Marius Jack Picci

We got home from Montelimar hospital on the evening of the 31st. I continued to have contractions all night, but they still were not completely regular. They were coming often enough to keep me from sleeping though. Still, I managed to doze off and on all night and, in the morning, we decided to call my local midwife, Dominique, to get her to come and assess how things were going. Unfortunately I was still no further along! Mum came round in the afternoon and she seemed to think things were moving and got me to walk along to Jo's house with her. I bumped into Floris, the man who did the chalk drawing of me a while back, and he took my hand and said he'd light a candle for me :) He's a lovely man.

We made the short walk home and Pierre cooked some dinner. I couldn't eat anything and felt more and more like it was time to go back to the hospital. We left the house at around 10pm. We said our goodbyes to my mum and dad and bumped into our neighbour, Cendrine, on the way out the door as well. She gave me a big hug and wished us well :)

We drove to Montelimar hospital and were met by the same midwife, Elodie, who had been there the day before! I was so happy to see her. She examined me and I was still no further along! I couldn't believe it after 36 hours of contractions! I was exhausted and the midwife could see that. She told me I had two options: the first was an epidural to allow me to labour on with no more pain; and the second was another form of pain relief that lasts for six hours but basically knocks you out! I didn't fancy that so went for the epidural. That allowed me to continue to have the contractions but also to get some rest which was great. Pierre managed to get 40 winks too! At one point, just before 7am when Elodie was about to leave for the day, there was talk of a caesarean section because the contractions were still coming but I still wasn't progressing very quickly. Elodie assured me that the doctor who was coming on the next shift was very much for going naturally. If the baby had been in danger, I would have accepted that a caesarean was necessary but as the baby was in no distress, the doctor was happy to let me continue naturally.

Baby Marius Jack Picci was born at 12noon on 2nd February 2017, 13 hours after we'd arrived back at the hospital and about 50 hours after my first contraction :) He is absolutely perfect and we are over the moon.

Mum and dad were already at the hospital by the time we left the delivery room and came to see us a few minutes after we got settled into our room. I think dad was very proud :) Annie and Daniel arrived later in the evening and Daniel was equally moved upon seeing his grandson!

Later that night, just as we were served dinner, Caroline, Paddy, and the girls arrived to surprise us! They were so happy to meet little Marius and it was lovely to see them.

I felt like I was on top of the world and never more in love than when I first set eyes on my son.