Joshua was 17 days late and I was going insane, particularly as I was absolutely convinced that being my second he would come early. I was prepared from 38 weeks AND telling everyone that I just KNEW that he would be early (seeing as I am so in tune with my baby)!!! How things can bite you on the bum!!!
Well 12 days over they booked me in for an induction – the following Wednesday. I was so not impressed with that, couldn’t they see how huge I was and that my husband had already been on leave for two weeks? DH was making the most of his time off and ripping out walls, ripping up carpet and polishing floors. Insanity was creeping in and my 22 month old was making the most of mummy being a beached whale.
Well Monday came and I went into the birth centre and begged for a strip and stretch (so much for REFUSING internals – I was desperate). Well not even that worked. Wednesday morning came and I was so excited, I would have my baby boy and I wouldn’t have to answer the standard question anymore ‘Are you still here?’ (Duh, what does it look like!!)
The birth centre called me at 7am, 10 minutes before we were going to leave to say that the birth centre was full and my midwife had been up all night delivering and that they would have to postpone the induction. I bawled. I had Lochie at a friends, I had my Mum and Aunt off work for the day I wanted the baby out!!
I wanted Joshua out!
At 10am the birth centre called back to say that if I was willing to have the baby in the labour ward and then transfer to the birth centre and have the on-duty midwife I could come in. I didn’t care. We went in and had all of the normal checks. The midwife assured me that everything would be fine because I have a good sized pelvis, in fact I could drive a Mac truck through it apparently (thanks). At 12pm a doctor came in and broke my waters. I was told to walk, so about 1/2 an hour later we went for a walk. I was dying for a latte so we went to go the coffee shop. At 1pm I got a mild contraction. 5 minutes after that it was a bit stronger.
We got back to the room and all of the family was there. They were now coming every 2 minutes. I stood leaning on the table breathing through the contractions while the family were having a picnic lunch in the corner. As the contractions got worse my Mum and Aunt cried every time I made a noise. At 2pm the staff called my midwife to come in to deliver my baby. She arrived at 2.30pm and soon after I entered transition. I stripped to a singlet top and undies and went into the shower where the family took it in turns to put the hot water on me. After pushing 3 times I delivered my 9lb 11oz or 4.4kg son on my hands and knees on the shower floor.
All in all it was a 2 hour labour from first mild contraction. I did it with no drugs, just used position and hot water and tonnes and tonnes of positive encouragement from my wonderful husband and mum, aunt and cousins. I put him to the breast almost immediately and he has breastfed like a little champion ever since.
I felt so great after it that I asked to go home – no such luck, but I did leave early the next morning.
What an awesome experience, I can’t wait to do it again. My only fear is that it will be 12lb and I will sneeze it out!!!
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