Alexander was born at 3.30pm at home on Thursday 12th January.
The lead into labour was extremely slow, and wasn't properley established in labour until about 2.15 or so. I started with a show a couple of days earlier, then slow gentle contractions on the Weds about 12 noon, which slowed down at bedtime, so i went to sleep. still nothing you'd call pain. was woken by contractions about 1.30am on 12th Jan, called my mum who arrived in a taxi about 2am and dh got up to help too.
used yoga breathing to help get through the contractions, and it seemed to help. contractions were about 10 -15 mins apart and lasted about 45secs - a minute.
mw came about 6.30 - 3cms and stretchy, she stayed with me till the next mw came at 8.30 as she said "you just never know with 3rd babies, it can all happen at once." how right she was to prove!
next mw checked me (no internal) and left me to get on with it, popping back at lunchtime. by this time i was struggling quite a lot with contractions, very painful but still spaced out and irregular. was very downhearted at 1pm when i was STILL 3-4cms dilated.
lay on the bed to rest and this seemed to help, as i had been walking about a lot before and was getting exhausted.
suddenly about 2.30 i felt / heard (!) a CLUNK and the baby's head seemed to fall into the birth canal, and i felt the overwhelming urge to push!
i screamed for dh to call someone, we were alone in the house by then, and i continued to scream and shout in pain and panic from then on really.
poor dh tried to call the mw's radio room, to be told that the radios weren't working, but they would do their best. meanwhile he called my mum who hot footed it over and arrived 10 mins before the birth.
the mw arrived at 3, to the sound of me screaming like a stuck pig and hastily tried to help me. i was lying on the bed with my pjs and nix on, unable to move and panting away to try to stop pushing. amniotic fluid was sqirting everywhere!
she managed to get me sorted into a kneeling position on the bed, but baby wasn't coming out, so between contr's i transferred to the floor and was persuaded to squat to try to deliver this huge baby.
with the help of the scissors and a "midwife's nibble" as she called it, Alex's head was delivered, but then his shoulders were stuck and hadn't rotated.
thank God for the skills of my mw, who managed to manually rotate his shoulders and finally deliver him into the world at 3.30pm.
PHEW! What a huge relief to all concerned, especially me!
By the end, the bedroom looked like a complete bloodbath, with every towel in the house, as well as the carpet, wall and radiator splashed with this that and the other, but i was fine and didn't even need stitches! well i insisted on not having them, and since the episiotomy was fairly small, the mw's agreed that was OK.
so glad it's over!
if i'd known in advance i'd have been at the hosp begging for an induction and epidural, and i'm definitely NOT having any more!
sorry to be neg about home birth, i totally respect every woman's right to choose, and my 2nd home birth went like a dream, i positively enjoyed it.
i'll stop babbling on now, thanks for listening!