LuckyD
Mum to Lucy and Arlo!
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- Mar 19, 2010
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Sorry this is a long one!
Our first baby was due on March 28th and I was fully expecting to go overdue. Everyone told me that first babies were unlikely to be on time, plus I had not had any real signs that things might be happening…a couple of days ago I had thought I might be leaking fluid, but my midwife didn’t think it was..so I wasn’t prepared for things to kick off yet. However, on the evening of March 24th I set off for my evening walk on the beach. We live five minutes from the beach and every evening I had been walking and practicing my Calmbirth breathing while I listened to the waves.
That night I insisted that Sean came with me - he was reluctant as he had just got home from work but agreed to do it, which was nice. As we walked down onto the beach I stumbled and went over on my ankle. I landed on my thigh, but it caused a few pains along my stomach which got me worried. I sat down and did some breathing and things seemed to be fine. We continued on the walk and I felt normal, but noticed a few cramps as we walked. This was not that unusual for me so I didn’t think much of them. Then as we walked back towards the house I felt a bit of a rush of liquid and said to Sean ‘either my waters have just broken or I have wet my pants’. It wasn’t as much as I expected though, so was fine to walk home…then just as I was walking up the drive there was a MAJOR rush of liquid - ok, I think that was my waters! When I got to the bathroom I saw that I had also lost some of my plug - things were definitely happening.
Got home and rang my midwife, who said she would come and visit after dinner. Sean and I watched some TV and had a nice meal and then my midwife and the student midwife arrived and confirmed it was my waters. Oh my goodness, it WAS actually happening! In the back of my mind I was a little worried that my waters breaking first might mean I would end up being pressured into an induction - but I decided to not worry about it that night and try and get some sleep. I called my Mum who was going to be at the birth, and who lives an hour away - she decided to get some sleep and I would call her when things were happening. I also texted my brothers and my three best friends to let them know, and then went to bed to try and sleep.
Well, sleep didn’t really happen, I dropped off at about midnight only to be woken up at about 1.30am with a strong contraction ripping through my body. That’s what it felt like - it felt like it roared up my stomach and into my back. I got up to go to the toilet and felt more contraction-like sensations in my back. I went back to bed and tried to relax, doing some of my Calmbirth breathing and relaxing my body. However, contractions continued to come, and I began to shake and shiver - my teeth were chattering. Sean woke up and said ‘are you ok?’ - I was like ‘I think I’m in labour!’. My whole body began to shake and I suddenly needed to go to the toilet - while I was sitting there I began to feel sick and yelled for Sean to bring a bucket - he didn’t make it in time and all my lovely dinner came up in the sink!
After throwing up I felt a bit better and decided to get in the shower. A lot of the sensations I was feeling were in my back, so I leaned forward onto the shower wall and let the hot water run on my back - bliss. I didn’t want to get out, but I was aware that if I used all the hot water there wouldn’t be enough for the birth pool, so I got out and got changed into some warm and comfy clothes. In the meantime, Sean had inflated the birth pool and was boiling water on the stove to start filling it.
The contractions continued to come - right away they were about three minutes apart. Sean made the living room nice and cosy, with the lights off and Lucinda Williams playing, and timed contractions in-between boiling water and filling the pool - he was amazing! I didn’t want him to touch me during a contraction, so he just kept busy while I leaned over a beanbag and did my Calmbirth breathing. The sensations were all in my back, and leaning forward was the only way I felt I could really cope with them.
This continued for a couple of hours. I stayed over the beanbag and breathed through each contraction. I also spent time doing the visualisations I had practiced both in my Calmbirth course and also ones that I had come up with myself on my evening beach walks. A few times I got up and had a hot shower, which felt amazing on my back. I also threw up a few more times, and made sure I kept drinking water and lucozade. Sean kept replaying the same Lucinda Williams CD, and I remember thinking it was perfect music to listen to. Every time he replayed it I thought ‘how does he know to keep playing this perfect music’. At bit later he changed the CD to Van Morrison’s ‘Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart’ and I remember thinking ‘yes, this is perfect - how did he know to play this CD!’ It was great having the music in the background. My contractions stayed pretty steady - between 1 and 4 minutes - but were only lasting about 45 seconds…however, at about 4.30am (I think…? Not sure of time) we thought we would ring the midwife and let her know what was going on. She told us to call back when they were one minute in length, but also offered to come now if I wanted. I said I was fine, but I remember saying to Sean while he was on the phone ‘I want to get in the pool, ask if I can get in the pool’…I couldn’t think of anything better! She said that was fine, so I threw off my clothes and jumped in, even though it wasn’t quite full. The water felt great, but it was a bit tricky as I was still feeling all the contractions in my back, and leaning forward over the side of the pool meant my back was out of the water. I floated around a bit but found leaning forward the best position.
