The second week of Channel 4’s One Born Every Minute focuses on pain. Seeing as my labour was a rather short affair I’m not too sure I’m best qualified to comment on the subject but I’ll give it a go.

A visit to the maternity assessment centre at Lincoln County Hospital enlightened me to the fact that despite only mild aching I was almost fully dilated and apparently had ‘done the hard work’ whatever that meant. I was immediately given an epidural as I was booked for an elective caesarean so they figured they’d do one at 34 weeks. However soon after it was decided that in order to give Boo the best possible chance I was going to give this birthing lark a bang. I’d attended no antenatal classes due to the booked caesarean and choosing to bottle feed, as my midwife said it was full of woman panting and discussing best latch techniques (I suppose I’ll never know now!).

The epidural was painless and the rest of the labour was although tense due to Boo being 6 weeks early, was completely pain free. Afterwards I was up and running around within 90 minutes of Boo being born – however I have to attribute some of my energetic nature to being told that once I could walk around I could visit Boo up in the Neonatal Unit.

Although pain free, the midwife and anaesthetist took great care to ensure that I was still able to feel the contractions which allowed me to initiate pushing, keeping me in control throughout.

Whilst my birth was positive in relation to pain, my pregnancy was another story. From the 24 week stage I was in what can only be described as agony. The professionals put it down to me being an ‘anxious’ first timer – yet on reflection Doctors now say that I was probably in early labour for 10 weeks! This would explain why I felt there was a chainsaw doing the can-can inside me for nearly three months!

Proof that the chainsaw aka baby accompanied me to visit Danny in Cyprus!

There are some women who feel a sense of guilt if they have pain relief. For somebody who was booked for an elective caesarean, I find this utterly ridiculous. I took the advice from the Doctors who had not only my health but that of Boo’s in mind. There is no prize for going cold turkey on the gas and air and it doesn’t make you a failure if you take every drug going. That’s not to say that no pain relief or alternative options aren’t for everybody. Pregnancy and in particular birth are personal and different for each woman – there is no mould or ‘perfect’ so let’s stop trying to find it!

The birth was a physical relief for me, as I will say now I never enjoyed being pregnant, choosing rather to view it as a means to an end – which in fact as I’m understanding now is only the beginning! Birth for me gave me the greatest gift of all, Boo. So why would it define me or the relationship between Mummy and Boo.

Duvets at the ready – it’s official Mummy and Boo have come down with the lurge. Ok so it may not be as bad as that. Yet a common cold is still enough to stop us in our tracks.

Seeing Boo ill is so hard as she’s unable (knowing her though probably more like unwilling) to understand why she’s feeling ill.  For me this is the one of the hardest colds I’ve ever had. Gone are the days of retreating to your bedroom as if it’s your secret lair armed with tissues, Lucozade and the remote control.  Boo’s routine knows no boundaries, the small matter of feeling like death defrosting isn’t going to change things.

For the last couple of days Boo and I have been soldiering on with the school run, preparing mammoth dinners and generally ensuring my title of Cruella is well and truly deserved!

Boo takes to illness like a pro not to mention maintaining lashings of glamour as demonstrated by her ‘poorly’ pose, but then again she’s had plenty of practice when it comes to patient etiquette. Although she’s had paracetamol suspension at night, I’ve been careful to try and only give it when absolutely necessary.

Boo has informed me through pester power aka hollering that hugs and kisses really are the best medicine for her cold; I have to agree with her. For babies the common cold is largely harmless although this can bring little comfort to patient and often anxious parents, when dealing with a temperature, sniffles and downright feelings of lousiness.

So while Boo and I seek sanctuary upstairs seeing as Necky has nabbed the sofa, ahem… What do you find works best for Baby colds? Do you have any ‘magic’ answers? (Well you can’t blame a Mummy for wishing!)

Must dash, Boo is ringing the bell for me to dab her forehead with a lavender infused wet flannel. Good Boo!

 

A Mummy Too asked the magic if a little impossible question: What are you three favourite books? The three books are divided into childhood, adulthood and parenthood.

Books have always been part of my life – I’ll read the back of a bottle of shampoo just to devour a few extra words.  I’m amazingly fortunate to come from a family where the joy of reading was at the centre of our home.  It was never a case of being made to read, we would willingly pick up a book. 

An abiding memory of my childhood is being caught with a torch reading under the covers long after I was suppose to turn the light out on a school night!

My love of reading has grown with me so much so that a mini library is increasingly becoming a ‘must’ in our hunt for a Brady bunch bunker!

I can’t help but be suspicious of people who say they either don’t read or worse – don’t see the point.  Of course reading brings you knowledge, not to mention religion and reference but more importantly sometimes there is no point, I seek those solitary afternoons where your mind doesn’t look for direction instead gets lost in layer upon layer of words and imagination – pure bliss.

Enough of me fawning over manicured and inked paper – Here are my #3 Books

Childhood

Favourite one or one hundred? This is the hardest of them all – I’ll go as far to say that the books I read defined my childhood. If nothing else they were my conversation starters, so the chatty me is down to the book silk worm as a child!

The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett.  It’s an old fashioned, solid children’s book full of drama and suspense.  It’s the first time I can remember being reluctant to watch the resulting film in case it somehow did a disservice to the author, especially as it was written in the early part of the 20^th Century. Whether you are eight or eighty there is room on your bookshelf and more importantly your heart for The Secret Garden.

Adulthood

I’m sticking my neck out with this one but Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood.  This was the first book I read by Atwood and it took me to read all of her other novels before I could return to this one and make some sense of it.  The darkness and perpetual complexity even awkwardness of the story line and characters makes it more than a book. It’s a challenge and for someone who doesn’t like to be beaten, this is the best kind. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea in fact it’s fair to say that it is a fringe book. I never did like being a sheep so why would it be any different when it came to reading.

 

Parenthood

This part is pretty easy. Whilst Boo enjoyed being read to in the womb – yes I was that crazy pregnant woman talking to my bump at the airport in the hope of trying to narrow down our choice for the plane! She has been slow on the uptake since existing independently; I mean surely she is behind if she hasn’t made a dent in Shakespeare’s greatest by the time she turns one?

Baby’s Very First Touchy Feely Animal Book. It does exactly what it says, yet the real beauty is that even at such a young age there is way for Mummy and Boo to connect through reading.  I am so looking forward to bedtime reading together, and this book allows the seeds to be sown for a lifetime of reading.

 

So there you have my #3 Books. You can tell a great deal of a person by the book they’re reading, so goodness knows what my choices make me.  Even now I’m fighting the urge to go back and change my adulthood choice. What are your three books? If you’re not a parent then why not your favourite childhood, classic and modern?

Despite it being the middle of the night, I am a renewed addict so am off to bed to ready by light of my blackberry a chic lit given to me at Christmas.  Happy Reading.

P.S. Is it too late to mention Rebecca or The Time Travellers Wife or Frankenstein?!?!….