Emily Rose arrived on Thursday, 27th April at 6.14am.
After a visit to the hospital Tuesday am because I thought my waters had broken followed by monitoring on Wednesday afternoon because of not feeling many movements, I began to feel some contractions about 5pm Wednesday afternoon, 17 minutes apart.
At 9.30pm, I went back to the hospital, to be told that I was only 1cm dilated. Then went for more monitoring (they thought my blood pressure was a bit high) and then sent home at 1am (Thursday morning) with contractions still coming every 9 minutes. As soon as we got home at 1.30am though, they started coming every 5 minutes. By 3.30am, we were back at the hospital. The midwife examined me and found I was only 2cms dilated. After a sit and drinks, they were coming every 4 minutes and the midwife was determined to book me in to a bed on a ward, send DH home, give me some paracetamol and to give him a ring when things kicked off in earnest. By the time we got to the ward, the contractions started coming every 2-3 minutes. I was demanding gas/air but the nurses said that it was too early, I was only 2cms dilated, to give the paracetamol a chance to work, and why not try a TENS machine (I think if they'd brought me one of those, I'd have hit a nurse over the head with it!) I kept explaining that I have fast labours once the contractions start but the nurses were still saying that I should allow the paracetamol a chance to work and that DH would have to go home (we both knew from the speed of DD2s labour that he'd probably miss the birth if that happened and that it wouldn't be long before I needed to push). After about 10 minutes on the ward, during which time my waters broke, I started saying I wanted to push. The nurses didn't know what to do, don't think they could believe that I could have gone from 2cms to fully dilated in 1 hr- 1 1/2 hrs. They got me on the bed, back in the lift to the delivery suite. Then they couldn't decide which room to put me in! Luckily, they found a room that was ready and I managed to stagger to the bed, they examined me and found I was fully dilated and I eventually got some gas/air and started pushing (about 5am). And little Emily arrived at 6.14am weighing in at 6lbs 10oz. I do have a tear but decided not to have stitches.
So after a slow start it became a speedy delivery, and I was home 4hrs later.
Little Emily is wonderful, and her 2 big sisters are all over her!
Thanks to all the ladies on the pregnancy after miscarriage thread for their support.
Petxx