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Well the pains started on Tuesday night at about 10pm very suddenly and about 10 minutes apart. I decided to try and get some sleep but by midnight they were about 6 minutes apart and quite strong, so I was struggling to sleep through them.
At about 2am I decided I had to have a hot bath so I sat there trying to get comfortable in the hottest water I could, whilst trying to decide whether it would harm the baby if the water was too hot!! At about 5am, the pains were 5 minutes apart and lasting 60 seconds so I phoned the hospital and was told to stay at home and get back in the bath and call again when they were 3 minutes apart. I woke H at 7 and he helped me put the Tens machine on, and I found sitting backwards on a chair the most manageable position for the contractions...so I sat like that until about 10am when I decided I really needed some more pain relief.
So, we phoned the hospital and they told us to come in, and I was terrified that they'd tell me it was false labour as I was finding the contractions increasingly uncomfortable, but after a long walk from the car park with several more contractions (and lots of funny looks from passers by) I made it to the delivery suite. We were shown into a room and left for about 45 minutes, when finally a midwife appeared and told me I was 6cms so I was pleased.
I carried on with the Tens and a bit of gas and air (which to be honest didn't really help me) until they next examined me four hours later....and I'd only gone another1 cm. At this point they put a canula in my hand to give me antibios because of my hole in my heart, which was excrutiating and hurt more than the contractions and I started to think that I wanted an epidural, but as I was now at 8cms, the words of my NCT teacher rang in my ears (that having an epidural at that point slows everything down and is much more likely to result in intervention), so I cancelled the anaethetist and soldiered on with gas and air. My waters broke at about 7.30pm and I then thought that things would happen quickly......
Just before the change of midwife's shift at 8pm, I was examined and told I was 10 cms and could start pushing, which I did, but not much was happening. The new midwife arrived and said that I wasn't ready to push at which point I burst into tears adn demanded an epidural as I was so exhausted and in a lot of pain from the needle in my hand, and the contractions! Finally, at 11.30, after a lot more painful contractions, I got my epidural and managed to sleep until about 1am, when they woke me up and told me to start pushing. I was doing my utmost, but Theo wasn't having any of it, and my contractions then slowed right down, so I had to have syntocinon to get them all going again, and again I tried to push, but he wasn't descending. Finally at 2am the consultant gynaecologist was called and he said that if I hadn't delivered the baby by 2.30am they'd have to intervene. So it was that at 2.51am Theo was born by ventouse delivery (and I had to have an episiotomy sadly)....but that was probably due to the fact that he weighed 9lbs 3 at birth and had rather a large head!!! So, we had our due date April Fools Day baby after all!
My gorgeous H was an absolute angel throughout the labour, rubbing my back, making sure I drank enough water and helping me through every contraction. I couldn't have done it without him, and it was a very special moment when he told me we had a son.