My birth story....
Had a sweep last Tues morning and as there was a student there she had a go too! The midwife said she'd given me 'one hell of a sweep' and she'd be very surprised if it didn't work. Cue period type cramps for the rest of the day - some of which were extremely sore. Decided to try and sleep so went to bed and woke up at half one with very strong pains. Went to the toilet and back to bed and managed to get back to sleep. After that, everything stopped!! Went for a big walk on the Weds and continued bouncing on my ball but nothing else was happening.
Started getting faint period type cramps Thurs lunchtime but didn't think much of it. Proceeded to go to Asda where the pains were getting progressively stronger and stronger. Got home as my husband was getting home from work (he was going to a job interview though...). Our friend was decorating our hallway though so he was told that I was having pains and to phone hubby if they got really bad etc.
Pains were getting worse and worse so phoned hospital who told me to have a bath and paracetamol. As predicted, paracetamol did nothing but the bath helped relieve the tail end of the contractions. Eventually phoned and said I wanted to be examined and got to hospital around 7.45pm. Midwife examined me and said I was 5-6cm which I was very pleased about! She then accidentally broke my waters so I was def staying in hospital. Bailey was back to back and she managed to partially turn him and he did the rest during labour.
By half 9 I was begging for an epidural. Very nice (and quite hot) anaesthetist came in and sorted me out with one. It didn't work. He came back and put another one in which only partially worked so I had gas and air for the majority of it (I honestly don't know what the big deal about g&a is - did absolutely nothing for me...). The epidural took the edge off the contractions but I could still feel when I needed to push.
Ended up with an episiotomy as he wasn't quite coming out. Turned out he had his hand up the side of his face. 2 more pushes and he was out...
Loved the shocked look on hubby's face that he had a son - he was absolutely convinced we were having a girl.
All in all, a very good experience - I will be doing it again!! 