Kiddipedia
Sunday night December 17th started as a normal night. We sat down for dinner as usual and after dinner, the girls were playing together with me while my partner was relaxing. I got up to feed the dog and while he was squatting down emptying the dog food from his bowl, I felt a small gush and was a bit unsure what it was at first. In my head I thought to myself, did I just pee myself or was that my waters?!
Being my third baby you would think I would know straight away but what I experienced was just a small gush. Let’s just call it a leakage of wee during pregnancy. So I told my partner and said I’m not entirely sure so I’ll wait a bit and see if anything else happens. About 5 minutes later another gush, so yep definitely my waters.
So I called up the hospital to let them know and of course, they would like me to come in straight away. But I was confident I was ok and I wasn’t experiencing any contractions yet so I told them I was going to wait at home and see if anything else happened. As I have two other children and we had recently moved, so instead of being 5 minutes from the hospital it was about a 40-minute drive away. I didn’t want to call someone to come look after the girls to go all the way there if I was just going to be sent home to wait for labour to start.
Couple hours go by still nothing happened. Just a whole lot more water leaking and making a mess. My partner went off to bed to get some rest before things started to happen. I was trying to get something started with no luck so eventually did the same. My dad also ended up coming around so if we had to leave he was there for the girls.
After a while of trying to get to sleep, I hear my partner get up and go to the toilet nothing unusual but then I hear him being sick. The poor thing spent the night in the toilet. He had been hit with a gastro bug. We ended up going in, in the early hours of the morning (Monday) to get checked out with still no sign of labour happening.
Got into the hospital and after having a test done to make sure it was actually my waters that broke because silly me, didn’t bring in a pad to show them and had changed it before we left home so there wasn’t a whole lot on it.
You think third time around, I would know to do this but no! They wanted to be sure because it may have just been some discharge. The third time, I know it was my waters that broke and I mean, I filled a maternity pad in 10 minutes with my waters. It’s definitely isn’t discharge, and when I say I filled it, I mean filled like a wet nappy that’s been on all night. Because your baby decided to sleep through the night for once and there was no way in hell you were waking them to change a nappy even if it meant they wet through their clothes and bed sheets filled.
So anyway they did their test, told me it might take a few minutes for a positive result to show if it is in fact my waters and then less then a minute the nurse/midwife (can’t remember which she was, cause the midwife that was assessing me called for this other lady to come and do the test) was back in the room saying it was positive.
I was monitored with a CTG for an hour or so. Then offered to be induced then or go home and wait for something to happen. If nothing happened by the next morning, we need to come in at 7 am Tuesday and they would induce me then. I took one look at my partner who was still feeling ill and said I’d go home and wait. So he could rest a bit more and try to get rid of this bug before things started to happen.
We went back home. It got to around lunch time and while it was normal for my baby to not be very active, he didn’t move a whole lot throughout the pregnancy. He hasn’t moved in a couple of hours and something just felt a bit off. I didn’t feel quite right so I called the hospital and notified them. They, of course, said to come in.
I told my partner what was happening and that we needed to go in. Then called a friend of mine who was going to watch the girls when we leave. We waited for her to arrive so we could leave. We went in, got hooked up to the CTG and everything looked fine. The baby seemed happy. I had a couple of movements from him but they said they would induce me. I was happy to do that so all was organised and we were taken through to a birthing room.
While I had been waiting for them to do the paperwork for my induction, I had started to get contractions. They weren’t exactly becoming regular as yet and weren’t very strong. So I had the cannula put in my hand and was hooked up to the IV and the CTG to monitor the baby and get the process started.
Things got intense pretty quick if you have ever had an induction via the IV drip. You will know what I’m talking about, the pain is sooo intense it is not the most pleasant experience. Those of you who have not had to be induced be glad! Those of you yet to have your baby hopefully you won’t need to be induced and things will happen on there own. It is definitely not something I would recommend to anyone.
I was going alright for a while I was getting through the contractions and was still standing and moving a little. They ended up having to do an internal monitoring thing because the one for the baby kept moving and losing baby’s heartbeat, but it meant I could be a bit more mobile which was good while it lasted.
