Hey ladies, sorry for the massive delay in posting this. It turns out having a baby takes up a LOT of your time.

Elsie was born at 40 2 on 22nd Oct. No baby tax I'm afraid because I'm paranoid lol

I had my last midwife appointment at 38 6 and everything was fine, although we'd been noticing a trend of my blood pressure going up a tiny tad all 3rd trimester. Still nothing to worry about though. I had an appointment at the hospital for 41 weeks to get an ultrasound and schedule an induction so that would have been my next appointment.

Well, at 40 1 Elsie decided not to move all morning so by mid afternoon I was at the hospital for some monitoring. Of course as soon as I got there she started moving and kicking like normal, but this was my third time there for that (one at around 29 weeks and again at 35). Turns out my baby is sometimes just lazy lol

Because my blood pressure was up again (what a surprise considering the circumstances!) They offered me a stretch and sweep, and when they found I was 2cm dilated they suggested we just set an induction date since we were both healthy for now and she was at full term. Well, by the time all that had happened it was almost 9pm. I was scheduled for 8am the next morning. I called hubs while walking home from hospital and told him the news. We both bedded down early that night, but I didn't get much (any) sleep. We drove to the hospital first thing and by 8am I had the gel inserted to ripen everything up. I was free to wonder the grounds as long as I came back every 2 hours for monitoring. First two hours we had a long walk around the grounds and went for coffee. I sent hubs home before I went back to be checked to get some extra sleep. (We live a few minutes walk from the hospital and clearly nothing was happening).

Second two hours I snuck home and had a sleep next to hubs then made him accompany me back to the hospital. I hit my 10000 daily step target around this point as well. Go me!

At the third check they broke my waters and found meconium which meant I needed a scalp monitor on the baby and no water birth for me. I also had two hours to be in established labour before they would start the drip. After an hour and a half I was barely having contractions (it felt like super mild period pain, like the day before you start it's all a bit uncomfortable) so they just started the drip then.

They ramped it up quickly and soon I was taking the gas and air, and during transition I begged for further pain relief and was given diamorphine in an injection. Didn't find out until weeks after its medical heroine. Yay me.

At one point I accidentally pulled the drip out of my hand and blood went everywhere. It was the scariest bit. The midwives kept trying to get it back in so the contractions wouldn't slow down but I kept having contractions really quickly after each other so they never got a chance. I didn't realise I was pushing for a long time. I was sat on the toilet thinking I would have diarrhea. Oops. Once we established I was pushing I kneeled next to the bed on a pillow and worked away. I did start on the birthing ball but it was too unwieldy and I kept thinking I'd fall off. At around 8.30pm her head was just there (and had been for some time) and her heart rate started dropping with each contraction. It was picking back up straight away but they wanted her out quickly at that point. I got on the bed onto my back and one midwife held one leg, hubs held the other and a midwife at the bottom to catch. No dice. I was really struggling to get her out (but it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be - thanks heroin!)

In the end I got a cut and she slipped right out after that. I lost a fair amount of blood afterwards and needed two of the injections to get you to start cramping up. We got immediate skin to skin and she was healthy from the off. She took to breastfeeding like a champ (almost too well, one week she put on 10oz!!) She was born at 9pm and I was taken up to the ward at about 3am. She got checked again and we bathed her with a midwifes help in the morning, then we were discharged just after lunch time. We had hubs parents up for half an hour that day, and my mum and brother, again just for half an hour.

All in all, it was a very pleasant birth, my midwife was lovely and very encouraging, and everyone on the ward was super helpful. Even if nothing went according to the birth plan. (No Induction, no continual monitoring, water birth, only gas and air for pain relief, no cut) the most important thing is that we're both healthy and happy.

The day after we were discharged we went out for a tiny walk and since then we've been out every day. She went to a Halloween party at one week old. That would be my biggest advice to everyone - just get out as much as possible. My husband went back to work after 2 weeks and it wasn't a big deal because we'd already been going out so I wasn't stuck in the house with just a tiny baby for endlessly long days. Seriously - get out of the house. Even if it's only a 5 minute walk!