So Sun. 22.01.06 in the morning I started having contractions every 10 mins and I could see my bump had dropped. I thought this might be 'it' so I called my doula friend Sarah and another friend and they came over in the afternoon and we all went for a walk to try and get things going but by the evening, nothing. Just total exhaustion. I was not happy about that at all. Then all of Mon. and Tues. the nausea was just dreadful. I was on the verge of hitting the Reglan again because it was just so grim.
Wednesday, I woke up at 9am (having been up 5 times in the night with Bethy) to take Bethy to a toddler group and I was getting strong pains across my cervix. I timed them at a minimum of 30 secs and coming every 5 mins. Dh wanted to call the mw and Sarah but I said he couldn't yet because I wasn't sure they were contractions. I had a very painful back labour and an epidural with Bethy so I didn't know what 'normal' contractions were supposed to feel like. Anyway, at 9.30 I was stumbling around the flat begging dh to take Bethy to my parents!! He overruled me (naughty man) and called the mw. He told her that I was saying that I didn't think it was labour and she said she'd skip her clinic because when women say it isn't L & D then it usually is - she was right
So mw arrived at 10am and checked me and I am already 4cm
I asked if I was defo. in labour and she said yes -YIPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 
It took me 16 odd hours to get to 3cm with Bethy so I was thrilled to bits to get to 4cm with hardly any pain. Then Sarah arrived and we put on my TENS machine which worked well for a little bit. I was also bouncing around on my brithing ball and doing breathing etc... to cope with the pain
After a while the TENS wasn't cutting it so I asked the mw what else had to offer for pain relief. I already knew she only had gas and air which is what she said but then she said she only had a limited supply and would have to call out the second mw on call to get an extra cannister. I was not sure I wanted to start the gas and air just yet so I carried on until I just couldn't take the pain anymore. I asked the mw to check me and she said I was about 6cm so I hit the g & a thinking I only had 4cm to go 'til I start to push. Last time with Bethy, g & a did absolutely nothing for me at all. This time, it was much, much better. I coped by counting up to 15 having a major puff on the mouthpiece for each number. Sarah was working the TENS machine for me and Andy was sorting out food and drink for the mw, going through my list of 'things to do' plus helping me with labour positions. I think it was at this point we put on Frank Sinatra and I start dancing between contractions to New York, New York and Fly me to the moon
I was trying to get the head right down (I wanted an birth that was as active as possible). Then the g & a ran out 
Luckily, I didn't have to wait too long til the second mw arrived with another cannister
I then started to get quite painful back labour so I take the TENS off and get in the bath. I lasted 2 contractions and it didn't help at all. I asked the mw to check me again which she did at about 2.30pm. I had been having strong contractions lasting at least 1-2 mins every 2 mins for about 90 mins and when she checked me she told me I was 7cm dilated. She said I had stalled a bit, I still have had no show and no SRM. She gave me a choice: I can go to hospital for more pain relief (over my dead body), I can carry on and hope that the waters will go or she can rupture my waters to get things moving again. I go for the latter knowing Sarah (my doula) had got stuck at 6cm in her home birth, had a SRM performed and her baby was out in 20 mins.
So the mw broke my waters and they just gushed everywhere. I got the most ALMIGHTY contraction; all I could do was roll off the sofa onto the floor. I was on my knees clutching a cushion on the sofa seat and that was basically where I stayed until Theo was born. I became aware that during stage 2 when he was crowing, the mws and Sarah were telling me to push him out with pretty urgent voices so I went at it as hard as I could. He came out blue/grey and floppy. The mw gots him going again with a bit of O2 and his APGAR ratings are 7, 9 and 10
It was only later that I found out his cord was wrapped so tightly around his neck it had cut off his oxygen supply so they had to cut the cord while he was still in me There is a pretty big risk of stillbirth if the baby doesn't come out quickly after that so that was why they started getting all urgent on me 
So then I had the Syntometrine injection to get the placenta to come out more quickly but it didn't come. I tried sitting on the loo, bf'ing Theo, pushing it out but nothing. Evenutally the cord came away with a nodule of placenta attached but no placenta. Neither of the mws had seen such a thing before. Anyway, my bleeding starts getting worse and more and more heavy so they call an ambulance. The ambulance arrived and I got stretchered off to hospital. We had the sirens going, blue lights flashing and everything
By this time it was about 4.30pm and right in the middle of rush hour. The ambulance lady said that even though it wasn't an emergency at that moment, if they waited in the traffic, it would have been by the time we reached hospital. They whisked me straight into theatre and gave me a spinal block, catheterised me and I then had the placenta manually removed which all in all took a couple of hours. The Dr. showed it to me afterwards and said it would never have come out on its own. It was well and truly stuck to the uterus wall. It was raggedy and piecemeal and a right 'dog's dinner' (her words, not mine lol). She kept thinking she had got it all out, the uterus would start to contract back down but then the bleeding would start again really heavily and she was having difficulty getting her hand in to locate where the bleeding was coming from. Anyway, she finally thought she had it all out so she stitched me up and I went off to recovery.
So that's pretty much it.
Why is it that so many of the HG women don't have an easy or 'normal' L & D?? Something always seems to go pearshaped what with Katie's heart decels and Robin's high BP, Amber's low BP, Laura's placental abruption and all the others I could name...
Theo's stats:
D.o.b: 25.01.06
Time: 3.12pm
Weight: 8lbs 8oz (not 8lbs 7oz - my dh thought there were 14 oz in a lb so when the mw said 8 and a half pounds he came and told me he was 8lbs 7 oz
)
Length: 57cm
I have spent literally hours and hours this evening trying to get some photos on here and I just can't figure it out
Love Natalie, x
Madisons for me was much less stressful, although also an induction due to my blood pressure.
