Labour

07:52 having a piece of toast and am about to head in to RFH. Our friend Julie in Dhaka has asked a few questions

However, it looks as if things are improving and hotting up? There's some dilation? Nick's been able to get some rest (couldn't imagine how tired she must have been getting). Presumably, if the labour's not happening, then they must be getting close to inducing or something more radical?

which I thought I'd better answer as others reading this/05/want the information. There is some dilation. At least when Nick was examined at three am yesterday morning, the midwife "could get one finger in" (not the technical of appraisals, but hey).

Labour has been happening, it's just very slow, and when Nicki gets relaxed and sleeps (codydramol, two tablets once or twice a day depending on the pain) the contractions slow. Yesterday evening, Nick woke after being in bed all day and found the contractions were very far apart and not too hard. In the 90 minutes I spent with her on the ward, contractions picked up.

The baby was 'posterior' - it had its back to Nicki's back. This position effectively means that your uterus can push for England, but juniors head has nowhere to go - obviously both frustrating and exhausting, not to mention painful.

The plan as it stands is that we are going to start walking around and bouncing on the ball and see if we can't get junior to move. We are at the point of induction, and Nicki isn't against it, but we're going to see how it goes today.