My Pregnancy Journey - completed

Chapter 9 - HOLY SHIT I'M IN LABOUR!

Please don't get all excited just yet. I have so much more to tell you before the real excitement begins!

So the doctor comes around on the Saturday after I've been admitted and he tells me this time I have a water infection. They are going to keep me in and decide Monday what they are going to do. Sunday comes around and the doctor tells me I'm not going home yet. Tomorrow (Monday morning) you can go home in the afternoon is what they say. 

"We have you booked in for a scan, just to see how much fluid is around him, if there is still fluid around him and how far down his head is."

Okay fair enough I thought. But bloody get me out of here soon. I can't stand it. The nurse comes and does the hourly observations I have been put on. She looks worried as she is taking my blood pressure, but I thought it was going to be nothing to worry about. Turns out I had everything to be worried about. They weren't going to be letting off the ward as my blood pressure was sky high (yes sky high- those are the exact words the doctor and nurse said). OH MY DAYS! Could this get any worse? Turns out it could. I went down for my scan and then came back  up to the Maternity Ward. 

Then I was told my baby's head was engaged, that they were keeping me in overnight and sending me home the next day. Yippee! I thought another sweltering hot night in this stuffed up, cramped noisy hospital. I had to put up with the woman's sister's snoring. Her sister wasn't pregnant, the woman was! This was getting beyond ridiculous. Tuesday morning, another friend is visiting her mum and offers to take us home when she had finished visiting her mum. Her mum was in the same hospital as me just on another ward. Freedom! But of course I couldn't celebrate my freedom just yet. Everything was hunky-dory all day Tuesday. Nothing happened Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, me and my partner decide to get his room ready. We had been painting his room over the last few days or so. Don't worry I know I'm not meant to be around paint fumes (but we had windows open). Then Andy's parents brought us a cot at one point, when we moved. So Wednesday morning we decided to put that up, then I spent the rest of the day relaxing. That night I couldn't get comfy so I had an early night which was most unusual for me. But 8:00 that night something went 'pop'. Oh no! My partner had joined me in having an early night so I shook him awake. 

"Babe, something just went 'pop' inside me"

"What can I do about it?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure if I am in labour or not"

"Are you in any pain?"

And almost as soon as he said that the pain became one long massive constant pain across my back and belly. I began pacing up and down the hallway. In and out the living room. I was on and off the toilet, going for a wee. So my partner phoned the hospital and explained what was happening. They told him to phone for an ambulance and that I needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. I messaged my big sister for moral support. She had been through this a few times herself. She knew what to expect but I didn't. She came round and I let her in. She waited with us. My partner phoned for an ambulance. They went through all the usual stuff. 

Can you see a head?

How far apart are the contractions? etc etc etc.

Then he was like you need to get ready to help give birth and my sister was like "No no no. My little sister is not having her baby at home." I was pacing up and down still. On and off the toilet. On and off the bed and sofa. Meanwhile, paramedics were taking their godforsaken time, the call operator was preparing to help me give birth over the bloody phone and I was in absolute agony. Eventually paramedics turned up. They debated and argued with us for fifteen minutes before they finally decided to put me in the ambulance.  It wasn't until we were about ten minutes away from the hospital, that they decided to give me gas and air. I was walked into the delivery suite. They did the hand over and left me with my partner and a midwife.

The midwife agreed with the paramedics that they didn't think I was in labour. She said "I'll just go and get the doctor and he'll do some tests."

He came back took one look at me and was like and this is the words he said - not even lying "Nope. She's fully dilated. Baby's on the way". The look on the midwife's face was priceless. I began pushing whilst puffing on gas and air. In total I went through a tank and a half. Within about ten fifteen minutes of the doctor saying that, my little boy shot out. At 00:32 he was born weighing 6lb 4oz. He was the healthiest premature baby they'd delivered in years the midwife announced.

And that is the end of my story. Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed sharing my experience with me.