A week past my due date, at 41 wks I had my 3rd sweep. I was getting the odd contraction which I’d had for a few days. By late afternoon/early evening they were getting more intense so we sent toddler W off to his nan’s and I got in the bath for a bit.
Even though it was my second, because W was induced I really didn’t know what to expect at home – while in the bath, through contractions, I was reading baby books on when you should go into hospital – I didn’t want to go too late but didn’t want to go too early and get sent home!
All this time I was just trying to breathe through the contractions, plus trying to stay relaxed and think of tropical peaceful beaches!
I was still in the bath when my OH came home after dropping W off. We worked out my contractions were about 6-7 minutes apart so he phoned the delivery ward and they told us to come in…
I put the TENS on for the car journey, and luckily as it was early evening the traffic was light and I only had one contraction in the car!
As soon as we got to the ward my allocated midwife was there waiting for us and I asked for gas and air before we’d even got into the room! I think my subconscious was like ‘right, you’ve done alright through breathing, now you’re here you can get on the gas and air!’
The midwife examined me straight away and we were all surprised and delighted that I was 6-7cm dilated already! So chuffed that I’d got that far without any pain relief…
My waters broke 10 mins later (so lucky they didn’t go in the car 😂) I got hooked up to the monitor and straight on the gas and air (amazing stuff) and had some pretty strong contractions… Couple of times hitting over 100 on the machine whatever that means. As with last time my OH was brilliant helping me with the gas and air and getting me to use it properly (how to breathe using it always seems to confuse me!)
At some point a doctor came in and noted how ‘serene’ it was in the room.. I remember at that point, I had zoned out a bit… Like they say animals want peace and quiet in labour, I think I was going through a similar stage!
Just 30-40 minutes after arriving in hospital, it wasn’t long before I had the urge to push… 3 or 4 pushes and he was out!
We got to the hospital at 8pm and baby S was born at 9.02pm, weighing in at 7lb. Honestly can’t believe how quick it was!
He was placed on me straight away but I was wearing a t-shirt so not sure if we had that true skin-on-skin moment… It’s all a bit hazy as…
I hadn’t torn this time but while the midwife was doing the agpar tests, I remember feeling so woozy, and I was still getting painful contractions. She got the doctor in and between them they removed some blood clots from my womb which is what was causing the pain. My OH said this was worse to see than the birth or placenta!!
Because of these clots I lost over 1.5litres of blood, so was on iron straight away (even though they should have waited 3 days apparently) and hooked up to a hormone for 4 hours (can’t remember why!) in the recovery ward.
S hadn’t latched straight away like W did, and he cried a fair bit but also slept a fair bit. We moved down to the main ward about 6am where we chilled out for the day. A couple of times they helped me get him to latch and we also gave him colostrum via a syringe.
Even though I wasn’t quite convinced that breastfeeding was established, and could have stayed in, I wanted to come home and so we did about 5-6pm and he got to meet his big brother W, and auntie 🙂
Overall, it was a much quicker experience than my first, much less pain/discomfort post-birth but also we got this huge sense of relief that he was ok, after all the scare warnings we’d had during pregnancy and the small chance that he might have a genetic disorder…. Our gorgeous second-born boy was here… And healthy… And perfect 😍
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