For the first time, HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVER – we are so pleased to see you 🙂

So we arrived at the hospital @ 11am, to find that we were effectively the last admissions through the door for quite some time.  We only got through because Vicky had been without the membrane (hence waters) for 30 hours or more at this point – the risk was considered too great.

So, we settled into Room 3 in the delivery Suite in Dewsbury Hospital.  It all seemed very civilised and it looked like we may have a birth today.  What we didn’t count on was just how busy the hospital was, or for that matter just how busy the surrounding hospital maternity sections were.  We later found out that the four closest hospitals have at some point all closed their doors to newcomers – meaning that if you were going to have a baby in the Yorkshire area, and were NOT already inside a delivery room of one of the key hospitals, you were in for a 1 hour ambulance journey to the Airedale hospital – wow ….

Our journey was as follows:

Vicky’s first examination took place @ 13:30, where it was decided that she was already 2 to 3 cms dilated and that we were in a position to get an Epidural installed, and then for the fun to be able to commence.

That epidural was finally installed by 17:17 and would deliver 10ml per hour to ensure that the nerves were all broken so no feelings would be taking place today, thanks very much.  Our first obstacle was a mini seizure that Vicky demonstrated – no more than 5 or 6 seconds (the sort of thing Simon has experienced from Vicky twice before in significantly hotter climates just before Vicky has eaten (i.e. empty stomach).  Hey guess was, V had a slice of toast for breakfast @ 06:30 and has eaten nothing since.  However, the anaesthetist was not up for allowing Vicky to eat – so of course it could only get worse then – great strategy.  The guy relented and let Vicky have some toast and a banana – all systems were restored and Vicky was ready to go go go.

Vicky was then administered 0.3ml of Cyntocil per hour to accelerate the contractions – the plan was to double this quantity each 30 minutes until we had 4 contractions per each 10 minute period, each one lasting for between 45 seconds and one minute each.

So half an hour passed, and the Cyntocil was upped to 0.6ml per hour @ 19:45.

Next challenge was the the midwife that had been working with us all day was due to fall of shift, so we were handed over th the nexw midwife @ 20:15.

Cyntocil was upped to 2.4ml per hour @ 21:45, and finally after much persuading from Vicky and SImon, antibiotics would be intrpoduced to Vicky’s system to begin to counter any issues realting to the fact that we were now almost 48 hours after the waters breaking and still no Oliver :-(.  This was introduced at 100ml per hour.

Now, worryingly Vicky noticed that the Cyntocin feed was incorrectly adjusted and that most of the liquid was actually not getting into the bloodstream, since it was being spilled out onto the bed.  The was resolved @ 22:40 and strangely enough the contractions began to kick in a plenty within 40 minutes….

We were up to 4.80ml /hour of Cyntosin by 00:05

The midwife finally got round to empting Vicky’s bladder manually for her, and extracted around two pints of luke warm urine 🙂

At 12:30, we finally got our second examination of the day – we had made it up to 4 to 5 cm dilated, and this would mean that we were only about 6 hours from delivery… Great – another 1/4 of a day….

We also found that Oliver’s head was surprisingly well down and in a good place for delivery.  Al things considered, the Cyntocin allocation was reduced at this time due to not requiring the additional piece of help.

Rather amazingly Vicky stated that she felt that Oliver’s head was almost popping out – a quick examination by the Midwife @ 01:10, demonstrated that we were indeed fully dilated, and that Oliver had begun to travel down the final corridor.

Due to slight struggles with the pushing process, Vicky adopted the use of Gas and Air at 01:45, and by 02:31 May 6th Oliver David Rust was born into our world.

He is perfect in every way and his vital statistics are as follows:

Weight (the key one right?) : 8lbs 6 oz

Length : 58 cms

Head circumference : 37 cms

The final piece of the delivery story was that Oliver had been lying on Mummy’s stomach for all of 3 minutes before he dumped out a pile of the sticky black tar like first discharge – so he crapped all over his mummy before he had taken the opportunity to fully introduce himself etc – Nice.  Strangely Simon did enjoy this moment, however the muppet neglected to get any firm photographic evidence 🙁

There is more to add to this, but now is not the time – it has been over two days since either Simon or Vicky last slept – accepting that Simon is a wuss since he has the easy job of standing around getting drinks etc at the correct times for the good lady 🙂 – we are still tres tired.

Finally a picture of mummy and her boys…

1am – Vicky’s waters broke – typically at 11pm we had just lay down in bed to get some sleep and Simon was pretty descriptive when he asked Oliver for 9 hours sleep before he should start coming out.

So just as we decided to call the labour delivery ward, Vicky was stood at the bottom of the bed as the leak turned into a tap 🙂

The midwife at the Triage centre @ Dewsbury hospital asked us to go straight over, so we arranged for grandma to come and sleep at ForkHall so that Elliot wouldn’t be disturbed, and at about 1:40am we head out.  So as the drunks were getting their cabs home we head to he hospital.

We were there (Triage) about 1 hour and the midwife confirmed that the Waters had indeed broken (the floor in the bedroom could certainly attest to it :-)) and then proceeded to book in an induction for 7am on TUESDAY morning !!!! – 30 hours away !! 🙁 When she booked it in, she was overheard telling the person on the other end of the phone that the waters were broken and that Vicky was experiencing “niggles“.  Vicky was not over the moon at the thought that what she was experiencing were just mere niggles – it felt very very real and niggles just didn’t cut it !

Anyway, we were sent home and got back for about 4am, feeling tired, in pain and almost a little disappointed I guess.  One thing is for sure, HE IS ON HIS WAY 🙂

We had a fab day yesterday – the sun shone most of the day, and the new charcoal BBQ worked out pretty well – for a first go, we did not have any crucified food and the grill cleaned up pretty well after use.  The downside? OK, so Simon did stink of burning coals – gas grills have not had that effect 🙂  So far, Simon is tres pleased with the purchase – let’s just see if that feeling lasts…. 🙂

It has been on and off sunshine vs. rain today, so we are hoping that tomorrow, the rain stays away and the sun shines through.

Pepsi and Max helped themselves to the remaining 1/3 of Simon’s birthday cake, at least a dozen large bread rolls, some biscuits and probably some other stuff.  The cheeky little buggers then asked for their tea a couple of hours later !!!!!

We had a nice meal down at Richard and Becky’s tonight.

Oh, yea, and Oliver is still showing no signs of coming out 🙁  We even have Elliot asking him to come out now – We mentioned that once Oliver is here, we could go on a little holiday – strangely Elliot seems to have a new found motivation to ask his brother to come and join us all 🙂

Well, we are now passed due date, and while Vicky thought that maybe something was underway last night, it appears to have been nothing 🙁

We are hoping for good weather on this Bank Holiday weekend – I guess we will see.  Grilling weather would be nice 🙂