Birth Announcements & Stories
Birth of Harriet Kathleen :) LONG
Hi ladies
Wanted to get this down before I forget all the details, although I'm not sure I'll be able to forget the drama anytime soon lol! My EDD was March 13 but on March 9 (39+3) I had a midwife appointment in the morning and had a good old moan to her as Alfie had been born at this gestation and I had no signs of anything happening whatsoever!
After my appointment my sister and I went for coffee and a walk around the shops, and then home. I started feeling a bit uncomfortable with some wind-type tummy pains but at the very most thought maybe labour was a day or two away and just carried on with my day. I was feeling quite tired and had a nap while my sis watched Alfie around 4pm and I had these gassy type pains on and off whether up and about or lying down etc. Later I cooked dinner and was starting to get annoyed with the discomfort so I decided to have a bath with Alfie after tea thinking that would ease them. So ran a bath about 6.40pm and got in, did all the usual washing Alf etc. and then his daddy took him upstairs to get ready for bed. Almost as soon as he got out of the bath I had a pain that I sort of needed to breathe through but didn't feel like a contraction, I still thought I was going to have an upset tummy! Suddenly these cramps/pains started coming every 3-4 minutes (me STILL stupidly thinking it was gas) and I ummed and ahhed about ringing the maternity unit, but when the next one had me leaning over the kitchen counter DH was like 'ring them!' and they asked me to come in.
It all went a bit mental from here; I refused to believe I was in labour even when I was on all fours puffing and panting on the kitchen floor, and insisted on blowdrying and straightening my hair and putting my face on between pains before I would leave. Then all of a sudden the pain changed and I couldn't breathe at the top of a contraction and I was getting panicky - at this point I said to DH I wasn't sure we should head off in the car as our maternity unit is 40 mins away but all he could think to say was 'I don't have any other vehicle!' lol - I meant an ambulance but I didn't really want to say this out loud and I still was thinking I was being stupid and it would all stop any minute (denial anyone?!). So off we headed in the car and in the next mile and a half DH had to pull over four times for me to have a contraction, at one point I got out of the passenger seat and into the back where I was kneeling in the footwell and leaning over the back seat and bellowing like some sort of wild animal. Next contraction I started screaming that I needed to push and I pushed out what I initially thought was the head but as I felt for it, it burst so I had pushed out my bag of waters which broke all over the car, which is a 3-door Audi by the way so you can imagine how wedged in I was :-/ By now DH was on the hands free to 999 and trying to explain to the ambulance people where we had pulled over and what was happening. They kept asking if I was having contractions - god knows why because I was screaming my head off in the background! They were telling him to check for the head etc. and thankfully the ambulance arrived at that point. Had a bit of trouble getting out of the car, could not move during a contraction at all and was squeezed into such a small space but they got me out, half naked, and walked down the hard shoulder and into the ambulance where I finally got my mitts on the gas & air.
I've no idea how long it took to get to hospital - about 25 minutes I think - we met a rapid response car with two midwives on board en route and it was the most hellish journey of my life, I was contracting every two minutes and unable to control my urges to push but despite Harriets best efforts to be born in the ambulance she was in the OP position and my pushes weren't moving her much. Arrived at hospital about 9.45 and was wheeled straight into delivery where they confirmed I was fully dilated and told me to push away, as if I had any choice in the matter! I pushed for a further hour at which time they were worried as her heartbeat was racing and due to a previous section they didn't want me pushing any longer so I was prepped for theatre and told they would try an instrumental delivery but wouldn't do anything too drastic before proceeding to c-section. At that point I really did not care what they did to me, I just wanted her out and for the pushing to stop lol. Thankfully with a ventouse they were able to get her moved right down and with one final application of forceps she was born at 11.07pm. DH was able to watch her head come out and I was able to find out the sex myself, and hold her within a few minutes of birth which I couldn't do with Alfie. All in all it was a scary and very very intense experience but I am so thrilled to have delivered vaginally, it's made a massive difference to my recovery and I feel mostly great! Quite bruised down below but infinitely more mobile than after my section and apart from very sore nipples from BFing we are doing brilliantly. And she is gorgeous - we are all in love with her 
Well done if you got this far and good luck to all mummies still waiting 
Claire xx
Birth of Harriet Kathleen :) LONG
Hi ladies
Wanted to get this down before I forget all the details, although I'm not sure I'll be able to forget the drama anytime soon lol! My EDD was March 13 but on March 9 (39+3) I had a midwife appointment in the morning and had a good old moan to her as Alfie had been born at this gestation and I had no signs of anything happening whatsoever!
