At 12.30am (after only being in bed for an hour) I felt my waters break - I leapt up and ran to the bathroom - catching everything. I was very pleased with this for two reasons: 1) There would be no mess to clear up when we got home; 2) It was the fastest I had moved for weeks! I was really calm despite passing lots of blood so I put on one of those lovely maternity pads I had purchased a few weeks before (which were the size of mattresses), woke James and called the hospital. We were told to come in and be checked out but probably would be sent home as my contractions were yet to start. I decided it was really important to put some make-up on to look presentable - no idea why! I then rang my Sharon to let her know - unfortunately she had been out drinking so wasn't answering the phone for ages, and also my mum to get her to come and let the dog out in the morning. James was running around like a headless chicken and was more scared than me. I don't really know why I was feeling fine about it as normally I am scared of everything so I thought I would be horrendous at this point.
We arrived at the hospital at about 1.20am - it's so much easier to park at this time of night. I had initially said there was no way I was going in the lifts whilst in labour in case it got stuck and James had to deliver the baby in there, however once we got there I really couldn't be arsed to waddle up the stairs. We quickly checked into the consultant-led ward and were put into a tiny assessment room where a midwife strapped me onto a fetal monitoring machine. My blood pressure was a bit high but the baby's heartbeat was really strong. I was told at this point I wasn't allowed to go home because of the blood loss.
At around 4am I felt a pop and my waters broke properly. I was also sick and had really bad diarrohea - which was a real treat to deal with. I got changed into my particularly lovely £4 night shirt from Primark - size 16/18 so should offer me enough room to manoeuvre. I then had an internal examination to see what was happening - it was awful and so painful. I had to have entonox to help me relax so I wasn't holding out much hope for the delivery! I was told that I would have to stay on the monitoring machine for the whole labour so my active labour class was a bit of a waste of time, although the breathing techniques were helping me relax a bit.
At around 8.30am I started to get proper contractions - they came quite quickly and I started to dilate quickly too - just as well as I was already finding tha pain hard to cope with. At this point I asked for pethadine and used that with entonox, which was quite effective. My sister arrived soon but timed her arrival while I was having another internal examination (labour is so glamorous!), and got impatient waiting to come in as she had been awake since I phoned at 1am! Just before she came in I had a room full of doctors and students who were doing their rounds - the head one pointed out that I was in a little crap room and would properly be more comfortable in a better suite. I agreed with him but was really overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people in our little room. We were also on our third set of midwives by this point - one of them was a student but was really good. Luckily these midwives stayed with me until mid afternoon.
I soon realised that my birth plan had completely gone out of the window so I didn't even bother getting it out of my bag. I was gutted as I had spent ages planning it, and although I was realistic that I had to be flexible, I didn't expect to have to abandon it altogether. I also decided that as I was in so much pain already and couldn't move around anyway I was definitely having an epidural. This part of the labour seemed to pass by quite quickly, probably due to the fact I was on pethadine - I'm sure it didn't go quickly for James and Sharon.
Early afternoon saw us moving to a much bigger and better delivery suite. I was put on an IV drip and had my epidural and a catheter fitted - which didn't hurt as much as I expected, although I did struggle to keep perfectly still through the contractions whilst this was being done. The epidural was great, very effective and the midwife could top it off whenever it started to wear off, but each time it was topped off I was sick so Sharon had that dubious honour of holding my sick bowl (I didn't remember this at all until she reminded me several weeks later!).
The second stage kicked off just as we had a new midwife who would stay with us until the baby was born. At around 4pm she topped up my epidural and we started pushing. I was far less scared than I expected to be - just excited that it would soon be over, or so I thought. At first the pushing was going well, it was really effective despite me not really feeling the contractions. My sister told me when to push by looking at the contractions on the monitor print out and James helped me with my breathing - although he got it the wrong way round! Sharon was impressed with my mood - I wasn't shouting or screaming - she claimed that I was making it look easy (what - even with all the bowls of vomit??). However the epidural made my contractions slow down so after what I thought was an hour (it was actually 2) we stopped making any progress and I was getting really tired and disheartened.
