She's here!

Well I was expecting to be waddling around this Easter indulging in chocolate eggs and enjoying family time! And that's exactly what we were doing on Good Friday!

Hubby has been busy nesting and building a set of drawers and getting the swinging crib set up in our bedroom!

Auntie Krissi and Uncle David popped round in the afternoon for a walk to collect some materials for our latest craft project! An insect hotel for the garden (more on this topic later) 

And then we finished the day off with a yummy dominos pizza feast! 

At 11pm I started to get a few cramp type period pains but nothing substantial and I thought well perhaps its a sign things might be progressing with bump now officially overdue.

We went to bed as usual and I started to wake every 15 minutes with pains which were progressing more into contraction sensations, thinking it might be braxton hicks I continued to try and ignore them as best possible and return to getting some rest! Hubby got me a hot water bottle and we attempted to get some more shut eye.

However come early morning the contractions were getting very painful and far more regular, Hubby called the birth centre & they wanted me in to be checked. Namely because we have a fair drive to the New Forest and because of my history with a reasonably fast previous labour with Oscar.

We arrived at the birth centre in a record 22 minutes, I don't quite remember the drive to be honest! I occasionally would look up and get a rough bearing of where we were but its a bit of a blur! I remember hubby parking up as close to the entrance as he could and pointing out the deer whilst I was in the middle of a full blown contraction! Think I grabbed on to him with all my might for support! We waddled in and straight into a birthing room, I was so glad to be there and was offered gas and air straight away such a huge relief! 

Following assessment the midwife confirmed I was fully dilated and then whilst adjusting my position on the bed my waters went. She asked where I wished to labour and I stated my desire to use the birthing pool, unfortunately it only reached about 1/4 full and was cold so no time for a dip!

Bubba was coming! After 15-20 minutes of pushing baby made an entrance into the world safely and we discovered we'd had a little baby girl :)

A sister for Oscar and a beautiful daughter for my Husband and I. We'd always known what name we wanted for a baby girl so was easy to announce little Lottie's arrival.

We had a few middle names in mind but thought Florence was really pretty so Lottie Florence it was!

The midwifery team at NFBC were simply  amazing and have been with both my pregnancies and newborns. I was so pleased we managed to birth there with Lottie and we spent the next day in the Heather room getting to know Lottie, feeding her and settling in to being a family of four :) we already adore her!

I was so pleased to have a smooth labour especially after such a tough pregnancy. I really suffered when carrying Lottie with constant illness, infections and was on antibiotics for the majority of my 2nd and 3rd trimester. I pretty much had to live off Gaviscon (my saviour) due to terrible heartburn and Lottie was breech until 37 weeks so we had  accipunture with the midwives, additional scans and monitoring and then blood tests for both genestational diabetes and obstetric cholestatis when I reached full term. But she is here safely, so let the adventures continue, with our now 'two' little pickles! :) 

My first photograph:

Meeting Daddy & my big brother:

Back at home:

With my mummy (our first girly selfie)