The short(ish) version of the birth story:
I had pre-labour symptoms for 10 days before Arley arrived - quite demoralising as I kept thinking something was happening when it wasn't! Especially as i was expecting him to arrive on time as his brother had (in fact he was 8 days late...). Finally got going after a membrane sweep on the Weds (40+6). Serious contractions started on the Thurs eve tho' slowed down enough for me to get some sleep. MW (Yasmin) assessed me on Fri am, 3cm, another sweep. Fri lunchtime she came back as contractions were stronger but left again as she thought she was slowing things down! Contractions got very strong during a walk and we called MW again (I was thinking, shame she didn't leave the G&A here...). Change of shift so it was 5pm by the time Jane got here; in the meantime I had a bath which helped with the pain and slowed the contractions for a little while (gave me a rest!).
MW assessed me (7cm) and monitored baby's heart rate (HR). She continued to monitor HR regularly using the Sonicaid as she was a bit concerned that the HR dipped slightly when I had a contraction. She tried to break my waters to check for staining but they had already gone (? in the bath). I got on the G&A, hurrah! and after a short time she examined me again and said 'right, it's time to get this baby out now'. Up onto the birthing stool and out he came after 3 or 4 pushes. He gave a huge scream!
MW cleared up and did her paperwork leaving Luke and me to cuddle up with Arley in bed. Wonderful to have had him at home!
It turned out he had had the cord wrapped round him so the blood flow was slightly restricted with each contraction. He's fine though, feeding brilliantly and putting on scary amounts of weight.