Right by my side

Around this time 4 years ago my waters broke so I thought I’d share with you all the story of my 3rd birth

The image was taken maybe a day or so before I went into labour, but I have always loved this photo as it reminds me of the nights my little girl stayed close by me until her brother arrived safely.

So, on the 15th of Feb 2017,  I remember having put Sebastian and Patricia to sleep, I was 39+6/40 and the weeks leading up to my due date had been hard on my body. It was a particularly hot summer and I had definitely been feeling it! I had tried a number of different things to help induce labour but nothing seemed to work, and I remember thinking on the Eve of his due date “f… it – I give up- this baby will come when their ready”. So I prepared for another restless night.

But I didn’t make it to bed that night, at about 10:00pm my waters broke, in a very dramatic “pop and gush” style, as I had experienced before. Feeling excited and prepared and knowing baby would arrive shortly after that, we called grandma to come babysit and made our way into hospital before contractions started. From previous experience I knew my body would move quickly once they did!

When I arrived at the hospital the midwife did a check baby and the contractions started to pick up quiet quickly. I moved around the room but found comfort on the birth ball. Within less then an hour of my arrival at the hospital my labour was establishing, and but around 00:15 on the 16/2 I was feeling the innate urge to push.

I moved into a comfortable position, one knee to the bed and the other upright to maximise the space for baby to come through, however after a few pushes I felt like I should have met my baby, but something was slowing his descent. I asked the midwife what she could see, because something didn’t feel right, his head was low but not moving out. The midwife told me his hand was beside his head! Cheeky boy! So with that information I made as much room as I could, and I remember rotating my leg outwards with a contraction, and this is what freed his little head and hand in one push! Soon enough the rest of his body was born and he was up on my chest