Morning ladies!!
Still on a hormone high here. Very, very good baby doing nothing but sleeping at the moment to lull in to a false sense of security but I can do nothing other than stare or cuddle rather than sleep to at the moment!
Thanks for sharing your birth stories Esk and B2B. Just typed mine for a friend so it is below!
Nickel I second what Katee says, the alien tummy from around 30 weeks is a sight to behold! I think it is natural for men to find it a little odd and also to be afraid that them pushing or feeling may hurt the baby!
Hope the smoking MW went well BamBam, don't 
. You are trying to do something about it!
So, here goes......
I have to say I completely lucked out on the birth front.
Went to bed on Tuesday night and was watching Have I Got News for You repeats and generally talking to DH about if we felt ready for a baby, the house (which we get the keys for today!) etc when at about 22:45 I feel something that I am pretty sure was my waters breaking. However i thought it may be the EPO tablet melting! Shot out of bed (no mattress protector ;)) and went next door to realise yep, waters gone and trickling away still. Thankfully they were pink so fingers crossed in my mind that whenever we got round to the birth part in theory I could still go to the birth centre at this point. I got a little bit irrational at the point as the next things i did were to wax my under arms and repaint my toe nails....think I was in a bit of denial as I am really not that vain! To paint my toe nails I had to put one leg up on the bed whilst the bump went in the middle so as you can imagine I had to do this standing on a towel as every time I changed position there was more leakage!
Called the birth centre who said I should come in so they could confirm that it was my waters and make an appointment for induction if I had gone into labour naturally in the next 16 hours. So it's now about midnight, still no contractions and we get a cab.
In the taxi I start having some mild contraction (just like period pain) about 6 mins apart. Get to the birth centre which was really quite, i think only one room out of the 8 was occupied. We were behind a couple clearly in very active labour so put in a room to wait. I start pacing around telling DH when I was having contractions, which I hadn't realised had gone to 3 mins apart. Still quite mild.
The MW comes in and takes a swab but no further exam and it still looks like we are off home with instructions to come back at 6pm if things haven't progressed. She then says she'll just go write my notes up and will be about 20 mins. In this time things start to intensify. All throughout my entire labour I only felt the contractions as period type pain (although on a scale never felt before!!) so sort of low and in my pelvis. I could only get comfy on my knees leaning over either the bean bag or couch bed. By this stage I have whipped the dress I am wearing off as I decided I really should put the TENS machine to some use! It was fabulous throughout! Although we should have probably read the instructions beforehand....also at this point I realised i wasn't going to be the nice quite labouring type but the making any sort of noise through my contractions (on the out breath) seemed to 'help'. I rationalised it in my head that if I was making noise then I was definitely breathing!
The nurse returns with my notes to this scene! I think at this stage she thought I was a drama queen, I certainly did! We insisted that before she sent us home she give me an internal which she did to find I was 1cm dilated. So going home on the cards still. She left us for another 20 mins or so (no concept of time!) During this time things ramped up again and I was saying to DH that i had no idea how i was going to get home, let alone back to the hospital again and that when we did come back i was going to have to go to the labour ward as I had completely under estimated the pain and intensity and that there was no way I could spend 12-14 hours and then some feeling like I did then.
I tell DH to ask the MW if there is anything else I can do for the pain. She gives my two painkillers but as I had taken two paracetamol I would have to wait to 04:00. I think it is about 01:00 at this point. She suggests I get in the shower. Which again was great. Really powerful. I was quite hesitant to take the TENS off but the pain relief was as good. For some reason the the pressure on my back was the best even though the pain was at the front. She got me out of the shower and examined me again to find I had gone from 1cm to 8cm in 1.5 hours...
I didn't really comprehend this. All that really registered was that she finally came back with my admission wrist bands which meant we weren't going home! I was saying I thought I was going to have to transfer to the labour ward as I really couldn't cope with the pain. Up to this point my pain relief had been TENS, 2 paracetamol and the shower....and I didn't register 8cms in my head for some reason I thought I could still be in active labour for another 12 ish hours or so (no idea why I kept fascinating on 12 hours!). MW suggests trying G&A at this point and asks if I would like her to run the birth pool. I hadn't realised at the time but they had been religiously sticking to my birth plan and discussing it with DH throughout which to my mind now was fantastic. I think the only 'problem' was none of us realised how quickly things were progressing and therefore I think my cries during the contractions may have originally been seen as a bit of an over reaction!
Didn't make much of the G&A at this point and again was more anxious about removing my friend the TENS as we moved to the birth pool than anything else! Although after the shower DH hadn't applied the pads as well I was getting some quite amusing twitches!! Even more amusing when he failed to turn the machine off before removing the pads and sticking them to his hands, shocking himself!
So we waddled next door to the pool. Again, I look back now and know they would never have let me in the pool unless birth was pretty imminent but everything still felt forever away.
Got in the pool and at this point I don't know if it was the water, starting to use the G&A more effectively or the fact I am pretty sure I went through the transition at this point but finally, between contractions, things felt much, much calmer and more serene and even the contractions themselves felt more structured, in that they had a start, peak and end. Before that it was just constant discomfort and pain. I've seen some photos from this point and I look pretty out of it! I also asked for an epidural (again!), c-section and a taxi home at this point so I think thy knew I was transitioning!!
I was never examined internally again, just told that if I felt like pushing then to go with it. They regularly dopplered the baby who was just chilled throughout!
DH tells me he thought I was pushing for about 40 mins although, to be honest, I remember only pushing about 3 times for his head. What was weird was trying to work out if I wanted to push as I would get a contraction and not feel the urge until just after it peaked. I felt I had to concentrate really hard. I definitely felt the 'ring of fire' I had heard about when he crowned but was still really shocked when his head popped out! Not as shocked as DH who went to the other side of the pool to see his son blinking up at him and opening and closing his mouth!!
Another contraction or two and out he came! They pushed him back through my legs so I could pick him out of the water. All of a sudden I had the gorgeous, blinking, gawping purple prune!! I was just in open mouth amazement that he was here and perfect. All this and it was only 05:54!
He had a very short cord so it was quite hard to hold him. I wanted a physiological 3rd stage but they (well, DH) cut the cord pretty quickly. Got out the pool and sat on the birth stool to deliver the placenta which seemed to take forever as Teddy wouldn't suckle so I was having to push with no real urge to push. Still, all out eventually.
Even luckier at this point as I am examined and told I have some grazes but no tears. I was very pleased at this as it justified the £90 I had spent on the EpiNo!
Sorry, all clearly very fresh so lots of detail!
Right now I am getting used to having a baby! As i said he has spent most of his time sleeping lulling me in to a false sense of having a perfect child. Am told this will change in the next few days! Struggling a bit with feeding as he is just really not interested. We eventually get there but so far he only likes the right side and this morning my left is rock hard so am going to have to attempt to hand express some of that out! He gets hungry, gives me all the feeding cues, latches but then just stops before he sucks. Definitely got the suck reflex as when I put some milk on my finger and put it to the roof of his mouth I am lucky to get my finger back!! So we are both on a learning curve!
I rcanno believe this tiny little, 2 day old, gorgeous , warm bundle of fabulousness is mine! Or that he has been with us of only hours rather than years already.
I better attempt to wake him for breakfast!
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