Soooo Happy!! 38 + 4

I have some incredible news! I am buzzing so much I'm struggling to concentrate on typing! I have a new little niece in the world! My sister in law, Kelly gave birth on Thursday 18/8/11 at 10:32pm to a beautiful baby Girl, Peyton Faye Edwards, and she weighed just 7lb!

I got a text from Kelly at about 3am on Wednesday morning asking if i was awake, and of course, i was. As soon as i got this text my heart was pounding waiting to hear whether something was finally happening with her little munchkin. Kelly was have pains that were coming and going about every 10 minutes, but they weren't majorly painful to begin with. We swapped texts for a few hours, and did some google research. It sounded very much like she was in the early stages of labour. I headed back to bed at about 6am but failed to sleep as i was so excited. Kelly rang the labour ward and was told that someone could come out to examine her anytime after 9am. She was checked over at 11am and was told that she was 2-3cm dilated. I got sooo excited when i found out, as she was in pain, but it wasn't unbearable, and she seemed to have progressed quite quickly. I was convinced we would have a new niece or nephew by that afternoon/evening. In the early afternoon i was asked if I'd like to go to her house and spend some time with her for a while. I really wanted to see her, but at the same time i was really nervous about the visit. I actually expected her to be screaming in agony and climbing up the walls by this point. I really didn't want to see her in so much pain, and was worried that I'd end up freaking out about it nearly being my turn. When i got there i couldn't believe how calm it was. Kelly was laying on the sofa and her mum and partner,Craig were there with her. Everyone was just talking normally. Every now and then i saw Kelly's face and feet scrunch up and we all went quiet and allowed her to concentrate and breathe through her contractions. They seemed to get stronger and closer together in the time i was there, but there was no screaming or cursing at all.. she was amazing! She even made me giggle a couple of times, her sense of humour never went away. She had a particularly bad contraction at one point, and was making little groaning noises, then literally a split second later she looked up and said 'You've not got very far with weeding the garden Craig!'

She was very much her normal self between contractions, and so calm during them. Being there actually made me feel a whole lot better about labour. She was incredible. I spent most of the afternoon and evening with her, apart from a little break where i came home to meet Adam and do dinner. In the end, we didn't leave until 10pm when she was heading to the hospital. (After doing her hair and make up!!) Amazingly, she was still as cool as a cucumber, although clearly in a lot of pain by this point.

We got home, both very excited, expecting to be woken up with some exciting news. I didn't sleep at all, and kept checking my phone to see if there were any updates. At about 1:30am i found out that she was on her way home again, which felt heartbreaking to us, so must have been so disappointing for her!

By about 7/8am on Thursday morning she was having much stronger contractions, and a lot closer together, so they headed off back to the hospital.

I got regular updates throughout the day, and my phone was like a hot line, of people asking whether anything had happened yet and how they were getting on. Kelly was having a pretty rough time at the hospital, she had always been desperate for a water birth, and she'd been told she couldn't get in the pool, or have an epidural due to the lack of staff!! She tried Gas and Air and didn't like it, and in the end, she went 41 hours with no pain relief at all. She was, however, eventually allowed to get into the pool. At one point, a midwife told her she was 6-7cm, so things finally seemed to be progressing. However a couple of hours later i received an update saying that a new midwife had come in and said she was only 5! I was gutted for her. At this point, she'd had about 4 days of no sleep (as she hadn't managed to settle a couple of nights before labour started) and barely any food. She was literally running on empty! She was able to have the epidural by this point and was so exhausted (41 hours of labour!!!) she decided to have it.

She was then pushing for a further two hours, but the baby was in an awkward position. They tried to use forceps but it was unbearably painful for her. In the end they just needed to get the baby out, so they took her down to theatre, gave her a spinal block and used forceps again. A total of 44.5 hours of hell ended with a beautiful baby girl, who couldn't be more perfect! We are all so proud of her!

It has made me so much more excited that we have kept Buttons sex and name a surprise, as there was so much excitement in the build up to Peyton being born, waiting for the phone call to hear the news of our new little family member was a moment i will never forget.

I would actually like to say a big thank you to Kelly, for allowing me to share those hours of her labour with her. She has really inspired me to stay as strong as she did, and i know that i will be focusing on that thought when it is finally my time.

We visited them in the hospital for the first time yesterday, and i literally had to fight back the tears. A mixture of finally getting to see them as a little family, seeing how perfect she is, and knowing that will finally be us in a couple of weeks time felt so emotional. It was amazing seeing Adam with her. I've never seen him look so proud. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. It was lovely. I cant wait to see our babies together. They'll grow up being so close, and i think its lovely :)

Pregnancy-wise, not much to report really. I'm like a giant smarty, and getting more and more uncomfortable. Sleep is still a massive challenge and I'm literally always hot. Getting some amazing wriggles from Button still, which is a lovely reminder that all the discomfort is well worth it.

10 Days to go, and I've never felt so ready in my life :)

Our perfect little niece.