L
LilMiss_91
Guest
I was due to give birth on the 7th July. But it seemed that bubs wasn't interested in coming out! I went overdue and had a sweep on the 11th where I was told my cervix was thinning and about 1cm dilated. I had a teensy hit of cramping during the sweep but absolutely nothing after that! By Saturday evening (13th) I'd given up hope that the sweep had had any effect. But I woke at 6am Sunday morning with mild period like cramping. It wasn't the first time I'd had them in the last few weeks though so I didn't get my hopes up. I waited an hour and the cramps kept coming roughly every 20-25mins. I downloaded a contraction timer onto my phone to make timing easier. I highly recommend getting one of these if you hadn't already thought of it! When this had gone on for nearly 2hrs I told my OH and my parents and basically told them to not get there hopes up but I thought something was happening!
The contractions kept coming and got slowly closer together and more uncomfortable but they were still very irregular, anywhere between 2mins and 20mins apart. I was hooked up to my TENS machine (again, HIGHLY recommended!) Around 6pm they were becoming so uncomfortable I could no longer talk or walk while having one, all I could do was rock my hips and breathe through it. I went for a short walk where the contractions kept coming every 3mins but slowed back down once I was home again. It carried on like that all evening until it got to 9.30pm and I decided to take a warm bath for the pain. Bad idea. Well, good and bad! It made the contractions so much stronger and so much more painful I couldn't stand it. And without my TENS machine I freaked out a bit! I only stayed in the bath about 15mins as it was so unbearable. The contractions continued at 4-5mins apart and lasting over a minute after that so at 10.30pm (with my TENS machine safely hooked back up lol) I rang the hospital. The midwife I spoke to was majorly patronising and told me that when I needed to come in my contractions would be much stronger (I had one while on the phone to her) and she told me to take a paracetamol and to "get some rest" and call back when I'd had contractions 2-3mins apart for an hour. I was fuming. How could she tell how strong my contractions were?! Just because I wasn't screaming down the phone didnt mean anything. Ugh. Anyway. So I kept walking around the house and my mum and OH stayed up with me bless them. At around 11.30/12 contractions were at around 2-4mins apart and extremely uncomfortable. Finally, after what felt like days, my contractions finally settled at 2-3mins apart for an hour around 2-3am. I rang the hospital again and they agreed I should go in. So we packed everything into the car and made our way up to the hospital with my parents in convoy and arrived there about 4am. Thankfully there was room on the midwife led unit which is what I'd hoped for. My midwife spent a long time telling me that I was probably still in early labour and that I couldn't stay unless I was 4cm dilated or more. She eventually got round to checking me internally and was extremely surprised to find I was a good 6cm! She apologised and said that she hadn't thought I was so far along because of how quiet I was through contractions and because I was still talking and joking between them lol. She even went and told all the other midwives on the unit and they couldn't believe it either! So anyway, I continued with just my TENS machine until about 6-7ish and then suddenly my contractions got much stronger and actually what I would call painful for the first time so I asked for some gas and air which was brilliant. It was just strong enough to take the edge off but I was still totally aware of how my contractions felt and what was happening. My water broke shortly after this with a very short, sharp contraction. I just kept trickling down my leg lol ew! At about 8am the midwife suggested that I go into the loo and self examine myself internally and see if I could feel baby's head. When I checked, to my absolute amazement, I felt bubs' head less than a finger's length inside, about an inch and a half, which totally freaked me out! When I told the midwife she was like, "brilliant! Let's start pushing and have a baby then!" I was like, "WHAT?!" It all suddenly seemed very real and I realised what I was about to have to do lol. I didn't know what to do with myself. I ended up on all fours on the bed (just a mattress on the floor). I started pushing and after 18mins, and about 5 pushes he arrived! He was born partially veiled, with it just over his head which is meant to be incredibly lucky. Not a single cry or even a whimper. He was just there, eyes wide open and staring up at me. Absolutely perfect in every way. A full head of dark hair and big, dark blue eyes. It was totally incredible. Despite spending 9months wondering what he would look like, as soon as I saw him it was like I'd always known, almost like I recognised him which is really odd! My mum, who was there throughout, cut the umbilical cord (OH was too squeamish lol).
