The birth of Alexandra Charlotte 05/06/12
Somehow despite all the drama throughout my pregnancy and indications that she would ever make it anything close to term, DD3 was still snug at 41+1. The day before her birth was a public holiday and DDs 1 and 2 were spending the afternoon with my parents. DH and I had a date day and went down to Hillarys Marina and waddled around for a while enjoying the sun. That night I joked that the full moon might bring some action, and I was certainly hopeful when I went to bed with lots of prelabour. Was woken at 5am with strong contractions but then nothing 30 minutes later. Great. More prelabour with nothing to show for it!! At 8.20am I was sitting on a kitchen stool doing DD2’s hair when I felt wet – nothing much and hadn’t felt a pop so half joked to DH that maybe I’d wet myself. Dropped the girls to kindy and pp on the way to hospital, which caused lots of excitement for the teachers and mums who were told what was happening and had all been amazed to see me still “in one piece” after the long weekend.
Called the hospital from the car and told them we were on our way. After DD2’s speedy birth my OB and I were both concerned I wouldn’t make it to hospital, so when we got there found that he had organised a box of stuff ready to meet us in the carpark. Unfortunately (I think!!) absolutely nothing was happening. As in NOTHING. No dilation or effacing, no contractions. I have no idea how many laps we walked or how many hours we played cards for but it wasn’t until 3.30 pm that I had anything close to a contraction. Then nothing. By 5pm I was starting to wonder if I would be meeting my baby that day. Around 5.30 pm strong contractions started but were still pretty hit and miss. DD was posterior so they were pretty ouchy. I had been in the shower and was now leaning over my the back of my bed, and resting on my pillow that I’d brought from home in between. Come 7pm I was struggling a bit with increased intensity and feeling like they were rolling through on top of each other so asked for some gas. I’ve never had it before and it was the worst thing I could have done – does anybody like that stuff??? Barely hit my lungs before I was sick, and all I could think about was not vomiting on my pillow! Needless to say that was the first and last of the gas so I headed back into the shower, really disappointed the whole time that the bath suite was out of commission being renovated.
My Ob was waiting for one of his other patients to be ready for a c-section so was checking on me every now and then. DH was being fantastic wiping my face with a cold flannel, or rubbing my lower back – all while not being offended when I snarled at him when it crossed the split second of being perfect and being awful. At about 8.30pm I felt a change in the contractions and felt the beginnings of a want to push, but thought I couldn’t be ready yet so got through a couple of them before telling the midwife I was feeling a little pushy. She went and got my Ob who said yep, she’s right there. Told me to push on the next contraction and out came her head with the first push. Panted a couple of seconds then pushed her all out into my hands and I brought her up onto my chest. DH cut her cord when it stopped pulsing and then he took her for weighing, measuring etc. While this was going on my OB is giving me the very good news that I have no tears or grazes. Yay. A is immediately on the breast having her first feed – not enthusiastic but a start. Got up to the ward an hour or so later and the poor little chook is so full of mucus that she’s very unsettled – which lasts until 2.30 am when she finally goes to sleep and stays that way for the next 7 hours.
Spent only a few hours the next morning on the ward before deciding that I just had to get out of there so made arrangements to leave the next day – both DH and I had had a week of terrible sleeps so figured we would have one more night where at least he could have a night at home alone to catch up a bit. Lexie proved to be a perfect sleeping girl and after being unsettled until about 1am sleep through until 8am so I got some rest too. Bliss.
Since her birth she’s cleared out heaps of gunk and is feeding reasonably well, although is a sleepy, lazy feeder which I’ve never experienced before so it’s a little odd. Touch wood, she seems to be a pretty easy going baby – again something I’ve no experience of – so am really hoping that while its early days, its an indication of things to come.
All in all, while the day was a bit drawn out with nothing happening for hours and I could have done without the added pain of her being posterior, it was really a beautiful birth for my miracle last child.
Alexandra Charlotte
Born 8.49pm 5 June 2012 (my parents’ wedding anniversary)
3.93 kgs
53cm long