I don’t know what the time was by now, but Sean kept putting hot water in the pool, and I kept breathing. The contractions were fairly strong, but I don’t remember them building up slowly throughout the night - they had started quite strong, and would vary a bit in intensity, but it didn’t feel like a build up as time went on - it felt like I was just in the same place of maintaining them throughout the night. However, things must have picked up at some point - the contractions got longer and we called the midwife at about 7am, and then called my Mum as well. The student midwife arrived at about 7.30am, and then my midwife and my Mum both arrived around 8am.
I was experiencing quite strong contractions by now, and felt like I was in quite a different world. I remember being happy to see my Mum, but was having to really concentrate hard on breathing and getting through each contraction. I was definitely making a bit of noise as well! Not screaming, but low groaning which seemed to help. My midwife asked if I was ok with her doing an internal to check the baby’s position - I said it was ok, so lay on the couch. She said she couldn’t really feel the position but that I was 4 centimetres dilated. I remember saying ‘oh I really hoped it would be more than that’ but I didn’t let it get me down..I was concentrating too hard on each contraction, fully in ‘the zone’. I continued to feel the contractions in my back throughout the rest of labour, so I wonder if the baby was in the position it had been in for most of the third tri - ROP - on my right hand side but slightly posterior.
The intensity began to really pick up again around this point, and I kept vomiting with each contraction. My midwife asked me to do a urine sample, which I managed to do on the toilet - contractions on the toilet were terrible though! The sample showed that I was quite dehydrated. I think the midwife spoke to Sean about giving me an injection for the vomiting, as I remember him speaking to me about it and I gave my consent. I also consented to having a line put in my hand so I could get some more fluids into me. I don’t remember a big change, but both Sean and my Mum said that when I stopped throwing up and got some fluids I seemed more focused and things shifted. Around now I also began to feel quite a bit of pressure in my bottom…and each contraction caused me to groan loudly at the end. I never had a moment of feeling I couldn’t do it - but I do remember saying to my Mum ‘I really want this to end soon’ - in retrospect I think that was transition! I must have dilated really fast as this was only a couple of hours after my internal. My Mum kept encouraging me to think of waves and to ride it out, and Sean kept repeating the positive statements we had discussed and telling me how well I was doing - they were great support. I think it was also around now that my midwife called the back-up midwife to attend, as their policy is to have two midwives at each birth.
As per my Calmbirth course I wanted to breathe the baby out, and with each contraction at this point my body was giving an involuntary push. Things were feeling very intense…I kept trying to do my visualisations but also felt I just needed to give in to what my body was doing, so just went with that. I felt a lot of pressure, and at one point reached inside and felt a tiny bit of the baby's head with some hair on it. I remember saying ‘I felt the head!’ and this gave me a renewed sense of energy - I was going to meet my baby!
My body began pushing a bit stronger, but after a while the baby hadn’t moved that much. My midwife said that it was having a bit of trouble getting around the corner, and that I would need to help out with the pushing a bit. She regularly took my baby’s HB and it remained completely normal, so I wasn’t concerned at all - but decided to help my body along with a bit of pushing. Pushing was hard work but amazing - it felt so good to be doing something active, and I could feel the baby move a bit. I was holding my Mum’s hand and Sean’s hand and was giving it everything I had. In-between each push Sean would give me a drink and my Mum would wipe my face with a cold flannel. My midwife could see the baby when I pushed, but it wasn’t quite coming out, so she suggested a shift in position - I knelt on the floor of the pool with one knee up and push again - this definitely got things moving!
