Sleep...what is that?

My beautiful little boy was born on the 17th July at 8:09pm, weighing 3.86kg (8lbs 8ozs). It was an induced labour of 13 hours but I would go through it all again to get my precious little boy. As people have told me in the past, it's one day out of your life or much less if you have a quick, swift delivery.  Here's a cute picture of our little boy's feet, from a photoshoot last week. We are currently quite sleep deprived but still very much in love.

My little man was determined to be stubborn (like his parents) and wouldn't even say when a hot curry or raspberry loose leaf tea was consumed. My birth plan was always to go with the flow but avoid pethadine.

For those interested, this is the birth story:

• I was admitted into hospital on the 16th July at 9pm and had prostaglandin gel inserted to get things moving. Unfortunately this did nothing for me and with no beds available in the maternity wing that evening, my husband and I slept in the labour ward, which wasn't very comfortable
• At 7am, my obstetrician visited and broke my waters. I was then put on oxytocin to get my labour progressing even faster
• Within 1.5 hours I was trying the exercises from my antenatal class and using fitness balls and massage techniques
• By mid morning the pain was more intense and I opted to try the gas
• My obstetrician came back to check on me at lunch and I was still only 4cms dialated, at which time he suggested an epidural and I readily accepted. With contractions 1 minute apart, I was in quite a bit of pain at this stage. The worst bit about this was waiting for the anaesthesist and keeping still while having contractions
• The epidural was a godsend but it did slow my labour right down...by about 5 hours
• When it came time to pushing, it was difficult, as I couldn't feel my lower half. However, I still managed to do so. Bub started having fetal distress because he was coming down on an angle, so I had to have an episiotomy during the 2nd phase of labour
• Bub had to have a little oxygen when he came out but fed straight away and knew what to do there
• Daddy did get to cut the umbilical cord and if you're wondering what that feels like, I was told tough calamari
• Everything else went fine, including winning the State of Origin that evening :).

My hospital, husband, doctors and most midwives were fantastic on the day and made the hardship of labour just that bit easier. 
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