Violet Susan Carol Barnes arrived on the 18th of July at 3.42am after 25 hours of labour! My waters woke me at 2am on the 17th and trickled throughout the day, we went to the birth centre and i was a couple cm dilated, so they sent me home and when my contractions got worse they asked for me to come back. At 7am we went back to the centre for them to tell me i was 4/5 cm dilated. So they admitted me and i had half hourly checks to monitor my progress. I was exhausted, walking around in the beating sun but only contracting every 15 minutes, so they packed me up and sent me home, i was crying at this point (hormonal and just wanted my baby ha), we went back in after tea and they checked again, but i wasnt progressing, and cause my waters had broken they told me i may end up in the hospital for them to speed them along obviously to avoid infection. They asked us to come back in at 8 and it was confirmed i had to get to the hospital as i was still only 4/5 cm. On the way down my contractions really started to explode, we arrived at the hospital and they set me up to gas and air, it was god awful i couldnt stand it, but the contractions felt like they were tearing me apart. So i screamed and grunted and groaned and took gas and air, i was lightheaded and needed something else, so they administered pethadine between contractions and moved me into a private room, just as they had i told my boyfriend 'i need to push' the midwives just looked at each other and left the room and then i shouted that i needed to push and they come back in, checked and i was fully dilated, they rushed me upstairs to the delivery suite and at that point the pethadine had kicked in and i was asleep between contractions. I remember the room was stifling hot ( i gave birth the day the heatwave hit ) my partner was sat holding the side of the bed and occasionaly pouring water down my throat, i had my left leg up and was pushing for what felt like forever ha. Then i heard the midwife announce that her head was out, my boyfriend had a look and a feel and at first i refused but as soon as i seen all her hair i reached down and felt my baby for the first time. Within the next couple pushes my baby had arrived into the world and was placed on my chest. And i felt full. I cried and my boyfriend cried, i couldnt believe i had gotten her out. My little life saver, my blessing, my world. We left the hospital only a few hours later, she had scored 10s throughout the APGAR scale and i had no tears. I hated pregnancy, for me it was awful but labour was amazing and i loved every single second.

If you read all of this, go you, take a shiny 😗