The birth of my beautiful baby girl, Sky!

Well here is my birth story which I'll try to write whilst Sky is finally sleeping!! It was quite a long labour and much worse than I ever imagined but worth every ache and pain. She was 2 days early.

I had a show last weekend and was starting to get irregular contractions which varied between 5 - 15 minutes all day long.. I thought it was just braxton hicks but they started getting more painful on the Sunday. Went to my sisters house who is also 6 months pregnant and was moaning to her that the pains were getting worse - she told me to be quiet and to stop being suh a drama queen! Charming! Anyway that night all throughout the night I had contractions which got worse varying from 5-10 minutes and I also needed to go the loo a lot!! In the morning, my OH decided not to go to work and we phoned the hospital to see if we could get checked out. They said to come in which we did at 11am. Got there and got put on a tens machine whilst I waited to be examined. They thought it was the very early stages as I didn't seem in that much pain at that point - just really uncomfortable. Turned out I was 3cm dilated already so they booked me in there and then! I wasn't expecting to be booked in then and I had forgotten my notes and everything!! Anyway then the nightmare began...the contractions never got regular throughout the whole labour and constantly varied in time and strength which was pretty frustrating and tiring. After about 6 hours or so, using the tens machine and gas and air, which only helped in the beginning when I felt the pains in my lower back until it moved around to the front, I was still only 4cm dilated!! I was gutted when they told me that! I continued like that for a few more hours and when they examined me again, things still hadn't changed. I was exhausted by this point and burst into tears and asked for pethidine.
The baby started to get a little distressed and so the midwife broke my waters to help increase the strength of the contractions. Wow then the pain really started!! I couldn't even wait for the pethidine to kick in which is supposed to take about 20 mins and the midwife advised me to have an epidural as I would be in labour for a while yet. The doc came and performed the epidural and they also put me on a drip to increase the contractions which were still failing to be regular and strong enough. Ahhh pure bliss....for about an hour when the epidural stopped working suddenly and I was back in pain again. I don't really remember much from now on and my OH had to tell me what happened exactly. The midwife had to readminister the epidural and I remember being completely off my head at this point. This contined for a few more hours until they told me I was fully dilated. Sky's head was tilted in the wrong direction and wouldn't come out. As I couldn't feel the contractions, I had to be told when to push and it was difficult trying to know where I should be directing my energy to get her out. They then decided to put my legs in stirrups at 6.45am. They put me into stirrups at 7.45am and told me that they would try these for a few more contractions and if that didn't work, they would have to call the doc for assisted delivery. I've never tried so hard to do anything in my life as I did then, and I finally managed to push out my beautiful baby girl at 8.36am.
They put her on my tummy straight away and I fell in love straight away and forgot all about the pain. My poor OH was thoroughly traumatised and crying too and it was the most amazing time of my life. She then pooed all over me! Only a mother could think of kissing her baby covered in poo!Anyway she wieghed 7lbs 4 oz and is such a pretty baby.
I'm so happy and its been worth every pain and grumble during these last 9 months. I am looking forward to getting to know my baby and loving every minute with her!
Anyway sorry its so long! Hope everyone else is fine and either enjoying their babies or looking forward to meeting theirs soon!
Elaine and baby Sky on cloud nine ) x