Finally I have decided I need to start my birth story before I forget details. So here goes.
It was 3rd September 2012 and I was 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. I was sitting on the couch reading a magazine at 6pm when the first contraction hit. I was unsure at first whether or not it was even a contraction. I decided to get my fit ball out just in case. I knew from my appointment the previous day that bub was engaged and I had been losing plug for about a week at this point. I noted down the time just in case this was it.
Sure enough about 15 minutes later another one hit so I decided to start bouncing on the ball. Another 15 minutes and another contraction hit. They were pretty tame at this point so I went and had a shower to see if I could move things along. I continued to have more in the shower. They were between 10-15 minutes apart. They continued like this all night so I was just pacing around, bouncing on the ball and using a heat pack.
The next day it was still going and contractions were continuing between 10-15 minutes apart. DH and I decided we would go for a walk to try and speed things up. We walked up and down our street so that we weren’t too far from home if anything happened. The neighbours would have been wondering what the fat pregnant lady and her husband were doing. Lol. It didn’t matter how much I walked it just would not move things along so I bounced and bounced on my ball to no avail. DH’s nan was over from New Zealand and we had organised to go out for tea with my parents and nan and DH’s nan and dad. I didn’t want to miss out and thought getting out and about would speed things up. At this stage I was just breathing through the contractions and concentrating on one breath at a time. When we got home they started to get more intense but still 10-15 minutes apart. I decided to ring the midwives just to let them know what had been happening and they wanted me to go in just to check on me.
When I got there they said it was early days so sent me home again and told me to keep doing what I was doing. At this stage I still hadn’t slept since the Sunday night and it was now Tuesday so I was quite tired. There was no way I could sleep though, I was too excited and they kind of hurt lol. Overnight they increased in intensity again and continued to get a bit closer together, down to 8 minutes. That continued throughout the Wednesday and by Wednesday night I was exhausted and sore. Midwives called me and asked me to go in and get checked again. They said I was right to go home and ride it out there. By the end of that night they were down to 5 minutes apart and lasting over a minute. I still hadn’t slept and hadn’t eaten for over a day. Thursday saw them getting down to 4 minutes apart and I continued to pace and bounce. I was beyond exhausted by this point. The midwives wanted to check me again so we made the journey in at 11pm Thursday night. They called my doctor and he wanted me to stay there. It was official, I was not going home without my baby. Yay.
I was given some pethidine to try and rest and get some sleep and DH slept on a fold out couch in the room. I didn’t sleep yet again and spent the night going between the toilet and sipping water. Finally the doctor came in to check me himself at 7pm on the Friday. By this stage the contractions were 3 minutes apart and I was about 2-3 centimetres dilated. The doctor decided to try and break my waters and put up a syntocinon drip to try and progress things quicker. He was unsure whether he had actually got the waters. I was then moved to the delivery suite and hooked up to the CTG to start to monitor things. The contractions were already starting to get closer together and I started to vomit. This whole time I was amazed by all the blood and gunk that kept coming out. I didn’t know that would happen.
DH rang my mum and she arrived about 10am with my dad. At that stage the contractions were quite intense and I was frustrated that they wanted me to continually be monitored so I kept going to the toilet just so I could be upright. Thankfully DH knew my wishes and told them that I had wanted an active labour and so we moved in to the shower. DH was amazing throughout and rubbed my back and seemed to know what I wanted or needed before I even knew I wanted or needed it.
Once I was in the shower things intensified so much. The contractions were only a minute apart and I couldn’t speak at all when they were happening. I kept losing gunk and remember apologising to DH for having to see that. I leant against the rail and just kept going from one foot to the other so I could concentrate on something other than the pain. I didn’t want to move out of the shower because the hot water was so good on my back.
At 1:30pm my doctor came to check on me so I had to get out much to my distaste. I hobbled over to the bed and crossed my fingers that I had progressed. Thankfully I was now 8cm dilated. I asked the doctor how long it would be now. He said it would be about an hour a centimetre and about an hour of pushing so about 3 hours. The midwife gave me some gas and air to see if that would help but it didn’t do anything. It just gave me something to concentrate on. The vomiting also came back with a vengeance. The midwife assured me that vomiting was good and it was just my body making progress. The midwife was starting to get a bit worried because each time I would contract bubs heartbeat would go down.
Five minutes later I had an overwhelming urge to push and told the midwife this. She told me to just listen to my body and push if I needed to. She then asked if I would allow a graduate nurse to come and watch the birth. I said yes. With the next contraction I began to push. The contraction after that I heard the nurse say to DH that she could see the head bulging. After she said that I was determined to get bubs head out with the next contraction. The next contraction came and I pushed with all of my might, amazed at how overwhelming the pushing urge is. Out came bubs head and I will never forget the look on DH’s face. He was so excited and so proud. At that point my doctor came back in and was shocked that I already had bubs head out. The next contraction came and again I pushed with all of my might and Amelia Jean was born. It took her a few seconds and then she started to cry. It was music to my ears. DH was so proud and in love with our little girl straight away. She was put onto my chest and I was in love. The poor grad nurse never got to see the birth but all had gone well. They took Amelia and weighed and measured her and she was 2670 Grams or 5lb 13.5oz. 48cm long and HC 32cm.
She was born on the 7th September at 2:19pm. About 20 minutes after I started pushing. As soon as she was handed back to me I put her on my breast and she started suckling like a pro straightaway. I could not believe that I had done it because I had doubted myself a lot in the lead up and the doctor had admitted he thought I would need a caesarean as I was so exhausted so I was very proud of myself. I ended up with a second degree tear that needed stitching but it was worth every minute for my gorgeous princess. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
