31st May 2012 the arrival of Miss Chloe
At week 36 my ob gave me an internal and declared I was 2cm dilated. DH decided this was exactly the encouragement needed to get me packing my bag! However, despite many bh, little spud was happy where she was. Week 38 came around and my ob was going on holidays so I suggested he did a stretch and sweep (apparently not many women volunteer this according to him :)) I was now 3cm and had a bulging membrane. The next few days I had a lot of false labours, 15 min apart for a couple of hours then nothing.
Come 29th May I had a terrible sleep, on and off false labour all night woke up in the morning and nothing. This little spud was teasing her mummy!!!
Wednesday night we were meant to be going out but I was feeling a bit tired and wanted a bath. DH went out alone, and had a lovely bath with rose oil, soaked away and relaxed. DH came home, we had a shower and whilst in there I started to get some contractions. 11.20pm was the magic time. Contractions started 5 min apart. Oh boy let's move through these. They were steadily get more intense. Decided maybe we should call the hospital. Midwife said she could see I wanted an active birth on my birth plan, so stay at home as long as I could so I could do as I pleased. When at 2 min apart call again. 2.30am rolled around and we were at 2 min apart. At this stage I had kept walking and humming through each contraction. Had another shower and moved in the shower to get through this "healthy pain". If I tried laying down it was excruciating so I just kept walking. Got to the hospital at 2.45am. I had to lay on the bed so the midwife (who was fantastic) could do an internal to check progress. Talk about pain when I stopped moving! I was 7cm! She needed to monitor me for 30 min because of my GD. I had to puff the gas to get through the contractions in this time.
After half an hour I could get up and move again. Left the gas for bit and kept pacing and pacing, humming and humming. Contractions started getting even stronger so I combined moving and gas. ( apparently DH said I looked like I was at a John Butler Concert :)) Started feeling tired from my walking but couldn't lay down. Ended up laying on my side on the bed, holding onto the gas for dear life. Midwife said to let her know when I felt pressure down there to push. Next contraction I felt pressure. She said I'd need to roll on my back so she could check for me. Oh the agony to move! She did her internal and I was 9.5cm, still a little bit to go! Fill in ob should be here any time...
Meanwhile midwife gets midwife 2 just in case I go to fast before ob gets here. Next contraction I HAD to push. I was squeezing DH's hand and pushing like a coffee plunger! Contraction would finish and I could feel her slip back in a little! Worst feeling at that stage because it was like at the end of pushing you lose progress! Started to panic and midwife 2 said its ok, it's meant to happen. Ok I could cope with that!
Started to crown and ob rocks up (don't think they expected me to progress so fast!) a few more pushes and out came her head and her body just slipped right out. 5.15 am our little spud arrived. DH cut her cord and she was wiped and place on my bare tummy. She just lay there crying her little lungs out and staring at me. It was such a profound feeling thinking of the journey we had just been through to finally meet. She was then put up to my breast for a suckle while I birthed the placenta. It felt so good for it to be gone. They inspected me for damage, no tearing YAY, just some grazes to the urethra.
Little Chloe was weighed in at 3700 g and 50.5cm. Her Daddy then got to hold his precious little girl. She is just the most perfect little thing :)
So my labour was 5 hours 50 minutes from start to finish, obviously she is as determined as her mummy.
Talk about falling in love!
