I wanted to write this post before I get proved wrong. For months people have been telling me that I’ll forget what happened when I had my son and I’ll want another one. I don’t buy it but just in case, I wanted to document his labour here in a blog post so I have something to refer back to. Don’t get me wrong, Jenson is worth every single agonising second that I’ve been through in the last week (and every bout of morning of sickness, every painful step, every hot flush…) but one is enough. I already love him more than I ever though possible and all we need to complete our little family is a dog!
When I got pregnant the first time (more on that another day) I had terrible morning sickness and swore that I wouldn’t be going through that again. Then I miscarried at around eight weeks and, as terrifying the prospect was of going through the same thing again, I knew that I really wanted to have a child. And, trust me, there’s nothing more terrifying than being pregnant after a miscarriage. In those initial weeks I kept checking for bleeding, then once we’d seen his little heart beating at the 12-week scan, at the back of my mind I still expected something to go wrong. I was surprised to hear he appeared perfectly fine at the 20-week scan and once we knew he’d be a blue one, I started imagining what he’d be like. With each passing week and each midwife appointment where I got to hear his incredible little heartbeat, I felt both reassured that he was ok but still anxious that the big day was getting closer. Anything could happen.
Now for the gory details – and let’s just say, it didn’t go according to plan. Is there really any point in writing a birth plan?! As you already know, I had a sweep on my due date and I can’t recommend these highly enough! I was nervous about having one, as having a medical professional root around in there is never fun, especially when my cervix always seems to be a bugger to find. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be – more bearable than a smear test. I had the sweep done on the Thursday at 3pm and my waters broke at 7.30pm on the Friday. I had a couple of niggles during the day but nothing that felt like contractions, especially when I knew that having a sweep meant that I might experience some bleeding and cramping. And let me tell you, it felt bloody weird! I got up off the sofa to check on dinner and as soon as I stood up I felt a weird pop and water started gushing down my legs, like a water balloon going off and feeling like I’d wet myself. Lovely!
I was surprisingly calm at this point. On TV/in the movies you always see someone’s waters break and then they immediately start puffing and panting. Why do people write things that are totally different to real life?! Luke was up in the office at the time so I called him down as I waddled to the bathroom to stand on a towel. I kept gushing on and off for a couple of hours and it was so weird. I called the emergency midwife and was told that someone would need to examine me if I wasn’t in active labour within 12 hours. Rather than going to hospital at 7.30am I was told I could call to see one in Penzance at 9am. But I didn’t last that long…
Pop back for more drama in part 2 tomorrow!