on wednesday night i was putting my partners wee fella to bed when i felt the worst cramp ever and knew immediatly that i was going into labour, this was at about 10pm, i finished the story and came downstairs and decided to relax and pull out the pregnancy books, by the time my man came home from work i was bent double on the couch and dyin to go for a walk, the walk didnt last long cause the pain got worse and worse, i thought a nice shower would do the trick but it didnt help at all so i thought if i lie down and breath then that should work, girls i couldnt do anything and the pains kept coming stronger and faster, i left him in bed and went down stairs and started to time them and they were coming every 3-6 minutes and lasting nearly 2 minutes, it was crazy, so at 4am i rang the labour ward and told them what was happening but because my waters hadnt broken yet then i wasnt in any danger of giving birth at home and to stay where i was for as long as i could cause they had no beds available. so i started to panic about giving birth in a corridor, so i managed to last until 6.30am and i woke himself up and dragged him out of bed, got my bags down stairs and rang my stepdad, i was shattered and couldnt take the pain anymore, he arrived and it started to snow and my sister stayed to mind the wee fella and the dogs. arrived at the hospital to find a woman had just given birth in the lift, (maternity is only one floor up) so i walked the stairs, and went in and the place was manic, there were women screaming and midwives running left right and centre. they hooked me up to the fetal machine to check heartbeat and contractions and left me there in pain on a horrible bed for two hours, then the shifts changed and i got a lovely midwife who checked me out and told me i was 7 cm dialated and well done for doing it on my own, my waters still hadent broken so she broke them for me and brought me into a room, i got the gas and air but found it completly useless and had been told i couldnt have an epidural so she called the anaesthesiologist for a consult and he decided i could have one farther up my spine. i jumped at it and said hurry up. contractions were now a minute and a half apart and i was in agony. it took him three attemps to get it in and i didnt feel a thing, he kept getting vascular things or something, so on the third attempt he decided to tell me it was his first ever epidural and i freaked out, but it worked and i felt great, i even sent himself home for a nap and had one myself, but at 2pm i woke in horrible pain, the epidural had slipped and i was getting full force contractions again. but that was soon corrected and i had to ring evryone to say i was ready to push in an hour, they also gave me syntosinan to speed up the process but i cant remember when they gave it to me. himself arrives back in and i had invited three students to watch the birth too and the room was packed, i couldnt feel my left leg and it had turned to jelly so i had to use the stirrups to push, after the first push the babys heart beat dropped dangerously low and consultants started apearing out of no where talking about suction delivery and c section unless i got babs out fast, i pushed with all my might and after four contractions more he was out, it was unreal, they put him on my chest and i had to have him taken off me because i was getting so sick and started to shake really bad. so we stayed in the room for a while and then they brought me over the ward and let me settle in, i was exhausted but managed to breast feed a wee bit and then i had a million visitors and told them all to leave me alone. i had no stitches at all and was not in any pain but they gave me diffene and let me settle in, i passed out and woke up about four hours later to a crying baby needing feeding and nappys changed but i had no idea how to do it so the army of midwives who were all amazing came to my rescue.
Jack was born at 5.27pm on thursday and he weighed 8lb 15oz and is perfectly healthy
