Right, with all these things happening I thought I'd finally post Harvey's birth story. Obviously it's old news now but it was a positive experience so hopefully of benefit to share.
As you may remember, my waters went on the Tuesday (31/3) so I rang the hospital (while the ocado delivery man was bringing in the bags, looking very scared ) who told me to come in for monitoring. Eventually got seen at 9pm. MW confirmed it was my waters - not an embarrassing lack of pelvic floor control - and that they were clear. Monitor showed H was fine & dandy, no ctx & cervix closed. Doctor decided to give me steroids to help H's lungs, purely precautionary, in fact they've only recently decided to give them to ladies up to 36 wks, used to be 34; and antibiotics. Said I had 48 hours to go into labour naturally, otherwise they would induce as the infection risk would be too high. Doc insisted I stay in o/n for observation, though I pleaded with him to let me go home, convinced that I was much more likely to get going by myself if I was relaxed & in familiar surroundings. Reluctantly caved in (the 'best for baby' argument always gets you in the end, at least without the info to make an informed choice) and was admitted around 10pm.
12.30am - went to sleep... nodding off I noticed a couple of very very mild period style aches - only registered because I was hyper aware; if I'd been busy they'd have passed unnoticed.
12.30am - 3.30am - managed to sleep fitfully but now and again noticed a few period-type pains. Was very chilled out about it at that point & pleased that something seemed to be happening spontaneously.
3.30am - 4.30am - woken up by woman in next bed in labour (should never have been brought onto the ward IMO) clearly distressed with the pain. Did worry slightly when they said she was 3-4cm & wondered how I'd cope myself. At this point I was beginning to feel more uncomfortable but more due to back ache than crampy pains.
4.30am - groaning woman finally taken down to labour ward. Got up & chatted to some of the other inmates who'd also been woken up. Went to the loo and noticed some spots of blood, but mw told me it was just a show & not to worry.
4.30am - 5.30am - Couldn't get comfortable so did 'child's pose' from yoga on the bed & tried to time my pains, but found it too difficult as the backache made it difficult to distinguish any actual contractions; I could feel the pain get worse from time to time but it was very irregular & I couldn't make out the start and end. Turned out later H had gone back to back.
5.30am - decided to ask for some paracetamol. Too uncomfortable to lie in a hospital bed with nothing to do but focus on the cramps & backache so I got up & paced up & down the corridor. Figured if I was going into labour I'd need to keep my energy up so tried eating an apple & cereal bar, but didn't enjoy it. Some of the cramps were getting quite uncomfortable & had to lean over whatever was to hand & focus on positive thinking, breathing etc. At this point I was feeling pretty fed up and 'cheated' out of all the things I'd planned to do in early labour - TENS, birthing ball, DH massaging my back, posting on MN - instead being stuck in hospital on my own in the middle of the night
6.30am - did as the mw had suggested earlier & got in the bath for something to do & to hopefully ease the backache/cramps. Rang DH from the bath to tell him I was sure I was going into labour & to come over for visiting as I could tell I was going to need him by then. But whilst saying goodbye I had a really strong contraction I could hardly speak through - had to gasp - and (TMI) promptly threw up everywhere! Panicked for a few seconds & rang for the midwife to help me, but actually managed while waiting, in between contractions, to get out of the bath, dried, dressed, partially cleaned the bath. MW came in while I was brushing my teeth & I told her I was properly in labour now. She looked pretty sceptical but agreed to send for a monitor.
7.00am - back on the bed, properly in pain now & having to rock on my hands & knees & breathe through the contractions. Breathing techniques really helped, as did positive thinking: 'one more contraction out of the way, one more I'll never have to have again, one more closer to meeting my baby'.
7.15 - ??8.00 - monitor arrived. I insisted on staying on my hands & knees but they couldn't get a trace; refused to lie on my back so we compromised ('best for baby' argument again) on me lying on my side, which was marginally better. Seemed to be an interminable amount of time on the monitor during which I rang for the mw a couple of times & told them I needed pain relief now. They told me I couldn't have anything until I got to labour ward and I couldn't go down until a doctor had said I was in established labour, so I told them they'd better fetch the doctor pdq!
??8.30am - doctor finally arrived, palpated my tummy & told me I was having some 'mild contractions'. Told her I would definitely need pain relief because if these were mild contractions there was no way on earth I could go through the whole of labour! Felt v disappointed with myself at my apparent wimpiness & low pain threshold. At my insistance, doc examined me (owwww!) & proclaimed me to be 8cm!! I said to the doctor it made sense as I was feeling pressure down there & thought the urge to push may not be far away. At this point, they all flew into a panic Monitor off, I got back on my hands & knees & they pushed the bed, me groaning, face buried in pillows, sheet over my bum not caring who could see/hear... though I'm glad with hindsight it wasn't visiting time! Someone went off to phone DH at this point I think.
8.45am - got to the delivery room and onto the gas & air, at last!! Wonderful stuff! Still on hands & knees at this point & noticed that I was actually ok in between the contractions (think by now H had turned around - he came out the right way anway). Noise wise - lots of it - no mooing, just groaning & straining The old monitoring problem reared its head again & ended up spending the rest of the birth on my back (not flat fortunately) but it was actually ok by that point, helped by G&A.
9.30am DH finally arrived after getting caught in traffic to see the top of H's head appearing! Pushing was hard work & seemed to take ages but I think it was quite quick. Lovely midwife talked me through what to do through the pushing & crowning which was a fantastic help in making me feel things were under control. Think the worst bit was feeling like I'd got his head half way out & having to wait for another contraction to push out the rest. One further push for the shoulders & out little H slithered, yelling his head off
bloody hell that's epic!!! better post tho as hungry baby calling!