Weep weep! I just read the old thread, awwwwwwwwwww....so here's my birth story....
According to his scan DS was due on 14th, but according to my LMP dates he actually arrived on time on 21st? so not sure if he was overdue or not?
So on Tuesday morning I went to see the acupuncturist, who, handily, is also a midwife and she also gave me a sweep and let me know that my cervix was thinned and effaced so I should expect some action soon.
Took DD off swimming and felt periody and crampy all day. By the evening I was getting mild contractions, but wasn?t sure if they were BH or not, had a nice clary sage (will not be missing that smell) bath to keep things going and polished off the last of the raspberry leaf tea (will not miss that either). Got DP to blow up the birth pool anyway and put BIL on standby for babysitting duties should they arise.
Went to bed having mild contractions 6/7 mins apart, by 1a.m. they were 5 mins apart but n ot really painful. Managed to get some sleep, but by 4a.m. could no longer sleep through them.
I rang the delivery suite and the lovely community midwife rang back and said she?d be round soon. Got DP to fil up the birth pool, stuck the tens machine on and BIL turned up and went off to sleep in spare room.
When the midwife turned up she did an internal and couldn?t work out how much I was dialated as I was completely constipated?(TMI), when the second MW arrived shortly afterwards she found I was 4-5cm and did another sweep to keep things going.
So I bounced on my birthing ball, chatted to the MWs and DP and used the tens to full effect. It really took the edge off the contractions and I think I only got up to the top of the first level out of 3. Found kneeling over the back of the sofa with my arse in the air helped too! Had completely forgotton about the gas and air until the midwife mentioned it, hated it last time?.loved it this time.
Got really into focusing on my breathing this time around and mooed my way through the contractions whilst sucking away on g and a!
Things were getting pretty painful by about 8, so I got into the birthing pool, which was amazing, it just took all the weight away. DP went off to give DD breakfast and pack her off to playgroup. I was completely zoned out, and so in my own space, I didn?t really notice he wasn?t there.
The midwives sat in the background, a student mw turned up at some point. They monitored the baby?s heartbeat regularly, but were really non intrusive.
By 9am was finding it hard to cope, DP was holding my hand as I mooed and mooed and tried to keep focused on the task in hand, my waters burst in the pool and I began to feel the urge to push..
The second stage was really intense, but not as painful. I just felt the power of the contractions surging through me as I pushed, the water really took the edge off, and the mw told me to look down, there was my baby boy coming up between my legs! I was aware of the incredible animal noises I was making but it didn?t seem like they were coming from me iyswim.
DS cried straight away and we had a cuddle in the birthpool and I handed him over to DP as I got checked out. Ended up with 2nd degree tear as I pushed him out quite quickly, got stitched up as I fed DS. MWs cleared up and did all the checks. I scuttled off to our bed with DS and a cup of tea, not quite believing what had just happened.
DP went and got DD from playgroup, she popped up, jumped up and down on the bed, said ?Hello baby!? and ran off downstairs like it was an everyday occurrence to have a new baby in the house.