Birth story and baby update
Hi Guys, I know my birth story is a bit late, but I wanted to take the time to recover and get into a routine first. Most importantly I didn't want to post it back in July and then disappear from the blog again to recover! I'm excited to be blogging again consistently, so I hope you don't mind that this post is late.
So if you follow me on Instagram you would know I gave birth at 41 weeks! boy was that last week a drag. I think most pregnant women are over it by week 38, by then you know your baby is more then full term and happy for them to come out as soon as. When I reached 40 weeks I was offered a membrane sweep to get things moving down there, from what I had read in baby forums I was really scared of how uncomfortable it was going to be, but I was so tired I agreed. I had the sweep at 40 weeks and 5 days, It was uncomfortable but it gave me hope that the baby would come soon.
Two days went past with no signs of labour, I went to my parents house the day before I gave birth, we went to the park and they made me walk around which I think helped a little. The next day which was a Monday I was officially 41 weeks, My midwife had booked me in for an induction on the Thursday, so I knew the baby would definitely be here that week, but I really wanted a natural birth so I was hoping she would arrive before the induction date.
When I woke up on the Monday, I started feeling light stomach pains, they felt like period pains, this continued on and off for a couple of hours, from then on I knew this was it, so all I could do was wait for the contractions. My little sister had come to sleep over, so we decided to walk up and down the stairs of my flat, which is a total of four floors. After the first flight of steps, the contractions begun, a fast gush of tightening pains which lasted for about a minute then stopped. I tried to continue going up and down the steps but I struggled to move.
So we decided to go back inside, at this point it was 5pm and let me tell you the contractions came thick and fast! the hospital always advise to only go in when your contractions are about 2 minutes apart. My contractions were instantly 2 minutes apart!! they would come on and last for about a minute or two, then stop and come back after two minutes. I couldn't talk or stand at this point. So we waited it out until 6.30pm and called the hospital, they told us to come in.
When the first midwife checked my stats, I was shocked to find out I was only 3 centimetres dilated, I was taken to a public room to wait it out with other pregnant women. It was now 8pm, the midwife said I probably wouldn't be fully dilated until the next day as the average dilation is half a centimetre an hour, my heart dropped. So we waited with my Husband and two sisters, at this point I was still having contractions every 2 minutes, I couldn't imagine doing this for another 10 hours or so the pain was unbearable.
Two hours later at 10pm, I couldn't take the pain anymore, my husband begged the midwife to check on me again, she initially didn't want to as it had only been 2 hours, she was sure I couldn't be anymore than 4-5cm dilated. But she agreed and when she did check I had climbed all the way to 8cm in only two hours! I just knew this pain was too intense to still only be in the early stages of labour.
I had planned to have a water birth, so they took us up to our room and gave me gas and air in between changing while the midwives prepared the bath for me. Once I jumped in the bath, I did start to feel a bit better, the motion of the water helped. Only having been in the bath for abut 10 minutes my water broke!! but then the midwife spotted that the baby had pooped in the water which can lead to infection if not monitored. So that was the end of my water birth plan, I was taken to a room so the baby could be closely monitored by the doctor. Thank God she was ok.
After 7 hours of contractions and roughly 15 minutes of pushing Ava-Grace Viola Djosimar was born at 12.48pm on July 25th weighing in at 7 pounds and 6 ounces. I was instantly in love, literally no words can explain. The midwife put her straight on my chest for skin to skin and she breastfed straight away for an hour and a half. I was so exhausted, you literally go through every emotion possible during labour. I was screaming for an epidural the whole time, but the midwifes kept strong, as I did say in my birth plan I wanted a natural labour, also being a low risk pregnancy they felt I didn't need it. I was also lucky enough not to have any stitches.
We left the hospital 12 hours later on the same day, I was so happy to leave and go home to meet the rest of our family. My body took 2 weeks to recover, the pain in the first week made it difficult to move too much.
Ava's already 3 months old, time really does fly with a newborn. She's such a happy baby, she sleeps through the night but doesn't nap during the day. She loves to breastfeed but absolutely hates bottles, so we have been tied to the hip since she was born. She is her Dad's twin, I think she only has my curly hair lol maybe with the next child!
Motherhood is a whirlwind of constant challenges and an immense feeling of love you never knew you could have. I'm enjoying every minute with her .
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