It's late afternoon there's nothing on TV my phone is too far away, I have a breast pump attached to me (again) and a baby sleeping right next to me...it's the perfect time to sit down and finally look back on my labour and delivery.

Before giving birth I debated quite a lot with myself over whether to share my story, mainly because a lot of the posts/videos you see can make you quite fearful of what is to come. However, I feel like mine is somewhat different as it was such a positive and uplifting experience. 

On Saturday 28th October my whole family had gathered at my parents' house to watch Strictly Come Dancing and have some food, all seemed fine until halfway through I began to feel a little hot and bothered. I put it down to too many people being enclosed in a small room so I took myself outside for a little while and the feeling soon passed. Michael and I arrived home around half 9 and I headed to bed early still feeling great. However, I woke up around 1am with a shooting pain going from my back to my stomach, it wasn't painful but it was very sudden and out of the blue. Sitting up in bed I suddenly got the urge to pee and then I felt a little water trickle down my leg, my first thought was that I'd wet myself (awkward). I woke Michael and told him I'd either wet the bed or my waters had broke, his response was "oh okay" and rolled back over and drifted off to sleep...typical man! 

I text my Mam who phoned me and told me to try and get a little sleep but also to let her know if anything else happened, she didn't have to wait long as I was texting her 10 minutes later to tell her I'd lost my mucus plug (not as gross as I'd thought it would be) when I went to the toilet. I tried to go back to bed but every time I tried to sleep I would lose a little more water than all of about half an hour after the first pain...the contractions started! To be honest they weren't painful at first and just felt like regular period cramps. They were coming around every 5 minutes and were lasting around a minute, I was manging to bounce through the first few contractions on my birthing ball and then when it got to 2am (after the clocks had changed) I decided to try a bath. I couldn't believe how much the hot water helped with the pain...the relief was instant. I managed to stay in the bath around 40 minutes before Michael contacted the delivery suite to find out what to do. They insisted that I go in and get checked but told me that I should prepare to be sent home. It was a little annoying as we lived so far away from the hospital but decided to put our bags in the car and head to my parents' house (which is closer) if we were sent home.

The contractions were coming thick and fast from that moment; I had 4 contractions whilst getting dressed and into the car, 6 contractions on the way to the hospital and 8 getting from the car to the room where I was being checked. We arrived at the hospital at 3.45am where we met our midwife who was lovely but she didn't think I was in established labour as I hadn't had a maternity pad on long enough so there wasn't any blood loss for her to see. She decided to check my blood pressure and got me some paracetamol once she had used a speculum and swab to check to make sure there was no infection (I think) which was so painful. She then checked to see how far along I was, turns out I was 9cm dilated!! Much to everyone's surprise! The midwife had a good giggle about the fact she had only offered me paracetamol and headed to get me some gas and air. I was swiftly taken along to the delivery room via a wheelchair going backwards whilst sucking on the gas and air, safe to say I felt incredibly sick and so dizzy.

In the delivery room, I was adamant that I didn't want to lay down, mainly because I could feel baby lifting and dropping into the birth canal. Strangely the only way to make the sensation bearable was to stand on my tiptoes whilst hunched over the bed and crossing my legs. I had the lifting and dropping sensation three times which were incredibly painful, it was the first time I remember being vocal through the pain. The midwife checked me again and insisted that I get on the bed as her head was there. I climbed up and leaned over the head of the bed and concentrated only on the sound of the gas and air...blocking out everyone and listening to my body was my way of getting through it.

One of the only things I remember at this point was looking to my right to see Michael head down on the bed and looking incredibly white. I think it was this point he realised that my labour wasn't going to be the 20 hours we were expecting. After 1 push I remember hearing the midwife telling me to let her know when my next contraction was coming, all of a sudden time froze and it honestly felt like the next contraction was never going to come. After about 30 seconds at 4.45am one hour after arriving at the hospital the next contraction came, I pushed and baby Ellie was born! She was passed through my legs and it honestly felt so surreal mainly because I didn't actually know she had been born, the only thing I remember was the feeling of warm water gushing down my legs. Michael cut her cord and she was wrapped up and given back to me for a few magical moments.
Due to the delivery being so quick I did end up with a second-degree tear (skin and muscle) that had to be stitched. I can honestly say I would have rather given birth again than having the stitches, I was numbed but the sensation of the thread being pulled through was awful, then on top of that, there was the feeling of the midwife pulling and stretching me in every direction to make sure she stitched everything. Then there was the added bonus of the 12-hour pain killer being given via my bum! It was a very long process (longer than my delivery) one that I wouldn't like to repeat again but once it was over we were left to enjoy our 7lb 3oz bundle of love.
I was up out of bed, showered, both of us checked, discharged and home by 3.30pm on Sunday. It felt very odd as we actually arrived home exactly 12 hours after we left for the hospital. The whole thing just felt so surreal and such a blur but something that I know I would repeat again in a heartbeat (maybe not quite that soon, give me a couple of years). I am 17 days postpartum now - in fact, this is being posted on my actual due date - and we are both thriving!
Our little family is currently enjoying being in the newborn bubble and it's been perfect, we're just so excited to see what the future has in store for us now!