Hello everyone, not been on here in two weeks, and as I'm sure you can guess by the title that the reason is that my little bundle of joy, Faith, has arrived! She weighed 6pounds and 10 ounces and was born at fourteen minutes past twelve (pm) on friday the 3rd of february! She is perfect in every way.

Well on tuesday 31st of january I rang the hospital thinking I was in early labour and the midwife on the phone told me that it sounded very promising and that she would see me in the birthing centre (non complicated pregnancy/births only) in a couple of hours hopefully. The birthing centre has lots of birthing pools and even a mood room with lots of pretty calming lights, and music, which i thought sounded like a really nice idea so was well up for using the birthing centre rather than going to labour and delivery. Well anyway the next thing I knew it was wednesday morning and I must have fallen asleep, no labour pains anymore, and felt very disappointed.

Fastforward to thursday night at about 11pm and I started getting some pains again so the OH said well let's see if we can get her moving (any excuse lol) so we DTD and cuddled up in bed. I couldn't sleep but the pains seemed to lessen and they definitely weren't regular so I just went and sat on my birthing ball then curled up on the sofa for a while. It got to about half past two and I decided to call the midwife again as I was still having slight pains, not regular, but hadn't really felt the baby moving around so she told me to come in to be monitored.

We drove to the hospital and went up to maternity assessment where I was monitored for reduced fetal movement for about half an hour and after that the midwife asked if she could give me an internal as I seemed to be contracting quite a lot but I was adamant that the pains weren't bad enough to be contractions. 'well' she says, 'i'm sure you'll be pleased to know that you're about 7cm dilated!' The first thing that came into my head was crap have i got time to ring my mum lol. This was at half past three, my OH went to pick my mum up and bring her to the hospital. I found labour reasonably easy and did it all with only a few sucks on the gas and air, very proud of myself as i was sure i'd need an epidural lol. I was upset that I couldn't use the birthing centre as the reason I had come in was for reduced movement and because of that i had to go to labour and delivery so that I could be continuously monitored.

The midwife broke my waters at 8cm and told me there was meconium in my waters which I got really panicked about but she reassured me. 8-10cm was the worst part of labour, I remember telling the midwife that she was going to have to remove the monitors as I was going home and that I couldn't do it anymore! and then the pushing part, ouch! But it's so true when people say you forget the pain immediately and it is all so worth it. She had her cord wrapped around her neck twice but luckily she hadn't swallowed any meconium. The midwife was amazed by how long and thin her cord was and said she had never seen one like it but she checked it and it did have three vessels. So I was in labour until fourteen minutes past twelve when I gave birth to the tiniest little baby I had ever seen, she was so perfect and I just cried the second I saw her little face, I couldn't believe that you could immediately have so much more love for your baby, I thought I already loved her more than possible when she was in my belly!

I needed some stitches but honestly they aren't that bad, that was the one time when I was advised to use my gas and air though! Then the midwife told me that she had to put her finger up my bum to check I hadn't torn right through, to which I replied, high as a kite on gas and air, that it was a good job my boyfriend had gone to share the good news and left the room as i didnt want him getting any ideas!

All in all I really enjoyed the experience of labour and now understand what people mean when they say it's not as bad as you think, but then again I did have a reasonably easy labour so thats just me.

I remember writing a thread on here asking what contractions feel like and when someone said you'll know when you get them i said something like ok, just dont wanna be still sat at home at 10cm dilated to which they replied, yeah, come back and tell me how funny you think that comment is when you've been thru it all lol,well I did get to 7cm without knowing i was in labour which isn't too bad!

Sorry it was such a long one but didnt wanna miss anything!

Congratulations! What an amazingly uplifting birth story! There is hope? Which hospital for you go to? Noticed you are in Newcastle but didn't know if it is up north like me or the other one! Lol. Xx

Congratulations! Sounds like a fab birth xxx

what an amazing experience sounds like you had. I had a similar experience with my last labor and delivery pain med free. COngratulations on your new baby girl. I am getting so anxious to meet my little guy. :")

Awwww congrats

congratulations xx

Thanks everyone, littlecupcake yeah im also in newcastle upon tyne and i was at the RVI, only downside was like i say i didnt get to use the birthing centre which looks amazing, you can see it on the RVI website, and they were quite busy on the post natal ward but other than that it was an amazing experience and all the midwives are lovely! xx

congrats

I'm so glad it was a good experience! I'm going to the RVI as well and will be hoping to use the birthing centre but it is nice to know that if I need to go upstairs that it is good too

Congrats!