I'll try to keep it brief...
Monday 29th August, I stayed in bed... my legs and feet were swollen (well, more than they had been in the few weeks prior), I had a headache, and I just felt generally unwell. By 3pm I thought I should call my midwife to see what she thought, and she told me to come in for a check-up. I called Alastair and asked him to come home and get me, and we were at the hospital by 4pm. By the time the blood tests, monitoring, and an internal examination were done it was after 6pm, and I'd started having regular contractions (probably from the VE). We went home, and wondered if it was for real... prepared though for it not to be, as I'd had a few hours of contractions on the Friday and Saturday before...
By 11pm I really hoped it was the real thing, as it was getting uncomfortable and they weren't letting up. However it just felt like period pain, not the enormous "tightening" of the uterus and my stomach going as hard as a rock. I had a shower (since we don't have a bath), and knelt on my thongs to allow the warm water to run straight onto my back. At 2.30am we rang the midwife who was on call to let her know what was going on, she said we were doing well, and to call when we wanted to go in to the hospital. Alastair had snatched an hour of sleep between 1-2am, and then managed another hour between 3am and 4am. Then he had a shower, and I collected the last few things I wanted to take to hospital. We called the midwife again, who said I'd done very well, and that she'd call my primary midwife and get her to meet us at the hospital.
We arrived just before 5am and Linda (my midwife) arrived about 15 minutes later. When she saw me on my knees beside the bed in the assessment room, she decided to skip the assessment as she said she could see that I was in labour. :) Birthing Unit Room 2 was available (the biggest room, and the only one with a bath!) so we went in there, I hopped up on the bed, and Linda discovered that I was 6cm dilated. :) She asked if I'd like her to break my waters, and said that if she did, the contractions would become much more "efficient"... good word! They certainly did - but still basically just like period pain, not what I was expecting.
I was in the bath when Alastair remembered that we were parked in the ambulance zone... so he went to move the car and get himself some breakfast. :) While he was gone, I suddenly felt like I was overheating and had to get out of the bath. The cordless monitors I had on my kept losing their signal because I was moving around, (and I had to be monitored because of the meconium that had been present when my waters were broken), so Linda suggested I hop out of the bath, and she wanted to put a clip on the baby's head. I was a little scared at that, but had little energy to protest. When I was on the bed and Linda checked me out before putting the clip on, she said "Oh, I can see your baby's head! Let's not worry about the clip and just push this baby out!" at which moment Alastair walked in with hashbrowns and a chocolate shake for me. :) He's so sweet to think of me, and had no idea I'd be so far along (although I was never going to be able to eat McDonalds at any time during the labour!).
Apparently I pushed for about an hour and a half... it didn't feel that long. I guess I was just thinking about each one as it came. As the baby's head crowned, I felt my perineum pop, and knew I'd torn. :( But then our dear little girl was born, and the previous hours were forgotten about as we looked at her and cuddled her. We named her Anthea, for Alastair's stillborn sister who was born 28 years ago, and her middle name is Grace because we thought it sounded nice with Anthea... although it is my grandmother's middle name too. :)
While they were checking Anthea out and everything, the doctor came in and said I'd have to go in for a general anaesthetic to have the 3rd degree tear repaired. This, to the girl who has never had a filling in a tooth or anything!!! So that was a bit scary, but I was so tired, no tears came. I wanted to have a shower before the op, so Alastair helped me to the bathroom. Lucky he was there, as I hemorrhaged and went into a faint. He and the midwives got me back to the bed, and then I was wheeled away for surgery. It wasn't much fun... the anaesthetists weren't very friendly, and they tell my blood count was so low (after losing nearly 2 litres of blood) that I had to have a transfusion. I was supposed to be back on the ward in about 2 hours, but it ended up being nearly 5 hours... poor Alastair, he'd had Anthea all day, and hadn't been able to find out where I was or what was going on with me, and he was nearly beside himself. :( But then we were all back together (albeit in a lot of pain), and then our families arrived to meet our little daughter. I was so out of it, and I see photos taken from that night that just make me shudder. The first day was not cool.
When Alastair had to go home that night I cried... I was so sore... I couldn't move or adjust myself... I lost my buzzer... I couldn't pick up my baby when she cried... it was awful.
But each day got easier and was better than the one before it. I only had one horrible nurse, all the rest were just delightful. It was so so so wonderful to come home on the Friday afternoon (2nd Sept), and sleep in my own bed. The first couple of nights were a bit rough, but we're working on that - the last three nights Annie has slept for 6 hours in a row! :)
I've just typed and typed and typed... and cried and cried remembering that first day. I'm not going to proof this as we've got visitors coming soon and I just wanted to let you know what happened.
And I'll leave you with a photo of my cutie... she makes me so happy! :)
