Elizabeth Grace arrived on Friday 3 February at 1426, weighing 3.8kgs. She is an absolute angel and dd1 and dd2 absolutely adore her, as do her mummy and daddy!
Contractions started around 5am on Friday morning, and I coped well with them at home until they got to about 7 mins apart (which was at about 12). DD1 was at school so we packed dd2 off to our friends and went to hospital. Arrived at hospital at 1pm (why is it that labour wards are always UPSTAIRS??! - we had a fun game with everyone in the lift pressing the buttons to make the doors close then opening the doors to let someone else in - all the while me having a contraction with everyone staring at me - felt like shouting "YES, I'm having a contraction now stop playing silly buggers please and hurry up!! ... but I didn't as we're in Holland and I don't speak Dutch!) Anyway, got to the delivery room and was eventually examined by doctor at about 1.45 and was told I was 5-6 cms, which I was very pleased about! Asked for some pethidine which the midwife went off to try and sort out, then was examined by doctor again and told I was 8cms. I told them I needed to push, so they examined me about 5 minutes later (injection poised to go in - me saying hurry up, and them saying you are not having it if you need to push!) Was fully dilated then so I started pushing, 9 minutes later Elizabeth Grace was born. What a beautiful sight she was too. All done without pain relief which I have to say I'm very proud of now but it was very painful at the time!
Elizabeth is doing really well - she's back up to her birth weight already so is obviously feeding well. My nipples, on the other hand ...