Eventually, I sat on the bed and breathed through my contractions. I just couldn’t stand any longer, then nausea set in. I just kept feeling like I needed to vomit but nothing was happening. Then it came and omg, it kept coming it was the worst. Then when the nurse and midwife were out of the room for a moment I started getting a contraction, it was a big one. At the same time felt the vomit urge and then it came up. I almost filled a vomit bag and the same time I peed on the bed. Yep, it wasn’t just a little pee either I really peed the bed and saturated it. I turned to my partner and said I think I peed.
It may have been a gush of my waters but I’m pretty sure I peed like A LOT. He just told me it was ok and not to worry about it. The midwife came back and offered to change the pads under me and realised I’d peed. That was a bit awkward, I honestly don’t know where it came from I had no urge to pee, it just happened.
After that, the contractions just became more and more intense I felt the urge to push but was told not yet. That is the last thing you want to hear when you get that feeling and it is sooo hard not to, to just hold back and not do it. It’s like when you have been really constipated for so long and you finally need to poo but there is no toilet so you have to hold it. But it’s already right there waiting to come out. Not exactly something you want to do.
So finally I was given the ok to start pushing, I’m pushing and pushing I can feel him almost there and I’m in so much pain I’m screaming at them. I don’t want to do this anymore, I cant do it, just cut him out! My partners telling me I can do it I’ve done it before and all I wanna do is punch him in the face! Mate yes, I have done it before and it f**king hurts!
Then his head starts coming out, it’s halfway out it’s burning the whole “ring of fire” thing, as some people call it. The midwife decides it’s the perfect time to tell me to stop pushing and wait. ARE YOU F**KING KIDDING ME!! It was the worst. Resisting the urge to push while half my baby’s head is out of me.
I screamed to just cut me and pull him out, I was so done. But I made it through, pushed him the rest of the way out and he was placed on my chest. He was absolutely perfect! After all the worrying and the freaking out and googling, he was totally fine. My perfect little boy was born happy and healthy. Not that it would have made a difference to us but just the fact we had gone through all that and there was nothing wrong was I guess in a way a relief.
He was a healthy 3.7kg or 8.1lbs, he was my biggest baby with the girls being 3.6kg/7.7lbs and 3.1kg/6.8lbs. It was an experience for sure and one I don’t wish to do again anytime soon. My first born’s birth was mostly natural. I wasn’t induced but I had morphine for the pain towards the end and out of all of them that was the least painful labour. My second started out natural, I was then given some meds (the same ones used for inductions) to speed up my labour as it had slowed down that made the pain become more intense and I had gas for pain relief.
Then this one I was induced and had no pain relief and it was the most painful labour of the 3! I don’t know how I did it but I don’t think I could have done it without my partner. He was so supportive and just amazing. Which don’t get me wrong, he was supportive of our first two but this time around was a lot better. He says it was because he actually got to rest beforehand. This time, the girl’s labours started in the middle of the night so neither of us had actually slept much before we went to the hospital.
For any first-time mums reading this some tips for when you go into labour.
Try not to freak out and rush off at the first sign of something. (I did this with my second baby because my waters broke and contractions started not long after)
Let your other half rest but also try and rest yourself. You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you!
Listen to your midwife! they know what they’re talking about if they say don’t push then don’t push.
BREATHE!!! Breathing through your contractions is soo much better than just trying to get through them. Deep deep breaths.
And a tip for before labour,
You want your support person/people to be someone you feel comfortable around and someone that will help to keep you calm. Someone who you can tell what to do, who you can tell to back off and someone that can speak for you because there may be a time when you can’t speak for yourself or the midwife may not hear/understand you and your support person will have to speak for you or tell them what you said.
Also, don’t plan on having a strict birth plan. Because you never know what is going to happen. The best thing to do is have an idea of what you want to do or want to happen if you want pain relief or not if there is something specific you want etc and make sure your support person knows what you want. Because at the end of the day the midwives and doctors are going to do what is safest for you and baby.
You may also like to read:
Why I wrote a ‘birth preference’ list instead of a birth plan.
