Apologies for the delay in postings!

OH MY GOD... parenting is seriously HARD work. This is why I still haven't written the all important 'birth posting' yet... I just can't seem to find the time.

Fear not though, I have started it and will post as soon as my child decides to unlatch herself from my breast. Sorry to be honest but its the truth!

So, posting on the birth to follow (kinda) shortly... if you want a bit of info in the mean time go to my husbands blog at www.firetop.co.uk.

Maria Madison Peskett - Welcome to the World!

On Sunday 2nd July at approximately 11am whilst making bacon sandwiches and applying brown sauce to them my waters broke. No it wasn't a gush - more like incontinence!

I called up to Matt who was thrilled as waiting around for 'something to happen' was proving to be quite boring for us both. I telephoned the hospital who surprisingly asked me to visit the hospital for a check up. I was surprised by this as I know that normally they just tell you to stay at home and wait for the contractions to start but they said as they weren't busy to come to the day unit for a check up.

When we arrived at the day unit it was confirmed that my waters had broken and they also told me that my baby's head was not engaged. Doh. I had been aware of this previously but had been hoping this was quite normal and would change once my waters broke. No such luck. I was told I had to stay in for observation which was not good news... it didn't fit with my 'vision' that I had unintentionally started to create.

The following two days was spent on Burstow ward waiting for a spot on the delivery suite to become free so I could be induced. It was a tiring two days as it was spent in a noisy ward with crying babies, slamming doors and emergency buzzers. Additionally I had been experiencing tightenings throughout both nights which I had hoped was labour... lol - I now know those tightenings were nothing compared to the real thing which is a shame as I was thinking I was well hard and had a really high pain threshold... as if!

Finally on the third day I was found a bed in the delivery suite and told I was to be induced. Baby's head still wasn't engaged and I had been informed that this normally resulted in a cesarean section. Great, after all my fears it looked like my worse nightmare could again be a reality. I cried. I was knackered after not sleeping for two nights and now I was to face labour with only two pieces of dried toast in my tummy! Eak - I was told I couldn't eat because of the possibility of Cesarean. Great. I had packed tonnes of my favourite sweets and chocolate to see me through labour and now I had to watch Matt eating it all! GGGRRRRRRR!!!

As I recollect the events leading up to the birth of Maria I realise that I have started to 'bury' a lot of what happened that day as it was not the experience I had wanted. I think child birth is such a lottery... it can go easy as pie or as difficult as dog sh8t (is there such a term!?). I was a bit unlucky.

You may have read my husbands blog entry of the birth (www.firetop.co.uk) so I will just summarise and say that it was a difficult birth and one that had no relation to my birthing plan that you are told to write (a stupid idea if you ask me). The midwife actually laughed at my Fairy-Tale-Birthing-Plan... the only part I was able to keep to was bouncing on the birthing ball!

As my labour was 'managed' (I was being induced with a drip) I was offered an epidural from the start to which I declined. I laboured for 6 hours with just the gas and air as pain relief. Gas and air is a bit like getting drunk or stoned... it's OK and I felt it helped me through the contractions (it could even be described as a bit of a distraction from the pain).

After six hours it was discovered that I had not dilated at all and my waters actually hadn't brocken (yay to the NHS!). At this point they were brocken and I was labouring again but was told it was looking like a C-section. The contractions were becoming very strong so I accepted the offer of an epidural mainly so that I could be concious should I need an emergency cesearean. I am glad I did as that is what I ended up having.

The epidural was FANTASTIC! As in it completely kills the pain of the contractions, for me the pain was it being administered. The pain was excruciating and I screamed out for the first time since being in labour! Looking back we think that the needle had been inserted in my spine before the anesthetic had kicked in (yay to the NHS!).

After another three hours labouring a new doctor came into the suite and decided to up my syntoxin levels stupidly high which resulted in my womb hyper-stimulating (through having to many contractions). This starved oxygen to my baby therefore her heart beat being lost.

The next half hour was probably the worst of my life. Alarm bells rang, people ran around me madly doing all sorts of stuff to me (all of which I couldn't feel as the epidural numbs you) all in preparation for my emergency c-section. Matt and I looked at each other both with tears in our eyes as the midwives and doctors gathered around me frantically searching for my baby's heartbeat. Luckily it came back and the rest is history!

Being a mum is time consuming and darn hard work hence it's taken me nearly a month to write this posting! I could go into loads more detail but I wouldn't want to put anyone off! Just make sure if you want children you are prepared to loose your life for a while! It will be worth it though...

:-)