The birth of BlackRose's Little Lady

I decided to book in for an induction because I'd had such a great induced birth with my DS2. I needed to plan care for my other two kids and was relying on my sister and parents for help. So, I decided to book in for 14/5/14 (cool date huh?). Being private I was able to do this. I was 39+3 gestation, third vaginal birth so OB didn't have an issue with scheduling an induction.

Turned up at the hospital at 7am. Hung around in the birth suite until 8am when my OB came in to see me. She conducted a VE and confirmed I was 1cm dilated and so was able to break my waters without using any gels. The midwives couldn't get a drip started after a couple of attempts so unfortunately I had to wait until 10:30am before the anaesthetist was available to site a drip in my hand. Syntocin was started and I started feeling crampy, but nothing I couldn't handle. My mum (ex midwife) and sister (a nurse) and my hubs who had dropped off the boys with my other sister turned up around 9:30am.

I probably didn't get into established labour until 1pm when the contractions were around 2-3mins apart. Still, I could handle the pain, listening to my music and rocking on the Swiss ball. By 3pm I was contracting regularly and requested a VE to see how far Id come. I hopped up on the bed for the check. 4cm.. 4 lousy centimetres. I was disappointed to say the least. By this stage I asked for some gas and air as the contractions were every 2 mins now and quite painful. I stayed on the bed, sitting up because the CTG wasn't staying on properly when I was on the Swiss ball. I was able to manage the pain of the contractions with the gas and air and the next 2 hours went by fairly quickly. I remember watching bits of bold and the beautiful in between contractions.

At 5pm my OB turned up and did another VE. 6cm dilated. In my head I was ready to discuss epidurals. But, I never got the chance to ask!

The OB predicted at least another hour of labour and she left. I remember the midwife saying to her 'don't go far'. Because she was right. I was now having those rolling contractions, 1min apart, intense, hardly any break in between. I started losing it a little bit. I was continually sucking on the NO mouthpiece inbetween saying 'I can't do this, it hurts, I can't I can't' and I remember getting teary. By this stage mum had come round and was getting in my face to get me focused. My DH was holding my hand and the gas mouthpiece.

I remember having a contraction and then my body just took over and I started to push. I wasn't breathing I was just pushing. It was so strange. I actually felt like the world had closed in and other than the incredible pushing urge I couldn't focus on anything else. I knew I had to breathe but I couldn't because I was in the middle of bearing down. I could feel the baby move down and out, it was crazy! The midwife asked my husband to push the emergency button because she was the only one there, the head was already coming out and she didn't even have gloves or a gown on. Apparently 2 other mw rushed in to help but by that stage the head was out. My mum had me close to her, talking me through the last pushing bit telling me to breathe slowly and pant through the body being pushed out to avoid tearing. I remember reaching down to feel her little head and realised that I hadn't even noticed the crowning/burning feeling. And then, she just slithered out of me with no effort from me. I went from 6cm to pushing in 30mins. Talk about intense. My sister cut the cord and baby was taken away to be measured and given her needles. My OB turned up around 5:45pm just in time for the placenta to be delivered and to give me a couple of stitches from a 1st degree tearso she missed the entire birth! Her poor little forehead and nose was bruised from the quick transition through the birth but that cleared up within the first day.

My husband, who was not entirely enthusiastic about this pregnancy, held his daughter for the first time and cried. It was beautiful.

So, the stats:

1st Stage Labour: 4 hours (ish)
2nd Stage Labour: 5 mins
3rd Stage Labour: 15 mins

Name: Eloise Faye
DOB: 14th May 2014
Time: 17:36
Weight: 3.41kg
Length: 52cm
Head Circ: 35cm

Welcome to the world Little Lady. You are already so loved by so many, especially your two big brothers. Thank you for completing our little family :heartbeat:

Thank you for reading xx

Aww such a lovely story, sounds like you had some really great support! Good work mumma!

Congrats BR. Thankyou for sharing your story

Congratulations sounds like a fantastic birth ;)

Congratulations and well done. You did an awesome job :)

Thank you for sharing your story with us. Huge congrats!!!

Oh BR you've made me cry, how beautiful that your DH was so overcome with emotion, that's just wonderful.
There are some common elements to our birth stories that I can really feel your experience. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post my story soon too.
Congratulations again, great birth date too, it should have been mine as well, I ended up exactly 14 days over in the end.

Congratulations! thank you for sharing her birth journey :)

Well done and Congratulations :)

Naw great job Mama and thank you for sharing your beautiful story!! I so can't wait to give birth again too and after reading this I can't wait for the next 7 weeks or so to pass so I can meet my littlest man too! :)