Indiana's arrival 19 February 2013

Bit of background!
For as long as I can remember I was always a little bit scared of the idea of labour. I am not very good with pain.
After TTC for such a long time, the joy and excitement of finally getting my BFP definitely outweighted my fear of birth! It wasn't until I was about 7 months pregnant I truly started to think about labour and how I was going to get through it. I watched One Born Every Minute every week as I needed to face what was going to happen!

I woke up at 33 weeks pregnant and decided I needed to change my mindset. I started thinking about the fact that this was my baby's big day and it was her birth, her labour and I had to make it awesome for her!

My pregnancy was hard, I had morning sickness relentlessly from week 6 to the very end. I threw up, I felt sick, I cried and felt sorry for myself, however I was always happy to finally be pregnant. I also was on daily clexane shots from week 4 - 34 which were painful, and made me feel even sorrier for myself! I was desperate for February to roll around I wanted this baby out!

Due to my blood clotting issue I was under the care of an Ob and he and I discussed just how far past my dates I was willing to go. He was supportive of me which ever way I wanted to play it, and we both agreed that 41 weeks was my absolute limit. I was anxious and of course sick!

As the days before 41 weeks crept closer I was feeling more confident in my body, and we had set an induction date for Wednesday 20th of February.

The story!
I went to bed at around 11.30pm on the Monday night, after a busy day of nesting, straightening my hair and finishing my hospital bag packing. I felt calm knowing that I had 2 more sleeps until my induction date. I was resigned to the fact that bub wasn't coming before that. I must have fallen asleep pretty much straight away and I was dreaming about being on facebook and having to find a toilet as I needed to pee. Next thing I woke up and felt a little pop. As I was half alseep I put my hand down my pj pants and thought oh great I have pee'd myself. I got up and wandered to the toilet. I then stood up and felt more trickle. I called out to DH and told him I think my waters had just broken! It was exciting! I didn't know what to do with myself, so checked the clock and it was 1.00am. I popped on a pad, felt more trickle and checked. I was crushed to see that my waters were army green coloured, and not just a bit, a lot. I decided to call the hospital and let them know what was happening. The midwife laughed as she was just preparing my file for my induction, she told us due to the meconium to head straight in. We jumped into action and headed off on the 35 minute drive to the hospital. We just chatted excitedly all the way!
i jumped out of the car at the other end and told DH to leave my stuff in the car, i am just taking my pillow! The thing here that surprised me, was that I never knew your waters would keep leaking! I could feel, more and more coming out as I walked. Funny that stuck in my mind. We had to go through emergency to get to the maternity unit. They were waiting for us with a wheel chair which I refused to get into, no way was sitting in my wet pad! The hospital was very quiet, as its a little country hospital and so we wandered the halls and didn't see anyone until we got to maternity.
They asked me was I having any contractions, which I wasn't just some period pains! So we were taken to an assessment room and put on the trace to check on bubs. The heartbeat was good no contractions, so it was agreed that DH would go home and get some rest and I would stay on the monitor. It was 3 am by this stage and I was taken to a room. I stayed on the monitor for a few hours, bubs was moving around a lot and seemed happy enough in there.
At 6am I agreed to a VE and my cervix was high and closed. Of course I was googling and I knew that this wasn't ideal! They were not going to let me just wait for labour to start. The midwife who did my VE said she had spoken to my Ob and he was wanting to get things going if they hadn't started by 8.00am.

DH came back at 8.30am, and we headed off to the delivery suite. There was no other women labouring so we got to chose a room! LOL nice. We also were hooked up with the midwife who ran our birth classes. It was nice to have a familiar face! She is around my age, she doesn't pull any punches but you can have a really good laugh with her, so I was stoked! At 8.55am, canula was in and I was hooked up to the drip - offically now being induced. All my thoughts of fitballs, showers and DH massaging me were out the window. I was a bit disappointed but reminded myself this was bubs birth and I wanted to stay positive. My contractions had started mildly after my 6am VE, but about 25 mins after the drip went in they were coming hard but irregular. DH was in the corner of the room reading the baby name book that he had packed! We didn't know what we were having and had yet to agree on a boys name!

By 10am I was having trouble with just how hard and long my contractions were, and I asked for an epidural. In a small hospital like this you need to take your chance that the epi man is available, the midwife had mentioned to me if I want one ask early! So at 10.30am I had a second VE and I was only 1cm, I was so sad! And the epi was put in. What I didn't know at this stage was my midwife and Ob were starting to talk CS, as bubs heart rate was dropping a bit with contractions. The epi made me itch all over and made my vagina tingle bahahahaaa it was weird!

