When the stitch came out everyone was on tenterhooks waiting for labour to start. There were weeks of on and off contractions but still no baby. As the big 40 week milestone approached I started to worry that more interventions might be needed. Nuggets little head had engaged weeks before but wasn't quite in the right position to maintain contractions. Once we hit 40 weeks exactly I had a sweep. My cervix could easily be stretched to 3cm, most likely thanks to my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, still nothing happened. By this point I was trying everything... hours spent bouncing on my exercise ball, dancing, side lunges, looooong walks in the park but I'm pretty sure it was trying to shoot some hoops that finally got this little guy on his way. My contractions started mid-evening on the third day I was overdue but having had weeks of them stopping and starting I didn't think anything of it. It was only about half way through our Saturday night movie, that nights choice of Training Day, that I let Nuggets dad know about the contractions. I'm pretty sure he had guessed as he had started timing every time I was scrunching up my face.
We had gone to bed when the contractions started to get stronger, my neighbours were questioning if someone was giving birth or having sex... considering I was having contractions outside on the way to the car I find this query pretty funny. There were contractions that were 10mins apart and others that were 3mins apart, they never became regular. Nevertheless, nuggets dad knew it was time to take me to the hospital even though I was adamant I wasn't in labour and just wanted to stay in bed. Throughout the 40min car journey my contractions quickly came to a stop. I was quite smug that I was right that it was a false alarm, so we headed to my mums house next to the hospital. As soon as I got out of the car the contractions started up again with vengeance. Cue the TENS machine, I would not have been able to walk without it.
Next stop- the hospital. Throughout my pregnancy I had always been told that I would be on the labour ward and not to really bother in making a birth plan. I hadn't given much thought to any options. When I got to triage they happily told me that I wasn't going to be going home as I was 3cm dilated. I was whisked off to the antenatal ward where I was the only lady who seemed to be in labour even though it seemed to be a particularly busy evening. It was at that point the contractions were making me scream quite loudly and the TENS machine wasn't helping anymore. While being checked to see how dilated I was my waters broke, I was 5cm and sent up to the delivery suite- I'm still pretty sure they moved me because of how much noise I was making which was scaring the other pregnant ladies. Somehow I got talked into giving a water bath a try, after struggling to get in I was told that you couldn't have any pain relief... It would have been impossible for me to try and get out of the water bath so I managed to give birth purely on gas and air.
So my little man came into this world weighing 6lbs 6oz at 11:45am on 6th August 2017. After months of worry and determination he finally made it here.