I felt a huge amount of pressure and then I remember saying ‘it’s stinging!’ and then feeling the strangest feeling as my baby’s head was born. It had lots of dark hair - it was so amazing to see it there. It must have got into the right position before being born as it was no longer posterior. It took a couple of minutes for the body to be born - but it slithered out at 12.45pm and I went to scoop up my baby. We had talked about Sean catching the baby if he was in the right position at the time, but we had never discussed with the midwife how to bring the baby up - I vaguely remember my midwife explaining this to Sean just before the baby was born, but of course I wasn’t really paying attention! However, when it was born I just reacted out of pure instinct - I just went to pick up my baby! The midwife was like ‘hang on, it needs to come out of the water like this!’ and helped guide it out the right way. I held my baby in my arms for the first time - an emotion that just has no words to describe it. It’s funny as we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl - but I didn’t even think to look! Mum said I just said ‘my baby, my baby’ and didn’t seem to care what sex it was. The baby gave one short cry and began to pink up, and then just lay calmly in my arms and looked around. I looked at Sean and he was crying, and then I looked at Mum and she was crying too. Then I realised I didn’t know what sex it was and had a look - and it was a girl! I remember feeling so happy about this. She was so beautiful and seemed so calm.
Our plan was to wait until the cord had stopped pulsating to cut it, and to have a natural third stage if possible…we waited for about 10 - 15 minutes, just staring at our beautiful girl…but then my midwife was a bit concerned about my bleeding. I do remember her saying ‘that looks like a separation bleed’ when the baby was born, but I wasn’t paying much attention. I agreed to have the injection to try and stop the bleeding. Sean cut her cord and she was passed to her Dad for the first time as I climbed out of the pool. I sat on the couch, got her back in my arms, and had the injection….then gave her her first breastfeed. My midwife encouraged me to give a little push if I felt contractions..after a while I did feel a bit of pressure - I handed Sean the baby and gave a few pushes - after a few the placenta came out and it was huge! My midwife said later it was the biggest one she had ever seen! However, a lot of blood also came out, and after a while it hadn’t stopped trickling…this is where things ending up not going to plan!
After my midwife doing various things, it was decided that I would need to go to hospital and an ambulance was called. At first I really didn’t want to go, but then I began to feel quite dizzy and strange and just wanted to be ok. My little girl was doing great, she had had her checks (Apgar results were 9, 10 and 10) and her Vitamin K and was very content. Sean and Mum got her dressed as we waited for the ambulance.
When it arrived I headed to hospital (an hour away) with the lights flashing! And Sean and Mum and the baby had to follow in the car as the ambulance had no way to put a baby in a carseat. I won’t go into the details of what happened when I got there - it was not fun, and I ended up having a spinal anesthetic so they could make sure all the placenta was out and also to give me stitches - I had ended up with a third degree tear, which no-one seems to know how I got - my midwife said I birthed her head ‘beautifully’ so she thinks it could have been the shoulders. In retrospect I wonder if I had just stuck to breathing the baby out I would not have teared - but at the time I just did what I felt I needed to do.
Coming out of theatre I just wanted to see my baby! And when I did she was great, she had slept the whole time and was placed right back on my stomach so we could have skin to skin. We spent two nights in hospital - so ironic, after having this lovely drug free birth! I had two blood transfusions and antibiotics…not at all what I had planned, but I was ok with it all - we decided to call the baby Lucy and the fact that she was fine was all I cared about. It turns out I lost about 1800mls of blood, so I am glad that I went to hospital!
Five weeks later and I still feel so happy and proud that my daughter was born in the way I hoped she would be. She remained so calm throughout the whole labour and after the birth, and has remained that way since. Yes, I wish I hadn’t had to transfer afterwards, but Lucy’s birth remains a perfect memory for me and I will always be so happy about that. Spending time in hospital afterwards just confirmed for me that home is the place I want my babies to be born.
Lucy June - born 25th March at 12.45pm, weighing 8 and a half pounds/3.6 kilos, after almost 12 hours of labour overall, and a second stage of about 1 and a half hours. She is absolutely beautiful and we couldn’t be more in love with her!
Here are two photos from just after she was born, and then her having a bath at one month old - she loves her baths and is a little water baby, maybe it is all due to her birth!
