Introducing BB – Labour & Birth Story

I thought it was time to share BB’s birth story with you as he is almost 6 weeks old now! My labour was pretty speedy, in fact it is described as ‘rapid’ on my notes so this might not be a very long post!

Saturday 7th May – 38+6 weeks pregnant 

I went to bed on Saturday feeling pretty comfortable. At around midnight I woke up because I felt wet between my legs. Turns out I had lost some of my plug (a clear, jelly like substance). I went to the toilet and lost a little more so I knew things were slowly happening. Throughout the night I was having regular contractions. They were painful enough to keep me awake, but definitely nothing too serious. They weren’t very close together but I had them all night so in my head this was the real deal.

Sunday 8th May – 39 weeks pregnant 

I woke up around 6am and to my disappointment the contractions had stopped. Damn. 6 hours of regular contractions and they suddenly disappeared. Hubby wasn’t too happy about this, he was desperate for BB to arrive early. To be honest, we were both so ready to meet him.

I was determined to get things going again so we had breakfast and went for a long walk in the woods. One of Lambs favourite things to do. It was such a hot day and luckily I had a carton of juice (for Lamb) in my bag as I started to feel really faint as we were walking.

For the rest of the day things were pretty calm. I probably had a contraction to braxton hicks maybe every hour or two.

Fast forward to 6pm and the contractions were back in full swing. It had been 12 hours, but they were back and this time I wasn’t letting them stop! 😉 I started timing them on my phone and on average they were around 7 minutes apart.

To keep my mind off the contractions I decided to do some baking with Lamb. I just felt the urge to spend some quality time with him. I think deep down I knew this would be the last night we would spend together with him as an only child. It’s quite emotional when I think about it. He was my only child for over 3 years and he was plenty. But we decided to give him a sibling and this sibling would make an arrival very soon.

Around 8:30pm I had a bath as the pain was getting worse. It was time to call the in-laws.

Hubbys parents were around an hour and half away visiting family so they needed to know I was having regular contractions. We told them not to rush, but that we needed them on standby to look after Lamb in case I went into hospital that night.

I went to bed at 9:30pm to try and sleep through the contractions. Hubby called his parents again and told them they definitely needed to come over. They arrived around 10:30pm and by this point I knew I was definitely in labour and decided to call the hospital.

As I carried strep b I needed to have antibiotics while I was in labour. The drip takes around 20 minutes and you have them every 4 hours. Ideally they would get 2 doses in, but it was important to get at least one.

The hospital told me to make my way to triage to be checked. We were in the car by 11:30pm. Before we left I made sure I gave my little Lamb a kiss and a cuddle, little did he know he would most likely be a big brother when he woke up (oh god, I’m getting emotional again!)

Monday 9th May – 39+1 weeks pregnant  

By the time I got to triage it was midnight. After a couple of attempts they got the drip into my right hand and started the antibiotics. At this point I was 4 cm dilated and they confirmed I was in established labour. Off we went to delivery.

Because the midwife kept fiddling with the drip I had to stand up for quite a while. As the contractions got stronger and I was becoming more tired so I decided to try and lay down. Sitting down was so painful hubby had to quickly help me up, I just couldn’t put any pressure down there. By this point I was using gas and air but no other pain relief. I think because I was in labour during the night (plus I hadn’t slept the night before) my energy levels were very low. The pain was just so intense and I remember saying to hubby I didn’t think I could stand up any more, I felt so weak and tired. The midwife was reluctant to give me any more pain relief and kept reasurring me how well I was doing.

Not long later the midwife left us for a minute and during this time I got a really strong low down contraction. This was it. I shouted to hubby to take my pants down (I couldn’t do it as I had the drip in one hand and the gas and air in the other). He whipped them down and I scrambled on to the bed on all fours. Suddenly my waters exploded all over the bed and I was pushing.

The midwife must of been pretty shocked when she returned. Things certainly weren’t how she left them! Hubby told her baby was coming and I confirmed I knew it was time, everything was so familiar. She panicked a little as she didn’t think she had a delivery trolly in the room and shouted through the door for someone to bring one. Turns out there was one all along.

I was now full on pushing. My first attempt to get the head out was unsuccessful. I felt the head pop back in and was so disappointed, this baby’s head was coming out on the next contraction no matter how hard and long I had to push for. Next contraction head was out. Next contraction baby was born. There’s something about pushing that I just love! The adrenaline of know what’s about to happen and also what’s about to end! Such a rush.

I was in shock. Hubby was in shock. Even the midwife was in shock. I sobbed. I sobbed happy tears. I did it, and I did it quickly! I felt euphoric. It was completely different to how I felt when I gave birth to Lamb and I now know why. Drugs. When I was in labour with Lamb I was given pethidine. This made me very sleepy and drowsy and when he was born I was disconnected. I can now stop feeling guilty for feeling like thins. I now know it was down to the drugs.

BB was born at 1:06am on Monday 9th May weighing slightly under 6lb 13oz (1oz heavier than his big brother!) after 1 hour and 6 minutes of established labour. The moment I saw him I loved him. He was exactly how I imagined he would look – just like his brother. He was beautiful.

Luckily we just about managed one dose of antibiotics, but because I only had one dose BB needed to be checked regularly over the space of 12 hours. All of his checks came back ok and we were discharged at around 8pm the same day.

I never expected my baby boy to arrived so quickly. Everything was just amazing and my bundle of joy has completed our family.

~A~