IDBI ... I know it must be scary and upsetting to consider your DD in plaster.. but I hope you can take comfort in the fact
that she won't remember in the long run.. hope you feel better soon.
Rosie, what a rubbish consultant.. good luck for tomorrow
FGPL.... good luck !
McDreamy.. do you have any good friends you can have on call 'just in case' ?
Thank you for all your congratulations, very much appreciated !
Quick summary of birth story whilst DD sleeps and cBeebies entertain DS ! It is too long.. sorry
In retrospect, I might have had some sense that something was happening on Tuesday.. but had put it down to the monster
walk the day before. I was just pottering doing some tidying up, cooking tea etc, but every so often would feel
quite woozy and had to lie down for 15/30 minutes before continuing.
We all sat down for dinner at 7pm when 'pop' and my waters broke.. which was a bit of a surprise to me, as my waters had
broken 20 hours into labout last time! I had no contractions, so we just started to prepare but with no real urgency. I showered,
we gave DS his bath and put him to bed (assuming that it would be many hours before we would take him to my aunties, tidied up and
checked our bags.
We rang the Doula (a last minute addition to our birth plan, when our childcare had looked at risk due to illness last week), and she said
she would come over, it was fantastic having her there switching all the lights off and creating a really calm safe envrionment for
both DH and I. We rang the birth centre who told us that due to the snow issues, they only had one midwife on, and
she was with a woman in transistion so to try the delivery centre. I resigned myself to not getting the birth centre labour and
thought no more about it.
Contractions started around 8pm and got regular about 9pm, with the Doula arriving at 9.30. I was able to manage the contraction pain
with breathing and rocking on my hands and knees (...and the assumption that much worse contractions were on their way!), so we decided to hold off a bit as we didnt want to spend hours in the
delivery centre. About 40 minutes later we realised that the contractions were really regular (every two and half minutes),
and were actually lasting over a minute... we were just debating ringing the taxi when I threw up everyway and growled (quite
literally..) " We need to go NOW"....
DH called two taxis, and suddenly realising that I would have to go outside and manage a car journey, I was not able to manage the
contraction pain... when the taxi driver rang the door bell.. I tried to crawl away, wailing as now contractions were now
crashing into each other like waves, with no discernable break inbetween. However, Doula and DH managed to
get me into the taxi (unfortunately with my holding my phone.. which of course got lost in the taxi !). DH got DS into taxi 1 and off they
went to my aunties, and Doula and I headed off to the hospital. I was now completely unable to control the contradictions.. and I
suspect the taxi driver drove really quickly.. but I remember little of it beyond me going 'I can't do this' and writhing about.
By the time we got to the hospital.. my mantra was now 'I need to poo.... ' yep.. I was good to go. Doula had to stop me trying
to get down on my hands and knees outside the lift to go up! What I hadn't realised was that when DH had rang the taxi's he
had also rang the birth centre, just in case. The other woman had just given birth, and the last spot on the birth centre had freed
up! So Doula managed to guide my truly undignified entrance into the hospital straight into the most beautiful birth centre
room I have ever seen (not that i have seen many...). There was a mat set up with two huge bean bags all covered in sheets, and
I just dived headfirst onto them and got on all fours. All I remember hearing was the lovely midwife saying ' you can push now
sweetie..' and I did and it was simply blissful!
Again, I was preparing myself for a lot more pain, but this is the wierdest thing.. the next 35 minutes did not hurt at all..
DH arrived 10 minutes into pushing and baby girl was born gently over that period.. I could not believe it, and still don't
quite understand what happened (but am not complaining !).
Once she was born the Doula and Midwife were silent, and we talked to her softly and then DH was invited to cut her cord.
It was all so calm and peaceful, I really couldnt get over it. There was a water pool in the room, so the midwife then invited me
to take DD into the pool.. which again was fantastic and DH, DD and I were able to sleep over in the same room until the next day,
which was again so different from being put on a ward and DH being sent home..
We are all very happy, DS is lovely with DD and keeps trying to hug and kiss her! DH brought him to the hospital to meet her,
and he seemed very happy and unsurprised.. so it does look he did understand all the 'baby' discussions !