Our first baby was due on March 28th and I was fully expecting to go overdue. Everyone told me that first babies were unlikely to be on time, plus I had not had any real signs that things might be happening…a couple of days ago I had thought I might be leaking fluid, but my midwife didn’t think it was..so I wasn’t prepared for things to kick off yet. However, on the evening of March 24th I set off for my evening walk on the beach. We live five minutes from the beach and every evening I had been walking and practicing my Calmbirth breathing while I listened to the waves.
That night I insisted that Sean came with me - he was reluctant as he had just got home from work but agreed to do it, which was nice. As we walked down onto the beach I stumbled and went over on my ankle. I landed on my thigh, but it caused a few pains along my stomach which got me worried. I sat down and did some breathing and things seemed to be fine. We continued on the walk and I felt normal, but noticed a few cramps as we walked. This was not that unusual for me so I didn’t think much of them. Then as we walked back towards the house I felt a bit of a rush of liquid and said to Sean ‘either my waters have just broken or I have wet my pants’. It wasn’t as much as I expected though, so was fine to walk home…then just as I was walking up the drive there was a MAJOR rush of liquid - ok, I think that was my waters! When I got to the bathroom I saw that I had also lost some of my plug - things were definitely happening.
Got home and rang my midwife, who said she would come and visit after dinner. Sean and I watched some TV and had a nice meal and then my midwife and the student midwife arrived and confirmed it was my waters. Oh my goodness, it WAS actually happening! In the back of my mind I was a little worried that my waters breaking first might mean I would end up being pressured into an induction - but I decided to not worry about it that night and try and get some sleep. I called my Mum who was going to be at the birth, and who lives an hour away - she decided to get some sleep and I would call her when things were happening. I also texted my brothers and my three best friends to let them know, and then went to bed to try and sleep.
Well, sleep didn’t really happen, I dropped off at about midnight only to be woken up at about 1.30am with a strong contraction ripping through my body. That’s what it felt like - it felt like it roared up my stomach and into my back. I got up to go to the toilet and felt more contraction-like sensations in my back. I went back to bed and tried to relax, doing some of my Calmbirth breathing and relaxing my body. However, contractions continued to come, and I began to shake and shiver - my teeth were chattering. Sean woke up and said ‘are you ok?’ - I was like ‘I think I’m in labour!’. My whole body began to shake and I suddenly needed to go to the toilet - while I was sitting there I began to feel sick and yelled for Sean to bring a bucket - he didn’t make it in time and all my lovely dinner came up in the sink!
After throwing up I felt a bit better and decided to get in the shower. A lot of the sensations I was feeling were in my back, so I leaned forward onto the shower wall and let the hot water run on my back - bliss. I didn’t want to get out, but I was aware that if I used all the hot water there wouldn’t be enough for the birth pool, so I got out and got changed into some warm and comfy clothes. In the meantime, Sean had inflated the birth pool and was boiling water on the stove to start filling it.
The contractions continued to come - right away they were about three minutes apart. Sean made the living room nice and cosy, with the lights off and Lucinda Williams playing, and timed contractions in-between boiling water and filling the pool - he was amazing! I didn’t want him to touch me during a contraction, so he just kept busy while I leaned over a beanbag and did my Calmbirth breathing. The sensations were all in my back, and leaning forward was the only way I felt I could really cope with them.
This continued for a couple of hours. I stayed over the beanbag and breathed through each contraction. I also spent time doing the visualisations I had practiced both in my Calmbirth course and also ones that I had come up with myself on my evening beach walks. A few times I got up and had a hot shower, which felt amazing on my back. I also threw up a few more times, and made sure I kept drinking water and lucozade. Sean kept replaying the same Lucinda Williams CD, and I remember thinking it was perfect music to listen to. Every time he replayed it I thought ‘how does he know to keep playing this perfect music’. At bit later he changed the CD to Van Morrison’s ‘Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart’ and I remember thinking ‘yes, this is perfect - how did he know to play this CD!’ It was great having the music in the background. My contractions stayed pretty steady - between 1 and 4 minutes - but were only lasting about 45 seconds…however, at about 4.30am (I think…? Not sure of time) we thought we would ring the midwife and let her know what was going on. She told us to call back when they were one minute in length, but also offered to come now if I wanted. I said I was fine, but I remember saying to Sean while he was on the phone ‘I want to get in the pool, ask if I can get in the pool’…I couldn’t think of anything better! She said that was fine, so I threw off my clothes and jumped in, even though it wasn’t quite full. The water felt great, but it was a bit tricky as I was still feeling all the contractions in my back, and leaning forward over the side of the pool meant my back was out of the water. I floated around a bit but found leaning forward the best position.
