Well this is about 6 months overdue. I never thought I needed to write my birth story but for some reason it's been playing on my mind the last week or so and I also want to record it for Belle's sake incase I do forget some of the details.
From the very beginning I told my DH that Belle would be born on the 10th December - we'd had three early u/s due to bleeding and each had said either the 9th, 10th or 11th. I had a feeling about the 10th even though I knew statistically only 5% of births actually occur on their due date. But something told me my little girl would be punctual just like her Mum (I hate being late to anything lol!).
So about a week before my due date I decided to get some acupuncture. I had two sessions at one place but they couldn't fit me in for a third session so I went to alternative clinic. What a difference! I could never tell at the first place whether I was feeling anything but at the second place I now realise I'd started to have contractions as I lay listening to the rain and some really peaceful meditation music. The acupuncturist (if that's what they're called) Pip, was amazing. She felt really intuned to me and I left there feeling really positive that things would start progressing soon.
The next day my DH and I decided to go into the city to do our Christmas shopping. As nether of us drive we caught the tram in and a lady sitting opposite me started to make friendly chit chat and asked when I was due. I told her 'Today' and she said 'Are you crazy - what are you doing going shopping on your due date?'. I laughed and said 'Come on, how many babies are born on their due date?'. We'd only been shopping for a hour or so when I felt something go pop. I then felt a bit wet so thought I'd better go to the toilet to check it out. I wasn't sure if it was just CM (sorry TMI!) but put a pad on just to be on the safe side. I didn't think much of it and said to DH lets keep shopping. Well 10 minutes later I started to feel some niggly pains. We decided to hop on the tram and head home just incase. 5 minutes after being on the tram I felt a huge gush of water. Thank god I was sitting down and wearing a long black skirt! I didn't want the packed tram to know that the huge pregnant lady's waters had just broken, so I was trying to let my DH know via facial expressions. He finally understood but neither of us knew what to do. I texted my sister who was to be our hospital driver and she said she'd come and get us, but I didn't want to be on the side of the road with water gushing everywhere so I said I'd meet her at our house. Well that was the longest tram ride ever! It took about an hour to get home due to the traffic and with every lurch of the tram I felt another gush of water! When we got to our stop I quickly jumped up, DH jumped up straight after me to hide my wet bum and then put a newspaper down on the seat. Walking the short distance home I started to get contractions. I called the hospital to let them know that my waters had broken and they said to come in so I could get checked over, but that they would most likely send me home. My sister arrived and we made our way to the hospital. It took about 30 minutes to get there but by this stage I was having contractions every 2 minutes. They weren't too painful and I was handling them well so I don't think the nurses actually believed me when I said my contractions were 2 minutes apart. They hooked me up to monitor and even though the machine showed I was having contractions the nurse actually said to me 'Oh these won't be doing anything'. Well I don't know how long I was forced to lie on the bed (maybe an hour and a half) but it got to the point where I just couldn't stand it anymore and I told the nurse I had to get up and move around. She then decided to examine me and the look on her face when she saw I was already 5cm was priceless! She apologised for keeping me strapped to the bed and rushed me straight up to the birthing suite. I was relieved that I'd made progress as I was starting to think that I wouldn't be able to handle this if I hadn't dilated at all.
I hopped straight in the shower once I got to the birth suite. Throughout my pregnancy I had always wanted to birth in the bath but I couldn't face the ordeal of actually getting in and out of the bath, so opted for the shower instead. I started to get really tired after a few hours and the pain was really building up. I was at the point of saying 'I can't do this anymore' as every contraction felt like I was being split in two. Every contraction felt like I was going to vomit and poo at the same time (sorry again TMI!). At this stage I asked for some pain relief. I didn't want the gas so asked for a shot of peth. I was so annoyed when I got it and I said to the nurse 'It's not doing anything for the pain' and she said 'No it won't. It's just to help you relax'. Well if I knew that I wouldn't have had it - I was relaxed before the peth but after it I was falling asleep between contractions and then being yanked awake with pain when a contraction hit! This was a nurse who I had loved during my prenatal appointments. We would joke and laugh about everything, but my god I couldn't stand her when I was in labour. The last thing I wanted was someone making lame jokes such as 'Wow you've got great breastfeeding equipment there'. Yeah thanks I realise I'm butt naked but I don't need you making comments on my body during contractions! She was annoying the hell out of me and I I was so glad when the shift change came and I had two new staff. One was a temp called Blythe and the other was a student midwife who I can't recall her name. They were both wonderful, so calming and said all the right things to encourage me.
My husband still pays me out as I was paranoid about screaming during contractions as I was just outside the nurses station and I didn't want everyone to hear me, so instead, I was saying 'Ooooccccchhhhh!!!' when a contraction hit. It was about 11pm when I was finally fully dilated. I'd really wanted to let the baby do most of the pushing at this stage so I wouldn't tear, but after awhile Blythe looked at me and said, 'if you start actively pushing, you could have this baby before midnight'. Well I wanted this baby on the 10th and by this stage I just wanted it all over and done with so I thought 'bugger it, if I'm going to tear, I'm going to tear'. I was amazed at how much easier the pushing stage was than I'd expected. It wasn't painful at all, the really hard stage for me was getting from 5 to 10 cm. It only took about 30 minutes of pushing and my beautiful Belle Grace was born - 11.40pm on the 10th December 2008 (with 20 minutes to spare!)
The birth of Belle Grace
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