midwife came out to see us and checked us over... everything seemed ok but she said we'd have to go to Lincoln to be monitored. She called an ambulance and told me to pack an overnight bag. Ben's head was only 4/5 engaged at this point so she said I would most likely be kept in over the weekend then sent home. Started getting cramps in the ambulance, but they'd stopped by the time we got to the labout ward.
I think it was about midnight by the time we arrived. Thought my waters broke then, but it was more blood. The midwife checked my cervix and said that it was thin, but not dilated. At this point I was put on a monitor and told that if the baby was in any kind of distress it would be a c-section. Had a scan and monitor showed baby ok. I was starting to get pains now that were showing on the monitor, so was given gas and air and we were left for a while.
Midwife checked at 4am and said I was about 3-4cm and gave me some Pethedene... lovely stuff! She tried to rupture the membranes, but wasn't able to. Floated around for the next few hours while H rang everyone and my sister brought my labour bag and the baby bag.. By 7am the Pethedene was starting to wear off and I had some more at 8am. The midwife checked again but was only 4cm so she decided to try to rupture the membranes again. I can't believe how much this hurt... the worse bit by a long way.
Contractions started thick and fast then. I was still hooked up to the monitor at this point and curled up on my side... so much for the plan. The next few hours were a bit of a blur. I either dozed between conteactions, or else they were one after the other! The consultant that I saw about my rash apeared at some point and mentioned c-sections again, but the baby didn't seem distressed at all. The midwife said I could have more Pethedene at 11am, but she wanted to check me first. I was expecting to be at about 6cm by then, so couldn't believe it when she said 9 1/2 and that I couldn't have any more! She got me to do a few practice pushes then on my side, then the gas & air was taken off me and I was rolled over onto my back for the real pushes! I can't describe that urge to push... there really is nothing you can do but push!
His head appeared quite quickly... with lots of screams from me (I feel sorry for the woman nextdoor!). The last contraction took ages to come and Ben was just there with his head hanging out... very weird.
Finally Benedict William was born at 11:51am on 1st November weighing 7lb 7oz (I'm glad he didn't stay in another 2 weeks.) First stage was 7 hours 20 minutes and 2nd 31 minutes.