I had known for a few weeks that my body was really preparing for labour and kept thinking it was going to happen at any moment. I really thought he was going to be early but it turns out I actually went overdue.
Friday 6th August I was 8 days overdue and so I was offered a sweep. Here I found out that I was actually already 1cm dilated! I was given an induction date for the following Wednesday 11th August if nothing happened before then. I was so excited. I felt so weird after the sweep – really crampy and strange and I knew something was happening. On the morning of Sunday 8th August, I went to the toilet and then lost my plug – I was so, so excited about this and realized that labour was fast approaching!
Monday 9th August I went out for a few good walks to try and get things going. For the past few weeks I had been trying absolutely everything. My mum, OH and I went shopping in the afternoon when I suddenly started feeling crampy. We started timing and they were coming at exactly 10 minutes apart and I knew for certain my body was about to go into labour. We rushed home to have dinner and get the last bits packed into the hospital bag just incase we needed to go in, which I thought was very likely.
At around 9pm, I decided to phone the hospital – I had GBS so was told previously that as soon as I think something is happening or my waters break then I’m to go in so I can have my antibiotics asap. So we went in so I could be checked over. I was told I was 2cm dilated, cervix was completely flattened out, baby had moved right down and then she confirmed I was in early labour. I can’t tell you how good that felt to be told that! I said to the midwife that I was worried I would still have to wait until Wednesday and end up being induced, to which she replied ‘No, you’ll be back here probably in the early hours!’ I still didn’t believe her though haha.
1.40am and I experienced my first contraction. 7 minutes later, I experienced my second. My third came at 5 minutes apart and then all of a sudden they were down from 3 minutes to 1 minute apart and extremely intense. I couldn’t talk through them and I couldn’t move, all I could do was just breathe and keep saying to myself that each contraction was bringing me closer to meeting my baby. I knew the pain would be excruciating but I had no idea just how bad the pain was going to be.
By about 3am, I was in tears and my mum and other half decided to phone the hospital. I went in and then had to wait on a sofa while they prepared my room. The wait seemed like a lifetime and I started to get very agitated and kept saying things like ‘For goodness sake, how long are they going to be?!’, when really I was only sitting there for a few minutes. They then showed me to my delivery room where I had to wait for a midwife to come along. I sat on the edge of the bed trying very hard to deal with my even more so intense contractions whilst I waited to be seen. Then along came Nancy – the midwife who would be with me throughout my labour and birth. She was so lovely to me, I felt instantly relaxed.
Things from here are a little hazy as the pain took over my whole body and I just withdrew into myself and blocked everything out in order to deal with it. I remember constantly needing to wee from the pressure of my bubba’s head and so I was back and forth to the toilet and at one point actually threw up too.
My midwife did an internal – I don’t think it was too long after I arrived at the hospital. I was desperate to be checked and was expecting to be about 3-4cm but to my shock her words were ‘Well, do you want some good news?’ and then said I was 7-8cm dilated!! I actually remember my eyes going really wide and I was just in so much shock from how far I was in so little time.
Another midwife came along too and I can’t remember her name at the moment but she was also lovely. I was so lucky to have two fantastic midwives.
They offered to break my waters as they hadn't gone at all so I agreed and they burst all over the midwife! She was soaked!
After a while, I started to feel an intense pressure like I needed to go to the toilet. With each contraction, came the urge to push more and more and I had to hold back. It really felt like I needed the toilet and all I kept yelling was ‘I need to push! I need to push!’ and kept getting them to check me. The pressure got so bad that I couldn’t wait any longer and so they had a look at me and said that I could. The relief from pushing was wonderful and I listened to both of them carefully to make sure I pushed right. I pushed so hard and put my all into each one. It was really hard work but I wasn’t going to give up. They both said ‘We can see hair, keep going!’ and asked if I wanted to feel, so I did and was confused as to why I couldn’t feel a firm head and just a really soft spongy thing – but of course, it was his hair and the skin on his head had wrinkled up so it felt like that.
After pushing for a little while, I started to get the ‘ring of fire’ I have heard so much about. I was determined to push through the pain but didn’t expect the burn to travel all the way up my bits so it felt like all my skin was going to rip in half. I gritted my teeth and kept pushing and pushing until I suddenly felt so wonderful as my baby’s head came out. One more push and 20 minutes after I first started pushing and my beautiful little prince was born. I was in so much shock. I saw them rub him with a towel infront of me and I was amazed at how this little person had managed to fit inside me, let alone push out of me. He immediately cried and although I was so overcome with emotion, I couldn’t cry because I was just so stunned. I think it was here that it hit me that I had a baby!
He was put straight on to my chest and I just couldn’t stop looking at him, how did I create something so beautiful and perfect? I had a lovely cuddle with him and then he was passed to my other half while I delivered the placenta. This took a while, quite a bit of pushing and tugging and after a while my placenta came out. It turns out it was 800g when they are usually around 300g and was a rare shape too – called a butterfly placenta, hense why the midwives and I had trouble getting it out.
My beautiful bubba was then passed back to me after he was weighed and had his checks and I had a very long cuddle with him skin-to-skin, where he automatically used his instincts and started feeding on his own the minute he was put on my chest.
It was an incredible experience and I will never forget it.
My beautiful bubba born 10th August 2010 at 7.02am weighing 9lbs 2oz and perfect after a very speedy 5hr 20min labour. No cuts, tears or pain relief!
