Keebs
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After a really lovely home waterbirth with my first I was hopeful my 2nd would arrive the same way.
At 40 + 4 I woke up feeling a lot of pressure down below and having intermittent contractions which I was able to walk and talk through. Dropped my daughter off at nursery and came home to set up the birth pool and generally tidy up. Popped the TENS on around 10am and gently pottered about, contractions were 5 to 6 minutes apart and lasting 40 seconds or so. Things kind of fizzled out though and by 4:30pm I'd stopped timing and no longer needed the boost button on the TENS.
Was disappointed and thought there may be days and days of this to come, just in case though I sent my daughter off to stay with her grandad to see if I could get back in the 'zone'.
I sat on my ball and watched a film. By 8pm I was having to get up and walk through each contraction but they were still erratic anywhere from 30 seconds to 60 seconds and coming every 5 to 20 minutes.
At 10:20pm I text my sister who was to be my birth partner to say contractions were every 4 to 5 minutes but still very manageable and I would keep her posted.
At 11:20pm I burst into tears and decided I couldn't do this anymore. Suspecting I was hitting transition I text my sister to say could she come along as things were progressing but no rush as still coping well with contractions. I called the hospital to ask them to send the midwife, they asked my symptoms and listened in on a contraction. They felt it was probably too early for anyone to come out but agreed to get the on call midwife to phone me.
As soon as I hung up the phone another contraction hit and the game changed. Up until now I'd coped with contractions with low groans and swaying, but all of a sudden I was stuck crouched on the floor almost growling through the contractions. There was little to no break between them. My sister arrived and set to filling up the pool. in the short break between contractions I managed to tell her I was waiting on the on call midwife calling me back.
Felt the need to pee so dragged myself to the loo and immediately started pushing. Worried I would have baby on the loo but I couldn't get off the blasted thing because my body just kept pushing with no break in between. My poor sister was a little panicked and called the hospital again to say things were progressing faster than thought and we hadn't yet heard from the midwife on call.
The baby started crowing while she was on the phone so they told her to give me a mirror so I could double check but the head was out anyway. I'd instinctively put my hand down to cradle the head as it came out and finally managed to get off the loo and squatted over a bundle of towels for her body to emerge. She cried as soon as I picked her up and pinked up beautifully. Her cord was quite short though so I was stuck on the bathroom floor cradling her to my tummy.
The hospital midwifes called an ambulance and assured us the on call midwife was definitely on her way too. They offered to stay on the phone until help arrived but there was no need, on my part anyway, I think my sister would have liked to have kept them there. She was pretty shocked by the whole thing and kept running out the front door asking where the hell everyone was (turns out I was white as a sheet and shivering madly and she was very worried about me). Shortly after hanging up the phone I asked what time it was. 11:56pm so a best guess at time of birth is 11:50pm.
The paramedics arrived at 00:10 and cut the cord, I wanted to use a cord tie but they weren't keen. We agreed to use their clamp and they would leave the cord longer than normal so I could sort the tie later. They wanted to take me to hospital but turns out that was because no one had told them the midwifes were on there way so they helped me into the living room and sat with us until the midwifes arrived at 00:25. Baby was a little chilled but fortunately warmed up with some proper skin to skin. the midwifes left about 2am after filling out their paperwork as best they could.
I have no idea what time my waters went as I never actually felt them go but I strongly suspect it was when my contractions changed just after calling the hospital.
My beautiful daughter was 7lb 9.5oz and 50cm long. I love her very much
At 40 + 4 I woke up feeling a lot of pressure down below and having intermittent contractions which I was able to walk and talk through. Dropped my daughter off at nursery and came home to set up the birth pool and generally tidy up. Popped the TENS on around 10am and gently pottered about, contractions were 5 to 6 minutes apart and lasting 40 seconds or so. Things kind of fizzled out though and by 4:30pm I'd stopped timing and no longer needed the boost button on the TENS.
Was disappointed and thought there may be days and days of this to come, just in case though I sent my daughter off to stay with her grandad to see if I could get back in the 'zone'.
I sat on my ball and watched a film. By 8pm I was having to get up and walk through each contraction but they were still erratic anywhere from 30 seconds to 60 seconds and coming every 5 to 20 minutes.
At 10:20pm I text my sister who was to be my birth partner to say contractions were every 4 to 5 minutes but still very manageable and I would keep her posted.
At 11:20pm I burst into tears and decided I couldn't do this anymore. Suspecting I was hitting transition I text my sister to say could she come along as things were progressing but no rush as still coping well with contractions. I called the hospital to ask them to send the midwife, they asked my symptoms and listened in on a contraction. They felt it was probably too early for anyone to come out but agreed to get the on call midwife to phone me.
As soon as I hung up the phone another contraction hit and the game changed. Up until now I'd coped with contractions with low groans and swaying, but all of a sudden I was stuck crouched on the floor almost growling through the contractions. There was little to no break between them. My sister arrived and set to filling up the pool. in the short break between contractions I managed to tell her I was waiting on the on call midwife calling me back.
Felt the need to pee so dragged myself to the loo and immediately started pushing. Worried I would have baby on the loo but I couldn't get off the blasted thing because my body just kept pushing with no break in between. My poor sister was a little panicked and called the hospital again to say things were progressing faster than thought and we hadn't yet heard from the midwife on call.
The baby started crowing while she was on the phone so they told her to give me a mirror so I could double check but the head was out anyway. I'd instinctively put my hand down to cradle the head as it came out and finally managed to get off the loo and squatted over a bundle of towels for her body to emerge. She cried as soon as I picked her up and pinked up beautifully. Her cord was quite short though so I was stuck on the bathroom floor cradling her to my tummy.
The hospital midwifes called an ambulance and assured us the on call midwife was definitely on her way too. They offered to stay on the phone until help arrived but there was no need, on my part anyway, I think my sister would have liked to have kept them there. She was pretty shocked by the whole thing and kept running out the front door asking where the hell everyone was (turns out I was white as a sheet and shivering madly and she was very worried about me). Shortly after hanging up the phone I asked what time it was. 11:56pm so a best guess at time of birth is 11:50pm.
The paramedics arrived at 00:10 and cut the cord, I wanted to use a cord tie but they weren't keen. We agreed to use their clamp and they would leave the cord longer than normal so I could sort the tie later. They wanted to take me to hospital but turns out that was because no one had told them the midwifes were on there way so they helped me into the living room and sat with us until the midwifes arrived at 00:25. Baby was a little chilled but fortunately warmed up with some proper skin to skin. the midwifes left about 2am after filling out their paperwork as best they could.
I have no idea what time my waters went as I never actually felt them go but I strongly suspect it was when my contractions changed just after calling the hospital.
My beautiful daughter was 7lb 9.5oz and 50cm long. I love her very much
