Almond Eyes' Birth story (sorry its so long)

I dont dare post Chestnut Cheeks' story. It's not pretty. Is any birth story pretty though? Hmmm probably not. But his really wan't nice. It was long! It was gross!

Anyway....

We had been TTC Almond Eyes for four months, but had decided to stop TTC during the month of March/April to try and avoid a Christmas baby. Well guess what happened! Yep you guessed it... AE was due on the 19 December.

I had gone over due with CC so I expected the same would happen with AE. I expected her to come on Christmas Day. Mostly because that was the day I least wanted her to be born.

It was a pleasant surprise to be woken at 4am on the 11th of December with some rather strong pains. Now. The pains I was experiencing were the same sort that started the day CC was born. I laboured for 23 hours with him, so I knew I had quite a while to go. Swift Jim decided to stay home just in case & Grandma took CC for the day. At lunch time I fell asleep & woke a couple of hours later and nothing. No more pain..... How depressing.

The next day Swift Jim went to work. Later that night the pains returned, but didn't last for long.... jolly Braxton Hicks!

At about 8pm on the 13th, SJ called my mum. The pain was pretty significant by now & I just wanted my mum. She arrived & we all decided that it might be time to head to the hospital. I went & they sent me home again. And you guessed it. With the help of some pain killers I went to sleep & awoke to no pain. Labour had stopped. Again!

It was getting a bit sick of this now, very frustrated. I pottered through the next day, pains coming and going, finding it very hard to get comfortable but fully in the knowledge that this baby was staying put until christmas day!! Or so I thought!

It was about 9:30pm on the 14th of december, I was getting ready for bed when I hear a "POP". The sound came from inside my belly. I said to SJ, "did you hear that" Yep, he had heard it! So I thought, hmmm might ring the hospital & ask if it's normal. So I rang & told them & they said it may have been your waters, is there any fluid? But there wasn't. She said to come in so they can examine me. I wasn't in any pain, so I knew I'd be sent home. Anyway we rang our good friends & they had CC for the night.

On the way to the hospital, contractions started. They were quite strong so I knew this was it!

I could barely walk to the hospital door, and it was very difficult to be brave while all these people watched me, knowing I was in labour [I had to go the emergency ward as it was after hours]. A nurse came & got me & off we went. I had to stop every few steps as the contractions were getting stronger. They hooked me up to a monitor to see just how strong the contractions were, & she tells me that they are BRAXTON HICK'S still!!!!! I said "please dont send me home again!" So she agreed for me to stay & be monitored for the next hour. Well that was aweful, being strapped to the monitor, on my back. I was labouring in my back & all I wanted to do was walk around. I must have been getting a bit vocal with the contractions, coz after a while a midwife came in & said, they must be picking up eh? And she said yeah, your progress is good, lets see how dilated you are. 4cm! YES... it took me 12 hours to dilate 4 cm with CC... it had only been 2! So we went off to the birth suite. Finally!

I laboured in the shower for a while until the pain got too bad & they gave me a pethadine shot. Didn't really help the pain, but certainly made me sleepy! I just wanted to lay down. So I got dry & went to lay on the bed.

After a long while of lying down I asked for my Mum. It was 3am on the 15th December. The nurse went & called my mum to come to the hospital as I was asking for her. What a great mum!! I hopped up because I needed to go to the toilet. It took me about 5 mins to walk over to the toilet I think lol.... I couldn't go. So I stood up & walked around for a bit & my mum arrived. I went to lay down again & I was begging for an epidural. I couldn't stand it anymore. By the time the nurse came back to tell me a doctor would be up soon. I needed to push. She didn't believe me. I said " I cant help it! Either I need to push or I am gonna do a big poo!!" So she decided it might be best to examine! And yes indeed.... I was ready to push!

Fifteen minutes later,at 3:59am the baby arrived! Amazing! I said "here she is!" Then realised I didn't even know if it was a girl or boy... they said "yes it's a girl!" Amazing!

Such a different birth to her brother, but both equally special.

The pink shirts were not planned... haha