Harley's due date was the 25th February 2010 and he arrived on the 28th February 2010 at 40+3 weeks.
I had light spotting on the 27th February around 9pm, I woke up the next morning at about 6.45am to go to the toilet and my waters broke. I woke up my partner and he got up and fed Sebastian his breakfast while I called Mum and showered and got myself ready and packed all of Sebastian's things as he was going to stay at his Grandma's house.
My Mum came and picked us up at about 8am and we headed over to her house, we dropped Sebastian off and we left for the hospital just after 8.30am.
We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the machine to check on bubs, he was fine and they said I had 2 options....to either go home and see if labour progresses or to induce me, I said I would rather see if it happened naturally (as it did with Seb). They then checked my pulse and they said it was very very high and they then gave me an ECG, the ECG was fine but they said they would not let me go home because of my pulse rate....they said because I was so anemic my heart had to pump faster to get the blood through my body. They said if labour hadn't started by 6am the following morning they would induce me. They wanted me go straight on fluids so attached me up to a drip, a midwife also mentioned I might need a blood transfusion (luckily my iron had started to go up so it wasn't needed). I was sent up to a single ward with Paull & my Mum.
At about 12.00pm I started to get contractions about 5 minutes apart, we decided to go for a walk around the ward and suddenly I was getting very painful contractions which were every 2-3 minutes. I asked the nurse for a shot of pethadine and was told she was bathing a baby and would be in soon....20 minutes past and I was in agony (every 2nd word which came out of my mouth was a swear word so Mum knew I must have been getting close and said to Paull that he had better go find someone). Within a few minutes a wheelchair was bought in and I was taken down to the birth suites. They examined me and I was 6-7cms, I got my shot of Pethadine and it really helped me to get through each contraction....even though I felt like I was going to fall asleep. I sat on the birthing ball in the shower under the water while Paull & the midwife rubbed my back and Mum sat next to me. at about 4pm I started feeling alot of pressure and stood up from the ball and said I think I need to push. I got over to the bed and the midwife said she couldn't feel any cervix and to start pushing when I was ready.
I gave one push and we could see his head....2 more pushes and his head was out.....another push and he was here (4 minutes of pushing). Because of the quick delivery he was born not breathing (but had a heartbeat) so they quickly cut the cord and took him across the room where code blue was called and about 20 doctors/midwives rushed in. It was a very scary experience but after 5-10 minutes he was bought over to us and screamed for 20 minutes straight! His entire face was bruised and his eyes were bloody but he was fine and safe and were so happy to finally meet him.
I still get tears thinking about it because it was so scary knowing that my baby wasn't breathing.
Here are some pics of him as a newborn and now at 7 months.
Oh congratulations on your second baby boy! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful story. Birth is such and amazing experience and a moment you will remember forever.
The birth of Harley Leonard - My 2nd gorgeous son
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