I had some reflexology on the Tuesday morning as the midwife suggested it and thought it might relax me ahead of the Friday afternoon induction.
I had some twinges that night but they eased off come bed time so I didn't think anything more about it.
Wednesday - I was determined to nest and get everything sorted for Friday afternoon. Not many people knew it was eviction date time. I didn't even tell my parents or sister or anything. Just a couple of close friends knew. We moved house when I was 38 weeks pregnant and we think that caused false start numero uno. In 4 days, I had redecorated and packed everything I could and moved house. Luckily we had fab friends help us out here. I decided I didn't like the colour in our bedroom so set about painting the walls of it that day. I had done 3/4's of it and was having niggles and affectionately told the bump that I would stop painting if she stopped hurting me.
I think it worked as I can't remember many more niggles that evening. I had a bath and relaxed and come 9pm-ish, I had more niggles like the previous night.
My husband was working nights at the time and didn't know whether he should leave me but I said to him, they died off the night before so they probably will die off again. And off to work he went. And to bed I went.
The cat came to bed with me as usual and slept on her daddy's side as usual.
Except I couldn't get comfy, the niggles were still there.
Normally the cat will relocate if I am tossing and turning but she stayed in the same spot all night and watched me. I think I half slept that night. I remember being aware of the niggles and moving around in the bed, trying to get comfortable through them.
I opened one eye and saw it was 3.30am and then I think I thought, 'Is this it?' but I didn't know. It didn't feel like the false starts so I began timing them and they went from every 7 minutes to every 5 minutes and lasting a good minute. So at 5.00am I phoned my husband.
He was shocked I think and said he would be home shortly and why not try a bath. That way we would know if it was the real thing. Good idea in principle.
However, I got into the bath but couldn't get comfortable nor could I get back out of the bath to get back onto the bed. And I left my phone in the bedroom. The cat came to the bath with me and sat on the edge of it.
It felt like I was riding this contractions for hours and I wasn't getting much of a break between them and then finally, I heard the door go. In between the contractions I told him I wanted out and couldn't get out. He got me to the bed and said he was phoning labour ward who said to come on in.
I vaguely remember him calling my best friend and telling her third time lucky and somehow he managed to get me dressed.
The journey to the hospital was the worse ever. Fact.
It was rush hour, the car was so low that I was feeling every bump in the road. I kept feeling so much pressure as well! At one point we were stuck in traffic, not far from the hospital and an ambulance went past (no blues and twos) and I thought to myself, if I had the energy I would jump out this car and chase after it for a bit of gas and air!
I was praying that this was it and could have cried when the midwife met us. We are down as getting there for 8.20am. She checked me at 8.30 and my waters went, to my immense relief, and she said I was 6-7cm dilated. How I (mentally) danced for joy.
I kept going with the gas and air and at some point they put a cannula in me too and I felt the need to push. I asked for them to check and they said it was time.
I found this the most painful and kept asking for an epidural and was told that there was no need. I just needed to get her out. She got her head stuck and it took my legs being back as far as possible and pushing with everything I had to get her out.
Then it all went wrong.
They had to whisk her out the room. She had swallowed meconium and was struggling to breathe. I was numb, just kept asking after her. The midwives were brilliant and told me that it was very common but I was sobbing. I had my husband cuddling me, crying, saying 'Please God, not again, not again'. Then we heard her cry. She was crying.
My friend went out to check on her and came back crying and said she is fine. So I asked her if she was fine, why was she crying. It was relief I think. I think we all held our breaths.
And so another princess entered our lives, rather dramatically, and she was a big girl too. All 9lb 12oz of her. She had to go to the neonatal unit as she swallowed the meconium so they could keep an eye on her and I had to go to theatre to be stitched up for a natural tear.
She was doing so well. We started feeding her and 48 hours later we were both discharged home.
As a family.
