Ooer, someone must know me in real life if they're hearing rumours like that
Proving my abilities to predict date and time and weight are completely useless, Jude was born at 8lb and half an ounce on Sunday 30th May, after a bizarre non-labour which started with waters breaking with a bit of meconium staining on Friday night at 2am. Midwife was confident everything was fine with the baby and I wanted to carry on with planned hb, so we filled the pool and waited...and waited...and waited...
Had very sporadic ctx all day, nowt much happening, took the children back from friends and put them in bed. I wondered if I wasn't labouring because I wanted them settled, but nothing happened still. Went for a walk round the block, had a bath and my midwife suggested I should go to bed and I'd probably wake up in labour. I did - contractions every 8 mins or so, so I put some more water in the pool, lit some candles and had something to eat. However by the time she'd arrived an hour or so later, it had died down again. Having not much water there, when she had a feel we agreed that what we thought was a head was starting to feel like a bottom...when I had another leak of water and a bit of fresh meconium came out we all started thinking maybe we'd better transfer in to hospital as that seemed another giveaway. I'd have been happy at home if everything was fine as my midwife is an expert in home breech births but as she said, if a breech isn't coming out, this is exactly what happens - labour just doesn't get going. So off we went, to a hospital where even though she's an independent midwife she can practice and so would carry on being my midwife. Drove in, having dropped off the children with friends, all very relaxed as still no contractions so I had a sleep in the car. Was feeling petrified cos hospital breech would mean a c/s and so had a little cry then decided I'd better be brave. Arrived at hospital, and another exam showed that it wasn't breech after all! So hooray, no c/s. As there'd been meconium and the waters had been gone for over 24 hours, we all agreed to an IV of antibiotics and a syntocinon drip to see if that would push me into labour as something was stopping it from happening. Ironically as the iv anti-bs were going in, I started contractions every 5-10 mins! The drip was up for about an hour then taken down as my body had taken over - at this point I gave up on the TENS and went onto gas and air. I stood and squatted and leant over the bed, so even though I was in my worst nightmare (hospital!) I still managed a very active birth which is a huge plus and which made it very quick - just over 3 hours! 6 mins second stage, apgars of 8/10/10 and Jude was born, plastered in meconium and rather blue with the cord round his neck at 3.06 in the afternoon. He is gorgeous and looks like a mixture of our other boy and his sister. I stayed in overnight, having discussed coming straight home, as we wanted to just be completely sure there were no problems with Jude after the meconium but I got a room to myself, so even managed a bit of sleep!
Had a big debrief yesterday evening with my midwife, and we think that in retrospect everything points to possibly oligohydramnios (low amniotic fluid) starting at about 33 weeks, which is when I suddenly started feeling pretty crap and very negative about the pregnancy and chances of the HB coming off. When my waters broke it was just a trickle, and at no point in the labour did we get a gush of water so it would seem that might be the reason. Anyway, I'm happy that we transferred for all the right reasons and ecstatic with our gorgeous new boy!