Luke was born at 4.45pm on Sunday 13th Feb, 6 weeks early, weighing 4lbs 6oz with lots of lovely spikey black hair.
I woke up at 2am in a little pool of blood, which wasn't totally unexpected as I knew I had complete placenta praevia (placenta blocking the exit). So I got a ride in an ambulance. The bleeding seemed to have stopped and Luke was kicking my ribs as usual so I wasn't that worried - just horribly carsick - why do those ambulance beds face backwards?
At the hospital I was surrounded by a dozen medical people who stuck needles and drips in all over me and attached me to a monitor - which showed that Luke was very happy, and my uterus was "irritable". I was, too! I lay around for 12 hours and they kept telling me that when my uterus "calmed down" they would move me to the antenatal ward. Had a little gush of blood every so often, but they kept telling me (in slightly surprised tones) that Luke was doing really well. Various doctors came to talk to me about what would happen if they had to do a cs that day, but they didn't think they'd need to.
And then I went into labour; 45 second contractions every 2 minutes, each accompanied by a gush of blood. So the room filled up with people again. They kept introducing senior-sounding doctors - "and this is our expert surgeon who does the really difficult hysterectomies" - oh gee, thanks! There were a lot of people hanging around looking quietly nervous but I wasn't in any state to worry at that point! They said they'd give me a general anaethetic and I thought "oh good, knock me out".
By the time we got to theatre they'd decided on a spinal (dh said the surgeons and the anaesthetists had an argument about it on the way). So I got to be awake, which was nice. DH and I sat there reciting Psalms at each other and ignoring what was going on at the other end of the table.
None of the things they were worried about actually happened, and Luke came out screaming - the best sound ever! At 20 weeks I wanted a homebirth, at 34 I just wanted a baby that breathed. Luke and DH went off to intensive care; dh came back a bit later with a photo and I got to go and see Luke that evening.
The consultant said the scar from my previous cs had started to split and some of the placenta was coming out that way; she thinks it was a good thing the placenta praevia happened before the scar ruptured...
Luke spent a week in SCBU and week on the ward with me learning how to breastfeed, and now we're home. He hasn't put any weight on yet but thats another thread!