The Birth and Day 1
My waters broke on Wednesday evening at 10pm. As I was not yet having any contractions I had to go to the hospital to make sure the baby wasnt too distressed and that my blood pressure etc was ok. Everything was fine and we were told to expect labour in the next 24-36 hours. We were also booked in to be induced if nothing had happened by Friday. We went home expecting to have a very boring Thursday at home waiting for something to happen!
At 1am we went to be bed and immediately i started to have back pain. This started to come in in waves up my body and I realised they were early contractions. By 2am I was having uneven contractions every 4-6 minutes. I rang the hospital but they asked me to wait until the contractins were more even. I rang at 4am when contractions were coming very evenly and they agreed I should go in. ( although I think they stil thought it was too early and I was just a first time Mum panicing!!!). When I arrived at the hospital at 4.45am my contractions were every 2 minutes!!!! They had to monitor me for an hour to check I was in labour before checking how much I was dilated - just in case I wasnt in labour and as was now open to infection. At 5.45am they checked and I was 5cm dilated. During this time I started to use the Tens Machine for pain and occasional gas and air.At this point they agreed I was in labour and started to run the bath for me to get in for the last part of my stage 1 labour. The bath was fantastic and I loved the soothing of being in the water. I could also use the gas and air in the water. Things were starting to get very painful and Simon and our wonderful midwife Gerti ( who took over from Kate at about 6ish) were both fantastic with back rubs and encouraging me to take deep breaths of the gas and air. Things moved very swiftly from then on and Simon and I agreed that I would stay in the water to give birth. Matthew arrived in the water at 9.36am. This photo was taken soon after.
The rest of day 1 went pretty quickly and by early afternoon I was down on the labour ward. Simon popped home for a bit and my mum and Simon's family came to visit. Istayed in hospital overnight to try and get help establishing breast feeding.
Day 2
Day 2 was also spent in hospital. Simon came over for most of the day and my mum came for another visit. The time spent with Matthew was so special and it really was time for bonding. But the day was a difficult one due to trying to breast feed and real concerns that he wasnt eating enough. Although the NHS and staff overall for my pregnancy and labour have been amazing - I must say that on this evening there were lots of problems with staff and inconsistency of support. By the evening we decided that Matthew had to have some bottled food or he would loose too much weight. I had very little sleep either night that I was in hospital for a number of reasons .
But as I say - the time with Matthew was still precious and the breast feeding issues will be forgotton. Here are a couple of great photos from Day 2. My mum's hand with Matthew's and proud Mummy and Daddy with our new addition. 
