hey
happy to announce HARRY JOHN born 07.01.09 (i know this post is a little overdue, but my god its hard work!).
he came 10 days early. i was supposed to deiver at royal berkshire hospital in reading but though i was safe to travel to poole for a funeral eleven days before due date.
i had no inling of anything happening until one major contraction in the car park of the crematorium. then in the 20 minute car journey to the wake i had 4 more and my waters completely emptied.
we got a family member to drive over to the nearest hospital (poole general) and once i was checked out they told me i was already 3cm and was definately not going to make it back to reading before the baby came.
incidentally i had no notes or hospital bag with me - so its quite funny looking back at all the 'what do i need in my bag' threads, considering i had nothing and my husband was wearing his mourning suit and wedding shoes for the birth of our firstborn. i did however ask him to take his tie off after a few hours as i felt like i was giving birth in front of my boss!
after lots of raised eyebrows and 'yes, the baby is coming quickly but don't worry' comments from midwives, they shipped in a on-call midwife especially for me so that i could have my water birth and they transferred me down to the water suite. never managed to have the water birth, but gave birth in the most beautiful high-ceilinged room with orchids and comfy chairs and foot stools.
after a 12 hour labour (7 hours established) harry was born at 2.19am on the 07.01.09. i managed with just gas and ir and tens mfor the majority of the birth and had a shot of pethidine about 5 hours before, which did NOTHING. i felt cheated as they said it would help me to sleep for a while, but it didn't even touch the sides. instead, the labour kicked up a gear and i went from 5 to 10cm very quickly, so the pethidine was a waste of time in my opinion.
after 1 hour and 11 minutes of pushing; most of it in the wrong position he came out after three pushes once i was in a more comfy position. not long as some cases go but it felt like forever.
anyway - would happily do it all again already and looking forward to it in a strange kind of way. anyone else given birth found that its almost an addictive feeling. or am i just a weirdo??
had some troubles since - he was severaly tongue tied - and couldn't breast or bottle feed. we were syringe feeding him which was painfully slow and as a result he went from 8lbs 1/2oz birth weight to 7lbs 2 after about four days. we were told to kick the syringe feeding up to two hourly but this was impossible and they said that he'd lost 11.2% of his birth weight and at 12% they re-hospitalise us both.
anyway - long story short, we've been to southampton hospital and had a small procedure done on harry's tongue and he's now learning to breastfeed. slowly.
but happy to say that his weight has now gone back up to 8lbs12oz as of yesterday.
best wishes to all you ladies out there still waiting. its not as bad as they all say - try not to worry. it could be worse - you could have no hospital bag or notes with you and give birth in a strange hospital and county!
xxx