On my due date I was getting calls from all sorts of family members and friends asking me how I was and all manner of things. I was just uncomfortable and tired. The only pains I had were my feet were bloody sore! Five days overdue now and I was getting a bit grumpy and tired of waddling around like a fat penguin. I was told to keep upright and walking will help. By bedtime I was having problems as I was in more discomfort and unable to sleep. I was having to go to the toilet pretty much ever half an hour, but any pains I had weren't regular so I just waddled around the flat until it was morning. Saturday we decided to do some washing up and bit of cleaning together so we were in the kitchen together and I was simply at the sink. I could feel some pains like I had in the night but they didn't bother me so I ignored them and just continued to do as much as I can around the flat. I soon got tired of being on my feet as they were sore plus the fact I hadn't slept properly in a while so I tried to nap. It was now dark and I had given up being on my feet and figured may as well go play an online game for a while. The pains were still there so I took out my iPhone and began to check the times in-between each pain. They were fairly close to one another, about eight minutes apart. I wasn't in much pain but we decided may as well go get checked out.
We got to the hospital and they hooked me up and checked me out. The room was empty and was simply five midwives and a doctor (who was in surgery for most of the time I was there) and not a single other woman to be seen. An hour later and the midwife came back to me and said "you're doing well, you're five centimetres dilated" with a smile on her face. I looked at my fiancé with a rather 'oh... bugger' sort of expression. I honestly expected them to go "Go back home, you wuss!" as these contractions had been pretty easy. They helped me out whilst my man went outside to sort the parking ticket (we paid for one hour just in case and so he needed to add a few more hours onto it) and call his parents and mine, who had not long just arrived to the area we live in and had just finished setting up their caravan.
I had been given a very nice private room which was warm, had a very nice and clean bed. What we enjoyed was the fact there was a television for us to watch and just for us geeks out there it was the day XMen 2 was on! So we watched that as my pains got a bit more painful. I tried the bath and that helped me for about five minutes, so got out and went back to waddling about and enjoying the movie. They offered me some gas and air, however it made me feel light-headed and I could barely think straight so I gave up on it. By then the pains were bad and I called the midwife in with the remote I had been given. I was trying to stay calm as she had already told me not to push because my waters had not broke, but now I was having that 'push now' feeling and found it hard not to do so. She checked me and decided to break my waters for me. The moment it did to me it felt like a large weight just gushed out of me and left the wonderful and hygienic room in a rather awful state.
Now it was time, I was in labour. I was thinking to myself how the hell was I going to do this and remember my mind replying with "well how else did you think the baby was coming out? Magic?" and very quickly I stopped caring about it and just wanted to see my baby. It had been over an hour and I found the room filling up with midwives and doctors. They told me because I was having some trouble they were going to use the ventouse. I remembered being told what this was and how it worked so I didn't question it and just nodded. Then I was told "I need to make a small cut, is that okay?". I hadn't even considered this and just went "do what you need to do!" and I felt a tiny twinge as she made the cut. Two pushes later and he was out!
Because I had stitches put in and because he had a sore area on his head from the ventouse they sent me up to the ward to stay overnight. At first I was in a room with three other women who all had baby girls, but just a couple of hours later I was offered a private room with a television and sink. I didn't really want to stay overnight in a hospital, but I knew it was the right thing to do and I did have trouble getting him to feed from the breast at first.
The morning after and I had a room full of doctors, nurses and midwives doing all sorts of checks, giving me advice and showing me how to do things like giving him a bath. I can barely remember what was going on, my toast had gone cold from having to talk to so many people at once. I was just happy to hear from my fiancé who had kindly gone and bought some outfits, nappies and other stuff for our new arrival. I was told I could go home soon, but hours went and this was due to the fact I needed to show my midwife who was looking after me that day that I can feed him. When he wanted a feed I called using the buzzer which didn't work. We told a staff member to get her for us and she never came. Finally she came, it was dark outside by now and it was because she had a lunch break when I was feeding him then spent rest of the time signing other women out. The paperwork took so long to do, I just wanted to go home right now! In the end we were let out and drove back home to find grandparents waiting outside our flat to greet their grandson.
Honestly for me the birth couldn't have gone any better. Sure I needed some stitches and he had his head stuck to a plunger type gadget, but it wasn't a bad experience for me and to me that's all I could have asked for.
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