Olivia Scarlett Anne

On Monday 14th September I started getting contractions but they were not very painful and they continued throughout the day until they were 3 minutes apart. Then everything stopped.

On Tuesday 15th September the contractions started again at midday. This time they were definitely painful. I started recording their frequency on my laptop using an App and called my husband to inform him of what was going on. I then phone my father who I wanted to speak to to remain focused through the contractions. I think he was scared to death. At this point the contractions were every 4 minutes apart. The contractions continued all night and at 3am I couldn't take the pain anymore and went to the hospital.

By this point my waters hadn't broken, I had had no show and was only 2cm dilated so the midwife gave me a sweep (which I was not grateful for) and sent me home. Between 4am - 6am I lay in the bath vomiting and at 6am we returned to the hospital.
Unfortunately the midwife led Birthing Suite was full so already the birthing plan was out of the window. I went up to the labour ward and had to wait in the corridor until a room became free. This took about an hour. When I eventually got in I was checked and unfortunately I was only 3cm dilated. This time they let me stay, thankfully. I started on gas & air but by 11am after 24hrs of contractions I asked for an Epidural. I was given a mobile epidural which meant I was administered 10ml every hour. From that point on my whole experience of labour changed. It was wonderful. I could walk about, use a birthing ball and walk around completely pain free. It took me 14hrs to get from 4cm dilated to 10cm.

My waters never broke so they lanced them when I was 9cm dilated. Then I was ready to push. After 30 minutes of pushing Olivia arrived. There was some miconium in my waters so a consultant had to check her over. I had two 2nd degree internal tears and one external tear which required the plastic surgeon to attend to but it was all done very quickly.

I was finally passed my daughter. She was so beautiful that I thought I was going to explode with something that was a mixture of pride, love, wonder and adrenalin. My husband then had to leave and I had to spend the night on the labour ward. Which is an extremely noisy experience. As I was in an inner London hospital I was with about 40 other women separated by curtains. The night was interrupted by babies screaming, midwifes chatting or coming to wake you up to take your blood pressure or other women on the phone. I was so glad when morning arrived and I could get out. Once we had been seen by a Dr to do Olivia's checks and had a chat with the midwife about safe sex we were allowed to leave. I was so excited to take her home.
DUE DATE - 24th SEPT
BORN - 16th SEPT at 8:30pm
WEIGHT - 6lb 13oz