This is going to be long, and will take me a few days to complete, for which I apologise. We'll try and post some post-birth stuff too.
Since D___'s visit the day before, I was fairly convinced that the baby wasn't going to put in an appearance until the middle of next week. Sunday afternoon I went and spent a couple of hours with Nana and then popped in to see my mother - my dad is still in Scotland trying to cope with Granny and the problems there. At both Nana and Ma's, I'd mentioned that the midwife had suggested it might be a few more days.
When I returned I was greeted by K___ saying that she had been having contractions since about four o'clock. They were irregular and not too painful and we were excited (and a little apprehensive) at the thought that labour could finally have come and that we would get to meet our daughter at long last.
After that, the contractions became a bit more regular and a quite a lot more painful. We watched a thriller on the idiot's Lantern until ten and then we decided that although K___ wasn't yet getting regular contractions, perhaps it would be sensible to give the midwives a heads up, so she texted them. A few minutes passed and then D____ phoned. She said that by the sounds of things, K___ was too erratic just now. It could all just stop and we needed to wait for things to become a bit more regular before she would consider coming out.
K___ wanted to try and get some rest, and settled down to see if she could sleep through it, but it quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to happen. We ended up putting on a DVD in the bedroom as I sat there timing the contractions and writing the results on the back of an old envelope that I found to hand.
By about 1 am, we'd decided that being in the bed wasn't helping and had moved into the living room. Every time a contraction hit, I would try my best to soothe K___, rubbing her skin and saying things that, even as I said them, I was aware were a bit insufficient and bland, particularly after the millionth time of repetition. K___, however, seemed to appreciate them. I don't know how aware she was of what I was saying, more that I was saying things at all. I'm glad she was getting the benefit from my words, such as it was, but I did feel quite impotent to do anything much more useful. As the evening progressed, K___ started to lean on me, bracing herself against the contractions.
Things had really begun to settle into a regular pattern and so I phoned D____. She sounded really terribly sleepy and a part of me felt quite bad about disturbing her. However, she must be used to it and soon perked up. She said she'd be over as soon as possible. It took her quite a while to get to us as she had to get a birthing stool from the hospital. I kept checking out of the window and happened to be glancing out as her car pulled up behind mine and went to help with her bags.
Wouldn't you know it? As soon as the midwife arrived, the contractions started to tail off in frequency. D____ explained that this was quite common, probably something to do with the fact that the women find the midwives a comfort to be around, and accordingly de-stress. Not terribly convenient though. In the time D____ was in the house, the contractions just slowed down until they were about every 15 minutes. D____ suggested that they would probably go back to what they were pretty quickly. Unfortunately, they didn't. K___ agreed to have an internal examination and D___ discovered that she was two centimetres dilated. We also found out that our darling daughter had somehow contrived to move from the optimum LOA (Head down the left hand side, facing mum's tummy) to the worst possible position, LOP (head down the left hand side, but facing mum's back). Little minx! In the end, D____ said she was going home and we should ring again when the contractions were every three minutes apart. We asked how long that might be, but she didn't know and didn't want to jinx it by saying anything. It was about 2.00 am when she left.
The early hours passed quickly. We didn't have the television on or music. We just waited for each contraction to hit. Kate would moan and I would try and comfort her and get a reasonably accurate timing on each one. I knew I was tired, but I didn't actually feel sleepy. For K___ sleep would have been impossible anyway. By five o'clock, K___ was having a contraction every four minutes, each one lasting about two minutes. They seemed to consist of one large wave of contraction, followed by a smaller one after about thirty seconds of 'down time'. Many times we thought the contraction had passed only for the smaller one to catch her unawares.
At six, the contractions were so regular that we phoned K___'s mother in Lincolnshire to tell her to make the journey down, in the expectation that the baby could even be out before she could arrive. At seven, we phoned D____ again. She took about half an hour to arrive and while we were waiting, we were getting perturbed by the fact that the damn contractions seemed to be slowing down again. By the time that D___ actually arrived, the contractions were coming every ten minutes or so, and much less forcefully.
"Don't worry," said D____, "they'll be back in no time..."
