Mrs T woke me up at about 3am that morning
and informed me that baby T was on its way.
I immediately called for an ambulance, and was asked a number of questions by the person on teh other end.
Them:"When did it start?"
Me(to Mrs T): "When did it start?"
MrsT: "Oh, about midnight"
ME: "Midnight! Why didn't you wake me?"
MrsT: "Oh, you looked peacefully asleep and I didnt want to wake you, so I had a bath and painted my toenails so I look good".
Me: "You did what?"
Then:"Erm,. Hello?"
Me: "Oh sorry, did you get all that?"

When the ambulance arrived, they were refusing to take Mrs T to the hospital. (Mrs T has a particular condition which meant that she had to go to a specific hospital which had all the right bits of equipment). The ambulance guys refused to take her because it was too far, and they wanted to take her to the nearest hospital. Nearest = 4miles, Special = 9Miles.
there excuse was that the hospital might not let her in, and they didnt want to drive that far, but they couldn't comprehend that she had a bed reserved for her for the last 2 weeks.
After 10 mins of radio calls (time wasting) they took her to the right hospital.
When we arrived, Mrs T was screaming at everyone who even looked at her, nevermind touch her. What I didnt realise was that there was a cut off point after which they couldn't administer the epidural (I'm unsure if this is generally, or it may have been because of her specific condition), however, she was in hospital, only just in time for them to allow it, after which she became totally peaceful.
4 Hours later, we had a lovely baby girl.
My advice, is that when the first sign starts, get to the hospital as fast as you can, because you don't know how long or short the labour will be.
You're better off spending 24 hours in hospital than running the risk of leaving it oo long.
( turb0t, Wed 1 Oct 2008, 13:19, Reply)