I'm pleased to (finally!) announce that DS3 arrived on monday 8th august. We call him Finn and he was 8lb 1oz.
For those who enjoy the gorey details..........................................
woke up at 2.30 am with pains in my back coming about every 15mins. Didn't belive this could be the start as I was only 1 day late and the others have all been nearer 1 week late! Also baby was leaping around between the pains and I've not had that before.
By 5am the pain had moved around the front so started to wonder if this could be it. Dh was due to set off for work at 6am so decided that he had better stay home for a little while incase things progressed as DD was only 2 1/2 hr labour!
Put TENS on and contractions got closer together so by 6.30 called MIL to come and look after the kids and go into hospital as they were now 2 mins apart.
on the way there the contractions slowed down to 6mins and by the time I was wheelchaired into the delivery room they were 8 mins apart.
I then had a 30 min gap between contractions and though I would be sent home. the consultant I had been seeing because of the SPD came into see me and was horrified that I was now in a wheelchair and he didn't know. He said my planned waterbirth was now out of the question as I would be unable to get in & out of the pool especially in an emergency! (i was really upset about this as I have tried to have a waterbirth with all 4 of my babies and not got near any water at all!)He also said that if labour did stop he wanted me to stay in!!
I was examined and found babies head still high and I wasn't dilated. other than having had previous deliveries. It was then decided i should go up to the ward. I was still getting some contractions but they were very irregular and not too painful. Dh then when home to sort kids and try and shut his eyes for a bit.
On the ward I was given a side room, lunch and a ball to sit on to try and encourage labour. M/w's kept asking how far apart the contractions were but I had no way of timing them as there was no clock in the room. at 2pm i asked to be examined but the m/w said best not to as every internal runs risk of introducing infection but she found me a clock at 2.30pm so at last I was able to tell if they were regular.
they were regular and back to 6 min intervals. DH arrived back at 3.30pm by which time I was really tired as I had been up since 2.30am! I just wanted to try and sleep. so at 4.30pm I got back onto the bed (still fully clothed!) and tried to close eyes inbetween contractions. I then had a couple of strong ones a couple of mins apart and felt it was time to see if things had progressed at all. M/w came in and we managed to get my trousers off so that she could examine me only to find I was 8cm and membranes were bulging!
She then grabbed a nursery nuse and between them they ran me on my bed down to delivery! I swung myself over onto the bed in delivery suite and imediatly needed to push!
Pop went my waters and Finn was born 4 mins later!! the placenta came 3 mins after, but that was when the fun started.
I suddenly remembered that I had bled quite a bit with the others and suddenly I was attacked by 2 doctors and 3 midwives putting drips in bothe arms pummleing my stomach and was given ergometrin as well as more syntocin in the drip.
I got really upset at this point as the doctor kneeding my stomach with his fist was really hurting me and I couldn't hold my baby who was rooting around DH.
They finally stopped the bleeding and all apologised for not introducing themselves and that they had to do what they did to stop me bleeding.
Finn then spent the next 24hrs vomiting mucus, sleeping and wouldn't feed. I then struggled for another 24hrs to get him to feed and by the time we were sent home on the wednesday he still had only had a couple of feeds. that evening I noticed he was getting dehydrated as his fontonell was depressed his mouth was dry and his lips were cracked. M/w recomended expressing and cup feeding, but he was too sleepy for that so we syringe fed him and he started to feed.
All is well now and his brothers and sister think he is the bee's knees! DD can't stop kissing him. (sure that will stop soon enough!)
Sorry this was so long but it has been really good to write it all down. I feel a little better about it all now.