But they weren't.
Since D___'s visit the day before, I was fairly convinced that the baby wasn't going to put in an appearance until the middle of next week. Sunday afternoon I went and spent a couple of hours with Nana and then popped in to see my mother - my dad is still in Scotland trying to cope with Granny and the problems there. At both Nana and Ma's, I'd mentioned that the midwife had suggested it might be a few more days.
When I returned I was greeted by K___ saying that she had been having contractions since about four o'clock. They were irregular and not too painful and we were excited (and a little apprehensive) at the thought that labour could finally have come and that we would get to meet our daughter at long last.
After that, the contractions became a bit more regular and a quite a lot more painful. We watched a thriller on the idiot's Lantern until ten and then we decided that although K___ wasn't yet getting regular contractions, perhaps it would be sensible to give the midwives a heads up, so she texted them. A few minutes passed and then D____ phoned. She said that by the sounds of things, K___ was too erratic just now. It could all just stop and we needed to wait for things to become a bit more regular before she would consider coming out.
K___ wanted to try and get some rest, and settled down to see if she could sleep through it, but it quickly became apparent that this wasn't going to happen. We ended up putting on a DVD in the bedroom as I sat there timing the contractions and writing the results on the back of an old envelope that I found to hand.
By about 1 am, we'd decided that being in the bed wasn't helping and had moved into the living room. Every time a contraction hit, I would try my best to soothe K___, rubbing her skin and saying things that, even as I said them, I was aware were a bit insufficient and bland, particularly after the millionth time of repetition. K___, however, seemed to appreciate them. I don't know how aware she was of what I was saying, more that I was saying things at all. I'm glad she was getting the benefit from my words, such as it was, but I did feel quite impotent to do anything much more useful. As the evening progressed, K___ started to lean on me, bracing herself against the contractions.
Things had really begun to settle into a regular pattern and so I phoned D____. She sounded really terribly sleepy and a part of me felt quite bad about disturbing her. However, she must be used to it and soon perked up. She said she'd be over as soon as possible. It took her quite a while to get to us as she had to get a birthing stool from the hospital. I kept checking out of the window and happened to be glancing out as her car pulled up behind mine and went to help with her bags.
Wouldn't you know it? As soon as the midwife arrived, the contractions started to tail off in frequency. D____ explained that this was quite common, probably something to do with the fact that the women find the midwives a comfort to be around, and accordingly de-stress. Not terribly convenient though. In the time D____ was in the house, the contractions just slowed down until they were about every 15 minutes. D____ suggested that they would probably go back to what they were pretty quickly. Unfortunately, they didn't. K___ agreed to have an internal examination and D___ discovered that she was two centimetres dilated. We also found out that our darling daughter had somehow contrived to move from the optimum LOA (Head down the left hand side, facing mum's tummy) to the worst possible position, LOP (head down the left hand side, but facing mum's back). Little minx! In the end, D____ said she was going home and we should ring again when the contractions were every three minutes apart. We asked how long that might be, but she didn't know and didn't want to jinx it by saying anything. It was about 2.00 am when she left.
The early hours passed quickly. We didn't have the television on or music. We just waited for each contraction to hit. Kate would moan and I would try and comfort her and get a reasonably accurate timing on each one. I knew I was tired, but I didn't actually feel sleepy. For K___ sleep would have been impossible anyway. By five o'clock, K___ was having a contraction every four minutes, each one lasting about two minutes. They seemed to consist of one large wave of contraction, followed by a smaller one after about thirty seconds of 'down time'. Many times we thought the contraction had passed only for the smaller one to catch her unawares.
At six, the contractions were so regular that we phoned K___'s mother in Lincolnshire to tell her to make the journey down, in the expectation that the baby could even be out before she could arrive. At seven, we phoned D____ again. She took about half an hour to arrive and while we were waiting, we were getting perturbed by the fact that the damn contractions seemed to be slowing down again. By the time that D___ actually arrived, the contractions were coming every ten minutes or so, and much less forcefully.
"Don't worry," said D____, "they'll be back in no time..."
But they weren't.
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