Day 1: The Arrival of Master Henry

So as promised here I am, ignoring my ever-growing pile of washing and promising myself I will attack it tomorrow. Just so I can spend a few minutes giving you the play-by-play on how Henry came to join us.

It all began on Wednesday 7th December. I had an appointment with my obstetrician in the morning. She checked me over, had a squiz on the little TV at Dash and then rang the hospital to book me in for the following Monday (12/12/2011) to be induced.  I was not really paying too much attention but I have this vague idea she had mentioned something about me already being 1-2cms dilated and that if labour began over the weekend with my track record of being super quick, I was to go straight in if I started getting contractions.

Scared much? Yes, yes I was. Mostly because I still hadn't finished work and I REALLY wanted to make it to my work Christmas dinner that Saturday night.

Spent the day with Charlie-Bugg not thinking too much more of it although dealing with some uncomfortable tummy cramps, and then that night headed to what would be my last Hydrotherapy class. I filled in my good friend Jess on my latest pregnancy details (and she filled me in on hers - this is what we always did on Wednesday nights whilst we floated about in the pool) and midway through our pool circuit, actually it was when I was doing these floating push-up things... I got one. A really painful contraction had hit me and I had to freeze. I knew straight away it wasn't Braxton Hicks and I wondered how on earth I'd ever thought they compared to the real thing.

I copped several more over my time in the pool and on my way home.  After putting Charlie to bed later that night I realised they were getting more intense and of course this caused me to pretty much go into panic mode. I hadn't nested at all this time around and all of a sudden I found myself trying to clean my house top to bottom. I had a shower, shaved my legs, stuffed extra clothes in my maternity bag... I remember quite clearly panicking that the cat litter was dirty and that I'd have to clean it before I left (you know, because it would've been a life or death situation if it was left unclean).

Simon throughout all of this had been at Cricket training and when he arrived home I was in full swing rushing about the house. I do recall quite calmly saying to him when he walked through the door "I don't want to freak you out or anything, but I'm in labour. These are not Braxton Hicks" and his response was "Are you sure?" Enter facepalm. Of course I was sure.

I rang my mum who headed on down to take care of Charlie in case he woke during the night and at about 11.30pm we headed in to the hospital to get checked out.

The following extract is from the notes application on my iPhone. I barely remember writing any of the following... and I promise you it's word for word.

07/12/2011
11.30pm - Arrive at hospital.
11.40pm - Use the secret back entrance thru emergency where we are met by the lovely nurse Kate. She is my favourite nurse so far in the world of nursing.
11.50pm - Listen to heartbeat/trace contractions. They've slowed down from when we were at home. Bastards making a liar out of me.

08/12/2011

12.20am - T-Dawg (Obstetrician) says to stay in and if I haven't gone into full labour by myself, in the morning she is going to rupture my membranes and bring that shit on. Eeep.

1.10am - Get Panadene Forte and sleeping tablets.

1.15am - Sandwiches and yogurt.

1.30am - Realise I feel drunk for the first time in months courtesy of aforementioned medication and cant wait to sleep...

2.00am - Wake momentarily and realise I've just slobbered all over my hand and pillow. Still feel like a space cadet.

2.10am - Drink some water and try to go back to sleep. Contractions when resting are about 10minutes apart. So stay put! Keep them that way.

6.10am - Woke up a while ago. Needed to pee but couldn't stand up on my own. Poor Simon had to stabilise me to the loo and back. Embarrassing! Now I'm awake again. Haven't felt a contraction for a while - perhaps the painkillers have made them easier to handle or they've just stopped. I'd better monitor Dash's movements too...

6.15am - Kate put the Trace back on. Plenty of kicks from bub. Only 2 contractions though and they weren't that painful.  Don't know what that means in the scheme of things yet...

7.00am - Breakfast. Allbran is shit.

8.15am - T-Dawg comes in to see me, has a bit of a poke. I'm 3-4cm dilated. She says to go for a stroll to try and egg the process along. Otherwise I can go home and rest up.

8.40am - Botanical Gardens. Sunshine. Perfect for a stroll this early in the morning :)
9.55am - Get back to hospital, nearly cry because of pain on arrival - not sure if the walk has actually stirred things along or not.
11.50am - Space cadet - on the gas.

Basically that's as far as I was consciously able to keep up with. From when they broke my waters at 11.30am I got on the gas, man that stuff tastes like crap. And when it wasn't feeling like enough (besides making me dizzy) I asked for a shot of pethidine. Next labour around I will do no such thing. That stuff is rubbish and does not work. I could still feel every bit of pain but couldn't talk or open my eyes because the room wouldn't stop spinning. What a waste of drugs!

Anywho, after a whole lot of pushing at 2.30pm the midwife finally told me to start doing little breaths after all that hard pushing and I knew it was time for him to come out and I just had this massive flood of relief in my body followed by this tiny little cry and a whole bunch of people saying how wonderful I was and that it was over and then this tiny little blueberry was put on my chest.

Then they took him away again to check him and and then I got him back and I knew he was going to be called Henry and he was just so tiny and I was so overwhelmed and to be honest it is level-pegging as my favourite moment of my life along with when Charlie came into the world.

He started feeding well, and I started to recover almost as soon as it was over. He was tiny (5lb11ozs) and if it hadn't been that the nurses just wanted to keep an eye on him for a few extra days, I would've asked to go home the following day. I amazed myself at how quickly my body knew what to do in regards to getting itself back to it's non-baby state.

And if you were wondering I still got to go to my Christmas dinner - they actually gave me a leave-pass from the hospital, just for an hour or so. And gosh that was lovely (and I really enjoyed the looks on everyone's faces when I rocked up!)

The funny thing about the days after Henry was born - my friend Jess actually went into labour herself and two days after I had given birth she did the same. To a perfect little girl quite gorgeously named Adele.

But most importantly I had my second son, and he was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Introducing him to his older brother was simply beautiful and I have to admit even I didn't think their first meeting would go so well. All Charlie wanted to do was give his new little brother 'Han-ray' a kiss.

Magical. And even now, a month on it is still magical. Every single day.

Lookout tomorrow for Day 2. Christmas Capers.

xoxo