id you manage to stay home for as long as you thought before going to the hospital?

[JimmyChoo17]

hi

For everyone who had their FIRST baby, if you had planned to stay home as long as possible before going in......did you really stick to this plan?

Considering you have no idea of how u will react for your first and also that unknown without baby monitoring - is everything ok with baby, is this normal and also for more pain relief.....

My plan is to stay at home as long as possible before going into midwife unit for water birth. I'm thinking of ordering a tens machine to use whilst I'm at home but wondering how realistic it is to think that I will stay at home long enough to use it? Considering it's first birth you see?

I'm a low risk birth and only 5 mins from hospital.

Would love to hear how other mums dealt with their first birth BEFORE going into hospital.

Cheers.

Mine was pretty similar to Pavlov above. Waters had gone when I woke up around 6am, went into hospital and was sent home. Contractions kicked in around lunchtime and I managed with the TENS until about 5.30pm when we phoned hospital and said we were coming in (had previously phoned and been told to hang on). Arrived at the hospital soon after 6pm and went straight to delivery suite - no time for paperwork, DD born by 7pm.

On the plus side, the TENS worked for me and we certainly stayed at home as long as possible, but I wouldn't recommend leaving it that late. The drive was the worst thing I have ever experienced, by that stage the TENS really wasn't doing the job and I have flashbacks every time we drive that road even now! I was in shock for a good while after the birth, partly due to the speed of delivery but also I think because everything was so manic once we got there (DH and midwife trying to get me out of my jeans as DD tries to make an appearance...)

Second time around I went in as soon as waters went and still had baby within 4 hours even though midwives didn't think anything was going to happen.

I was also only 5 mins from the hospital. My contractions kicked off at 2.30am, or at least, that's when they woke me (I'd had hind waters go at 2.30pm the previous afternoon). They built steadily until 6.30am. I used a tens machine for about half that time and it really helped, although more of a weird distraction than true pain relief. I set off for hospital at 6.30am when I thought that if it got much worse, I was really not going to want to get in a car. I was 9cm dilated when I arrived at the hospital and happy to get started on the gas and air! If I could time it the same this time around (pregnant with number 2), I'd be happy.

Tens machine arrived from boots.....but to be honest was not impressed that it didn't look the cleanest! Pads were knew tho. .

Going to trial it out on my back tomorrow.

With my first, I woke up at about 2am, feeling like I wanted to constanly pee. I kept wiping, and wasn't sure if I was wetting myself, or sweaty or what ( had only ever heard of waters gushing)
I had no pain, just mild back ache, so went back to sleep as I didn't want to wake DH up.
I Woke him up at 7am to tell him what had happened, and he jumped out of bed and insisted we went to hospital.
I asked him to make me a bacon butty, as I was craving one. But as soon a I got downstaires, I started to have contractions 2 minutes apart, quite uncomfortable.
They were getting a bit uncomfortable ( toe curling ), so went to hospital about 9.30am.
I didn't take my hospital bag in, as I presumed I would be sent staright home again.
They measured me, and put me on a monitor, and said I was only 4cm, but decided to keep me in.
Within 5 minutes of walking to a delivery room, I said I wanted to push, and no one believed me!!
but when examined, they said the head was there.
It did take me about an hour of pushing, but seemed a lot quicker.
didn't have time for pain relief, and they said it was too late for gas and air, it wouldn't work anyway!!
I had only heard of horror stories, where people had been in this discomfort for hours/ days, so thought I was being a whimp.
I had planned to use a tens machine, get a massage with candles and a bath. I had made an i pod play list, and got the harry hill dvd to watch - expecting to be in pain at home for hours!!