After my appointment my sister and I went for coffee and a walk around the shops, and then home. I started feeling a bit uncomfortable with some wind-type tummy pains but at the very most thought maybe labour was a day or two away and just carried on with my day. I was feeling quite tired and had a nap while my sis watched Alfie around 4pm and I had these gassy type pains on and off whether up and about or lying down etc. Later I cooked dinner and was starting to get annoyed with the discomfort so I decided to have a bath with Alfie after tea thinking that would ease them. So ran a bath about 6.40pm and got in, did all the usual washing Alf etc. and then his daddy took him upstairs to get ready for bed. Almost as soon as he got out of the bath I had a pain that I sort of needed to breathe through but didn't feel like a contraction, I still thought I was going to have an upset tummy! Suddenly these cramps/pains started coming every 3-4 minutes (me STILL stupidly thinking it was gas) and I ummed and ahhed about ringing the maternity unit, but when the next one had me leaning over the kitchen counter DH was like 'ring them!' and they asked me to come in.
It all went a bit mental from here; I refused to believe I was in labour even when I was on all fours puffing and panting on the kitchen floor, and insisted on blowdrying and straightening my hair and putting my face on between pains before I would leave. Then all of a sudden the pain changed and I couldn't breathe at the top of a contraction and I was getting panicky - at this point I said to DH I wasn't sure we should head off in the car as our maternity unit is 40 mins away but all he could think to say was 'I don't have any other vehicle!' lol - I meant an ambulance but I didn't really want to say this out loud and I still was thinking I was being stupid and it would all stop any minute (denial anyone?!). So off we headed in the car and in the next mile and a half DH had to pull over four times for me to have a contraction, at one point I got out of the passenger seat and into the back where I was kneeling in the footwell and leaning over the back seat and bellowing like some sort of wild animal. Next contraction I started screaming that I needed to push and I pushed out what I initially thought was the head but as I felt for it, it burst so I had pushed out my bag of waters which broke all over the car, which is a 3-door Audi by the way so you can imagine how wedged in I was :-/ By now DH was on the hands free to 999 and trying to explain to the ambulance people where we had pulled over and what was happening. They kept asking if I was having contractions - god knows why because I was screaming my head off in the background! They were telling him to check for the head etc. and thankfully the ambulance arrived at that point. Had a bit of trouble getting out of the car, could not move during a contraction at all and was squeezed into such a small space but they got me out, half naked, and walked down the hard shoulder and into the ambulance where I finally got my mitts on the gas & air.
I've no idea how long it took to get to hospital - about 25 minutes I think - we met a rapid response car with two midwives on board en route and it was the most hellish journey of my life, I was contracting every two minutes and unable to control my urges to push but despite Harriets best efforts to be born in the ambulance she was in the OP position and my pushes weren't moving her much. Arrived at hospital about 9.45 and was wheeled straight into delivery where they confirmed I was fully dilated and told me to push away, as if I had any choice in the matter! I pushed for a further hour at which time they were worried as her heartbeat was racing and due to a previous section they didn't want me pushing any longer so I was prepped for theatre and told they would try an instrumental delivery but wouldn't do anything too drastic before proceeding to c-section. At that point I really did not care what they did to me, I just wanted her out and for the pushing to stop lol. Thankfully with a ventouse they were able to get her moved right down and with one final application of forceps she was born at 11.07pm. DH was able to watch her head come out and I was able to find out the sex myself, and hold her within a few minutes of birth which I couldn't do with Alfie. All in all it was a scary and very very intense experience but I am so thrilled to have delivered vaginally, it's made a massive difference to my recovery and I feel mostly great! Quite bruised down below but infinitely more mobile than after my section and apart from very sore nipples from BFing we are doing brilliantly. And she is gorgeous - we are all in love with her
Well done if you got this far and good luck to all mummies still waiting
Claire xx
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