Just for those who are interested
Monday morning around 5.20am I awoke to a contraction. Thinking nothing much of it I got up & went to the toilet where I had another contraction. I headed back to bed & gave Hubby a little nudge & commented that maybe today was the day… He just cuddled up & sleepily nodded before going back to sleep.
After yet another couple of contractions, I gave Hubby another nudge & told him to wake up so he could time the contractions: roughly 2 &1/2 minutes apart and about a minute long! Okay time to call my midwife!
So around 5.50am I was told to see how things went & to call Ruth back when I felt I needed her. Then I had Hubby call my Mum as I headed to the toilet again.
From the toilet I started telling Hubby what I needed because I was sooo not organised! Main things being to tidy up & get me a hot water bottle because the blimen contractions hurt!
Less than two minutes after getting the hot water bottle though, I was ordering him to run me a bath because the contractions felt so intense & painful. I knew that it was likely that things would slow down with getting into the water so soon but I didn’t care, anything to lessen the pain! And at first it did seem like things were slowing down but then it became intense again. I’m not sure what time it was but I asked Hubby to call Ruth because I couldn’t do it anymore. So she let Hubby know she was on her way.
I think it was about 8am when my Mum arrived with my little sister. Mum came straight in to see me & took over. By now my boys were awake & demanding breakfast so my sister & Hubby sorted them out.
I was crying & telling my Mum that I couldn’t do this & that the pain was too much for me to bear & I wanted to go to hospital for an epidural LOL!
8.10am and Ruth had arrived. She did an internal with me still in the bath and announced that I was not going anywhere as I was about 6 maybe 7 cm dilated! I couldn’t believe it as I had honestly thought I was still in early labour.
It gave me a second wind & with Mum reminding me to breathe through my contractions I carried on as planned.
Hubby had been given the job of setting up & filling the birthing pool which seemed to be keeping him happy & occupied. The second midwife was called & was asked to bring some gas with her. I was looking forward to using that gas!!
15 minutes later though I felt abit of pressure & pushed out membranes so Ruth was quickly on the phone again saying “forget the gas just head straight here”. We live rural so it is abit of a drive.
There was a little bit of meconium in my waters but nothing major & fetal monitoring showed that Bubs was happy still. Also Ruth reassured me that Bubs had most definitely moved from a posterior position to anterior.
I think it was around 9am that I moved from the bath to the birthing pool which was set up in the dining room. Also my Grandma arrived which was a wonderful, lovely surprise. I was feeling the need to push but was worried that I was not dilated enough so resisted the urge & begged Ruth to check me even though she thought I was fully dilated. I think the backup midwife Meredith arrived around 9.30am. Ruth checked me & found I had a small anterior lip on my cervix but was able to push it back so at 9.40am I started pushing!
I felt like a total animal with deep grunts that I couldn’t stop coming out of me as I pushed. I only stopped to ask if the head was moving at all. I think everyone was laughing at me a little bit as I was so anxious to make sure Bubs was coming out in between pushes! I kept putting my hand down to feel the head & it was reassuring to feel the head coming out more & more and quite easily too.
Hubby was sitting behind me (he didn’t want to see anything if he could help it!) while my Mum, Grandma & the two midwives stood watching in the front. Even my sister & boys came to see how everything was going before retreating back to my bedroom with my boys to continue watching videos.
At 9.58am I welcomed my beautiful little girl, Erika, into the world. She was brought out of the water & into my arms after only 18 minutes of pushing.
She weighed in at 8 pound 15 ounces (4.04kg), head circumference of 38cm & length of 52.3cm.
She took to the breast at 10.05am & as I got out of the birthing pool a few minutes later, out came the placenta. No tears, grazes or anything!
It was perfect...
Oh & apparently Hubby did see Bubs head coming out at one point & was soooo not impressed! My midwife laughed at him as he has no worries getting his hands dirty right up to the shoulder when it comes to our cows giving births!!
My VBA2Cs Home Waterbirth
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