19-20th September

I woke up on the sofa (where I had slept the last weeks) and found that my waters had broken. My first thought was, blimey I´m destroying the sofa! Second, how lucky we are that he came spontaneously early just in time before being induced. We went to the hospital and the staff and I agreed to wait 24hours to see if contractions came by itself. On the way home from the hospital my waters really broke hahahaha. In the car! First thought, now I`m destroying the car. Second, blimey don’t come in the car. Well he didn´t. We went home and completed the packing for his arrival and then we waited. I had a big contraction now and then during the day but nothing regularly. Gladly the craft material arrived for the door sign I was going to make for James and two frames with room for all the children including James. So he would have all of his siblings with him everyday even when they weren´t with us. I started painting the door sign instantly I had been waiting for that to arrive for quite a while. 22.00 I laid down on the sofa to get some sleep. I woke up 01.15 to go to the toilet. I had contractions coming frequently. 2 minutes later I realised that if we didn´t go then we wouldn´t make it in time. Nigel had meanwhile woken up from the other settee, I made sure he knew it was time to go instantly and he had to call our neighbour to pop in for the kids and to call my dad to come from Höganäs. Then we were off. My contractions were really bad in the car and of course men are doing the roads, so they are all bumpy :o) . I was sick in the car and I had contractions nonstop. Arriving at the hospital we finally came into the room where he was to be born, which of course was room 7 (James Ward 2007). After being monitored for 5 minutes James heartbeats lingered down frequently until it stopped. I tell you I thought that was the worst thing I have ever heard in my life. I remember I cried out, my baby my baby!! And I looked at Nigel who was just as shocked as me. Alarm went off, the midwife came running and she pushed me over to my left side lifting up my right leg, and we could hear the beautiful sound of his heartbeats echo beautifully in the room. Happy for our baby I thought I would die of the pain in my right hip that they had to hold or his pulse went down again. They had to do a lot of things and poking to make sure he could come out safely without caesarean. All I was thinking about was to get our James safely out. At the same time I was traumatised of all the pain, worries and I felt violated from what he staff was doing to me, even if they were there to help us with all our best interest at heart :o) . Suddenly they wanted me to push, all I had was horrible contractions. I pushed on commando and I had three holding me pressing my tummy to get him out. Out he came our beautiful boy!! All this I was going through happened in 31 minutes. That´s how long we were at the hospital. For me it felt like hours. I was 8cm dilated when we arrived at 01.40 and he is born 02.11. I wasn´t surprised since I have had four fast deliveries before. James was feeling great when he came out, so lively and gorgeous. Now we could finally get to know him and have him in our lives. Naturally we took many happy pictures, no one was happier than us in that moment. Shortly after birth James breast fed for the first time. I was so happy I had been looking forward to that. Among many things to look forward to when you have baby. We finally got to kiss him, hold him, see him, smell him and celebrate his arrival. So we did with the traditional silver plate of sandwiches with champagne glasses with cider and the Swedish flag. Plus Baileys, of course :o) Nigel promised me when we found out I was pregnant. Just a nibble by all means, but very festive for me. We all fell asleep later. Nigel in the comfy settee, me and James snuggled up together in the birth bed. I felt so complete, so proud and very happy the pregnancy was over.