Drum Roll please...

The time has come(and both kiddies are fast asleep so I have time) for,yes,The Birth Story.My reason for blogging about it is actually three fold; I want to write it down so that I wont forget,my family in the UK still have no idea of what happened and finally,a few people have actually asked me to blog about it.

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As you may remember (and I will never ever forget),I was rather anxiously awaiting the birth of Millie for what seemed like an age.She was a week late when my doctor told me that we would give her one more week to make an appearance and if she was still not out,I would be induced.That was on a Monday and by the Thursday,nothing at all had happened so I was dreading the days to come as I was so convinced that I would never give birth.the only sign that something was happening was that I had Braxton Hicks contractions on and off.Every time I had a few I would religiously note the time and get vaguely excited if I had a few in a row but each time they just stopped and I felt disappointed again and again.On Thursday night,I had a few more and they were getting quite painful but low and behold,they just disappeared into thin air.On the Friday morning,I had a few more and they went on for some time but never got worse and were random.I settled down for my afternoon nap and decided that if I was really in labour,I wouldn't be able to sleep as the contractions would be too painful...I was asleep for over 2 hours.

When I woke up,I still had the pains.And by 4pm I realised that the pains had worsened and although no more frequent than before I couldn't really drive.So I asked Kenichi to pick Annie from daycare when he finished work.So he finished work there and then,rushed to get Annie and was home within 10 minutes.Amazing what a men can do when they put their minds to it.In the meantime I had a shower and was feeling fine and after dusting off my hospital bags and putting them in the car left a message with my mum to say that we were off to the hospital but may well be back later as I felt I was in false labour.

We got to the clinic and my room was ready for me and after a few questions and a blood test from the nurse and midwives on duty I went up to settle in.The room was lovely and big with an en suite loo and we spent a good few minutes opening cupboards and expecting things.A meal was waiting for me so while I ate,Kenichi and Annie went out to a local restaurant to eat.By the time they came back,I was in bed and hooked up to a baby monitor and feeling very perky.Annie and I had a few cuddles and I told her some stories and we just relaxed together.The contractions weren't increasing or worsening .At 9pmish,Kenichi decided to take Annie home and gave her a bath and settled her to sleep.My mother-in-law arrived at our house soon afterwards and stayed the night with her.Kenichi then came back to the clinic.

"Woo Hoo...Look at my room with an en suite loo eh!"

In the meantime,some of my contractions were getting pretty severe and at 10pmish a nurse came and took me through to the delivery room.Now usually they would have waited but the clinic was being re-vamped at the time which meant that my bedroom was on the 3rd floor and the temporary deliver rooms were down on the 1st floor with a little walk from the lifts.So they were moving us all down earlier than necessary just in case we started giving birth in the lifts which would be rather a nuisance no doubt.

So off we went and I settled on the horrible birthing bed/chair thingy and was hooked up to a drip and the baby monitor again and watched as most of my contractions didn't actually register on the damn machine; indeed,they were weakening.So the waiting began.Kenichi returned at 10.30pmish and we just chatted away and once in a while if I got a nasty contraction,I would start concentrating on self-hypnosis,or what I think self-hypnosis is.Clever eh?!And this is were the fun began.I wanted to relax as much as possible during the contractions so had these wonderful imagines that I had previously decided on .I had one image of myself in a garden,walking under autumn leaves which I though would be very apt and keeping in with the season.When that stopped being of help,I had one of me and my father and us talking together and that really did help a lot.When the contractions started to get quite nasty,I had an image of dad holding out his had as well which was very comforting.And then the images that I had no control over suddenly popped into my mind and I am still rather taken aback by them; I had Ricky Gervais talking to me as his character,David Brent , in the comedy "The Office".....he was telling me all about his thoughts on labour and pain control during natural child birth.Then the character of Gareth also started chiming in.It was a truly bizarre experience as I would have peaceful images of flowers and gardens,then dad and suddenly during the next contraction I would have David and Gareth advising me.Bizarre.

Anyway,the contractions were not getting closer together but one in 5 was pretty bad when I would retreat into my own world to see who would be there waiting for me but the rest of the time,Kenichi and I chatted and commented on wanting to shoot the seemingly hundreds of people who had confidently told us that your second labour is far shorter than your first blah blah blah(and these people,incidentally,were also the ones who told me that the second child is always born early...yeah right!).

