8 April 2013 - The super speedy arrival of Zoe Alexis

So I was due with our 4th baby (we didnt know the sex) on April 7th.... and since I had had quick labour with my last daughter 5 years earlier we decided to prepare for a home birth.

I found the last 2 weeks of pg really hard as all my girls arrived just after 38 weeks so by Sat 6th April I was well and truly over it.

My midwife had agreed to come over at 12 and do a stretch and sweep to see if we could get things going. I also had a student midwife who was following me through. I offered to let the student also do a internal so she could have a feel and learn before my midwife did the s & s. So any way it was done and I was 3-4cm dilated extremely soft and about 2cm thick.. which apparently isnt all that exciting for 4th baby ... LOL so we were instructed to DTD later on that night. ahh such romance

So it was decided that DH attend the wedding we had been invited to but I stayed home with the girls. Thankfully the night was uneventful and we did as we were told when he got home from the wedding (he did come home straight after all formalities were done) Positive thinking wise i had decided to set up the lounge room the way i wanted it for birth, mattress out, towels set up on table and all the bits and pieces organised.

about 4am i woke with a gut ache... and proceeded to head to toilet.. empty everything and went back to sleep. LOL

At about 5:45am i woke up again and just felt odd, hoped out of bed and headed down to the lounge, started to feel a contraction which was more pressure then pain so didnt really get my hopes up yet. The next one came about 6am and I decided to message my student saying I think something was evetually going to happen today and decided to page my midwife JIC.
Perfect timing as it was as it was my midwifes turn to man the phones over night so she rang back pretty quick and asked if we were having a baby and I told her I thought so but still wasnt sure (6:10am) she said she would come anyway. So Dh messaged student and told her to come also.

After I hung up from midwife I felt a small pop but only a trickle so I headed to bathroom to check... figured it was my waters and yep all clear so happy there.. decided to ring my mum (she was my girls support person) and we were umming and arhing whether she should head down but decided that it was better safe then sorry (that was at 6:21am got to love time stamps on messages and phone calls)

Had a fairly pressured not so painful contraction in the bathroom, with Dh standing behind me... i remember telling him he could go grab the paper from outside if he wanted LOL then realising that I lost my plug on the floor so told him not to look down as it was yuck ROFL

Managed to walk back to the lounge and made DH turn it around so i could lean on it but still have the mattress under me...

I got another full on contraction and managed to sway through it but remember looking at the clocking thinking right midwife lives 30min away and its been about 15 min since phone call, she should make this.

The next contraction I was halfway through and remember saying I dont think i can do... oh **** because i had realised exactly where I was in labour and I was transitioning and with my next contraction i was going to need to push and the midwife wasnt going to make it. The next contraction came about a min or so later and I felt her head descend quite quickly and DH was kneeling behind me with me telling him her heads coming.. Her head was completely out by the finish of that contraction.
LOL DH was supporting her head and I remember him saying well are you going to push the rest of her out.. and me telling him to hang on a sec i needed to wait... it was only about 30 secs later that the next contraction came and I felt her cork screw out and DH guided her to the bed and we both looked down and exclaimed at the same time its a girl!!! A girl with a awesome set of lungs!!! 6:36am!!

(im not entirely sure where the girls were at this stage and neither is DH but they did appear once they heard baby cry and apparently saw a whole heap of mess ROFL but they all seemed to cope really well and dont seem traumatised)

I cant remember how i managed to turn over but I did and and we placed her on my chest and kinda just stared for a sec.. One of the older girls brought over a towel and we covered her up and just waited for the midwife to arrive.

The midwife arrived about 10min later and was greeted by 3 very excited little girls at the door with the baby is here already calls!! She came down and had a quick check that we were fine and saw yep all good, set her bag down and started getting prepared to check over and deliver the placenta... the student walked in about 5min after that and I had to laugh when I heard her exclaim the babies here already?

So anyway the midwife check us over and tried to get me into a more suitable position to deliver placenta but it was kinda awkward so we decided to cut the cord and let DH take Zoe so i could adjust myself. DH cut the cord and took bubs.. it was about then my mum arrived and DH went to let her in. He had bubs with him in a towel and her cry out when she realised that baby was already here.. was kinda awesome to hear.

To help deliver the placenta we put bubs to breast and it came out fully intact very easily.

We were left to just bond for the next hr or so while they completed paper work etc and just monitored us.

Full stats were

1hr 10min labour inc physiological stage of the placenta

Zoe Alexis arriving on her due date!
3650 grams or 8lb 1oz
51cm long
35cm HC

No tears or grazes for mum

Amazing amazing birth and im thrilled that DH was the one to guide his baby girl into the world (lol as much as he planned on being at the non business end) they will now have a bond that no one can break and not many are lucky enough to experience.

That's amazing. Well done.

That is so amazing and so beautiful. You are so very lucky. xx Enjoy your babymoon!

what an amazing entrance to the world! ! congrats!

Wow that sure was fast! Awesome that he got to help deliver his little girl too!

Congratulations! Sounds like an amazing birth.

Sounds like a fantastic birth Beatrix. Congratulations!

Amazing! In tears at my desk at work as I read this.
Congratulations to all of you x

Wow. What a birth. Well done

Gosh that is amazing. I'm feeling very teary. Congratulations and welcome Zoe!

Thanks for sharing Beatrix, what an amazing birth and well done by your dh too. Hope you enjoy your babymoon and your little girl.

Beautiful birth story! You did an amazing job birthing your little girl at home, congratulations!

Wow that gave me chills, what a truly amazing birth!

Beautiful story!

I've said it and I'll say it again, you're made to birth! Lovely story babe, and congrats again. Welcome Zoe!

Congratulations on the arrival of Zoe. :D

A beautiful birth story, congratulations & thank you for sharing xxx

Far out, what an awesome birth! Well done Bea and hubby!