Chloe's Birth Story
It had been over 18 months of trying including 6 rounds of clomid before I got my very first positive test in April 2020. I called my husband Daniel into the bathroom to show him the test and the first thing I said was "It's going to be a boy, and he will be born on your birthday!"
From there, my pregnancy was an absolute dream. I was one of the lucky ones who only had a day here and there of morning nausea, occasional fatigue, pelvis pain and some light heartburn towards the end.
My due date of December 27th 2020 came and went and during our last pre booked hospital appointment the midwife decided she would like to book me in for an induction on the following Tuesday as by then I would have been 41+2. Baby must have heard about the pending eviction notice as they decided they would have other plans.
Saturday morning I woke to find that I had finally lost my mucus plug, I was excited and hopeful it would be the start of something soon, even though I had absolutely no other signs or symptoms of labour.
I continued with my day like I would any other Saturday, walked the dog, did the groceries, tidied the house and then around lunch time I began having what I would describe as "period pains" I didn't think much of them as they were mild and infrequent, but again hoped this was a sign that baby would be on the move soon.
By 5pm that evening I noticed that the "cramps" were becoming slightly more intense and also more frequent, coming around every 30 minutes or so. At this stage the cramps were painful but still nothing extreme, I could talk through them or continue with whatever activity I was doing when they came but I thought this might be a great chance to try out the TENS machine, so I got it out popped it on and Daniel and I continued with our Saturday afternoon NETFLIX binge session.
By 7pm the cramps were closer together, coming every 8-10 minutes and although they weren't excruciating or unbearable they were definitely more intense than anything I had ever felt before - I decided to ring the hospital and speak to a midwife just to get some feedback and advice.
The midwives explained that it sounded like my body was getting ready for labour and in the early stages but to settle in for a long night. They suggested taking some panadol, keep using my TENS and try to get some rest. If at any stage I was worried, in too much pain, my waters broke etc to come in immediately but I was happy to continue at home at this stage so I popped some panadol and hopped into bed to sleep.
While in bed I started to notice that my cramps were getting closer each time and more intense. I would doze for a minute and then wake to one, have to get up and walk a lap around the house before settling back into bed. Although I had noticed they were getting closer, it still wasn't at a point where I felt any urgency or as if the baby was coming anytime soon. I had no pressure or feeling of the baby being down low and ready and the "cramps" I was feeling didn't feel or sound like any contractions I had been taught about in the books or classes.
In the back of my mind I kept hearing everyone around me who had had babies - midwifes, family members, friends saying "Oh trust us you'll just KNOW when you are in labour" and I was still at the stage where I was asking myself is "is this labour?" so I though it couldn’t be.
By 130am my husband took it upon himself to ring the hospital again and explain what was going on, he spoke to a fantastic midwife named Sarah who said it absolutely sounded like I was in early stages of labour. She listened to me breath through a contraction over the phone and said I was doing a great job and could stay home if I felt like it, and then she suggested hopping into the bath to try and give myself a little bit of relief from the pain.
The bath was lovely. Daniel sat next to me in the dimly lit bathroom, held my hand and between contractions we joked and laughed about how drastically our life was going to change over the next 24 hours. I must have been in there for 90ish minutes before all of a sudden I got the biggest sense that I was going to be sick. I quickly told Dan to get me a bucket and decided then and there I needed out of the bath.
In what felt like seconds I got all this pressure down low, I felt like I needed to push immediately and I had a wave of anxiety set in. I started getting very nervous and saying I couldn't do it, and that I wasn't going to be able to do it.
Daniel rang Sarah back who said come in ASAP so he dried me off popped my TENS back on and we rushed to the hospital.
We arrived just after 330am in the morning. I was taken to an examination room to see how dilated I was but at this stage my contractions were every minute so it was hard to find the time to do a proper exam. The midwife managed to do the exam, she looked at Daniel and said "I'll get the wheelchair she needs to go straight to the delivery room"
I was wheeled into the delivery room and as soon as I stood up from the wheelchair my waters broke like in the movies. I looked at the midwife and said "Can I PLEASE have some drugs?" When she replied, "Oh Chloe you're fully dilated the baby is going to be here so soon." I finally turned my TENS up to its max strength and got ready to start pushing
As soon as she said that Sarah, the midwife we had spoken to on the phone, popped her head in to check how we were when her colleague said "She's about to push this baby out" Sarah asked if she could stay and deliver the baby.
She helped me maneuver myself around to find the best position for me and it ended up being me on my side with Daniel holding my left leg up and her supporting my right foot. I pushed for roughly 30 minutes before she mentioned that the baby was getting tired and the heart rate was getting a little low - She explained that with the next contraction I needed to push harder than I had before to get the baby out otherwise they would need to give me an incision to help.
I'm not sure if it was the word incision or knowing that I could get the baby out with one last really big push that helped me, but either way that next push was the biggest and best one I had done and at 4:58am on January 3rd 2021 (roughly an hour after arriving at the hospital) out came our little boy, Mack Roy Lucas. He was perfect. 3.7kilos, 51cm long and within an instant completely redefined my entire existence. Oh, and did I mention he was born the day BEFORE his dads birthday? So my initial guess was pretty close.
Everything went so smoothly and because I didn’t need to recover from any drugs or have any stitches so we were offered the inpatients at home service which was lovely. Our little family was discharged after 6 hours and ready to start life together.
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