4.30 Wednesday afternoon; feeling really peed off. Eleven days over and induction looming. DH suggested I have a bounce on the trampoline to see if that would get things moving. Why not, I think? Nothing else has worked up to now. So I scramble on and have a gentle bounce with DS2, holding onto the bump for dear life.
Fast forward to 8pm ? start getting strong tightenings and some pain. DH helps me put on the TENS machine and I open Contraction Master and monitor them for the next two hours. Not really progressing greatly and I can still concentrate on The Apprentice and appreciate that horrid Philip being fired. At 10pm I decide that I will try to go up to bed, watch a bit of TV and sleep, in complete denial, it would seem. By the end of ?You?re Fired? (my life doesn?t usually revolve around Alan Sugar, by the way) I finally accept that sleep is off the menu and DH and I head back downstairs. By this time the contractions were coming thick and fast and DH called the hospital at 11pm to ask them to let the ?on call? midwife know I was in labour.
The midwife arrived at 11.25, very calm and reassuring (we hadn?t met before but that didn?t matter at all.) She checked the baby?s heartbeat and examined me straightaway ? I was already 6cm, which was fantastic ? she immediately called the second midwife as she said it wasn?t going to take long. The waters were about to go and so DH put a piece of plastic sheeting on the floor, covered it with an old sheet and I grabbed her bottle of gas and air. I then got onto my knees and lent over my birthing ball using that for support.
At just after midnight the waters went with a big pop and the second midwife arrived just a few minutes after that. I had thought for a minute that DH was going to have to play the part of midwife 2. Then after much mooing DS3 arrived at 0035hours onto the living room floor (it wasn?t much of a drop!)
Overall, a wonderful birth experience. The midwives were fantastic, DH was fantastic and the baby is fantastic. As DH made everyone cups of tea, the midwives cleared up (not that there was a lot of mess) and I sat on the sofa cuddling the newbie, and the most special thing was that at 2am it was the midwives who left and not my DH. We just went upstairs to bed.