Happy Birthday Bean

A Birth Story
(yes, a birth story so look away now if you don't want to know)

Bean was born on day like today, at least the weather at 3am was similar as I stood in Worthing Hospital car park waiting for them to open the door and let us in, the rain poured and the wind blew but that's rather starting in the middle of the story! About 25 hours earlier I had woken up with small niggling feelings and they came and went every 20 minutes, I knew Bean was on his way. I slept excitedly for the remainder of the night and got up about 6am and had a bath. This was when daddy knew something was up...I am never up happily at 6am! Being my first labour I had very little idea of what to expect but had a game plan: natural birth, labour as much as possible at home, and maybe a water birth please. I put on my TENS machine unsure whether it would have any affect or not and went out with a friend and her two children, she was very relaxed having a pre-labouring woman around. The afternoon was spent at home sitting on my large gym ball whilst daddy, who worked at home in those days, was taking photos of wine glasses set up in his light tent in the living room. We popped out to get a pizza from the supermarket for our tea and this is the first memory I have of really being in labour, daddy asking me what type of pizza I would like and me holding on to the trolley, doing the breathing and signalling him to wait a minute. I think we first rang the hospital after supper and they advised us to stay at home a little longer which we did happily. I wasn't very keen on the idea of going to hospital, never having  been myself for any reason before and we had entertained a home birth but I wanted the security of knowing I was in a place that could help 'just in case.' By 10pm I was labouring in what was to be Bean's bedroom, daddy was extremely wonderful and encouraging but by midnight was very tired and went to rest in our bed so he would be able to safely make the drive to the hospital. I laid next to him on a mountain of pillows and spare duvets lying on my front, I actually think I dozed on and off. About 2am my waters broke and I threw up all over the bed. Daddy rang the hospital again and they told us to come in, they didn't even speak to me this time. (Daddy also put all the bedding in the washing machine and put clean linen on the bed whilst I changed.) When we got there I must have had 5 or 6 contractions from the car up to the labour ward. It took us nearly 15 minutes to make the short walk. I insisted on walking up the stairs too (a combination of not being too keen on lifts and remembering the parent craft talk telling us this would help) which only encourages contractions and I was continuously losing water. When we got to the ward I had another contraction as they were signing us in and they skipped the friendly introductions and 'tell me about your birth plan' bit to examine me straight away, I was convinced they were going to send me home and remember begging the mid wife not to. She was very kind and smiled at me as she said, 'your 9 1/2 cm, your not going anywhere.' This was music to my ears and really boosted me to carry on. Daddy did enquire about the water birth but a second mid wife told him by the time they ran the pool baby would be here. And she was right. They left me to it and really only stood by to catch the baby! I remember taking off the TENS machine which was annoying me by now and then being on all fours on the floor, gripping onto the rail on the bed and daddy's hand. I briefly tried the gas and air but it made me very dizzy so I did without. I remember feeling baby coming down and the enormous relief when he was born. Unfortunately his cord was really short so I couldn't see him or hold him until it had been cut. Daddy declined the offer to do this, he always felt it was a bit like declaring something open by cutting the ribbon! So 20 minutes after arriving on the labour ward we had a beautiful baby boy, welcome to the world baby Bean :)
Delivering the placenta took a while and after waiting and waiting and waiting for over an hour it finally came. Mostly Bean had lots of skin to skin with daddy during this time but I also tried to put Bean to the breast but he was far too tired and didn't feed until a few hours later. I was on the delivery suite by breakfast so had a second breakfast after having eaten on the labour ward and a few hours later we were on our way home. One happy family.