At 36+1 I went into early labour, this was the set up for almost a month of irregular and extremely frustrating contractions, I posted alot on online forums during this time, mostly b****ing about it lol.

At 38 weeks I finally dilated to a fingertip but it was to be another week and a half before I would finally have my baby in my arms.

14th August 2008 - The contractions finally started to get closer together so I called my midwife to come out to me as I was planning a homebirth. She got there, checked me and to my frustration I was only 1cm, 2cm at a push!
At this point the contractions were starting to get more painful so during each contraction I would lean over my gym ball and attempt to breathe through them, unfortunately I was so stressed out from having been in early labour so long that I didn't get the benefits of it yet, so I unpacked my TENS machine and had my partner attach it to my back - who zapped me! And himself, thank god I wasn't mid-contractions when he was trying to put it on - he would not have had any testicles left! That night was very unsettled as I kept waking up from the contractions, my forums became my lifeline it was very helpful to hear from mummies who had gone through the same thing, or were just simply replying to wish me luck!

15th August 2008 - I was woken up at half 4 in the morning with really painful contractions I had already called the midwife out a few times so I wasn't about to call her out again unless I absolutely had to, my contractions ranged from 1 to 10 mins apart so they were really erractic, around 4/5pm they were getting really painful so we called the midwife out again - she checked - I was a 1.5 - 2cm definite, finally some progress, but still frustrated as contractions were uber painful. Later that night I think around 6/7ish she was called out again - she checked - I was dilated to a 3. She stayed with me for about an hour monitoring my contractions, seeing how painful they were she suggested taking co-codamol, I wasn't keen because they made me sick, but she couldn't give me anything other than that or take me into hospital and give me pethidine - I was begging for the pethidine! But my partner kept me strong and we decided it wouldn't be the best choice as I didn't want to feel out of it while I was in labour. At this point I was stood contracting holding onto a chest of drawers just in front of the bedroom door. The midwife made to leave and my partner told me to move - I was mid-contraction - So this was a bad move on his part I told him 'F**k off, you f****ing move a***hole!' or something to that effect. I was good. It was the only time I swore throughout the entire labour! Needless to say he never asked me to move again throughout the labour process.

16th August 2008 - It was the early hours of the morning - about midnight. The contractions were excrutiating and the TENS had stopped helping, and I was starting to feel the urge to push, and I felt a trickle down my leg. So we called the midwife out again. This time we had a different midwife, who I took an immediate disliking to. She checked me and to my dismay told me I was still stuck at 3cm. I was stuck at a 3 for at least 12 hours. And she said I obvipously wasn't coping with the contractions and I should go to hospital so they could give me pethidine. She said this in a very rude and abrupt manner. She also said my waters hadn't broken. She was promptly asked to leave while me and my partner talked and shooed out by his mum. Me and my partner talked about it again, and at this point he remembered something from our antenatal classes and said I wasn't breathing properly and that's why it was hurting so much, so he started to pace his breathing and told me to join in and see if it helped, and if it didn't I could go into hospital and get the pethidine if I really wanted to. Luckily it helped and we chose not to go to hospital and get the pethidine. I managed to get a few hours of sleep after taking 1 paracetemol and 1 co-codamol (It was the only way to stop me throwing it back up) and it helped take the edge of the contractions.

About 5am I woke up to severe contractions, they were so bad I could barely stand, and took another set of painkillers but it wasn't helping much. I had put a maternity pad on the night before and when I went to the loo, I saw that it was covered in pink/red - it looked like blood, and I hadn't felt the baby move for a couple of hours. So we rang the hospital and asked what we shoudl do, they said to come in and sent an ambulance out for us. As soon as the ambulance turned up the baby started moving. Typical.

The journey to hospital was not at all pleasant, too many speedbumps! I was contracting around every 5 mins at this point (I had given up timing them a long time beforehand). I was wheelchaired upto the maternity ward and hooked up to a contraction monitor - needless to say that half an hour was extremely uncomfortable the last thing I wanted to do was sit on a bed I wanted to be moving as just sitting there made the contractions so much more painful! She came back half an hour later and said my contractions were 5 minutes apart and that it would be a while yet. This was at 10:30am. I asked her to check me so I knew how I was progressing, I was 8cm and my waters had completely broken (The last midwife didn't know naff all!) and that they had been broken for a while, she asked me when I was last checked I said around midnight and she said that sounded about right. And that the pink on my pad was amniotic fluid. She said I could either stay or go home as I had planned to have a homebirth. Considering we had to wait for a taxi to get home, and I really didn't want to catch the bus in labour (We don't drive) I didn't think I would make it home before the baby decided to arrive so we chose to stay and were quickly put in our own labour room. My partner called his mum to let her know and asked her to bring my labour bag and car seat for the baby, considering how slow my labour had been going I didn't think for a second I would be staying, my partner asked if his mum was allowed to be there as support for him and I said it was alright as she would have been there at home anyway.

For the next couple of hours I was screaming through every contraction until at about 1ish I felt like I had to go to the loo, I went and nothing happened so the midwife told me to come out I was most likely getting ready to push, I had asked for gas and air just before I started to push but it was too late now I was going to have to go all natural! I was stood holding onto the bed and my partner saw blood, so the midwife then had me labouring on the bed in various positions, and my partner kept giving me sips of juice through a straw. In my final labouring position after the baby was finally past the bend in the birth canal I was sat up and pushing, I gripped my partners hand so tight with every contraction it ended up bruised and I was screaming b****y murder. And the burning! Oh the burning! Just before 2:10pm I finally pushed out the head. Relief! And one push later the body followed at exactly 2:10pm. the midwife picked the baby up and showed us. It's a boy! And handed him to me, as soon as I held him in my arms, he promptly peed on me! My first words to him? 'Oh lovely!' This became a very typical action for my little man in his first few months of life, now I am just more wise to it. At least. I think I am. We knew right then and there that his name would be Kyle. We went home about 5 hours after he was born I had a 2nd degree tear, but chose not to have stitches. And I am so glad I didn't go for the pethidine. I would not have missed that experience for the world I wouldn't change a thing about my labour. I just wish I hadn't had an incompetent midwife who didn't even know my waters had broken. Because then I would have been able to carry on having my homebirth. The midwife who I had before her didn't know why the other one had been sent out by the hospital as she had been assigned to my labour. Luckily I had a really good midwife at the hospital and had no doctorly interference! I will be having a homebirth next time.