At around 2am on the 19th (I was 40+1 weeks) I
woke with a feeling of heavy period pain. It lasted around 40 seconds and was
very much reminiscent of an upset tummy. I rolled over and went back to sleep.
Another 'pain' woke me around 15 minutes later, so I went to the loo and sat
for a few minutes. Nothing more so I went back to sleep. I woke a couple of
times with other pains, but just breathed through them and barely even opened
my eyes for them. The children came in at around 7.30am to wake us up. Once up
and about, the pains seemed to be coming anywhere from 8-15 minutely, lasting
anywhere from 15-40 seconds. I wasn't sure this was early labour, or just a
tease. I told my husband to go to work, jokingly telling him to expect a call as
soon as he got in there, to come home. I truly wasn't sure what was happening..
I walked my daughter to school (a 6 minute walk). Had a contraction while chatting
and laughing with another mum at the playground, then had another walking home.
They were really weird pains, not what I had experienced with my 2nd child at all.
These were felt exclusively down in the lower part of my uterus, as if it was
purely dilation pains I was feeling. Where was the supposed textbook
contraction, beginning gently at the top of my uterus, working down, slowly
tightening to a peak, holding, then releasing slowly? These ones hurt, they
took all my concentration to remember to breathe, rock and let them happen.
Especially while trying to hold a conversation with a 3 1/2 year old boy!
I was expecting my midwife and my follow-through student midwife to be over at
about 10.30-11am for a check up, so I just pottered about and chattered to my son, while slowing regularly to listen to what my body was telling me. My
midwife rang to say she was leaving her house, I almost cried hearing her
voice, because I was so unsure of what was happening and needed someone to tell
me what was going on! So much for being a doula myself.. My student midwife arrived
at 10.30ish and immediately started doing some vacuuming (I was having a mad
nesting urge to clean the birth pool and the floor) and
general tidying up while I stopped every now and then to work through a
contraction. My son was busy watching TV, chatting to me, helping the student
clean. My main midwife arrived at about 11.15am and I told her what I was
feeling, she sat down and got out her paperwork and BP cuff etc while I kept
pottering. She watched me for a bit, then I heard her say to the student, that
she was going to get her kit out of the car, that baby was arriving today.. I
finally called my husband and told him to come home- by taxi from the city, not
train.
At about midday my son needed a nappy change, that was way past my
concentration ability to clean up so I popped
him in the shower to wash, while I sat on the toilet for a while. I noticed I
had a bloody show when I got up, I reported this to my midwife when I next
passed through the lounge room. She quietly got on the phone to our back up
midwife to see where she was. She was unable to leave work, so we had a quiet
brain storm about who I wanted to come and be back up. My choice was contacted,
she was only 15 minutes away and free to join us. That was fate stepping in to
pull together the birth team that ended up being in attendance. :)
My husband arrived home shortly afterwards, hearing me getting slowly more vocal as
the contractions were really getting teeth. They were truly all centred around
the base of my uterus and my cervix, with no seeming regularity, timewise or
lengthwise to them. Admittedly, I was not watching the clock, I was just
wondering around, and stopping where I needed to when I needed to. The birth
pool started being filled at about 12.45, while I paced around it and the
lounge room and the kitchen. I had a massive contraction that actually had me
crying out, with tears and the first thought of 'what am I doing, I don't want
this, go away' (transition anyone?) This contraction is caught on video and it
was a long one, with my son in the background asking why I'm crying, with
my husband reassuring him that I am okay, just working hard. When it finished, I
stood up with my eyes closed, wiped the tears away and looked at the camera
with a grunpy expression and said 'That was tough.'. Thank goodness for the spells of nothing between
contractions!
I sent my husband and son off to get my daughter from school at 1.15. Apparently as
soon as they were gone, I got really vocal and serious about working through
the contractions, which now seemed to be constant. The water temperature felt
so good on my hand, when it was deep enough, I literally threw my clothes off
and loaded myself in. Bliss. Utter bliss. The heat and depth of the water
dropped me to another level totally. I laboured hanging over the edge of the
pool, I laboured with my head resting back on the edge, with my hands wedged
under my sacrum. I could hear with each contraction, I was really starting to
bear down. The roar I had with my son, was happening again :D
I heard my midwife asking
the student if she had my husband's number, because he and the children had to come
home RIGHT NOW. His was the only number not listed on the fridge. I could have
given it to them, but of course, they didn't want to disturb me. They found the
number, his phone didn't answer anyway..
I was on my knees over the edge of the pool, when I felt that familiar poo
sensation, that I recognised as baby moving past the bowel. I tried to not
push, but it felt so good to work with that, so I sat back on one knee, with
the other lunged to the side, put my hand down to feel what was happening. I
could feel his head pass down the birth canal, I could feel his head crowning,
it felt so, so good. I was again trying not to push, trying to breath him out,
but he was just coming, my body was in control, not my mind. As soon as his
head was born, I rested back to lean my head on the pool side. Again, the
contractions were ruling my actions, my midwife was reminding me to breath, I
was trying, but the roar was happening. It was now that my husband and the kids ran
in the door. Apparently they had heard my roaring from 3 doors away and bolted
home. Andrew picked up the video camera in time to film my 2nd son's body being
pushed into the water at 1.39pm. My
midwife had to unravel his body in the water as he was tangled in cord bodily
and around his neck, then she bought him straight out and into my arms. The
time from his body birthing to him being given into my arms was just seconds.
The kids raced to be beside my head. My daughter was indeed already touching the baby as I was still coming to terms with the
fact that I had done it. Given birth, at home, in the pool, to our third child.
Fantastic, powerful, shocking, fast, intense, satisfying, primal, sensual,
joyous.. All wrapped up in a few hours, with the prize of a beautiful 7lb, 14oz
(3.5kg) fair haired baby boy. I would say that officially 1st stage was about
an hour and 20 minutes, 2nd stage about 15 minutes, physiological 3rd stage
about 25 minutes. So all up, about 2 hours again.
My newest son had a little cry, then gazed around and fell asleep. During this time a girlfriend arrived and I realised that the people around me at that moment, were exactly
who were meant to be there. From having a planned cast of thousands, to just my
close family and trusted midwives, with a dear friend arriving practically
straight after the birth. Couldn't have asked for more.
I stayed sitting in the pool for about 25 minutes, then I got up to get out, so
I could birth the placenta. It was then, that I saw that there was a knot in
his cord. What a spin out that was. Born wrapped in his cord and with a true
knot in it as well.
What a special boy I had. The placenta came without a fuss
(my girlfriend helped with that by holding the bowl for me), we moved to the lounge,
then my daughter cut the cord and my newborn boy had his first feed. No problems with
bleeding, or feeding, or anything.
The only 'issues' were that some
of the membrane was retained for a day or so and I got a tear along my old
scar line to the second degree. Again. Pesky scar tissue. And while being
sutured, a small nick was made to my bowel, but that was discovered and
addressed straight away and I had a course of antibiotics to counter any possible
infection. No worries with my blood type being AB- either, as so is
he. Very glad I didnt have prophylactic anti-D during the pregnancy ;)