Well, when I wrote my birth plan this certainly wasn't it!
Went for a routine mw appointment on my due date last Wednesday (4th) feeling fine but not as though anything was imminent.
I'd noticed that my ankles were more swollen but put that down to the heat.
At the appointment found that my bp was also up a bit and there was a small amount of protein in my wee - none of the indicators weer serious but I was referred to the hospital day assessment unit that afternoon to make sure.
They took blood tests and called me to come back in at 5pm.
Was then told that I had severe pre-eclampsia and that they wanted to induce me immediately.
So called dh and told him to get hs arse down there with the hospital bags having made arrangements for dd for the night.
I was strapped to the monitors and at 6.30 my waters were broken. Contractions started to come thick and fast (about every 90 seconds) but I had to put up with them as at this stage my blood platelet levels were so low they couldn't risk putting in an epidural because of the risk of bleeding and enotnox and a TENS together was only just taking the edge off.
After 4 hours I was in agony and still only 2cm. Fortunately at this stage my platelet levels had improved and they could put in an edpidural which stabilised my bp a lot and blissfully took the pain away.
Then it was lie back and wait to dilate time. They made up a bed for dh on the floor and he went to sleep but I had to have my bp take every 15 minutes so didn't get much rest. After another couple of hours of no further dilation they put in a drip of Syntocinon. By 4am I was 8cm and by 6am fully dilated but junior was not fully descended.
I got as upright as possible and waited another hour - nothing.
So then we decided to try and push. Got onto a birthing stool, pushed like crazy for an hour - still nothing.
By this stage the doctors were anxious to get the baby out because of the PET so I agreed to go to theatre where they would try to help him out with a ventouse and failing that would perform a c section.
I was in theatre within 5 minutes, the ventouse was attached and 3 pushes later out he came.
Despite all the stress of the means of his arrival it was still a magical moment and both dh and I were in tears.
So little Harry made his appearance at 9.18 on Tursday 5th, weighing 7lbs 7oz, toally unfazed by all the trouble he'd casued, and he's a little treasure
I then spent the next 6 days in hospital having frequent blood and bp tests, 24 hours on a drip to get my blood platelet levels back up again so they could take the epidural out and generally getting bored out of my mind.
They finally let me go home last night, still missing one set of blood results because the hopsital computer had been down all day .
However they phoned through this morning to say that my liver and kidney function was back to normal, so roll on that glass of celebratory champagne .