The birth just felt completely surreal. On Friday morning I headed to my midwife check up, the head wasn't engaged yet and we chatted about inductions and she booked in a sweep for a weeks time. I left feeling reassured things were fine but with the sense she didn't expect a baby to appear any time soon. We spent the rest of the day visiting Granny and replying to texts to say no, no twinges or any sign of action yet!
After dinner that night about 10pm I got a real pressing down pain, I thought I'd eaten to much and the baby was pressing on my bowls. It kept happening and I had to keep standing up to shake off the pains. It slowly started to dawn on me that the cramps were coming every five minutes or so and then going away. I thought probably nothing but I started to note them down. An hour later I phoned the hospital and they said to have an hour long bath, if they didn't go away then they were contractions. The bath really helped and made them feel weaker but they were still there.
We laid down in bed and tried to sleep, every 7 minutes or so I was woken up and started my stopwatch! Nana came round to babysit and at 5 am we headed to hospital. I have no idea how I got from midnight to 5 just lying in my bed, was a bit of a haze. The contractions were still a bit far apart but lasting over a minute so I wanted to get checked out!
In the car they seemed to become more constant and the walk from the car to the ward was a struggle. I was embarrassed to be crying by the time I got up there. I started to stress that like my last birth they would say "2cm so off home with you" and my husband and I were totally shocked to find I was 7cm dilated! We struggled over to our room and I decided to get in the pool, hadn't really planned what I wanted but had that in the back of my mind. I intended to get in and see how I felt but no sooner was I in than the pushing started. I was so shocked I was shouting, "he's trying to come out!! What do I do??!" I thought something was wrong as it was happening so quickly. Go with it was the answer so I did my best and there he was born. It was completely amazing and my husband and I were completely she'll shocked. Just like that our perfect baby boy was with us.
I'd recommend the pool, the pain felt more manageable and the birth felt really natural. I had been scared about my second labour but just like that it was over and so so worth it. For anyone else still waiting and worrying, don't! You really can do it. I was so lucky I didn't need stitches and was allowed home that morning.
Now comes the really scary bit - taking care of our gorgeous baby boy who is completely relying on us. You'll be hearing more about this little heartbreaker along the way. Probably at 4 in the morning as he doesn't seem to be a huge fan of sleeping at night!! X
