Hayley's story

About time I did this!

Our story starts I guess when she was conceived...after quite a few months of DF & I discussing having kids we finally decided to see how things went - I was on the pill, so I went off it and we would just "see what happened". I wasn't overly keen on having a baby so young, but DF was really wantingm kids so I agreed that we would let things happen if they wanted to. And boy did they want to! I conceived within the first month of being off the pill, would have been almost straight away as I never got my period. Went to the doctors for something else and while there mentioned I may be pg. She did a urine test and it was negative... somehow though I just knew she was wrong, perhaps it was too early to come back positive. Did a HPT a week later and it was positive. DF was so excited, I was excited but a little scared and aprehensive at the same time. And so started our journey...

My parents were not overly happy about the news and we even told them a little white lie, that I was still on the pill but it must have happened while I had "been sick" so wasn't as effective... they sounded quite disappointed TBH about what had happened, but DF's mum was stoked about the news so at least we had some support.

Pregnancy was uncomplicated, didn't have any problems...and so we fast forward to the end of the road...
DF's mum flew down a couple of weeks before I was due, my due date came and went and nothing...by a few days past my due date DF and MIL were getting worried, apparently all of the babies born in their family arrive early, any that have come late have had complications... kept trying to tell them it is perfectly normal for babies to be 'late' and I wasn't even that far over. Of course they wouldn't listen and I was starting to get sick of them both pestering me all the time and suggesting that I should get an induction!

Had an appointment at the hospital's pregnancy clinic on Wednesday 8 July (my due date was about 5 July). The dr asked if I would like to get a S&S done to see if that would get things going. I decided it couldn't hurt, and might get DF & MIL off my back so agreed to it. Procedure was done and dr said I was about 1cm dilated. Another appointment was made for the next Wednesday and I hoped I wouldn't be needing it!

Thursday morning in the shower I lost what I think was my plug, disappeared down the drain too fast to have a good look at it! Had a few aches and pains...DF made me call the maternity ward at 3am in the morning because he was worried the pains (period-like) weren't normal despite me trying to tell him it was fine.

Fast forward to about 3.30pm Saturday afternoon and MIL finally decided she was going to drive to Sydney to meet up with a few friends seeing as nothing was happening and she was bored out of her brain at our house... while she was discussing this with DF outside (prior to this we'd all had a bit of a an argument about things...mainly me being overdue and not 'doing' anything about it :wall: ) I had the funny feeling my waters were leaking...did the jump and down and cough test and nothing would come out, but every so often there would be a little trickle/tiny gush of fluid, i thought there was too much for it to be normal discharge. Just as MIL was coming back inside to tell me she was going to Sydney I was walking outside to tell them I think my waters had broken. She didn't end up going to Sydney! Called the hospital and they said to come in, so raced around packing my bag (which of course I still hadn't done! Lol).

Once at the hospital they took a urine sample, which once tested said my waters hadn't broken...by now the liquid had a bit of a pinky tinge to it. Was hooked up to the monitor and I was having contractions but I couldn't feel them at all! The midwife was really surprised that I couldn't feel anything and so was I as I have quite a low pain threshold! They did another test this time using a swab, which came back positive, so because my waters had broken I was admitted to the ward. We went for a walk to see if that got things moving and while out called my parents to let them know she was on the way. By that stage it was about 5.30/6pm. Went back to hossy and had dinner, DF went home to get a few things, mainly the laptop so he could do some work from the hospital. The room I was in had two beds but luckily the other was empty and was one they only used if they had no other beds left.

Things were moving along, although I didn't start to feel the contractions until about 8 or 9pm. But boy did I feel them then! I was given panadeine forte which did bugger all. DF & I jumped in the shower for a little while which helped a little. The midwife kept offering me sleeping pills so I could get some rest, I couldn't believe they would give me something like that...i declined, didn't want to be zonked out whilst in the active labour stages! I was given a shot of morphine but that did nothing as well except make me a bit wobbly on my feet... The contractions started getting really bad probably at about midnight, I was walking around the room and for each contraction had to hunch over the bed, at one stage i sort of crumpled onto the floor for each contraction!

