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It was about 2 weeks before Mia's due date and I was driving to nursery to get Yasmin when I started having some period-like pain which came and went. I picked Yasmin up and we had our usual evening but the pains were becoming more regular so by about 9pm I really thought that this was early labour.
We had arranged that my parents would come and stay and if it was a nursery day they would take Yasmin to nursery and pick her up and stay over night. We were very nervous though as my parents are getting on a bit and find it quite hard to look after the minx. I phoned them to let them know labour was probably starting and they packed a bag ready to leave at a moments notice.
We went to bed and I slept for a while but around 2am I went to the toilet and had a show, so I knew then that this was definitely it. At 6am I rang my parents who came within the hour, they took Yasmin to nursery and then came back to my house; at this point the contractions were getting stronger and by about 9am my dad was nagging me to go to the hospital, I tried to tell him they wouldn't admit me but since he never saw mum in labour he thought I was in agony and was very worried. Finally at 10am I had enough and went to hospital, I phoned ahead first and requested the birthing pool.
When I got to the hospital I was only 2cm dilated but I knew that if my waters broke I could have a really quick labour, so I refused to go home and they gave me some gas & air. By 1pm the contractions were coming thick and fast, the MW was in a quandry about whether to examine me: if I wasn't far enough they wouldn't let me get into the pool but if I was too far they also wouldn't let me into the pool. She opted to just let me into the pool, so we'd never know how far I was. I love these midwife-led units, can't imagine a doctor letting me do that!
By 2pm I was in the pool, and the warm water really relaxed me, it seemed quite quickly that we got to the pushing bit but I found it very hard to push (unlike with Yasmin where I couldn't *not* push).
Then suddenly my waters broke and within 3 or 4 contractions our beautiful baby girl was born at 4.06pm. She weighed 6lbs 14oz and had lots of dark hair like her sister. We were stunned and amazed as for some reason we had both been expecting a boy! We were delighted though as it meant Yasmin had a sister, and with only just over a year between them we hope they will get on well.
That evening I wanted to go home but I couldn't because there was no-one to look over Mia until the following morning. H bought Yasmin along around 7pm and it was fantastic to see her, I'd missed her so much and she was really interested in the baby.
So, two fabulous births for me, both girls were born in the water with me having only gas and air, I had no intervention whatsoever, and both were born in the same water pool.
The midwife said I was the first person she'd delivered who's birth went exactly as I wanted in the birth plan!