So this week we have decided to share our birth story. Well I hope you’re comfy, because it’s hard trying to condense 23 hours of labour and the most magical moment of my life down to a few paragraphs. But if you do just want a brief overview then scroll to the bottom and read the summary.
It’s strange trying to remember it all and writing it down, because it feel’s like i’m just re-telling a story. A story someone else told me, not one that I lived. I wish I had recorded the whole thing!
It all started at 5am Tuesday 13th March 2018, the day before my due date. Whilst I was pregnant, as silly as it sounds, one of my worries was “what if I don’t know when i’m in labour?”. People laughed and mockingly said “trust me you will know”… well actually I didn’t, at least not for sure! It started as niggly back pains that would come and go, nothing too painful and nothing regular. Ricky went to work because we didn’t want to waste any of his paternity, and I wasn’t even sure if I was in labour.
Despite having a “show”, bouncing on my ball all morning and drinking plenty of raspberry leaf tea, come lunch time it had all stopped. I was really disappointed, but took the advice of friends and relaxed and had a nap. It must of done the trick as it was all systems go again by the time Ricky got home at 4pm.
By 2am contractions were about 4-5 mins apart and quite painful. We made the phone call to the maternity ward, and were told to come in.
When we got to the hospital, they took us into a tiny little side room with barely enough room to spread my legs…literally! I had one leg up the wall for the examination. I was so relieved when they said I was 3cm dilated, I was dreading them telling me that I was only 1cm and sending me home. Also why does no-one tell you how awful examinations are – ouch!
They advised that I went for a walk to try and help the labour progress. So off we went, at 4am, to the Costa in A&E. we sat there for a bit while I breathed heavily into my caramel latte and groaned in pain with every contraction. The only other person in Costa, a man sitting a few tables over, looked very uncomfortable.
When we eventually went back up to the labour ward they said they were going to put us in a room, and it had a birthing pool! I was so happy and instantly felt relaxed when we were in there. However, this excitement was short lived. They re-examined me at around 8am…I was still 3cm, I cried. They advised us to go home, I cried again – what if I didn’t get my lovely room with a birthing pool when I came back?
My mum met us at home, Ricky was exhausted as he hadn’t slept since he went to work at 5am the day before, so it meant he could get some rest, I was going to need him later!
Before he went to bed, Ricky attached the TENS machine to my back. It was helping to manage the pain…until I had a really painful contraction, pushed the boost button, and was electrocuted! Turns out in his sleep deprived state, Ricky had placed the pads too close to my bra, it touched the metal wire and electrocuted me! That was the final straw. By this point I was in unbearable pain, contractions were just rolling into one another with no break. I wanted to go back to the hospital.
I asked mum to go wake Ricky up as I couldn’t even move. She knocked on the door and told him to start getting ready. Five longggg minutes later, I told my mum to go back upstairs and get him up as he had obviously gone back to sleep! She agreed to go up and into our room to make sure he was up but with the caveat that if she walked on him naked getting dressed it was my fault.
So up she went and luckily he was awake and dressed. There I stood in the middle of the living room swaying from side to side in the worst pain of my life, waiting for Ricky to take me to the hospital. And what do I hear? I hear him go into the bathroom, and start brushing his teeth?! Was he serious?!? If i wasn’t in so much pain i actually think I may have strangled him.
Whilst on the way to the hospital, the midwife rang. She heard how much pain I was in and told Ricky to pull up at the front of the hospital, bring me straight up and then go back down and move his car after. So that’s exactly what we did. Once in the room, Ricky left to go move his car and the midwives began to undress me – I could barely stand let alone get undressed.
While Ricky was gone, they managed to move me onto a bed (By bed I mean a crash mat on the floor as apparently they don’t do ‘beds’ anymore..welcome to the world of hypno-birthing). As they examined me, my waters broke with a huge gush. I was 7cm! It was all happening so fast, I was in so much pain, Ricky wasn’t there … I really began to panic. I had my eyes closed and was hyperventilating, I couldn’t catch my breath. The next thing I remember is opening my eyes, 3 midwives kneeling next to me, giving me the gas and air tube and repeatedly telling me to calm down.
Then enters Ricky (Without any of my bags – men aye!). Turns out parking was more difficult then he thought. As he pulled up to the multi story car park outside the maternity unit, he pressed the machine for a ticket for it to display “Machine out of tickets – call operator”. He had to drive round to the other side of the hospital, to the A&E car park, fight for a space and then run through the whole hospital. As he walked into the room one of the midwives said to him “Oh you have missed all the fun”, he looked in shock around the room – trying to find the baby, thinking he had missed the birth. Of course she was only referring to my waters going – luckily!
Despite me writing “no epidural” in my birth notes (The birth notes that Ricky left in the car), at this point I was begging for one! Only to be told it was too late. Queue more panicking and hyperventilating. I took the midwives advice and went with my original plan of using the birthing pool.
I felt much calmer once in the pool and after just 1 hour I felt ready to push. They took the gas and air off me and I began pushing with each contraction. The midwives told me to hold my knees back to push and asked Ricky to put his arms underneath mine to hold me up. Apparently he couldn’t even manage that! With every contraction the midwife would put a little mirror under the water to watch the babies head. Ricky decided he wanted to see this, so was gradually getting higher and higher trying to lean over to see the mirror. While at the same time lowering me further down in the pool to the point i was literally blowing bubbles mid contraction. The midwife had to tell him he was drowning me and to lift me up!
After an hour of pushing and me constantly asking “How many more contractions?”, our beautiful baby boy swam into the world weighing a huge 8lb 11oz!! I couldn’t believe how big he was, I was expecting like 8lb max!
Oh and as it was now 3:10pm on Wednesday 14th March – that meant Zac was one of the 4% of babies that are born on their due date!
Ricky cut the cord and we had a quick cuddle before I handed him to Ricky so I could get out of the pool.
At this point I just wanted to relax and enjoy my new baby so opted to have the injection to quickly deliver the placenta.
Just 5 hours later we were discharged and on our way home. Yup that quick! … Although we did end up back in A&E just 6 hour later, but that’s another story! Also just to add to the drama, in his sleep deprived state Ricky lost the parking ticket and then went through a red light. So all in all that night cost us over £100 just in fines!
So to summarise…
- 23 hour labour
- Ricky electrocuted me with the TENS machine
- Water birth
- Ricky drowned me
- Born on his due date
- Weighed 8lb 11oz
- Discharged after 5 hours.
I think that covers it? If you have read all of that i’m really impressed and thank you! Giving birth is such a huge emotional moment in any body’s life, its hard to pin point which parts are ‘blog worthy’ as every detail is part of Zac’s story.
Read Rachael Claires post for a birth story from a 2nd time mum.
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Bye for now,
