Lengthly Labouring

Woke up to a message from Julia saying she thought she was in labour so probably time for me to go up to Manchester but to take my time in case it was a false alarm (given she’d been up since around midnight I thought it was probably ok to pack, and set off a couple of hours later).

Went for a walk in their local park when we arrived (funny when Ju started a contraction just as we were passing a lady - and the knowing smile the lady gave to me as she watched her!)

Early evening Julia’s old housemate - one of the residents of the “midwife mansion” from when they were all training arrived (she’s a community midwife and had agreed to come facilitate a home birth) and after an examination said this was definitely not a false alarm! And so ensued a lot of hours - in and out of the pool, observations, tiredness, snacks, sick bowls, chatting, laughing, pain, and a lot of entertainment from their cat Rio who was very curious about everything - including almost climbing into a sick bowl as it was being filled!