Well I arrived at hospital on 7th December at 1pm, by 2pm they had inserted the pessary to induce my labour, the waiting had begun and I was so excited, we both were.
Later that evening I had some slight contractions but after Chris was sent home at 9pm they stopped shortly afterwards. The next morning the doctors came round and examined me, I was 2cm, my cervix had shortened and they could send me down to a labour suite, get my waters broken and my labours started on a drip, this was at 7am, I excitedly text Chris the news and patiently sat waiting on him coming and them taking me down!
Tuesday went passed, no sign of them taking me down and no sign of baby arriving either. So I spent another day and night on the ward waiting, Chris was sent home again. On the Wednesday at 1pm they said that I could go down to the labour ward, ready for when they had a space for me in the suites, I was so xcited again, so was Chris, finally we thought this is it!
We went down the the labour ward about 2pm, there was 1 woman in labour on it already, I started to feel like a fraud for being there, if it wasnt for the bump I would have been asking why I was as I wasn't in labour. Another 3 people cam into the bay I was in, 2 were taken through t delivery, one was still there along with the woman that was there before me.
That night after still not taking me through I saif I wanted to go home, the midwife and doctor on duty managed to bribe me to stay, I got my own private room, Chris could stay the night and didn't need to leave me and I was promised they would take me through for 6am to get started off. They put me in my room, gave us both tea & toast and done a trace on me, we decided to go to sleep about 11pm as we knew the next day we were both going to need it.
Chris feel asleep pretty much straight away but I couldnt fall over, at about 1am I realised I was having mild contractions about 20mins apart, I left Chris sleeping, never said to the midwifes either. At 2.45am I woke Chris up, told him I was in labour, he didn't believe me at first, till I had my next one!
I got him to ask the midwives to run me a bath just after 3am, I spent about half an hour in it, when we got back to the room my contractions were now about 10mins apart, this was at3.40am(ish) I asked Chris to get the midwives to come so they could see how far along I was. By the time they came a few mins later my contractions had decided to come quicker and were now every 4-5mins, the midwife came in I asked her to check me, she sort of tutted and looked at me as if I were over reacting, not that I was complaining about the pain but she didnt see the point as the contractions hadn't started that long before. She went away to get gloves and the other midwife came back, the on which had presuaded me to stay (it was a good job she did!) I had a massive bloody show in the toilet waiting on her which freeked me out a little, when she checked me I was 8cm and my waters were bulging! The look on the other midwives face was a picture!
I walked round to the delivery suite, we got to the room about 4am, I got up on the bed and they put a monitor on me, I decided to take some gas and air, my contrctions were 2-3mins apart now and although I didn't really need the gas and air it helped me focus my breathing. Chris was shocked at how quickly things were progressing, he thought we had hours to go. At 4.15am my waters broke, they were meconium stained so I paniced slightly as I knew that could be bad for the baby. I started to push just after that, 2 puches and her head was delivered, I never even realised her head was out and when the midwife was talking to her saying the rest of you will be out in a minute to meet mummy & daddy I asked how is the head out? She gave me a little giggle, in the next push she was born, as beautiful as ever at 4.22am. Luckily I never even had as much as a graze never mind a cut.
My total recorded labour was 1 hour 20 mins, had I have went home she would have been born in the house, we are a 20 minute drive from the hospital but would have had to have waited on Chris's dad picking us up, he a 15 min drive away as my contractions weren't sore enough for me to want to go to hospital till 4am, his dad would have probably arrived as she was being born! I think the time on my recorded labour is too long I would say established labour only lasted about 40mins but they timed it from when I asked for a bath, I only wanted that as my back was sore!
The aftercare in the hospital was terrible so I left that night, would rather be at home in my own bed, surrounded by my own things, sharing our first night together as a family.
