The beginning.

Noah was born at 12.35 am on the 20th of september 2011. He was born in the Coombe hospital in Dublin, Ireland. I was due on the 12th of september and it had been a long hot summer. For the last few weeks my bump had become vast and I couldn't wait to meet my baby boy. The days ticked by, on my last obs appointment my doctor said he wanted to book me into be induced as it didn't look like anything was going to happen by itself. I remember feeling a little dissappointed, myself and Noah's dad Bobby had gone to ante-natal classes and were all prepared for the start of contractions or my waters breaking, we were going to do most of the labour at home and go into hospital...but the best laid plans and all that! It wasn't going to happen like that, my baby boy was far to comfy where he was and would have to be evicted!

I was brought in to be induced on a busy friday night. I was given a bed, settled in and Bobby went home to await "the" phonecall. He was drowsy and surprised when I arrived home at 4am saturday morning, tired, weepy and stressed out! After preparing myself mentally for the induction, the doctor on the ward that night said they were not going to induce me after all because (a) it was too busy and (b) my babies head still wasn't engaged. This was decided at about 11pm on friday night, so I asked if I could go home and was told no not until the next morning. Now, I hate hospitals and find it hard to sleep, so couldn't see the point of me staying there without sleep when I could be at home in my own bed, getting the much needed rest I would need if I went into labour. Ok...the pregnancy hormones played a big part! I discharged myself and got a taxi home after pleading with the ward sister! So, I got my sleep and had a nice relaxing saturday at home, thinking "any minute now" I got a call from the hospital at 5pm on sunday telling me to come back in they wanted to induce me, so...packed my bags again and off I went. Got settled into bed again, and almost straight away, the prostaglandin gel was applied. It was another busy night, a doctor came around and looked at me around 7pm and again, there was discussion about sending me home again...AGAIN! I was devastated to say the least...called Bobby, called my sister and had a bit of a moan, couldn't believe they wanted to send me home again! Before the doc left she gave me a very surprising and painful sleep...after which I spent the next hour silently cursing her under my breath! Didn't realise of course that the pain I was feeling was actually contractions and not just the result of her rough examination!! So, although I cursed her, she actually got things started! I told a nurse I was having a bit of pain and was given painkillers which didn't work. I began to get more and more uncomfortable and a nurse told me to go have a shower, which I did and that seemed to help a lot, so I got a few hours sleep! I was awake again aroun 11.30pm, pains starting to come back again...feeling a bit queer! So I sat on my bed and had started to fidget around with my laptop that Bob had brought in for me when whooooooshhh.....my waters broke! SHOCK!! My first reaction was to run to the loo, there was just so much water! Then there were two nurses beside me and I was being rushed to the labour ward because the water was discoloured and had mikonium in it. At 12.30 I was in the labour ward, Bobby had been woken out of his sleep and was on his way in a taxi, and the midwife and obstetrician had decided to leave me one hour to see his contractions got stronger on their own before putting me on oxytocin drip. Bobby got there within 20 minutes.and I was having mild contractions, I remember saying to him "Oh this is fine, I can handle this" with a big smile on my face! After an hour I wasn't dilated much and could still talk through the contractions so I was put on oxytocin drip and over the next hour it was slowly increased to the maximum level...not that I noticed because within 20 minutes of the drip starting I could no longer talk through the contractions, they got really really strong! Another hour went by in incredible pain and I was still only 3cm's dilated, so I was given the lovely, blessed wonderful epidural! after that kicked in I even managed to get some sleep! The night turned to morning and I was slowly dilating more and more and the midwives were happy with my progress. At around 8cm's though things started to get a bit hairy! The baby's heartrate started to drop every few minutes, each time this happened blood was drawn from his head and oxygen levels were checked, each time they came back normal. I finally got to 10cm's and could push, but still babies heart rate was dropping, so it was decided to bring me up to theatre, try the venteuse, then forceps and then section. So I was rushed up there within 10 minutes. For 10 minutes I pushed and pushed like hell....thinking to myself "there is no way I'm getting a section" so between me and the forceps, at 12.35 pm my baby was born into this world. All I could see was a long pink baby with masses and masses of spiky brown hair! He was immediately checked by paediatricians who said everything looked fine, he was 9lb's 2oz's. I was sent down to recovery, while Bobby and the paed's team took my baby off to have his lungs dried out a little. After 30 mins bobby came in and handed me my baby son. What a lovely beautiful little boy he was. He had been crying all the way down the corridor I could hear him and I knew it was my son, so as he came closer I began talking to him and he immediately stopped crying...before we even saw each other we knew each other! I held him and it was like I had known him all my life, he was the cutest little thing with pudgy cheeks, button nose and a look of curiosity and wonder on his face. It was the best day of my life....