Right, well... here goes.... it aint pretty!
Had a show on Tuesday night but nothing much else happened.
Went for midwife appointment wednesday afternoon and was having a few niggles and was generally very sore. MW gave me an examination and a sweep, was found to be 2cm posterior still quite thick etc etc but MW said labour was likely within 48hrs.
Decided to go to my dads (as he is only 2 mins from hospital as opposed to our 20!) and stay the night there in case things kicked off, mainly to minimise the disruption to the girls if things kicked off in the middle of the night.
Had started to get on-off pains from tea time onwards, but thought it was just because of the sweep. Made DH do his duty (and my word it was duty - no romance or feeling whatsoever!) at about 11pm and by 11.30pm was having contractions. Started off as every 6-7 mins and then was down to 2-3mins by 12.30am.
Had decided hospital was needed by about 2am so headed off, and was examined when we got there and was only 3cm and not much else! Got in the bath at the hospital to try and ease things a little, but didnt like it so got out again pretty quick!
Contractions kept coming thick and fast and then slowing right down until I demanded gas and air at about 5am.
Once on the gas and air, I was immediately bed-bound because of the effect it has on me, I get so out of it, I dont actually know whats going on! All I really remember is the radio being on and hearing the news and weather a few times!
We had a few nightmares with the gas and air and at one point it ran out and took an age to get another canister in..... what was that place thinking of? Couldnt it be plugged into the wall like at Colchester when I had Rebecca?!
I was so tired, I just couldnt move, didnt have the energy to do anything. The MW kept trying to get me up and move me and at one point was trying to force chocolate down my throat.... needless to say she got told where to shove it!
All this time, my waters still hadnt gone, and at 6.30am I was only 6-7cm. Cue me in floods of tears because I just couldnt take anymore, I wanted an epidural but was too far on apparently and then I demanded a c-section which of course I wasnt allowed!
Finally at 11am, they discovered that although they thought the waters had gone, they hadnt, so broke them for me to speed things up because I really wasnt coping, wasnt aware of what was going on and needed baby out! Cue 14 minutes of pushing and bang, welcome Daniel James.
Daniel wasnt breathing when he was born, had the cord wrapped around his body and had apgar scores of 5 and 10 so a few minutes of panic for me - and more tears.
I was lucky in that there were no stitches or grazes, but I was just so tired I couldnt have really cared less!
I can honestly, hand on heart say that if he had been my first, he would have been my last and if I had known my labour would have been like that before I fell pregnant, I would never have had him. The pain was just so intense, and coupled with being so tired, it was a nightmare. Maybe I was lucky in that I had 2 very easy births with the girls and actually enjoyed giving birth to them!
I also feel that if the MW had taken the innitiative to break my waters earlier, I would have been saved a lot of time and pain, so Im not totally happy with my whole experience.
Because of meconium in the waters (grade 3 whatever that means) he was classed as amber light so we had to stay for 24hrs with Daniel being on 4hrly obs. The ward was SO hot that out of the 3 of us on there none of us could stand the heat and were almost dying - I had a fan on ALL night to try and keep cool. Very little sleep as I knew would happen because I just dont sleep when other people are around me (other than DH of course!) so am going to be playing catch up over the next few days!
Feeding is erm, interesting, but its still early days and Im already 24hrs longer into it than I was with Rebecca and I dont even possess a tin of the evil stuff so dont have a plan B!
Think thats about it - DH will probably fill me in on a lot more in the coming days, but for now, Im home, Im happy with my boy and I just want my bed!!!