2012 Project365 (Day 348)

Date: 15 December 2012 21:45:54

Well, this was a bit of a surprise. I woke up at about 4.30am on Friday 14 December with what felt like period type cramps and phoned the maternity ward. One of the midwives suggested that I go into a bath for a while to see if that helped. So, I got into the bath at about 5.15am and continued to have cramps and then when I got out of the bath things really ramped up. I was trying hard not to be too noisy as I didn't want to wake up my parents and my cousin. The Mister hooked up the TENS machine which helped a bit but as the contractions were mainly in my stomach and not my back I think it was more of a distraction technique than anything else. At 7am I phoned the ward again and they told me to come straight in. In the car on the way to the hospital my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and when I got to the maternity ward they did an examination and found out that I was fully dilated. So, we arrived on the ward at 7.35am with incredibly strong contractions. There was no time for anything like the nice peaceful water birth that I had planned and just using gas and air Edward James made an appearance at 8.13am weighing 7lbs 6.5oz. He is absolutely beautiful and we are completely smitten with him. Due to the speed of his arrival and the strength of my contractions I had a rather nasty second degree tear which required some expert stitching. Every single stitch it worth it though. He was worth the wait and worth the pain.