It's me_mum: And there she was...

The picture above was taken 2 days before E was born

The day I went into labour was an ordinary day, E wasnt due for another 6 days so I wasn't overly expecting her since first babies usually come late, however she had been engaged since about 32 weeks so I had a feeling she would come early.
N and I had planned to catch up with some friends for dinner so I had a bath and put on some nice clean clothes (trackies and a jumper) and went to sit on our couch to wait for N to get ready. Decided I felt as though I had to go to the toilet, as I got up I was sure I was peeing myself (not a nice feeling at all!), got to the toilet and it was everywhere. I called for N, "I think my waters just broke" seeing the mess in my pants he was sure too. N looked down the hall and laughed, there was a drip trail down the hallway.
I cleaned myself up while N cleaned the hallway. I called the hospital to let them know my waters had broken and that I had a feeling there was a little bit of meconium aswell. They asked us to come in just to make sure everything was ok and that my waters had actually broken. It was about 6.30pm. I called my besty C to let her know what had happened as N and I had asked her to be there at the birth, we told her to stay putt as contractions had not yet begun.
N and I took our time to ge there, I wasn't having contractions and didnt feel there was a need to rush. We jumped in the car and was on our way. Silly us only thought there was the one gush and didnt put a towel on the seat. About half way there, I had another gush, my maternity pad didnt save much. We finally got to the hospital, N dropped me at the door, as I got out I asked him if he could tell really badly. There was a pause......"yeah, its pretty bad". I wrapped a jumper around my waist and headed to the birthing suite. We were booked into the Family Birth Center which is similar to a home birth but in a hospital, generally for low risk pregnancies. By the time we got up to the Family Birth Centre the 'water' was in my shoes, I looked at the clock and it was 7.30pm.
Thinking back now I might have had a contraction in the car. Waiting for the nurse, I was pretty sure I had a contraction, 5 minutes later another. Just felt like slightly painful twitch. The nurse finally came back 15 minutes later and popped me on the bed to see how everything was going. I decided to call C back since my contractions had started to become more apparent.
By the time C got there (maybe half an hour later) she started timing my contractions and they were about 3/2 mins apart. A new midwife had started and decided to transfer me to the general birthing suite because of the maconium in my waters, I remember walking across the hall in so much pain, I felt as though I was being ripped in half. I remember climbing onto the bed in so much pain, by this stage I think it was around about 11pm.
I was screaming and remember laying on my side pulling C into my belly for pressure (which seemed to help) while she, N and the nurse massaged my lower back, I couldnt hack it and tried the gas. I was in so much pain I couldnt suck on the hose properly and at about 1.30am, N was taken out of the room because they could tell he was distressed and asked him if he wanted to ask me about the epidural. The nurse said to me it would take about an hour for the epidural anethiest to get to the hospital (considering the time of night). I agreed to get her in and she arrived just after 2.30am.
It was like heaven as soon as there was no more pain. I had gone from a psyco devil with my head spinning on my neck, to a normal human being happily laying on the bed joking and laughing with N and C.
It go to about 6am and they decided to get me to start pushing, within 2 pushes my heart rate become too high and the nurses told me to take a break and relax to try and get it back down. From memory it was about 120bpm as a resting heart rate and up to 180bpm during a contraction. By about 7.30 my heart rate was still the same and the doctors decided bubs had to come out and fast. I rolled over to start pushing again while the doctor tried the vacuum however it wouldnt suction to her head properly and therefore tried the forceps. The doctor couldnt fit the forceps and E's head and had to make a small cut (ended up being a 2nd degree tear). At this point the delivering doctor told me if this didnt work I would have to go in for a cesarian. Going this far I was determined to push as hard as I could to make sure that didnt happen. During a break I looked over at N and he was as white as a ghost, I asked if he was ok, he had been holding his breath while I was pushing. It felt like only 5 contractions later with intence pushing and E had arrived, 7.49am.

She was 4.910gs (10lb 13) and 53cm long.

I lost a normal amount of blood however my iron was so low that I fainted. N and the nurse were dressing E at the end of the bed and I thought I was just dosing off since I had not slept. Next thing I knew someone had put an oxygen mask over my face as people ran into my room, in the background the alarm was ringing and N was sitting in the corner horrified, holding E for the first time thinking I was dead. I ended up with two blood transfusions and another cathita (I was sore for weeks because of this and the stichers).