We're home!

We got home yesterday and got everyone (well, the humans, anyway!) settled in. It was good to be home but strange to be out of the hospital at the same time. Anyway. This is what happened.On Tuesday morning, we went down to the hospital for an antenatal appointment, saw a hospital midwife and one of the registrars. Talked about being induced and I was asked if I wanted to go in that night, or wait until the next morning _ at the time, as far as we knew, everything was still ticking over the same way it had been all along _ just fine. So they talked to my midwife, Brenda, and we decided to admit me that night.So 7pm on Tuesday, Jeremy and I were back at the hospital; laden down with bags and goodness-knows-what because we didn't know what to expect. The plan _ then _ was to induce me slowly with prostoglandin gel, a process that was expected to take at least a day.Then they put me on the fetal heart monitor, and everything changed.At first, things ticked over the way they always had. Patrick's heartbeat was strong, things looked okay. Then, his heartbeat dropped. Then rose. Then dropped again. (I can't think about it without wanting to cry). I was ... scared, to say the least. Brenda checked it, then asked one of the hospital midwives to double check it but it just kept going up and down. They'd already called the obstetrician to let him know about the induction, and he was coming in.So, next was Dr Finkelstein. (Not his real name. In my post-op sleep-deprived state I forgot his name and kept calling him that.) In he comes, takes a look at the printout of the activity, looks at me and says "I'm not happy."Oh God. Patrick was in distress. Dr F said that he wouldn't be able to be born by induction, that it just wouldn't happen and the best thing was to get him out of there while he was still healthy and if they left it, we could have a sick baby on our hands (or worse). Things moved very rapidly from there. I was prepped for surgery and Jeremy was gowned up. They asked me lots of questions and whisked me off to theatre for the ceasearean.I've never had any kind of surgery and I was completely terrified. But all the staff _ my midwife, Dr F, the anethetists, the nurses, were just lovely. Jeremy waited outside with the orderly while they put the spinal in (horrible horrible but not painful) and the next thing I was numb and helpless. Horrible. They let Jeremy in but I had my head turned in the opposite direction because I was looking at my midwife and I was too scared to turn it around. I held on to Jeremy's hand for dear life, though. Then the Dr did his thing, and Patrick was born. I was fairly helpless, so Jeremy got to hold him first but I kept touching his head. He was born with black hair, a very loud cry _ and hungry!I got to hold and feed him in the recovery room before we all went back down to the ward. And now here we are!