My birth story...by Kristina Bell

I woke up at about 2:00am and could not sleep. I went to the toilet and got back in bed and felt wide-awake. Then I realised I had a dull cramp that was quite regular. I woke John and told him I thought I was in labour but didn't want to go to the hospital 'cos I'd feel stupid if I wasn't so I'd see if it carried on. It did, so we got up and had to go over to his Mums in the snow to get his car (I realised later how stupid this was).

By now the contractions were just getting to the painful stage and were about 3 mins apart. We woke his mum up (who started to panic) while he defrosted his car. Then we had to drive very slowly to the hospital and ended up parking down a big hill, which I had to walk up, having painful contractions.

When we got in, I was put straight into a wheelchair and wheeled to the delivery suite. For some reason, I thought they would stop and I would feel stupid.

I got onto the bed and the midwife examined me and said I was 5cm dilated. I then had my waters broken. I can't remember how often I was examined,  but I remember that my contractions were very painful and there was no break between them. I had a pethidin injection and I remember feeling it go through my body and just lay back smiling.

The midwife was talking to me but I could only hear buzzing and the pain seemed like it was far away. When it started wearing off, I had gas and air too.  John took the mask away from me and said I should only use it when the contractions were starting (which they constantly were). I remember at one point I was crying but apart from that, I just tried to concentrate on the pain.

Timmy was born at 7.40am and was handed straight to John. I was thinking 'how can there be another baby?' then I realised someone was trying to put a drip into my hand, which hurt like hell 'cos she could not get it in. Then I had another contraction and I told the mw I needed to push and then a doctor tried to turn Ellie round (she was breech) this didn't work and they asked me if I was happy to deliver her breech. I did and she was born at 7.47am.

I fed her straight away and then went to get a bath. I was in for ages and the midwives kept knocking on the door and I then went on the ward. The tiredness was unbelievable. I also had to keep trying to feed Ellie every 3 hours 'cos her blood sugar levels were low.

Young Mummy to Rhys (13/03/00) and Timmy and Ellie (New years eve 2001)

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