Jasper, re. your question regarding third labours. My baby girl is now 11 weeks old having been born on 24th October 2001.
I also heard horror stories about third labours. My first born daughter's labour was 4 1/2 hours and my son's was 2 hours and 50 minutes. Whilst expecting, my midwife said that the third labour could be very fast or it could be very long - third labours never seem to follow the rule. She also said it might start and then suddenly stop.
Luckily for me, my labour started at 5 am and I was told, whilst expecting, that as soon as anything started to get to the hospital straight away as it might only take minutes(!) - it didn't. I arrived at hospital at about 5:30 in the morning and wasn't examined by any midwife. Because it was my third child they decided to let me follow my own instincts about how the labour was going, and also they were due to change shifts at 7 in the morning and the midwife currently on duty didn't want to examine me, only for me to have another examination when the new midwife came on duty.
The new midwife arrived at 7 and the other midwife then went off duty after saying that I was in advanced labour. The new midwife never examined me either - just kept asking if I wanted to push (which I didn't).
When I started pushing, she was born after two big pushes but then my contractions stopped. Her head had been born (all we could see was the back of her head which was covered in black hair) but had no idea if she was a boy or a girl. My midwife said I could either wait for another contraction to push her out or try and push her out anyway. Because I wasn't having any contractions, I felt I had nothing to push against and was worried "my insides might fall out" - that is what it felt like.
After about 3 minutes of my baby being suspended between being born and not being born, I decided to push her out anyway. Because she was born so slowly, I had no tearing, etc. and had to have no stitches and had no bruising either. I feel she had such a lovely introduction into this world - very peaceful and slow.
My beautiful baby daughter was born at 08:07 in the morning (labour of 3 hours, 7 minutes). I had no stitches, bruising or anything and it made such a difference in how I felt, what with not being sore down below.
When she was born, she was bright blue in colour and they gave her to me to try and bring her round. I had to keep rubbing her but couldn't get a response, so they took her off me and had to clear her nose and mouth from mucus. While they were doing this, the paediatrician turned round and said that everything would be fine. I had no inclination that everything wouldn't have been fine, but my husband said afterwards that he did get a lump in his throat when the doctor said this.
Eventually, she gave out a hearty cry and they passed her back to me. She was still blue in her extremeties (hands and feet) and they had to keep her well wrapped.
While I was showering afterwards, my husband just held her to keep her warm. She was wrapped in two towels - they didn't want to dress her until she had warmed up.
After my shower, I was taken to the post-natal ward and the midwife there realised that she was still not dressed and didn't even have a nappy on. Because this was our third baby, my husband was given the job of dressing her for the first time (he did a brilliant job).
She was a very sleepy baby (and still is) and didn't feed at all after she was born. By 5 pm in the afternoon, the midwife undressed her to try and wake her but still she wouldn't feed. They then did a blood sugar test and she had a very low blood sugar and said that this baby had to be fed. She wouldn't feed at all from my breast, so they tried giving her a bottle - all to no avail.
I stayed in hospital the night of the day she was born as her blood sugar level was still low and they wanted to keep a check on her.
When I came home, they still kept a check on this blood sugar. Also, she was a "quivery" baby in that she would get the shakes in her arms and legs - apparently this is a side effect of having a low blood sugar.
She dropped in weight from 7 lbs 15 oz to 7 lbs 2 oz and two weeks after she was born she was still only 7 lbs 13 oz with a nappy on. Eventually the midwife signed me off - it just seemed to take her a long time to put the weight back on - although now she is 11 weeks and weighs 13 lbs 2 oz (I think she has been "eating all the pies".
Unfortunately, she has had a bit of a rough time since she was born.
Her belly button wouldn't dry up and I had to use Sterzak talk to try and help it dry up and drop off, which it eventually did.
She developed a cough and cold when she was just under two weeks old. At that age she couldn't cough and it took her about another two weeks to learn how to cough. When she learnt how to cough, she did so, so violently that she has developed an umbilical hernia.
Even now, at 11 weeks old, she still has a bit of a cough - I just hope she doesn't develop asthma as my husband is asthmatic, although my other two children are not.
She also has conjunctivitus in both her eyes. The conjunctivitus looks so nasty, my heart goes out to her, although she is a beautiful baby and is soooooooo good. She is very content and settled and all she does is sleep.
I have waffled on a bit there.