Simon Alexander Frestadius Born April 17, 1998 at 7.38.51 p.m. (Swedish time) 3660 grams and 50 cm Proud parents: Maria and Lars Proud big sister: Helena

Contractions started Wednesday night, April 15th, one day after my due date. Had mild contractions all night 7-8 minutes apart, but managed to sleep for a few hours. Sent my daughter off to daycare on Thursday morning and walked around the house. When the contractions were 5 minutes apart we went to the hospital only to find that I was only 1.5 cm open. I wanted to go home so we walked around the house until 6:30 at night, when the pain was getting worse. Arrived at the hospital and still not opened any more. Got a shot to make me sleep, which I did, and woke up Friday morning with very few contractions.

I was very disappointed and thought they would send me home. But after walking around for a while, contractions were about 4 minutes apart. The gave me some gel to soften up the cervix more, but nothing seemed to work. I only opened to 3 cm. At 5 p.m. they decided to strip the membranes and then hell broke loose! I was in too much pain and wanted an epidural. They called in two doctors who could figure out why I was in so much pain because the monitor did not show such strong contractions, although they came every other minute. I was shaking and sweating like crazy. Finally one doctor examined me and stated that the baby's head was not fixated and did not push down into the pelvis. If I was to have an epidural they had to put a pressure meter into my uterus because of my previous c-section and it would probably take at least another 7-8 hours.

Well, needless to say I was exhausted and would not have had any strength for pushing in the end. And the baby was under stress because his heartrate was all over the place. So they decided to do a c-section, and gave me a shot to stop the contractions. The shot didn't work and the contractions were unbearable. The operation team was busy so they had to call in a back-up team. One and one half hour after the decision I finally get into the operating room. When the spinal was done I thought I was in heaven.

During the operation the doctor asked if we were planing on having more children. It wasn't the first thing that came to my mind at that time. She suggested I had my pelvis x-rayed since she suspected I was too narrow for the baby's head. My first c-section was also due to failure to progress, because the head would not push down into the pelvis.

Finally Simon was born, screamed a little, apgar 9,9, a little blue, and wonderful. DH cut the cord and then I had him on my breast. He immediately started to search for the nipple and sucked within 40 minutes. He's the calmest baby I've ever seem, heardly ever cries.

Spent some time recovering at the hospital and now we're back home to reality.

Long story with happy ending. He's absolutely wonderful.

Maria