I don’t know what the time was by now, but Sean kept putting hot water in the pool, and I kept breathing. The contractions were fairly strong, but I don’t remember them building up slowly throughout the night - they had started quite strong, and would vary a bit in intensity, but it didn’t feel like a build up as time went on - it felt like I was just in the same place of maintaining them throughout the night. However, things must have picked up at some point - the contractions got longer and we called the midwife at about 7am, and then called my Mum as well. The student midwife arrived at about 7.30am, and then my midwife and my Mum both arrived around 8am.
I was experiencing quite strong contractions by now, and felt like I was in quite a different world. I remember being happy to see my Mum, but was having to really concentrate hard on breathing and getting through each contraction. I was definitely making a bit of noise as well! Not screaming, but low groaning which seemed to help. My midwife asked if I was ok with her doing an internal to check the baby’s position - I said it was ok, so lay on the couch. She said she couldn’t really feel the position but that I was 4 centimetres dilated. I remember saying ‘oh I really hoped it would be more than that’ but I didn’t let it get me down..I was concentrating too hard on each contraction, fully in ‘the zone’. I continued to feel the contractions in my back throughout the rest of labour, so I wonder if the baby was in the position it had been in for most of the third tri - ROP - on my right hand side but slightly posterior.
The intensity began to really pick up again around this point, and I kept vomiting with each contraction. My midwife asked me to do a urine sample, which I managed to do on the toilet - contractions on the toilet were terrible though! The sample showed that I was quite dehydrated. I think the midwife spoke to Sean about giving me an injection for the vomiting, as I remember him speaking to me about it and I gave my consent. I also consented to having a line put in my hand so I could get some more fluids into me. I don’t remember a big change, but both Sean and my Mum said that when I stopped throwing up and got some fluids I seemed more focused and things shifted. Around now I also began to feel quite a bit of pressure in my bottom…and each contraction caused me to groan loudly at the end. I never had a moment of feeling I couldn’t do it - but I do remember saying to my Mum ‘I really want this to end soon’ - in retrospect I think that was transition! I must have dilated really fast as this was only a couple of hours after my internal. My Mum kept encouraging me to think of waves and to ride it out, and Sean kept repeating the positive statements we had discussed and telling me how well I was doing - they were great support. I think it was also around now that my midwife called the back-up midwife to attend, as their policy is to have two midwives at each birth.
As per my Calmbirth course I wanted to breathe the baby out, and with each contraction at this point my body was giving an involuntary push. Things were feeling very intense…I kept trying to do my visualisations but also felt I just needed to give in to what my body was doing, so just went with that. I felt a lot of pressure, and at one point reached inside and felt a tiny bit of the baby's head with some hair on it. I remember saying ‘I felt the head!’ and this gave me a renewed sense of energy - I was going to meet my baby!
My body began pushing a bit stronger, but after a while the baby hadn’t moved that much. My midwife said that it was having a bit of trouble getting around the corner, and that I would need to help out with the pushing a bit. She regularly took my baby’s HB and it remained completely normal, so I wasn’t concerned at all - but decided to help my body along with a bit of pushing. Pushing was hard work but amazing - it felt so good to be doing something active, and I could feel the baby move a bit. I was holding my Mum’s hand and Sean’s hand and was giving it everything I had. In-between each push Sean would give me a drink and my Mum would wipe my face with a cold flannel. My midwife could see the baby when I pushed, but it wasn’t quite coming out, so she suggested a shift in position - I knelt on the floor of the pool with one knee up and push again - this definitely got things moving!
