[ . . 30 before 30 . . ] 1. Have a baby...Part 1

Well, probably the biggest one from my 30 before 30 list, hence it being number 1.

This is something that Mr B and I had wanted for some time and so 36 weeks after our first ever pregnancy test and our first ever positive result we finally got to say hello to Baby B!

I have enjoyed reading other peoples birth stories so thought I would share mine too.

1st March 2011, my due date. Everyone had told me that baby would have arrived by now. I don't mean just strangers in the street giving their opinions but family members and mainly my midwife. Also my money was on 25th February so by the time the 1st finally came I was already disappointed that I still had no baby.

My due date did however mark a change in me. There was no baby so frankly I just had to get on with things and trust that baby would arrive when he/she was ready. In order to take my mind off things we decided to go out for dinner to my favourite Thai restaurant (also ticking off number 6 and 7 from the list!). The waiter, who always seems to recognise us (we do go there alot!) looked at my bump as we were paying the bill and said "due next month?" when I laughed and said "no, today" he looked like he had seen a ghost! Good job it was as we were leaving else I think he would have rushed our food out before we had ordered to avoid me giving birth there and then!

We had a lovely night and when we got home I asked Mr to take a photo as I just had a feeling that might be the last we saw of bump.

The last bump photo

I awoke at 4.20am the next morning with what felt like a mixture between braxton hicks and stomach ache. I had woken up many nights before thinking I was feeling things that had turned out to be nothing so I didn't take too much notice. I put it down to my Thai curry, turned over and got myself back to sleep. I drifted straight off but awoke with a similar feeling, I looked at the clock exactly 30 minutes later. Oh, maybe I could get excited. But no, not wanting to tempt fate and certainly not wanting to get Mr B's hopes up I made myself go back to sleep. As if by magic I awoke exactly 30 minutes later, I lay there thinking, wow maybe it really is going to be like it says in the books.

At this point, my memory told me that I woke Mr B up but having just checked the facts apparently I didn't. He woke up because of my moans about 6am and was greeted with me sat up in bed telling him not to get excited. The contractions - I was now happy to call them that - continued and at around 7am when they were 5 minutes apart and along with lots of other labour progressing signs (I will spare you the details!) we rang the hospital. I spoke to them but they advised that it was far too early and to try and last at least another couple of hours until 9am, have some paracetamol, a bath and some toast and get back in touch later.

Mr B went off to get ready and I was feeling quite sick so shunned the toast and attempted a bath. I was not quite sure how I was going to get myself in and out of our roll top bath but went with it. It wasn't long before we realised there wasn't going to be time for a shower so whilst Mr was gathering everything together for take off I had a bath. It did take the edge off the contractions but I suddenly felt the need to push. Surely my mind was playing tricks on me and just getting carried away?! I had read too many books and watched too many episodes of One Born Every Minute so I dismissed it but we were quite convinced it was time to call the hospital again. It was only 7.15am.

We set off during rush hour (great!) and with some very skillful driving and a lot of breathing we arrived at 8am with me (whilst trying to sound calm, but failing greatly) instructing Mr to just leave the car wherever. I couldn't even make it the 25 metres to the door without nearly ending up on the floor. Mr pushed some guys out of the way at reception and I headed down to the labour ward - we had been there many times before so I knew exactly where I was going.

We were welcomed but in a slightly dismissive manner, I guess they are used to seeing lots of ladies in labour and we were directed to an assessment room and told someone would be with us soon. The pain was now pretty intense and no one was coming so I decided to get a bit more vocal. I needed them to take me seriously.

Finally, someone came in to see us and started chit chat, I am normally very polite but I wasn't really in the mood for chit chat. They put the monitor on to check the baby's heartbeat and had a feel of my tummy and said they didn't think the baby's head was down. It had to be, it had been down for about 10 weeks! There was talk of an ultrasound and then the midwife disappeared. The pain was now quite constant and I was obviously being quite loud as Mr went to get someone to examine me.

A nice smiley lady arrived and examined me, during which my waters broke. We heard a "well" and I was preparing myself for the worse but I don't think I have been as happy as I was then for a long time as she said, "well you are 9cm dilated and the baby has a lot of hair".

Wow, suddenly everything made sense. Not being able to feel the head (it was too low down), the urge to push and most importantly the pain. They read my birth plan, giggling at the bit about if labour was slow to progress and got the gas and air ready.

The midwives instructed Mr not to leave the room, this baby could be born any minute. The car would have to remain with no car park ticket on it with all my carefully packed bags (and my iPhone!) in it.

To be continued...

Read part 2 now...