You can find the previous parts of this story here and here.

We got to the hospital at 9pm, I was still feeling really uncomfortable but hadn’t yet twigged that I was actually in labour - no contractions that I was aware of or anything, I just thought I was more uncomfortable for yet another night!

I was shown to a room and my midwife came in… a guy who introduced himself as Steve. Well that was something I hadn’t even thought of - that my mw could be male! I knew they were about but hadn’t for a second thought that I might get one, lol! He was nice enough though and definitely knew what he was talking about so I wasn’t too bothered about him being my mw - anything to get the baby out remember?

I was strapped up to a monitor for 40 minutes ish so they could determine what the baby’s regular heartbeat was and to see if i was having anything resembling contractions. Cue me starting to feel regular pains and starting to have to breathe through them - bloody typical!

Steven told us that once they’d monitored me for 30-40 minutes he’d do in internal and see about breaking my waters. If that hadn’t worked in increasing contrations then they would see about getting a syntocinin drip started to induce contractions.

At about 10.30 the print outs from the past 40 min were looked at and yes, I had been having moderate contractions by this point for the whole time, with them getting stronger and stronger. We were all pretty sure by this time that once my waters were broken I’d go straight into full blown labour. 10.45pm and my waters were broken - oh god those contraction all of a sudden got a hell of a lot worse! I managed to last til about 11.30pm without any help but then I decided it was time to try the Gas and Air - ahhh I love that stuff it was the closest to feeling very happy-drunk that I had in a loooong time!

By 12.30am the contractions were becoming unbearable even with the gas and air. I was practically constantly using it as the contractions were that close together. I was out of it and in pain. I asked for an epidural - I figured there was no way I could cope with this pain if it was going to go on for another 3-4 hours!

Steven asked if he could do an internal to see how far along I was and then decide what to do. I was 7cm!! I’d progressed VERY quickly and so we decided to try out the diamorphine before going to an epidural - although by that point we kinda figured that it was unlikely to last long enough for me to get one as things seemed to be moving along really nicely.

12.45am and I am doped up to the eyeballs in Happy Land. Oh it was nice
I was practically snoozing in between the contractions and was out of it on G&A the rest of the time. By 1.30am I had been having the urge to push for about 5 min, but had managed to breathe through it for the most part, but it was getting more and more difficult to do that. I followed my body’s instinct and started pushing, or should I say my body took over and started pushing for me! I could feel him coming out pretty nicely, 2 pushes and the head was out, then a few breaths and with the next contraction and one more push, his body slithered out at 1.40am on Oct 11th.

Apparently the cord had been wrapped around his neck twice, but it was easily unravelled. We were asked if anyone wanted to cut the cord, J’s waay too squeamish so I did it - not something I had been intending to do but I was happy to do it at the time! He pooed all over me straight after this, but I didn’t notice! I was too busy realising that he was finally here to care! The first things I noticed about him were a birthmark on the back of his hand and a tooth - yes he was born with a tooth! He had a hell of a voice to him already and was screaming his wee heart out!

I had been worried about how the SPD would affect the birth, but it didn’t seem too bad, although it was even more painful to move about for the first week or so after the birth than before hand. Now it’s completely back to normal and I can sleep on my stomach again which is a great relief!

I didn’t get my home birth, but I did get the birth I wanted, it really couldn’t have gone any better than it did! The staff at the hospital were excellent and more than happy to leave me to it than they were first time around with Zack, I guess that’s the plus to being a 2nd time mum - people tend to be less condescending when they know you’ve been through it all before.

So here’s to my newest lil boy - Maximus Iain William G (last name not used for some sort of privacy) ,

born weighing 8lb 8oz, 51.5cm long and a head circ of 35cm (ouch!!).

Oh my god… surely not? I checked the test, rechecked it, and did the second one just to be sure, yep that blue line was most definitely there… I was pregnant and that was that.

I should be excited right? We’d been trying for about three months by this point. I should be happy and ecstatic and so looking forward to being a mummy like we’d planned. So why was my first feeling about this fear? I was scared out of my wits and had so many questions zooming around my head I felt suffocated. It didn’t help that J had such a happy look on his face. I mean, I’m glad he did because I knew it meant he was happy about it too, but in that moment I felt my life change forever and I didn’t know how to take it.

What if it was too soon? I was only 19 after all, I’d be 20 when I had this baby. What would our family and friends think? We’d only been engaged for a few months, not even together for a full year and I was already pregnant… I knew we’d get it in the neck from both sets of parents. What if I couldn’t cope? What about those drinks I’d had the weekend before - could they have harmed my baby? The questions buzzing around my head were never ending and I couldn’t think properly… I needed a stiff drink, but I couldn’t have one now, I wanted a cigarette to calm my nerves, but there was no way I could justify that either. So the cigarettes went in the bin, J had the drink and I sat there in a stupor trying to let this life-changing news sink in… I was going to be a Mummy.

It probably wasn’t the best of times to decide to try for a baby. Ok it definitely wasn’t the best of times to try for a baby. We were both at university and in the middle of our degrees, mine in Pharmacology and his in Computing. How on earth would we manage this? J had been thinking of chucking it in for a while and had started a full time job by this point. I on the other hand, didn’t have a clue what I’d do with my life other than what I’d always planned - I’d get my degree, then a PhD, then go into research. How could I possibly do that now? I’d have to take a break from uni and then decide whether I could go back or not.

The pregnancy had its ups and downs.
I ended up hospitalized on Christmas Eve due to Hyperemesis Gravadarum (severe morning sickness that just goes on and on and on). That didn’t go away till over halfway through it.
I managed to get symphysis pubis dysfunction, where the ligaments and tendons between the joints become too loose in the pelvis and cause immense pain. The SPD was worse because I’m hyper-mobile as it is. As my doctor put it, I’m as flexible normally as your average pregnant woman is, so when I actually am pregnant and have the hormone relaxin released in me to ‘open up’ the pelvis for a baby to fit through… well, you get the drift, and it’s really not fun.
I also just happened to be heavily pregnant in what was the hottest summer in Dundee to date, and to top it off there was a heatwave when I went into labour.

Ah labour… that was fun - not. It was by far the most painful experience I’ve ever been through. I’ll spare the details. On second thought, no I won’t! I was 5 days overdue when I woke up to go for my usual 5am loo trip when I had a show (snot-looking blob of jelly… glamorous business this pregnancy and birth stuff). I thought finally something might be happening but didn’t want to get too excited so off I waddled back to bed. By 6am I was having sore and regular contractions. By 9am I was in the hospital being told there weren’t enough beds in the labour suite but that I could stay up in the wards if I wanted. Go home and deal with pain on my own or stay in hospital and have Entonox (gas & air) on tap… difficult decision eh?
By about 3pm I was in a LOT of pain and wanted more pain relief which I got in the form or diamorphine. I’d also been told to be quiet by one of the midwives as I was disturbing the other women… now I look back on it I think I would have been a lot ruder if it hadn’t been my first labour! Finally got down to the labour ward at around 4pm, waters went around 5pm, I started pushing at about 5.10pm and Zack was born at 5.18pm. As soon as he was out the pain stopped. He’d pooped himself while he was still inside and had to be taken to the resuscitation unit just outside to give him a little oxygen and luckily he was back in the room just a couple of minutes later.

I looked down at my beautiful little boy and fell so deeply in love with him it felt unreal. His big blue eyes opened and he looked right in my eyes and I knew I’d never ever want to be parted from this beautiful little being that I’d grown inside me.