Birth on a deadline
It was a pretty normal January morning, I wake up my daughter’s and give them breakfast. I had been having contractions for a few days now since they turned little man around from his breach position however today they are definitely feeling stronger. I had a small show the night before so I am pretty certain labour is imminent. I get another show when I go to the toilet and the pains are getting stronger and I’m starting to see a regular pattern, but they needed to be every half an hour before I can go to the hospital. I carry on with my day, spending as much time with my girls as possible as I know I will be away from them awhile. This is only the second time I have left my two year old and probably the third time I have left my three year old. My three year old can sense something as she doesn’t leave my side for a millisecond. I try to distract her from my pains by getting her to bounce on the ball with me, but I think she knows what is happening; perhaps she has a vague memory from her younger sister’s birth. I didn’t mind, I knew I needed those cuddles as much as she did. I was dreading being away from them.
Eventually the time comes when the contractions are regular enough and I have to go to hospital in case he’s turned around. I’m excited in a way because I get to see him inside of me one last time before he’s born. It’s time to say bye to my beautiful girls, my eldest daughter comes for a cuddle and says see you soon brother and kiss my bump as she often has during both my pregnancies. Now it is time for my two year old daughter I give her a squeeze and kiss which she’s not exactly happy about so I put her down, what she did next had me emotional and not just from hormones. She lays her face on my bump and rubs her face over it, to some this won’t sound like a big deal but for Lexi it’s a huge break through as she’s not one for physical contact and has barely acknowledged the huge bump before, despite the fact her brother kicked every time she touched my tummy.
Big shout out to my cousin for carefully driving over the bumps to spare me some pain. Even he said he’d never taken bumps so carefully. Haha
I get into the maternity day ward and again the midwife looks at me like I’m not in labour as I’m not screaming. I’m hooked up to a monitor and she asks me if I have taken anything for the pain and I say no. She looks at me and says she’s phoning for a bed in the pre-labour. They bring me a chair but I want to walk I want to speed things up. I’m given a bed and a bouncy ball – now the waiting begins.
My concept of time isn’t great during labour but before long I’m given a room on the delivery ward. I do know it’s now Sunday. My wonderful gas and air is hooked up for me. Bouncing on my ball I’m getting things moving.
It comes to time to push but there is still a bit of membrane left but there is no way I’m stopping for anyone. The midwife says he’s crowning but he keeps going back in. She tells me he’s OP, it’s going to be a long road. She also says if I don’t deliver by 7pm they will be prepping me for an emergency c-section – I wasn’t having that. The contractions feel like they have stopped and I’m getting worried for my baby boy. They give me something to help me have contractions again and my mum tells me to put everything I’ve got into it to picture someone I really wanna hurt so I picture the doctor who misdiagnosed my dad’s cancer and sent my nan home to die and after a quick rest something within me just switched into mum mode that is the only way I can describe it and I pushed and pushed. My beautiful baby boy Celeb Andrew Stephen Hayes was born at 6:57pm. 3 minutes later this would have been a whole different story. Such a mini version of his dad he is scrumptious. I couldn’t wait for my girls to meet him. My family is complete.