Would have been at about 3 in the morning when I started feeling the urge to push. We called the midwife and started the walk up 2 small flights of stairs to get to the delivery room. Was so hard lifting my legs to get up the stairs! I got changed and knelt down at the end of the bed, midwife said I could push if I felt the need to so off I went. DF called his mum at around 4? And said she might want to come in, originally I hadn't wanted her in the delivery room, but by that stage I didn't care and sort of didnt take much notice she was there. Midwives came and went, i think we went through about 3 shift changes while I was in the delivery room,so had 3 or 4 different midwives!

I was pushing away on the floor for what seemed like forever, was this baby ever going to come out?!? I moved onto the bed and tried a few different positions, the contractions were getting so strong...the rest is all slightly blurry... but eventually they called the ob in, it was the same man that did the S&S a few days before. I nearly told him to bugger off a few times...he kept telling me to "shut my mouth and push"...I was just trying to breath! Was trying not to yell too much and just concentrate on pushing, but the contractions were really intense and it felt like I couldn't stop pushing. It was worse when he kept sticking his hand up there, I would just contract like crazy!

Finally they could see the top of her head, DF told me later he could see a lock of her hair. They decided to do a vacuum extraction as I had been pushing for over 3 hours and by this stage I was absolutely exhausted. He threatened that if the extraction didn't work they would have to do a c section which freaked me out! Seemed like forever until the pediatrician arrived, a doctor came up to put a canula in my arm - she was lucky I was so not focused on anything happening around me as the first time it didn't go in properly so had to do it again on my other arm and boy do those needles hurt! They started to give me syntocin I think, to help with getting the placenta out afterwards.

Finally they were ready to go..it was so uncomfortable when he was putting the suction cup on her head, once again I just couldn't stop pushing... first go went really well but it popped off before he could get her out far enough. Second time it worked. I pushed and pushed and the dr pulled...that felt horrible and the urge to push was so strong. They also had to give me an epi, thankfully the dr had given me a local anasthetic while they were waiting for the paed so didn't feel anything, all I remember is seeing the midwife pass the scissors to the doctor! :o

Once her head was out the rest of her slippery little body followed quickly and out came our little girl! The sensation of feeling her slide out was so strange! She arrived at 7.47am (our little aeroplane! No forgetting that time! Lol) on Sunday 12 July.

They placed her quickly on my tummy while DF cut the cord, then took her away to check her over (as she had an assisted delivery) while I was stitched up. The first thing I asked was "is it a girl?"...we found out at our 20 week ultrasound we were having a girl, but towards the end I was so worried we were going to have a boy, and we had all these pink clothes and no boy's name picked out!

She was perfect. Had a tiny red mark on her head from the vacuum but it disappeared within about 10 minutes - no egg head like the dr said she might! She had so much hair too it was amazing! They finally brought her over so I could hold her while the ob finished stitching...towards the end it hurt so much I was crying but he wouldn't give me another jab of local because he was just about finished...even the midwife said hey it is really hurting her!

So that was our little girl's arrival into the world, it was such an amazing experience and I'm so glad DF was there to share it. He started crying when she came out, I thought he might! Lol. Our little one is absolutely gorgeous and I have no regrets about making the decision to 'let nature decide', despite what my parents think!

Wow..thanks for reading if you got this far, you deserve a medal! I just wanted to include as much detail as possible so it's here for me to read later on, and I don't want to forget anything (except how much it hurt!) :lol:

Congratulations, it's amazing what our bodies can do on their own, your a very strong woman to go that long and put up with people putting their two cents in.. hehe

I hope your gorgeous girl is happy and healthy and your enjoying every minute of it.

Feel free to read about my DD Ava's birth, Ava's Unexpected Breach Homebirth, it's another... what your body can do story.

Congrats again you did a wonderful job.:clap:

You did a fantastic job, well done!

Thanks for sharing your story :D

You did so well :D

Congratulations :D

fantastic job hun, congratulations

Nae x x x

Well done! It read almost like my 1st delivery all the way down to the suction help. I had a laugh when I read 'close your mouth and push', as that's exactly what I was told! No point in letting the energy out our mouth...gotta focus it much lower!

Well done & congratulations

Congratulations and welcome to the world Hayley!