Well I'll try to make this as short as possible.
As some of you might be aware, I had been experiencing alot of pre labour for a few weeks prior to Jacks arrival.

Exactly 14 days before he was born I lost my MP, 8 days before I lost my first lot of bloody mucus then again 4 days before he was born. Then again the night before his grand appearance. For 3-4 weeks I had been getting alot of cervical pain and random bouts of regular strong BH.

But it all started to get serious 2 days before his birth. On the friday, I had some acupuncture done. I had a treatment the day before that lead me to believe it did nothing, BH had disappeared and most of my other symptoms too. Then after the second treatment on friday things started to pick up again. I had a midwife appointment that morning who said that he had moved down to -2 station but still only about 2-3 dilated (which hadn't changed since my last appoinment). That afternoon DH, DD and I went for a long walk around 1.5 hours. We had to make several stops alot the way as I was getting some pretty strong BH, that I couldn't walk through, as well as some pretty wet undies as well (still don't know what that was all about).

I woke up on Sunday morning feeling really good. Decided that it was going to be a girls day out with my DD. So we went for another walk to the shops, and stopped for ice-cream on the way back. Noticed the pains were back but not as strong as the day before. We cleaned out the kitchen together, and washed and changed the sheets on all the beds (don't know what that was all about). Went for another walk in the afternoon to get some chippies for us to share. On the way back I noticed that BH were starting to get as strong as the days before. When DH made it home from work, I told him about he pains and he wanted me to ring the hospital. But I knew they were getting closer or stronger so I knew I was safe. But to be sure I posted a thread in the thrid trimester to get other people opinions about what they thought was going on. Anyway after some reassurance that I needn't worry I went to bed around 9:30pm.

I woke up the first time at 11pm, with some strong period type cramps, but went back to sleep. Woke up again around 11:40 with the same pain, and went to the loo to sus things out. Had some bright red blood mucus that rang the alert bells but still didn't want to get my hopes up, as I had experience this on and off a couple of times before, but to be honest I kinda just knew that this was it. Anyway I posted in my BB group that I thought it might be it, but went to back to bed to try for some more sleep. Contractions were very irregular at this stage so I still hadn't woken up DH. But by 1am, I had no choice, I woke him up with contraction around 7mins apart that were starting to get really painful. I rang the hospital who said that they wanted me to come in to check on Jack, but thought from what I had told them that I wasn't in labour, so told me to prepare to be sent home (yeah right). Posted in BB group again and told them that hopefully they wouldn't hear from me again for a couple of days.

We rang my mum who was about 1.5 hours away to come over and mind our DD who slept through the whole thing. At 2:15 she still wasn't here, but I knew I couldn't wait any longer, contractions were now roughly 5 mins apart. So we woke our lovely neighbours down the back to see if they could come over to watch her just until my mum arrived. So at about 3:00am we finally left for the hospital.

We arrival at the hospital and were told to wait in the hallway, at this stage contractions were only 3 mins apart and really starting to hurt like hell.

My DH asked if they had a catchers mit and he knew I meant business, and one of the midwife said, yeah right she'll be right and walked away. Anyway about 15 mintues later (roughly 3:30am)I was checked and was 8cm dilated. She called up the birth suites and said I needed a room ASAP.

I told them I wanted my shot of antibiotics ASAP (strep B +). So the doc came and put the needle in my arm, and hooked up the drip (time approx. 3:50am). The widwife told me to let her know when my waters broke or when I wanted to push. At 4:00 my waters broke and she asked where I wanted to give birth. I couldn't believe she was asking me so soon as I thought he would still be a long way off, as I pushed for 2 hours with my DD. So I told her the bed and she said well get up there NOW, and less than 5 minutes later he was born.

No drugs, no tears, only a few sucks on the gas. Unfortunately the very quick delievery gave him a very bruised head. But all is good now.

I was in shock at how quick it all was and how much less pain I was in compared to my daughters birth. I still can't believe it today, I absolutely loved the whole experience, I wouldn't have changed anything about it.

Sorry about the novel but I wanted to share the whole experience.

Thanks for reading.