For some reason, despite having had two babies born before their due date, I was convinced that our little pretzel would be late. At 39 weeks exactly, nothing was ready, the crib sat waiting in the box to be built, a half packed hospital bag had a list of things still to buy and to pack and the car seat to bring our little guy home in was stored away for 'nearer the time'.
Tuesday 24th February was my first real day of maternity leave, and after dropping the bigger boys at nursery, I went to get my hair done - something I tried to plan as close to the arrival as possible so that in those first pictures I look nice and blonde. I had a few very mild contractions throughout the morning, but they were completely irregular and not painful - I knew they were different to Braxton Hicks but I could go between 20 minutes and 2 hours between them.
I came home for a quiet afternoon, a lie down on the sofa and some catch up TV, and collected the boys from nursery. Nothing seemed to be happening, but I felt like this may be a slow lead up to the big day and once the boys were in bed, I decided we should really start getting organised! I got the crib out and gave the bloke instructions on how to build it, and I finished up my hospital bag, packing those final tiny sleepsuits and nappies.
At 10pm, I decided to have a bath, thinking it would either stop anything completely and buy me some more time, or start something real, but after an hour's soak without a single contraction I decided it was the former.
At 11pm as I climbed out I felt something, and suddenly there was a regularity. I was having contractions every 5 minutes and they were about 30 seconds long. I found my birth ball and supervised the rest of the crib building, waiting to see if they progressed. I started practicing the hypnobirthing techniques I had learnt and the wave breathing and I felt in control.
At midnight, I rang my mum, who we were relying on to look after the other two, and told her to keep her phone nearby tonight. She decided to come straight over as it was late, and arrived about 1pm.
By this point, things were pretty regular and I was struggling to talk through them. I rang the midwife led unit and they agreed that I should come in to be checked. We arrived at 1:30am, but during the taxi ride over, things had slowed down and by the time we walked in, I could walk and talk through contractions. I was shown into a lovely room, similar to the one in which Archie was born, and told they would come back in when things picked back up.
At 2:30, I was examined by both the student midwife and the midwife in charge, and told I was 5cm dilated. One went to fetch some gas and air in case I wanted it and the other started running the pool as I was hoping for another water birth. Things suddenly picked up though, and the space between contractions was not long enough for me to climb off of the bed. My birth had been active and perfect until then, but suddenly I felt like I was losing control.
I felt a lot of pressure and was told it was my waters bulging, I grabbed the gas and air and I pushed to try and pop them, but suddenly the midwife's were back at the bed and as I heard the waters go, I was told to just do another short push. I had no idea what was going on at this point, but with a little push, my baby was born.
At 2:46 am after a 16 minute established labour, my baby boy was placed on my chest. His head had been born still in the water, and I had birthed him on the bed as there was no time to get to the pool. Due to a bleed, I had to have the injection to deliver my placenta, but I didn't care by this point.
A tiny pink baby was screaming, opening his little eyes and kicking his skinny legs. A baby much smaller than we had envisaged but one who stole our hearts all over again.
Baby Pretzel was born 5 days early after a quick labour with only a couple of minutes gas and air. He weighed 7lb 1oz and had dark hair and dark eyes. He looked like both his big brothers, and totally different at the same time.
After a quick shower, we were moved to a different room for skin to skin cuddles, and as there was meconium in his waters, we were told it would be 12 hours before we could go home.
Unfortunately, we didn't make it home that night, and our little Pretzel is still in special care, where he is doing really well. That is a whole other story though, and one I will write up once we are all home.
