The arrival of Harper Elsie Mae

[*EJ*]

The arrival of Harper Elsie Mae.

I had a wonderful pregnancy apart from the dreaded first 3 months of morning sickness which I absolutely despise. Once that was out the way I felt great and my belly grew as I took care of my family. My boys began to notice my big tummy, would poke at it and say hello to the bubba. It was lovely. There may have been a few months where I had some aches and pains but on the whole I felt fantastic considering the business of each day.

My boys were both born during the 39th week so I was expecting this little one to be similar if not earlier again. With feeling lots of different pressures and pains from about 36-37 weeks I was certain this was going to happen. The weeks passed and I continued to feel fantastic. I had a few BH here and there then days would go by with nothing at all and me and bub would feel so comfortable.

When I reached 39 weeks and continued to feel so good I started stressing about going over, induction and not being able to have the birth that I hoped for. So I booked myself in for some acupuncture. I had a session of acupuncture on Thursday 2 December when I was 39+3, I had never had acupuncture before but I wanted to try what I could to bring on my baby naturally and avoid any medical intervention. So that particular session was supposed to “encourage everything to move down” (said by the acupuncturist) and any sessions after that “we’ll really encourage this baby along”. I only made it to the first session.

Saturday DS1 had a little music concert to attend and I began to worry about not being there for that but luckily all was good and I was. That afternoon the kids and I went home and when DH got home from work he took DS1 to his brothers to play with his cousin and DS2 and I had a sleep. It was beautiful. I woke up and DS2 and I also went around to join everyone and have dinner. Sitting there chatting to everyone I felt great, said how good I felt and that like usual baby feels way too comfortable. We got home about 10ish at night after a little drive to look at the Christmas Tree lights which the boys loved.

We got home, went to bed and I slept until about 1ish and as usual got sick of listening to DH's snoring so I got up for a bit. I turned the computer on and wrote a few emails. It got to about 3-3:30ish and I started to feel a thick tightening across the front of my belly. It would come and go about 10 minutes apart. It was different to the BH I had felt which were much more of a sharp feeling. After reading into so much for so many weeks I took note but didn’t let myself get too excited. I went back to bed and got some sleep. When I woke and they were still there I got up and got myself some breakfast. The pains at this stage were still 10 min apart but very manageable.

I had promised the boys we would get our Christmas tree so I was determined to go and get that before things got too intense. So we quickly got ready and off we went in two cars as DH had to drive the ute to be able to bring the tree home. I continued to have contractions throughout our trip to get the tree and then setting it up at home but I was fine. They were still 10 min apart and very manageable.

The day wore on and no change, just a pain every 10 min. My waters had not broke, I had had no show and apart from about a week earlier having some mucus discharge none in the recent week. None in an amount that I would have called the ‘plug’. I started to wonder if it was every going to happen and if this would all just die off as I was used to the false alarms with this little one. Then at 4-5ish things started to get a bit quicker and at 5pm I decided to start timing my contractions. For a whole hour I was all of a sudden having contractions 5 min apart and lasting 40 seconds. After that hour I called the hospital to say I’d had that hour of contractions and they seemed to think things would need to get a little more intense before I’d make my way in to them. I was told to take some Panadol and go lie down. Not long after getting off the phone I had a contraction while standing at the kitchen bench where I actually felt the head drop down. They were becoming really quite painful. My mum and DH were trying to get the boys into bed and I went to lay down. Throughout the day the boys had been great but they definitely knew something was going on, DS2 followed me everywhere and once I was lying down DS1 wouldn’t leave my side.

Lying down the contractions were still becoming increasingly painful and I actually had one where I felt like I wanted to push. When I said this to DH he was determined that it was time to go to the hospital. I was still a little hesitant about not going if we were still going to be sent home again but I decided that we should go just to get me out of the house and get the boys settled in bed. It was a mission to get up off the bed, to get in the car and to even be able to sit in the car. The trip to the hospital was terrible as I had contraction after contraction, the walk from the car to the foyer was terrible and the trip up in the elevator was terrible. But I made it. We arrived at the hospital at 7:50pm. We were taken straight to an examination room where I struggled to lie down, I needed to vomit and I was shaking. And I was having contractions where I really wanted to push. Things obviously just all of a sudden started happening.

I was examined and in doing this DH said he saw a look of shock on the midwives face when she realised my waters were there bulging and she could feel the babies head. So we were quickly shown to a birthing suite where I had more contractions and wanting to push. I was offered some gas which I took to help me with the breathing which went straight to my head and sent me quite dizzy. It was different to what I remember when I had it with the boys, maybe turned up higher!?! But it did help with the breathing and it wore off quite quickly between contractions. It all does get a bit blurry here as it was all happening so quickly but after maybe 4 or 5 contractions my waters finally broke which was a huge relief but at the same time things became even more intense. I was finally able to push and really get my little one closer to meeting us. So listening to the instruction of the midwife and my beautiful DH I was able to push our little one out within 7 min of my waters breaking. There was one contraction/push where I felt the head creep back in which I tried to avoid so much but after that bub was on her way out and I even felt down and touched her head. A couple more pushes and our little girl arrived, placed immediately in my arms at 8:40pm. She was just perfect.

Thinking back now I am just so happy that I felt and understood so much throughout this birth. I know contractions are the cervix opening so I was more than happy to hang around home and just hope that that was what was happening throughout the day. When things became intense at home, me feeling the head drop during the contraction and actually feeling the urge to push were signs that I really knew things were happening. I have no recollection of this happening with my first and being induced with my 2nd things were different again. I love that I understood the process and listened to my body. As crazy as it sounds I really enjoyed the birth of my little girl.

Being such a quick labour she was a little stunned and it took her a few minutes to have a regular breathing pattern so they left the cord pulsating as long as they could. After her first breastfeed and hugs with mum she was weighed and cleaned up as she emptied her bowels all over my stomach. Not very lady like…

Harper Elsie Mae
Weight: 7lb
Head: 33cm
Length: 54cm

Onset of 1st stage: 6pm
1st Stage: 2:00
2nd Stage: 0:40
3rd Stage: 0:05
Total length: 2:45

So our little girl is here, the long awaited arrival of Harper Elsie Mae and I couldn’t have asked for it to have been any better/different. I’m so proud of myself and my family and am now trying to settle in to being a mother of 3 under 4. Life is busy but I love it and can’t wait to see what is ahead for the 5 of us.