Baby Ben arrived at 5.48am on Thursday morning. He is a real cutie (but I would say that), and big sister is taking it all in her stride with a mix of indifference and interest.
So, the gory details
I woke up just before 3am on Thursday morning needing a wee but feeling 'damper' than usual. As I got to the loo, I noticed a very small pink 'snail trail' on the floor - nice huh! Not mucous-y more just wet - so bobbed a pad in.
At the same time I noticed minor lower abdominal pains with slight backache which made me suspect labour had begun. Each pain led to a small amount of more pink fluid dribbling out (Still don't know what this was - a show? hind waters?).
I came downstairs to get a drink, deciding against waking dh up, and logged on to surf MN (of course) at 3.15am. In the meantime I'd had a couple more pains so timed them at every six minutes. Then one pain just after 3.30am was so intense I got dh up but told him to come round in his own time as I'd only been having what I now decided were contractions for a short period of time. 15 mins later I was telling dh to move faster as they were hurting more. We called his mum over to look after dd, and dh made me call the hospital as the cx were now every minute and lasting a minute, and needless to say the hospital told me to come in asap.
MIL arrived just in time to hear me do the biggest 'moo' in the world .
The 15 min drive to hospital was 'interesting' as I sat there like a mute and dh kept saying "are you ok are you ok are you ok" and all I was thinking was "don't push don't push don't push" so couldn't actully do anything else.
Got to the labour ward at 5.10am (via the odd falling on all fours movements from the car park) walked in shouting "need to push", but the mw took me through to the examination room, where I let out another "moo" which instantly sent in a flurry of people saying this is the wrong room for you. As they hadn't yet had time to read my notes, they hadn't realised I'd had a C-section first time round, so marched me off to the much more pleasant home-from-home birth suite rather than the clinical delivery room . By the time I got there I wasn't moving anywhere! I was unsurprisingly 10cm dilated and started to push whilst shouting "gas air water". The mw hooked me up to a monitor and broke my waters (but I didn't care at this pushing stage) but lo's heartrate dipped below 100 each cx.
The next thing I know I'd had an episiotomy and a ventouse had been attached. I'm a bit hacked off about this as neither dh nor I were asked / told about this . I attempted to refuse a cannula but my lovely mw pursuaded me otherwise.
I was told to push as hard as I possibly could, and it then took no time for Ben to be born - at 5.48am. Despite the late intervention, being conscious for the birth was absolutely brilliant, after having an emergency cs under general first time round.
It took seemingly ages to stitch me up, and I also had a labial tear (not heard of one of these before). As I lost a lot of blood I needed a drip attaching.
A midwife then stuck a painkiller up my bum but suggested I had gas and air whilst she did it - this was hilarious as I really didn't need the G&A but took full advantage and just ended up a giddy mess.
They then left us alone in the nice birthing room for a couple of hours to get to know our son. Dh and I just kept reliving the previous 3 hours coming to tersm with how quick it all was and how gorgeous our baby was .
Had a lovely bath, and moved to the ward which was sooo quiet (again totally different experience to first time round). Stayed in overnight due to blood loss.
All well-ish now except I have the most horrendous piles, which may be so bad surgery is needed. My dd's rubber swimming ring is my best friend.