At about 7pm we had a visit from some doctors who said that as my blood pressure was going up a little bit they were treating me for suspected pre-eclampsia. This seemed really stupid as the treatment for it is to induce labour, so I wasn't at all bothered by this. I was given syntoxine to help speed up my contractions but was told that the baby was now facing the wrong way which wasn't helping, neither was the fact I hadn't been able to stand or go on all fours to give birth, where gravity would have helped. I was told that I needed to go up to theatre for an assisted delivery and may need a c-section. I was prepped, which was basically doing a really crap job of removing my make-up and nail polish, and made to read and sign something, which I couldn't read as I was so drugged up and I just got frustrated and wanted it over with. Despite all of this my baby was mega strong throughout! Sharon also had to call Mum and Dad to tell them they couldn't come to the 7pm visiting session - I wouldn't have wanted them there anyway even if I had managed to give birth beforehand - surely I'm entitled to some time to myself!
The trip up to theatre was a bit like an episode of the Chuckle Brothers, my drip was being pulled so hard it I had to hold it against my hand in order to stop it coming out, and when we got to the lift they couldn't get it in with my trolley and kept banging it into the sides! In the theatre there were so many staff - definitely in double figures. Sharon looked terrified as I was wheeled in and she wasn't allowed in so had to wait in the recovery room. James had to dress in scrubs to come in which was quite funny to see. I think I went into shock a bit at this point as I was shaking uncontrollably so the doctor in charge tried to distract me with dreadful jokes and by telling me I was expecting twins. I wanted to tell him to 'fuck off' but tried not to as I had got this far without swearing! He gave me a mega strong epidural and couldn't feel anything at all. After 3 strong pushes the baby was out and placed on me. I announced to everyone that it was a boy(!!!) - the midwife soon shouted across the room to correct me. So Maya Amelie was born - crying and perfect, although very slimey! She was wiped down a bit and handed to James whilst I was stitched up by two attractive men who were younger than me (after an episiotomy and slight tear - my second worst fear after pushing piles out!), still in stirrups - not sure whether I was covered up or not. There really is no dignity in giving birth, although I didn't scream once and offered them some tips on where to go out for dinner through this procedure! After thanking everyone about 100 times I joined James and Maya in the recovery room where they were meeting my sister.
Maya Amelie was born at 8.26pm on Friday 8th July (during the Year 11 prom which I should have been at - they always joked I would give birth during it!), weighing 6lb 13oz despite being two weeks early. She was 50cm long and perfect in every way and we were soon down on the post-natal ward to recover. After the exicitement of the day it was really nice to get down on the ward. It was completely empty, and after a couple of hours James went home and left us to get some sleep. It was so hot due to the closed windows and the heaters over the baby cots. Around midnight a hideous woman noisily arrived on the ward before shouting about wanting to go out for a cigarette. She was gross and snored like a pig all night - she was almost told to 'fuck off' the next day when she was complaining about a lack of sleep. Apparently her baby was number 7 - and she was excited as she has been told she was to be sterilised the following week - probably should have happened before, and she was induced as it wasn't growing. She was 39 weeks and the baby was 4lb!!!! Her and her horrible entourage took over the ward for most of the day, and annoyingly it was also the day of the annual charity abseil down the maternity block so every few minutes there would be a massive cheer - not great when trying to get some sleep. So within 48 hours, despite my body undergoing the most exhausting experience ever, I had only had about 2 hours sleep. Waiting to go home was really boring and I was up and showered by 7am - but we had to wait until almost 24 hours after the birth before we could be discharged. After some hospital food I was well and truly ready to go home, so we delighted at 8pm to be able to take Maya home. Once there we were totally overwhelmed, but excited at the new addition!
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