Here is my little prince -
Friday 6th August I was 8 days overdue and so I was offered a sweep. Here I found out that I was actually already 1cm dilated! I was given an induction date for the following Wednesday 11th August if nothing happened before then. I was so excited. I felt so weird after the sweep – really crampy and strange and I knew something was happening. On the morning of Sunday 8th August, I went to the toilet and then lost my plug – I was so, so excited about this and realized that labour was fast approaching!
Monday 9th August I went out for a few good walks to try and get things going. For the past few weeks I had been trying absolutely everything. My mum, OH and I went shopping in the afternoon when I suddenly started feeling crampy. We started timing and they were coming at exactly 10 minutes apart and I knew for certain my body was about to go into labour. We rushed home to have dinner and get the last bits packed into the hospital bag just incase we needed to go in, which I thought was very likely.
At around 9pm, I decided to phone the hospital – I had GBS so was told previously that as soon as I think something is happening or my waters break then I’m to go in so I can have my antibiotics asap. So we went in so I could be checked over. I was told I was 2cm dilated, cervix was completely flattened out, baby had moved right down and then she confirmed I was in early labour. I can’t tell you how good that felt to be told that! I said to the midwife that I was worried I would still have to wait until Wednesday and end up being induced, to which she replied ‘No, you’ll be back here probably in the early hours!’ I still didn’t believe her though haha.
1.40am and I experienced my first contraction. 7 minutes later, I experienced my second. My third came at 5 minutes apart and then all of a sudden they were down from 3 minutes to 1 minute apart and extremely intense. I couldn’t talk through them and I couldn’t move, all I could do was just breathe and keep saying to myself that each contraction was bringing me closer to meeting my baby. I knew the pain would be excruciating but I had no idea just how bad the pain was going to be.
By about 3am, I was in tears and my mum and other half decided to phone the hospital. I went in and then had to wait on a sofa while they prepared my room. The wait seemed like a lifetime and I started to get very agitated and kept saying things like ‘For goodness sake, how long are they going to be?!’, when really I was only sitting there for a few minutes. They then showed me to my delivery room where I had to wait for a midwife to come along. I sat on the edge of the bed trying very hard to deal with my even more so intense contractions whilst I waited to be seen. Then along came Nancy – the midwife who would be with me throughout my labour and birth. She was so lovely to me, I felt instantly relaxed.
Things from here are a little hazy as the pain took over my whole body and I just withdrew into myself and blocked everything out in order to deal with it. I remember constantly needing to wee from the pressure of my bubba’s head and so I was back and forth to the toilet and at one point actually threw up too.
My midwife did an internal – I don’t think it was too long after I arrived at the hospital. I was desperate to be checked and was expecting to be about 3-4cm but to my shock her words were ‘Well, do you want some good news?’ and then said I was 7-8cm dilated!! I actually remember my eyes going really wide and I was just in so much shock from how far I was in so little time.
Another midwife came along too and I can’t remember her name at the moment but she was also lovely. I was so lucky to have two fantastic midwives.
They offered to break my waters as they hadn't gone at all so I agreed and they burst all over the midwife! She was soaked!
After a while, I started to feel an intense pressure like I needed to go to the toilet. With each contraction, came the urge to push more and more and I had to hold back. It really felt like I needed the toilet and all I kept yelling was ‘I need to push! I need to push!’ and kept getting them to check me. The pressure got so bad that I couldn’t wait any longer and so they had a look at me and said that I could. The relief from pushing was wonderful and I listened to both of them carefully to make sure I pushed right. I pushed so hard and put my all into each one. It was really hard work but I wasn’t going to give up. They both said ‘We can see hair, keep going!’ and asked if I wanted to feel, so I did and was confused as to why I couldn’t feel a firm head and just a really soft spongy thing – but of course, it was his hair and the skin on his head had wrinkled up so it felt like that.
After pushing for a little while, I started to get the ‘ring of fire’ I have heard so much about. I was determined to push through the pain but didn’t expect the burn to travel all the way up my bits so it felt like all my skin was going to rip in half. I gritted my teeth and kept pushing and pushing until I suddenly felt so wonderful as my baby’s head came out. One more push and 20 minutes after I first started pushing and my beautiful little prince was born. I was in so much shock. I saw them rub him with a towel infront of me and I was amazed at how this little person had managed to fit inside me, let alone push out of me. He immediately cried and although I was so overcome with emotion, I couldn’t cry because I was just so stunned. I think it was here that it hit me that I had a baby!
He was put straight on to my chest and I just couldn’t stop looking at him, how did I create something so beautiful and perfect? I had a lovely cuddle with him and then he was passed to my other half while I delivered the placenta. This took a while, quite a bit of pushing and tugging and after a while my placenta came out. It turns out it was 800g when they are usually around 300g and was a rare shape too – called a butterfly placenta, hense why the midwives and I had trouble getting it out.
My beautiful bubba was then passed back to me after he was weighed and had his checks and I had a very long cuddle with him skin-to-skin, where he automatically used his instincts and started feeding on his own the minute he was put on my chest.
It was an incredible experience and I will never forget it.
My beautiful bubba born 10th August 2010 at 7.02am weighing 9lbs 2oz and perfect after a very speedy 5hr 20min labour. No cuts, tears or pain relief!
Here is my little prince -
I hope my labour goes like that 
)
well done mumma! 
