I had a very straightforward first pregnancy – no complications, issues, pains, braxton hicks or anything. A perfectly textbook pregnancy. Then came labour.
Mild contractions started at 4.30am Tuesday morning, so hubby and I walked around the block to strengthen them. My parents came over as well, because mum was one of my support people. We spent the day in the lounge room timing contractions, massaging my back and generally relaxing waiting for bubba to arrive. We had no idea about the baby’s gender so lots of conversation about names as well as possible gender, weight, hair colour, etc.
By 5pm the contractions were only 5 minutes apart, which was getting disheartening. I am very pro natural birth, so I wanted to labour and birth with no drugs or interventions if possible – therefore hot water was my only pain relief. By about 2am I had run the house out of hot water, and contractions were a minute and a half apart, so we went to the hospital.
At the hospital the midwives questioned whether I was even in labour because I was still so calm, but the internal check found I was 5cm dilated. The midwives broke my water in an attempt to speed up progression. We ran a bath, but that lasted 20 minutes before it was uncomfortable, so we moved to the shower. And there we stayed. For 11 hours..
I was on my hands and knees with my head on mum’s lap and hubby pointing hot water on my back and massaging. After 11 hours the midwives were getting concerned there was a lack of progression so asked me to move to the bed for an internal. On the way I decided I needed to pass a bowel movement, sat on the toilet and felt a massive urge to push. The internal found I was 10cm dilated but a small part of the cervix wasn’t entirely effaced and couldn’t quite slip over bub’s head. So the midwife pushed it over, and I can safely say that was the most painful part of the labour.
After that the pushing began, but because I had been awake for 34 hours after 5 hours’ sleep, I was falling asleep between pushes. An hour later, at 2.23pm, we met our beautiful boy – born 7lb 11oz, 56cm tall on his due date. Cried for 45 minutes straight – what an introduction to motherhood!
I recently gave birth to my daughter – a very different experience! The whole pregnancy was different, more pains, lots of braxton hicks and a few episodes of false labour.
The day she was born (New Year’s Eve), I was having some regular, frequent contractions throughout the morning but didn’t get excited because of the previous false labour scares. All activity stopped around 11am, disappointingly. I had an antenatal appointment at 2.30pm, and was told by the obstetrician that bub was fully engaged and ready to go so any day now. As I reached the car leaving the hospital at 3pm, I had another, stronger contraction. Something inside me felt like this was it, but I just carried on as normal not wanting to get my hopes up.
I got home and after a few contractions, told my hubby what was going on. He suggested we call my mum to come round because again, she was my drug. Hubby went and got us some dinner and the 3 of us sat in the lounge room waiting out the contractions. By 8.30pm I was having 4 contractions in 10 minutes, and they were lasting a considerable amount of time. Mum convinced me to go to hospital just to check if it was real labour and how progressed I was.
We arrived at hospital around 9.20pm and I was put straight onto a monitor. I stayed on the monitor for around an hour, and during the last few contractions I was finding it really uncomfortable and wanted to get off the bed. The midwife did an internal and found that the membranes were bulging and I was 5cm dilated. I was disheartened because last time it took 12 hours from this point and I didn’t know if I could handle this pain naturally for another 12 hours. The midwife told me I could go home if I wanted to, but I was welcome to stay and labour in a birth suite. Since I had no hot water left at home I decided to stay.
at 10.25pm I stood up from the bed with help from mum and hubby, and immediately had a contraction – and my waters broke! I firmly believe if the midwife didnt have me laying still on a bed for so long my waters would have broken much sooner. The midwife cleaned me up a little, then took me in a wheelchair around to a birth suite. I threw my clothes off and jumped into the shower, in the same configuration as my last labour. I was very zoned and not really able to communicate with other people without breaking my concentration, so when the urge to push happened so quickly I couldn’t verbalise.
I felt myself burrowing my head further into mum’s lap and pulling away from hubby, and I could hear them both getting frustrated by it. Of course, they still believed we had numerous more hours doing this! The midwives had left us alone in the suite, believing I still had ages to go. A midwife happened to come through the room to get my chart, and heard a small noise from me. She donned some gloves and came into the shower and told mum and hubby that it was time to go.
Hubby laughed and explained we had done this before and there was still plenty of time to go yet. The midwife giggled and told them that actually bub was crowning right now! Another 2 pushes and our gorgeous little princess arrived and was handed through my legs for me to cuddle. My Dad and sister in law arrived just as she was born, in time to hear me exclaim “holy cheeseballs” and hear her first little cry.
Little bubba girl arrived at 10.57pm, weighing 6lb 13.5oz and 53cm tall, born at 38+4weeks. It was lovely to sit around and bring in the new year with our bubby girl, my parents, sister in law and best of all my gorgeous husband.
Two very different but equally amazing experiences!
Posted by sammik, 27th March 2013
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mom81879 said
- 08 Nov 2015
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mom57522 said
- 12 Jan 2015
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