With my second son Alexander, I expected to go early, he had other ideas. But as my doctor told me that I can expect a very fast delivery, I was naturally worried, I had an image of giving birth on the kitchen floor with my 2 1/2 year old watching on.
I had my first son William Robert at 38 weeks in October 1999, he weighed 3.1kg. My labour with him was 5 1/2 hours as my water broke with a huge gush while I was sleeping, before his birth I managed to still fit in an epidural and a vacuum extraction.
On the 9th of July 2002 (Alexander’s due date), I awoke at about 5am in excruciating pain, I literally ran around the house trying to shake it off. During the pregnancy I had a lot of problems with my back and sacrum, I assumed my sacrum dislocated again, didn’t expect my very first contraction to be so painful.
As soon as the contraction was over I fell back asleep, only to be woken 10 minutes later, this time I knew that was it. I woke my husband, got dressed and rang my mum who rushed over to look after William. The drive to the hospital was about 20 minutes, it felt like 2 hours!! By the time we got to the hospital, I could barely get out of the car but eventually managed to walk to the labour ward, that took some effort but I thought the longer I stay upright, the faster this baby will be born. When I finally settled in the family birthing room, I was found (to my relief) to be 7-8cm dilated.
I had tried gas which I found I couldn’t handle and I was told it was too late for pethidine. My contractions were very intense and with pretty much no break in between but amazingly I felt I was still in control. When I was fully dilated, I was told to start pushing. I was in agony and didn’t want to push but as soon as I did, I found that the pain was a lot less intense so from then on I pushed like crazy. The worst pain came when his head crowned, I let out one large scream but that part was over quickly, much to my relief! Soon after his shoulders and rest of his body just slid out, that was definitely the biggest feeling of relief. When they handed him to me, I was quite shocked by the long and thick masses of black hair (my husband has brown hair but William and I are both blonde) which he never lost.
Alexander arrives
After being in labour for just over 3 hours without any drugs or intervention Alexander Patrick was born at 8.10am weighing 4.13kg (9pounds 1ounce), measuring 52 centimetres with a head circumference of 38cm (with no tearing!). We are now starting to try again for a little brother or sister for William and Alexander!
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