Conor Arthur Patrick

Conor - because we both liked it. It means "lover of hounds". It's purely coincidental that both of our children have Irish names, not by design.

Arthur - after Ed's grandad

Patrick - after my dad (and quite appropriate given how close we are to St Patrick's Day!)

I had an appointment at the ante-natal clinic yesterday at which they told me they weren't going to induce me. They made follow-up appointments for me at day-care next Monday and the ant-natal clinic next Wednesday. This morning I felt a little bit out of sorts. Orla and I were curled up on the couch making insects out of playdough, but I was clock-watching waiting for Mum and Dad to come and pick her up so that I could get some sleep. They'd been and gone by 11.30 and I decided to have an early lunch. Partly due to needing to go shopping, I ended up having the meal that was intended for my dinner this evening for lunch instead. That turned out to be very fortuitous. I'd just finished lunch when my waters broke. I phoned Ed (who has written his version of events on his own blip) and then phoned triage. The midwife said if I was otherwise feeling well, then I didn't need to go in straightaway. I called Catherine as well and she got away from work early to come and sit with me and take me to hospital. Ed had let me know he'd got a flight hat was due to land in Edinburgh at 5.30, so Dad was going to pick him up.

I had a shower, did a bit of tidying and checked that I had everything I needed in my hospital bag. I took a couple of paracetamol and sat on my balance ball until around 4, when I decided it was time to go to hospital. When we arrived at triage they put on a blood pressure cuff and the foetal heart monitor. They wanted more bloods and the nurse was struggling to find a vein. She eventually did, just to have the needle slip out and a big spurt of blood go everywhere. That was the first bit of drama. Once we had that all cleaned up, Catherine came in and we just waited for them to get a good trace, which took ages. Eventually they took the monitors off me and I was able to get off the bed. Contractions were getting painful by now. Ed arrived and Catherine took Dad home. He and Mum were coming back in with Orla. She had told me this morning that she would miss me and I told her I'd see her at home time. I was acutely aware that hadn't happened so I wanted to see her and explain as best I could so that she understood what was going on. They arrived just as I was being moved to the ward, so Orla came up with us. My contractions were getting really strong and I didn't want Orla to see me in pain, so I asked Ed to take her away.

When he came back, I asked him to get a ball for me from the midwives, but I couldn't get comfortable. I got up on my knees on the bed as I remembered this bringing relief when I was in labour with Orla. I was also pretty sure that the pains were worse than when I had Orla and was already receiving gas and air. I was just thinking about asking for some pain relief when there was a sudden gush of water all over the bed. In an instant there were midwives all around me. One of them examined me and said I was 9cm. I was absolutely flabbergasted as we'd been on the ward for less than an hour. I had 8 hours of contractions with Orla and had only got to 2cm!

At this point, the only pain relief I'd had was two paracetamol at 7pm. I had a real urge to push, but the midwife asked me to breathe through the contractions until we were safely in the labour suite. Once there, I got gas and air and between that and screaming the place down, I somehow managed to push Conor out by 10.01pm. It was intensely painful but I was also elated that it was over so quickly. We had immediate skin-to-skin contact, which I didn't get with Orla. It took a little while to get me sorted out and then I gave Conor a feed. I had some tea and toast and had a shower and put on some clean pyjamas. Again, after Orla I couldn't get out of bed for more than 12 hours after she was born! There were no beds available on the post-natal ward, but that worked out quite well for us as it meant we got to stay in our own room on the labour ward.