Hi Ladies, Sorry it's taken so long to re-visit. This week has flown by and trying to find 5 minutes to myself is almost impossible at the moment with having baby Charlie and my 2 year old Alfie. I've just finished catching up on everything that i've missed in this last week, big congratulations to all you ladies with new babies, i'm glad they are slowly popping out.
I just wanted to share my birth story with you all. This time last week I was sat watching tv and felt so much movement from my little one that I joked to my partner that he was trying to come out sidewards, for the few days running up to the birth things had really gone quiet which had me quite worried with reduced movement, every hour I was drinking ice cold drinks just to feel the baby move to re-assure myself that baby was ok & getting my doppler out just to hear the heartbeat.
I remember going to bed as normal but did feel quite a heavy feeling down below whilst going up the stairs, he must have finally engaged down into my pelvis that night. I got in bed about 10.30pm and remember joking with James that if the baby came then it would get him out of doing his 7 day straight shift and then we dropped off to sleep, I awoke at about 1.20am with a bit of wind and the feeling that I needed to go to the toilet for a poo (sorry for too much information) I had to turn twice in bed because I was asleep on my right side and needed to turn onto my left side to get out of my bed, on both turns in bed I felt a little trickle of water, my first initial thought was that i'd wet myself and lost bladder control but it was actually my waters going, there was no big gush like there was with my first baby.
I sat on the toilet because the pressure in my bottom was quite heavy but nothing happened, that's when my stomach pains started and they radiated round into my lower back as well, I was still convinced I needed to do a poo and felt like I couldn't move off the toilet. The stomach pains got stronger and stronger so I got up off the toilet to go and wake my partner, when I wiped there was a lot of watery discharge, alot more than normal.
I woke James up and then had to go back to sit on the toilet again, it was the only place that I felt comfortable, James called the labour ward for me and had to pass the phone over to me so they could ask me various questions. The midwife wanted me to go and get some paracetamal and possibly run a bath and then call back in half an hour, I remember thinking who on earth has a bath at 1.30am in the morning and there was no way I could get into a bath with the amount of pain I was now in.
James called my dad so that he could come over and stay with my son Alfie who slept through all my moaning and groaning, we also woke my sister up too because she was my 2nd birth partner. After half an hour of sitting on the toilet I had to find the strength to walk back to the bedroom and when I wiped again I had a bloody discharge which must have been my mucas plug.
James had to get me dressed whilst I was leant over the bed, it was too painful for me to even dress myself, he dressed me in leggings and a white top which was a big mistake - white clothing and blood do not mix!
I called the hospital back and told them that i'd just lost my plug and that I really wanted to push, I still felt like I needed a poo, they told me to make my way in, they totally wasn't expecting to hear that!
Once my dad and sister arrived we left for the hospital which thankfully was only 10 mins down the road, the journey was absolute agony, I kept my eyes closed the whole way and squeezed anything I could lay my hands on to get through the pain.
We went straight to a delivery suite and the midwife wanted me to give a urine sample, I was in too much pain to even get on the bed so told her there was no chance of getting a sample, she got me hooked up with some gas and air which was a godsend, this enabled me to get onto the bed so she could examine me, I don't even remember feeling her examine me, she said I was fully dilated and couldn't feel any water and that I could start pushing when I felt ready. I started pushing before she could get her gloves on, I felt the urge to push and just went with what my body was telling me, after the first push I felt the babies head come out and then after the 2nd push he was born. Baby Charlie was born at 3.08am Monday morning weighing 8 pounds 5 oz. He cried straight away and was put on my stomach, I never had this experience with Alfie because he was premature and born at 32 weeks.
I had the injection to deliver the placenta and then had to be stitched due to a small tear. I had originally wanted a water birth but because he came so quick (1 hour 30 mins) they said they wouldn't have been able to fill the pool in time.
I had such a perfect labour once the pain relief kicked in, we had to stay on the ward till Tuesday afternoon due to Charlie not feeding, he swallowed so much fluid and mucas on his way out that it stopped him feeding, he was full up from all the mucas.
We are now home and trying to settle into a routine with breastfeeding which is up and down at the moment.
Good luck to all you ladies still waiting, it will finally come when you least expect it.