I passed the placenta naturally and according the midwife she said it was huge! Passing that was worse than giving birth. You know on the fresh meat counter at the supermarket, they have the chicken livers in a little dish? It literally felt like a huge one of those coming out. Not painful at all just really gross! Lol. I had one borderline 1st/2nd degree tear which didn't need stitches and I lost a minimal amount of blood. All in all I couldn't have asked for more from my birth experience. Bubs was born weighing 7lbs 13oz and had an apgar score of 9 out of 9. We decided to call him Elias John Bodhi. He gets called Eli or Bodhi for short
If you made it to the end, well done! Thanks for reading
The contractions kept coming and got slowly closer together and more uncomfortable but they were still very irregular, anywhere between 2mins and 20mins apart. I was hooked up to my TENS machine (again, HIGHLY recommended!) Around 6pm they were becoming so uncomfortable I could no longer talk or walk while having one, all I could do was rock my hips and breathe through it. I went for a short walk where the contractions kept coming every 3mins but slowed back down once I was home again. It carried on like that all evening until it got to 9.30pm and I decided to take a warm bath for the pain. Bad idea. Well, good and bad! It made the contractions so much stronger and so much more painful I couldn't stand it. And without my TENS machine I freaked out a bit! I only stayed in the bath about 15mins as it was so unbearable. The contractions continued at 4-5mins apart and lasting over a minute after that so at 10.30pm (with my TENS machine safely hooked back up lol) I rang the hospital. The midwife I spoke to was majorly patronising and told me that when I needed to come in my contractions would be much stronger (I had one while on the phone to her) and she told me to take a paracetamol and to "get some rest" and call back when I'd had contractions 2-3mins apart for an hour. I was fuming. How could she tell how strong my contractions were?! Just because I wasn't screaming down the phone didnt mean anything. Ugh. Anyway. So I kept walking around the house and my mum and OH stayed up with me bless them. At around 11.30/12 contractions were at around 2-4mins apart and extremely uncomfortable. Finally, after what felt like days, my contractions finally settled at 2-3mins apart for an hour around 2-3am. I rang the hospital again and they agreed I should go in. So we packed everything into the car and made our way up to the hospital with my parents in convoy and arrived there about 4am. Thankfully there was room on the midwife led unit which is what I'd hoped for. My midwife spent a long time telling me that I was probably still in early labour and that I couldn't stay unless I was 4cm dilated or more. She eventually got round to checking me internally and was extremely surprised to find I was a good 6cm! She apologised and said that she hadn't thought I was so far along because of how quiet I was through contractions and because I was still talking and joking between them lol. She even went and told all the other midwives on the unit and they couldn't believe it either! So anyway, I continued with just my TENS machine until about 6-7ish and then suddenly my contractions got much stronger and actually what I would call painful for the first time so I asked for some gas and air which was brilliant. It was just strong enough to take the edge off but I was still totally aware of how my contractions felt and what was happening. My water broke shortly after this with a very short, sharp contraction. I just kept trickling down my leg lol ew! At about 8am the midwife suggested that I go into the loo and self examine myself internally and see if I could feel baby's head. When I checked, to my absolute amazement, I felt bubs' head less than a finger's length inside, about an inch and a half, which totally freaked me out! When I told the midwife she was like, "brilliant! Let's start pushing and have a baby then!" I was like, "WHAT?!" It all suddenly seemed very real and I realised what I was about to have to do lol. I didn't know what to do with myself. I ended up on all fours on the bed (just a mattress on the floor). I started pushing and after 18mins, and about 5 pushes he arrived! He was born partially veiled, with it just over his head which is meant to be incredibly lucky. Not a single cry or even a whimper. He was just there, eyes wide open and staring up at me. Absolutely perfect in every way. A full head of dark hair and big, dark blue eyes. It was totally incredible. Despite spending 9months wondering what he would look like, as soon as I saw him it was like I'd always known, almost like I recognised him which is really odd! My mum, who was there throughout, cut the umbilical cord (OH was too squeamish lol).
I passed the placenta naturally and according the midwife she said it was huge! Passing that was worse than giving birth. You know on the fresh meat counter at the supermarket, they have the chicken livers in a little dish? It literally felt like a huge one of those coming out. Not painful at all just really gross! Lol. I had one borderline 1st/2nd degree tear which didn't need stitches and I lost a minimal amount of blood. All in all I couldn't have asked for more from my birth experience. Bubs was born weighing 7lbs 13oz and had an apgar score of 9 out of 9. We decided to call him Elias John Bodhi. He gets called Eli or Bodhi for short
If you made it to the end, well done! Thanks for reading