DH then popped out to grab some food and make some phone calls and I called a friend as I was feeling good. I was still having trouble talking through my contractions, as I could feel them start at the top of my uterus, then it was numb as they rolled across my middle then I could feel them at the bottom of my tummy and in my vagina and bottom. I hung up from my friend and started my calm birth breathing, and I was wondering why this epi wasn't taking the pain away! DH came back and I asked him to time my contractions. The midwife, said she was heading off for a quick break and to buzz if we needed her. DH was timing, he was saying 3 minutes, then 2 minutes.....then a few contractions later they were 1 minute apart. OUCH...epi not working can't possiblly be working this was insane!
I was finding it really hard to do my deep long calm birth breaths and I found myself panting through the contractions. i was confused but followed my body's lead as this was making things feel better. My body was pushing and I was completely unable to stop it. I panted and panted! Then the shivers hit me, I was shaking all over and my teeth were chattering. I kept asking DH if I was ok, he said I was - not that he knew! Our midwife wandered back in the room, and there I was panting, shivering teeth chattering and I said to her "I can not stop the pushing. I know I am not meant to push but I can't help it". She told me she would do another VE, and the Ob came in to check on me. I did not even feel her do the VE I was in my own world. She looked up and said "Ok we are having a baby now". It was 12.30pm. I had gone from 1 cm to 10 cm in 2 hours, she gave me a hug and said no wonder you can feel it!

DH jumped up and assumed his coach position. I had a cry at this stage, just tears no sobs as the realisation that we were having a baby hit home! The midwife and Ob were coaching me on how to push. I started pushing into my bottom. Then I stopped. I declared that I was not pushing anymore as I didn't want to do a poo in front of DH. The room went quiet. The Ob declared "The rectal passage is clear, no chance of poo."
Relieved I continued to push. 3 big pushes per contraction. The pushing felt good as my body had been trying to push for 20 minutes and I was trying to stop it. It was amazing to just go with it. The midwife was amazing she was coaching me with every push. DH was supporting my back across my shoulders and telling me I could do it. After about 15 minutes I looked up at him and very quietly told him to shut up! That was the worst thing I said the whole time! He obeyed! The midwife told me she could see the baby's head and told me to open my eyes and she indicated what she could see was the size of a 20 cent piece. That nearly undid me. I then said well if thats it I am not doing this anymore! She locked me into her voice, the Ob went quiet and she said "Listen to me, you are doing it! Just listen to me you can do it!"

I had read lots of stories about the ring of fire. I think the best way of describing it was as a chinese burn on your vagina. I felt it from the very top of vagina and all the way down. It was so intense, it made me want to push but then not to push in case it got worse. I then got angry, I pushed like a mad woman and out popped the head. The midwife directed that I panted through the next contraction. The Ob had to unwind the cord from around bubs neck. I panted and panted.... then she said push and out came the rest of bub. What an amazing feeling! The way the body just slithers out was the best feeling in the world! I was over the moon I had done it! She made a cry and they popped her up on my chest! This amazing little girl was staring up at me!

DH cut the cord and I had 3 stitches and a big graze up the top on the inside of my labia - which was what I could feel the most in labour and after for days and days!

Our miracle girl arrived 12 hours after my water broke, and 4 hours and 2 minutes after my contractions were induced. We pushed for 27 minutes so it was all pretty quick!

Indiana May - 19th February
6 Pound 1 ounce - 2.75 kgs
Apgars 1 min - 9, 5 min - 9

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

Congratulations again on the birth of your baby daughter, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing your story :)

Biggest congratulations again

Congratulations on your long awaited little girl ;)

Congrats again :) Gorgeous story!

Oh Joeve I've been so excited to read your birth story! Congratulations again beautiful lady. X

Thanks for sharing, Joeve! Well done mumma :dance:

Oh congratulations Joeve! Such a wonderful story. Our thoughts are very similar I reckon :)

Congrats! Gorgeous story! Welcome Miss Indiana xxoo

Fantastic story - one I've been wanting to read for ages! You did so well bringing beautiful Indiana earthside. Congrats again, and thanks for sharing Jo!

Congrats again Joeve! A wonderful birth story!

Loves it! xo xo t

thats an awesome story Joeve, well done !

Huge congrats you did amazing x

Well done darling, congratulations on birthing your beautiful princess perfectly! xoxo

You did an amazing job Joeve. Well done!

What a wonderful job you did Joeve!! I did lol at the OB declaring "rectal passage clear" :rofl:

Congratulations joeve such a wonderful labour story to read, thank you for sharing xo

Beautiful story thanks for sharing cox

Huge congrats Joeve, thanks so much for sharing your wonderful birth story! Lol at the Chinese burn on your vagina :rofl:

What a great birth story love, congratulations! xxx

Beautiful story, thanks so much for sharing. Congratulations again on your beautiful girl.

Gorgeous birth story honey, congrats again xxx

Thank you for sharing your story Joeve. How funny that you switched off with the thought of pooing infront of DH in the midst of pushing your baby out.

congrats and thanks so much for sharing!

Yay!! congrats! thankyou for sharing your story =)

beautiful story from a beautiful mumma x

Gorgeous story joeve, very inspiring.

I loved reading this birth story. I loved your ob declaring your passage clear, as its a fear of mine too lol. Well done mumma xxx

Gorgeous story, congratulations!!

Congratulations on the birth of your little girl.
What an amazing story and a fantastic ending to your long journey. I am so happy you finally got the baby you’ve wanted for so long.

Congratulations :)