hello, and thanks for all the lovely messages! For some reason DH sent out an email denying me that vital 1oz, he did at least get the rest of the details correct! So he was 10lbs 5 oz....
Gory details (quite long sorry, want to get it straight in my own head! and I know some of you love 'em):
Went in for my induction at 7.45am but was already in early labour and had been since about 10pm the night before. When they checked me, I was 5 cms dilated having only had mild periody pains, fantastic! Then we moved into one of the lovely pool rooms as one was actually available, got into the pool at 6cm, highly pleased with myself to have avoided the induction and got that far with virtually no pain and expecting a lovely peaceful birth before midday, all was absolute perfection.
Except...when they checked 2 hours later, still only 6cm. So they broke my waters, cue hideous contractions and hanging on to the gas and air for dear life - only to find out, 2 hours later, that I was STILL only 6cm. At which point I caved and tearfully demanded an epidural which I really didn't want, but I'd stopped coping.
The anaesthetist arrived straight away, top news - EXCEPT of course it didn't work. They resited it an hour later and then it only worked on one side and I was hysterically climbing the walls. So he came back with some 'stronger stuff' which worked but my blood pressure dropped to something ridiculous and I started being sick and the baby got very distressed. They sorted that out with the drip and we waited for full dilation which took farking ages. Then we waited for the epidural to wear off for another hour, then I FINALLY got to push and it was bloody hard work with no proper feeling.
Anyhow finally out he popped after about 1.5 hours of pushing, and I got away quite lightly with only a small tear and stitches considering his size. We've no idea what went wrong except it seems maybe he moved his head and got stuck. It took about 10 hours to get from 5cm to full dilation which is crap for a second birth and longer than my entire first labour!
Never mind, he is absolutely lovely and feeding very well although my nipples have taken the usual battering. There are some pics on my profile. And he let me get 4 hours sleep last night! Bonus