Welcome baby Amber!!! Birth story...

Amber May arrived on 22 November 2006, 2.35am, 7lb 2oz :D

Ok, heres the birth story of Amber May Petley... Quite a positive one I think!

On 21st, at 6.30 in the morning (39+2) I realised our electric had run out as it was all dark and the clock radio had stopped working! Got up and put the emergency electric on, came back to bed. Laid down, got all comfy, then whoosh! My waters went, in bed! I prayed a prayer of thanks to the god of inco pads (!) woke Gareth and went to the bathroom for a change of clothing! An hour later, contractions started. Spent an hour on MSN to Sam who got VERY excited(!), and finally called Jill my midwife at about 9ish, who on being told my waters had gone, cheered!

Went to the maternity hospital's day unit for monitoring, where it was well hectic, and they said I wasnt in labour despite the contractions... grr! Was sent home, and thought it would be ages, so we went to Mum and Dads and took KFC for lunch. Hung around there (as its closer to the hospital) til about 3pm, and decided to go home as nothing was happening. On the way home I decided I couldnt do without the muslins and nappysan I'd decided not to buy earlier in the week, so we popped into mothercare. Gareth parked us in what we thought was a mother and baby space, but after 10 mins in mothercare we came out to find a parking ticket on the car!!! It was a disabled space :S I was in tears!!!!

Anyway, after that every bump in the road felt like agony, by the time we got back to our flat i was in quite a bit of pain! Gareth started making us dinner, but before he could finish it I was demanding to be taken back to the hospital! I called the birth centre and had two contractions while I was on the phone. The woman was asking me loads of questions and said I should think about coming in soon. After the second contraction (she must have been timing me!) she was like, actually you'd better come in now!!! Gareth put the cous cous he cooked for me in a box and drove me back to the hospital. We couldnt park very close, but by then it was after 6 so it was free parking on the road nearby (no more tickets, please!!) but it meant a short walk to the hospital. I think it took us about 10 mins to get from the car to the door, stopping every 2 mins for contractions!! Then we realised the main entrance was closed so had to walk round to the other side of the building!! Argh!

Well, the walk must have done some good, I thought, but the Dr examined me and said I was only 2cm dilated! She said I could stay if I wanted, but it could be a while yet and could go home! Well, there was no way I was going back in the car, it was just too painful! She gave me a couple of paracetamol (like that would do anything!) and left us to watch Holby City! A couple of hours later and I was finding the pain difficult to deal with, but the midwives were all dealing with people in more advanced labour, so Gareth went and got the next person he could find! She left me another half hour, then she examined me and discovered I was 6cm! Yay! She asked me if I wanted the entonox, and I was hesitant but I was in so much pain at that point I didnt care what they gave me! She brought the gas and air in, and told me how to use it, but I was having a contraction so I had to ask her to tell me again! It didnt seem to do anything at first, but then it started to kick in... I've never enjoyed being high before now! The pool took AGES to fill, and once they got me in the room with the pool they had to wait for the other midwife to come (not sure why!) before I was allowed to get in the pool.

Then I felt I had to push so I sent Gareth running for the midwife, and at last the right midwife turned up with the student midwife (Harriet, she was really lovely!) and they said I was 9cm! They got me in the pool just in time - well, it felt like minutes before she was here, but Gareth thinks it was more like an hour.

They said I did a really good job (was studying birthing vids on utube the night before, think that was the best idea I had!!) and I had a small tear that only needed a few stitches (ouchy!) but tore a blood vessel so I lost quite a bit of blood. Gareth said I looked extremely pale after, and I couldnt stand for a day after! We didnt get on the ward until about 7.30, and Gareth went home for a sleep.

Its now 2 weeks and 3 days after Amber's birth, and we are enjoying her so much! She is quite a happy baby, and she sleeps 4 hours at a time most nights which is good for sleep! We had a small problem yesterday when we realised there was a weird thing on her thumb which turned out to be a Paronychia Nail Infection, and the Doctor wouldnt prescribe her anything and referred us to the hospital. Then followed a four hour wait there, and we eventually came away with antibiotics which I'm not even sure she needed, because only a day later the worst of it seems to have cleared up! Plus I checked it out with the Bounty Mum's, and other peoples babies have had the same thing, and one was given a cream (much better idea!) and another wasnt even treated, and it cleared on its own!!! Ah well...

Will keep my blog updated with Amber's progress, and my thoughts, ideas and as many funny things as I can! Bye for now... :)