Henry's Arrival

Well I had a sneaking suspicion that bubby would be a week or so early and he was. Due on August 5th, Henry decided to make his arrival on the earlier date of July 29th. I actually went into labour on the morning of the 28th, waking up realising that something felt a bit different. I got up at 6am and went to sit by myself in the lounge room, with my laptop, googling phrases such as "what is early labour like?" After a couple of hours, I felt pretty certain that I was in early labour so I rang my midwife and then Mum to warn her that she may be making a Sydney to Canberra trip that day. Finally by about 4.30pm, the time between contractions seemed to be getting closer to 4 minutes so we left for the birthing centre. The thing was, that by about 10pm that had spread back out to about 10 minutes and I was advised to go home overnight as I was only 3cm dilated. After a good 16 hours! I went home with painkillers but was up by 2am again, working through contractions that lasted over 2 minutes. They still hadn't started getting closer together. As it became obvious throughout the day that things weren't progressing, I had both an epidural and eventually the decision to have a caesarian was made, mainly due to Henry's heart rate dropping each time I had a contraction. We were both exhausted and even though I had wanted a natural birth, it felt like a relief to know that soon it would be over and I would have my baby in my arms. A couple of hours later, he was. Safe and healthy, Dale and I adored him the minute we laid eyes on him.