Day one- Heidis birthday

3.30am- my waters have broken! This is it! I wake up to a trickle and make it to the toilet in time before grabbing a towel and heading back to bed. No contractions yet, so labour could be a while off. Half an hour later I feel more leaking and as I stand up there is a massive gush of fluid that even the towel can't contain. I race down the hallway leaving a trail of liquid behind me.
D gets up to see how I'm going and I yell out to him not to slip over on the wet tiles! He starts mopping up in the hallway and our bedroom, and asks me if it's happening now.

I start to have mild contractions and I'm so happy that I'm going into labour at home. The pain is very mild and I'm excited, although I expect I have a long time to go.
Around 5am, B wakes up and D brings him into our room. By now I'm kneeling on the floor over the bed and the contractions have more intensity. I'm leaking lots of amniotic fluid so I have huge pile of towels and cloth nappies on the floor. B is lying on the bed watching me and wondering what I'm doing. I'm starting to vocalise (low moaning) when a contraction hits, but in between I'm able to talk.
B has a bit of a cough and when I'm in the middle of a contraction his coughing is distracting so I ask D if he can please take him out.
Even though the contractions are becoming painful, I still feel really good. Making low sounds (including singing) is really helping and I find the most comfortable position for me is half kneeling (with one leg up).

Around 6am, E and S come in to see me. E asks me what I'm doing and when I tell her I'm having a baby she looks at me and says "no you're not!". I tried explaining to them both that it could be a while before the baby is actually born, but I don't think they believe me! D comes in to take them out of the room as another contraction hits.

D is wonderful and apart from checking to see if I need anything, he leaves me to it. He is looking after the other kids which is all he needs to do at this point. I ask for a cup of tea and an apple (which I manage a couple of bites of), plus some iced water.

After a little while, I have a contraction where I really feel the baby move down into my pelvis. But I still think I have a long time to go because I'm not finding the contractions too painful. They hurt, but I'm coping really well with them and having breaks between each one.
But then with the next contraction, I feel the babys head move further down and I need to push. I feel the head crowning but I'm in between contractions- I push anyway and the head is out. Don't know if there is a contraction coming or not, but I don't care because I push once more and the baby is born!
I pick up our little girl and and hold her face down- she's not crying yet and her breathing is quite rattly and shallow, but I'm not worried. Her colour becomes pink quite quickly and she seems ok.
I yell out to D. He opens the door and sees his new baby girl, and seems lost for words! He rushes out again to get the other kids and they all come in to meet their baby sister. I take my top off to see if I can encourage her to breast feed but she's not interested and her breathing is still really mucousy and rattly. The time is 6.50am and it takes another 40 minutes or so for the placenta to come out. I have only a very minor graze and minimal bleeding. I feel great!
Once the placenta comes out, I drain most of the blood off and wrap it up and lay it next to our baby (who is wrapped in a towel), before I chuck some clothes on.
D is ready to take us in to the hospital to be checked over and I'm concerned about Heidis breathing so I'm happy to go.
The labour and the birth were absolutely wonderful. I felt so good throughout all of it, and dealt with the pain really well. It was everything I'd hoped it would be and I wouldn't change a thing.

By the time we get to the hospital, it's about 8am. We all walk in (D, the kids, and me holding our baby and the placenta), and I see a nurse I know quite well. She smiles and say hello and I tell her I've just had a baby. I see the look of confusion on her face (she assumes I've had the baby days or weeks before), and when I add "an hour ago" she goes into a panic and doesn't know what to do first!
She directs us into Accident and Emergency where she takes our baby to check her over. I am expecting them to do their checks and then take baby home an hour or so later. But she is not holding her body temperature, and a heel prick test shows her blood glucose is very low. She's also still not breathing comfortably, so they put her under a heat lamp and suction her nose, before calling the doctor in.
He checks her over and calls the paediatrician for advice. In between people coming and going, D and I decide on a name. We call our new baby girl Heidi, and the name fits her perfectly.

The doctor gives Heidi a shot of glucose to kickstart her system. I manage to express a few drops of colostrum which is syringed into her mouth. She still has no interest in breast feeding at all, but I'm sure it's just a minor issue and that she'll start when she's ready.
The doctor tells me that she needs more to keep her blood sugar up, and we have the option of formula feed, or glucose via a drip. I don't want her to have formula at all (let alone as her first feed) so I opt for the intravenous glucose. She wouldn't have been able to take formula via a bottle anyway.
He manages to find a tiny vein in Heidi arm and the drip is started. Her blood sugar is stablising and she is warmer now, but it's becoming clearer that she is not 100% healthy.

After several phone calls, it is decided that Heidi and I should go to Port Hedland. The hospital has better facilities and more staff available to moniter Heidi more closely. D takes the kids home for now, and I spend the rest of the day waiting. Dad and S come in to see us, and D brings the kids back later on to say goodbye. The RFDS plane arrives around 6pm and the ambulance takes us out to the airport. Heidi is in a full incubator crib and on a sats moniter (to check her oxygen levels). She seems to be breathing alot better and doesn't need any extra oxygen.
I'm feeling ok now after a couple of episodes where my blood pressure dropped dramatically and I felt like I'd pass out.

The plane trip is uneventful. Apart from the pilot, there is an RFDS nurse and the paediatrician from Hedland in on board to keep an eye on Heidi too. We arrive in Hedland around 8.30pm and Heidi goes into the SCN (which is really just a room) where a nurse is available to moniter her constantly. She seems to be doing ok and I'm still confident we'll only be here a couple of days at the most. I eventually go to bed around midnight where I have an uncomfortable sleep in a narrow hospital bed. I get up a few times to see how Heidi is going but I know the nurse will wake me anyway.