We were left alone most of the time but once in a while a nurse or midwife would pop her head in to see if we were still there.There was another women in labour in the adjacent room(her fourth) and it was comforting to know that she had been in labour for a good few hours as well.And I wonder if she also felt the sense of competition in the air to see who would pop the sprog out first...hmmm.

It was now coming up to 2 am and all my hopes of a fast labour and of winning the birth contest were over.The woman in the next room started to give birth and the doctor was called to come.He lives just a minute or so away so is only called at the last minute or in emergencies.God,I was so jealous of that woman but wanted to tell her to shut up when we could hear her screaming "Itai Itai" (Owww) over and over again...grief,it was her fourth kid so she should have know that it bloody well hurts;).She had her baby and the doctor came over to see me and I had an internal and he said that I was nearly 10cm dilated at last.But the contractions were still not as bad as I knew they should be and I had no urge to push.Then he was called back to the other woman's bedside as apparently her placenta was not coming out as it should be so we were abandoned yet again.

But I had a cunning plan.At close to 3am,a midwife popped her head round the door so I said that I thought that I was getting the urge to push which was actually a bit of a lie.I just wanted something to happen for goodness sake.So a few minutes later the doctor came in after having safely delivered the placenta next door and at last decided to burst my waters.It was an odd experience and as they burst I asked rather sarcastically if my waters had burst then,forgetting that in general,sarcasm in Japan isn't much used.So I was given a lot of nods and assurance that they were indeed burst.Then the doctor started asking me to push and bugger,I remembered what I had told the midwife so I had to just start oushing.And it was all rather tough and painful.But after a set of pushes or two,the nice doctor(who incidentally,turned out to have a rather nice body for a soon to be 60 year old when in a T-shirt) told me that he would have the baby out in the next set of pushes,I was so happy as (a) it took about 2 hours and 100 pushes to get Annie out and (2) I wouldn't have to worry about pushing from below my waist to avoid bursting blood vessels in my face and eyes as all the books warn you about(coz who wants to look like they had a round with Mike Tyson when they are seeing visitors the next day?) and could just push any old how.Which is just what I did and suddenly ,after the episiotomy which I will not go into(although let me add that here they don't use any namby pamby anaesthetic so yep,you can feel it;) ) he started pulling out the baby's head and then that was out at 3.10am .And that was the end of the pain I thought,but NO.It hurt when her body came out so I protested loudly as I was not happy that the pain continued.But then she was out and held up for us to see and bless her,Millie was born screaming her little lungs out...and has continued to cry for England and Japan ever since.Then I was given a few whiffs of oxygen that had been hidden away until then,go figure and enjoyed the drama of having the mask over my face and it all felt very ER-ish for a minute or two until that damn doctor started to get my placenta out ASAP no doubt worried that I would be like the women next door and take ages doing so which meant that he would only be back in bed after 4amish.So he really used brute force and pushed on my tummy like his life depended on it and again,I protested loudly and told him to stop it...In Japanese and English just to get my sentiments across to him twice.But very soon the placenta

Then it was really all over and I was cleaned up.I rang my mum on Kenichi's mobile and told her that Millie had arrived and then Millie was brought over to us after having been cleaned up,weighed and measured.She was bound to my chest and we spent the next hour or so like that and she even suckled a bit like a little barracuda.Then she was taken to the nursery,Kenichi buggered on back to the bedroom and I was left all alone on that nasty old bed thing until 5am as they don't let you move for 2 hours after the birth.And they left the lights on so I couldn't even doze.Sheesh.But after that,I was allowed up at last and went back to my room and Kenichi and I lay down together and talked about it all as neither of us could sleep.

"Hard work this birth business..."

And that is that.Except the comment that I have absolutely no recollection of making just seconds after Millie was born but Kenichi swore I said it.I said to him,it seems,with a big smile on my face " Well,that's two down,One to go". Oh My Goodness...What was I thinking??!

I love this photo...I was so knackered but thought it best to put my hand on top of Millie so I looked more like a loving and caring mother.And note that nasty old bed and killer stirrups...