He's here! - My birth story and the following weeks

Our new addition baby Eben made his appearance on Thursday 11th February at 5.25am weighing in at a healthy 7lbs 6oz. I was 39 weeks and 1 day and I didn't have any signs leading up to the labour. I had been looking out for signs such as loss of appetite, diarrhoea, Braxton hicks, lose of mucus plug but I had none of those! I had an appointment with my midwife the previous day and we put a plan in place for me to have a stretch and sweep for the following week. Maybe it was finally having the end in sight and me being able to relax that led me to going into labour. Anyway I went to bed as usual but Reubie my 3 year old was in bed with us as he was ill with hand, foot and mouth. At about 1am he woke up not feeling well and at 1.50 I went to the loo thinking I needed a number 2 but instead my waters broke on the toilet! it wasn't a massive gush but I knew it was definitely my waters. I hadn't had any contractions but rang the maternity hospital anyway and we arranged for me to go in at 8am unless I started having regular painful contractions. As soon as I got off the phone the contractions started and were 5 minutes apart and reasonably painful. After half an hour we decided we better go into hospital so my husband rang his mum to get her to look after Reubie and then rang up the maternity hospital to let them know we were on our way in. We got to hospital at around 3am the contractions were more painful but I was worried I might be in labour for ages so didn't want to take pain relief too soon. After about half an hour I definitely needed the gas and air. Last time I had two lots of pethidine and diamorphine before I had gas and air but I decided against any this time as they made me feel quite sick and out of it last time. Before I had the gas and air the midwife examined me and said I was about 5cm dilated. I felt a bit disappointed I wasn't more dilated but the midwife reassured me that second births can happen much quicker. Dilation of a firstborn can take up to an hour per centimetre, luckily for me I only had about 2 hours more to go not 5 hours. The contractions were becoming closer and closer and there soon was barely a seconds break between each one. Finally it was time to push my midwife was lovely and really encouraging, she told me she could see his hair and it wouldn't be long only a few more pushes. it was painful but that relief once the head is out is indescribable, one more long hard push and out  he came! He had his hand by his face and the cord was wrapped around his head and hand twice, so it was lucky his hand was there. I had a lovely cuddle whilst delivering the placenta. Then I was examined and had a second degree tear so I had to have 2 stitches, I was given the option of an injection down there to numb the pain or more gas and air. I opted for gas and air, the pain was bearable. Then it was all over! Daddy got a cuddle whilst I went to have a bath. Then we moved down to the ward for breakfast. It all happened so fast it was so strange to think that 6 hours before Eben was in my belly!
I had forgotten about the after pains was soon  reminded of them, apparently they get worse with each child, luckily this is our last! I honesty think I would have preferred to give birth again than have the after pains and the pain of the stitches! The after pains lasted about 4 days and the pain from the stitches eased after about 1 week. Now that its been 2 1/2 weeks the pain from stitches has completely gone. If I didn't have a bloody annoying sore throat and cough I think I would actually feel my normal self, even if sleep has been lacking a bit!

38 weeks/ false labour

So I made it past 37 weeks!!! Yippee! I'm so happy that this little boy has made it to full term! I'm now 38 weeks and 2 days!! I have definitely had a few signs that have made me think birthday might be soon but I also know that you can have a million signs that labour is immanent but can still go weeks pasts your due date! the first hint I had that I thought labour was on it's way was some consistent contractions. They started at 7pm on Sunday night when I was 36 weeks and 4 days and were about 7 minutes apart. I've suffered with a lot of Braxton hicks this pregnancy and usually I go to bed and the stop so I thought the same would happen this time but no! they got closer together, every 5 minutes and seemed to be lasting longer. By 4 am I started to worry that even though they weren't painful that they might turn painful and then we'd have to travel to the hospital in rush hour traffic. So we rang the hospital up and they said to come in and they'd take a look at me. Luckily my mother in law doesn't live far and has been on call for us since 31 weeks! She very kindly came to look after Reuben and take him to nursery in the morning. I got to hospital and they checked my cervix, which they said looked about 1cm dilated but they also said that as I had given birth before that could just be how my cervix is. I then had all the usual blood pressure taken, temperature and I was put on a monitor to check my contractions. They were every 5 minutes as I had thought but there wasn't really anything they could do but monitor me and wait to see if anything happened. It was a long boring day of sitting around the contractions eased to around 8 minutes apart a couple of times only to return to 5 minutes apart an hour later. I felt like nothing was happening so asked if they could check to see if my cervix had changed or not, I figured if it hadn't there wasn't much point in sitting in hospital. I thought it was strange that they hadn't suggested that they take a look earlier. Anyway they looked and said 1-2 cm so basically no change. So we went home. The contractions carried on the rest of the evening but hen suddenly disappeared as soon as I went to bed!! The same thing happened again the Friday after when I was 37 weeks and 2 days but this time I didn't bother going into hospital and after about 12 hours of regular contractions they stopped again when I went to bed.
Since then I've had a few occasions where my back has had period like pains and my pubic bone has been really painful but otherwise I seem to have had less Braxton hicks! I'm starting to feel like maybe he's going to go past his due date! We shall see, I am starting to feel uncomfortable but I'm so relieved that I won't be having a premature labour that I don't mind the wait, oh I'm just so excited to meet him!!
On another note, I have found myself nesting but I'm the sort of person that permanently nests! I've also found myself buying lots of clothes online that I can wear after I've given birth! I think I've ought about 10 dresses in the last week!! I wonder if it's a subconscious way of me thinking about getting my pre pregnancy figure back?