Alexander Neil arrived at 7.23am on 26th September weighing 7lb 13oz.
After 2 weeks in hospital with high blood pressure they finally decided to induce me at 28.5 weeks....I was taken to the delivery suite at 3pm on Tuesday the 25th and after examination was given a less than 50% chance of delivering naturally as the babys head wasnt engaged and they offered me a c section later in the week...I refused and said I'd like to give a natural birth a chance...so they gaveme a pessary and 6 hrs later I was dilated enough to have the waters broken which broght the contractions on thick and fast but didnt bring the baby much further down so they gave me an epidural and hooked me to the drip...by 5 am I was fully dilated and they asked me to push (no one had warned me that they wouldnt top up the epidural at this stage "because you wont know when to push"!)Poor Dh needed an extra pair of arms to deal with my demands for "water, damp cloth,fan, gas'n'air,gas n'air, GAS 'N AIR!!!!"...final stage apparently only lasted 14 mins (lies! darned lies!..it was at least 4 hours!)when the consultant (Fatima, a lovely woman wearing full head scarf but curiously with the broadest Irish accent I've ever heard!DH swears she said "bejabers, I can see a full head of hair so I can!")came in and said she needed to help me with forceps....my high blood pressure went skyrocketing even further (193/125!)which sent the machines into overdrive and put the medical team in a panic...but I was oblivious, took the pills they offered and kept trying to push to avoid the forceps. Alex arrived with his hand up by his head (causing some tearing)and was landed on my chest almost the instant he was born, the spitting image of his dad, and we had the bliss of an hour and a half of skin to skin contact while they stitched and cleaned me up. I needed a litre or so of iv fluids to replace what I had lost and fainted when I was taken for a shower 5 hrs later but Alex was worth every minute and now almost 3 weeks later I'm more besotted than ever.