I felt a huge amount of pressure and then I remember saying ‘it’s stinging!’ and then feeling the strangest feeling as my baby’s head was born. It had lots of dark hair - it was so amazing to see it there. It must have got into the right position before being born as it was no longer posterior. It took a couple of minutes for the body to be born - but it slithered out at 12.45pm and I went to scoop up my baby. We had talked about Sean catching the baby if he was in the right position at the time, but we had never discussed with the midwife how to bring the baby up - I vaguely remember my midwife explaining this to Sean just before the baby was born, but of course I wasn’t really paying attention! However, when it was born I just reacted out of pure instinct - I just went to pick up my baby! The midwife was like ‘hang on, it needs to come out of the water like this!’ and helped guide it out the right way. I held my baby in my arms for the first time - an emotion that just has no words to describe it. It’s funny as we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl - but I didn’t even think to look! Mum said I just said ‘my baby, my baby’ and didn’t seem to care what sex it was. The baby gave one short cry and began to pink up, and then just lay calmly in my arms and looked around. I looked at Sean and he was crying, and then I looked at Mum and she was crying too. Then I realised I didn’t know what sex it was and had a look - and it was a girl! I remember feeling so happy about this. She was so beautiful and seemed so calm.
Our plan was to wait until the cord had stopped pulsating to cut it, and to have a natural third stage if possible…we waited for about 10 - 15 minutes, just staring at our beautiful girl…but then my midwife was a bit concerned about my bleeding. I do remember her saying ‘that looks like a separation bleed’ when the baby was born, but I wasn’t paying much attention. I agreed to have the injection to try and stop the bleeding. Sean cut her cord and she was passed to her Dad for the first time as I climbed out of the pool. I sat on the couch, got her back in my arms, and had the injection….then gave her her first breastfeed. My midwife encouraged me to give a little push if I felt contractions..after a while I did feel a bit of pressure - I handed Sean the baby and gave a few pushes - after a few the placenta came out and it was huge! My midwife said later it was the biggest one she had ever seen! However, a lot of blood also came out, and after a while it hadn’t stopped trickling…this is where things ending up not going to plan!
After my midwife doing various things, it was decided that I would need to go to hospital and an ambulance was called. At first I really didn’t want to go, but then I began to feel quite dizzy and strange and just wanted to be ok. My little girl was doing great, she had had her checks (Apgar results were 9, 10 and 10) and her Vitamin K and was very content. Sean and Mum got her dressed as we waited for the ambulance.
When it arrived I headed to hospital (an hour away) with the lights flashing! And Sean and Mum and the baby had to follow in the car as the ambulance had no way to put a baby in a carseat. I won’t go into the details of what happened when I got there - it was not fun, and I ended up having a spinal anesthetic so they could make sure all the placenta was out and also to give me stitches - I had ended up with a third degree tear, which no-one seems to know how I got - my midwife said I birthed her head ‘beautifully’ so she thinks it could have been the shoulders. In retrospect I wonder if I had just stuck to breathing the baby out I would not have teared - but at the time I just did what I felt I needed to do.
Coming out of theatre I just wanted to see my baby! And when I did she was great, she had slept the whole time and was placed right back on my stomach so we could have skin to skin. We spent two nights in hospital - so ironic, after having this lovely drug free birth! I had two blood transfusions and antibiotics…not at all what I had planned, but I was ok with it all - we decided to call the baby Lucy and the fact that she was fine was all I cared about. It turns out I lost about 1800mls of blood, so I am glad that I went to hospital!
Five weeks later and I still feel so happy and proud that my daughter was born in the way I hoped she would be. She remained so calm throughout the whole labour and after the birth, and has remained that way since. Yes, I wish I hadn’t had to transfer afterwards, but Lucy’s birth remains a perfect memory for me and I will always be so happy about that. Spending time in hospital afterwards just confirmed for me that home is the place I want my babies to be born.
Lucy June - born 25th March at 12.45pm, weighing 8 and a half pounds/3.6 kilos, after almost 12 hours of labour overall, and a second stage of about 1 and a half hours. She is absolutely beautiful and we couldn’t be more in love with her!
Here are two photos from just after she was born, and then her having a bath at one month old - she loves her baths and is a little water baby, maybe it is all due to her birth!
congrats!
huge congrats she is beautiful xx
Beautiful birth story 
Though I was only a night in hospital and didn't pph so I suppose we win some we lose some! I'm so glad she is a content baby, Indigo is too. I love that she came without help even if I needed attention afterwards, I bet you feel the same. Well done, it's a beautiful story!
