Thank you all for the congratulations and I'm glad you all think he is as lovely as we do.
The dds and ds1 (ds1!) are just thrilled with him . First thing ds1 said when he saw him was "want drink? want biscuit?" . He loves kissing him on the head and says "matter? matter?" when Euan cries. Bless him.
Here's the low-down :
After having contractions every night from last Thursday until Monday night I was pretty fed up! On Tuesday afternoon I saw the consultant as I was past my due date. I was given a date for induction and told "there is no way you will need it!". The consultant tried to perform a sweep but my cervix was still closed so he wasn't able to do so, and off we went home.
At about 4.00pm contractions started again, about half an hour apart, but tbh I was so fed up of this happening that I didn't tell anyone for a while! Anyway they continued at regular intervals so we had an early tea and asked our neighbour to be on the ready for some babysitting. At 7.00pm dh and I got a lift up to the hospital with another neighbour, still contracting regularly - whoopee!! She dropped us off and we went to get booked in. I was hooked up to a monitor and it was discovered that the baby's heartrate was dipping during contractions . And at this point everything started to slow down again and contractions stopped by about 8.30pm - however in view of the dipping heartrate the midwife wanted me to stay in. Dh though had to go home to relieve the babysitter.
Contractions started again at 11.00pm, very strong and 5 mins apart ... then stopped after half an hour ... then the same thing happened at 1am ... I finally went to sleep and then was woken by contractions at around 3am ... and gradually it dawned on me that it was fairly likely that the baby was actually going to make an appearance some time that day!! Decided not to call dh though until I was really sure something was happening - he was now 25 miles away at home with no transport and no childcare so could't have got back in anyway.
Contractions continued and I had a bath for an hour or so which helped, then went back to the ward. At this point I was really glad I was alone on my ward because I was doing a really good impression of Jimmy Saville going "oh-o-oh-ooh" through each contraction . At about 6am I got the midwife to phone dh to let him know it was definitely happening - at least he could then be with me in spirit if not in body!
At 7am I buzzed for the midwife because I was aware that I was holding my breath during contractions and I didn't want to push if I wasn't fully dilated. I got my timing perfect - the lovely midwife who had shown us round the unit a few weeks ago and who had booked me in the previous night had just come back on duty - all the m/ws were lovely but I really took to her so I was really pleased to get her for the delivery! As soon as I mentioned the word "push" I was catapulted up to the delivery room in a wheelchair bellowing like a cow with the vague thought in my head "well if anyone was still asleep they won't be any more" where I was examined and found to be 8cm dilated. The next few minutes were the worst - the pain was really bad and I kept thinking that it was only going to get worse. My waters went with a huge "pop" and there was meconium in them and although the m/w told me not to push whilst she examined me I just couldn't help it! Fortunately I was fully dilated and, to my amazement, the pain receded to a bearable level. The second stage took 12 minutes (but boy they were long minutes!!). Euan had the cord round his neck (hence the dipping heartrate and the meconium) and came out gargling rather than crying, but he was fine and had an apgar score of 9 at birth. I had delivered on my hands and knees and looked through my legs to be confronted with unassailable evidence that he was a boy !
Placenta delivery was slightly shorter than the 7 hours it took last time - 12 minutes later and I was holding a slightly green-tinged Euan and giving him his first feed! I spoke to dh on the phone and got to tell him it was a boy . Final weight - 8lbs 6oz