Elena's birth story (Aaron) 2014

 

I had my 40 week appointment with a midwife that day and she just asked me what do I think about membrane sweep if I were about to come again next week. "I really think it won't be necessary. My pregnancy has been straight forward up to now and I believe my baby doesn't need any assistance as he will be ready to arrive when he's ready"- I said full of confidence.

 

Meanwhile, I have deleted my Facebook profile and only talked really to my relatives as didn't want anyone to stress me out asking when is the baby going to arrive. I just followed my Hypnobirthing study and was happy with all the help and support from my husband. After seeing my midwife I decided to go to yoga class as I was doing last couple of months and really found it helpful with relaxation and breathing. Also, I did more relaxation and visualization at home too. That day yoga didn't go as smooth as normally as I was feeling very uncomfortable and was having some Braxton-Hicks. But as being myself I normally just try and ignore things like this and do something else like a house cleaning.

 

The next morning, I couldn't sleep and woke up with my husband Nick who I eventually offered to take to work and even nipped to a shop after. Later on at around 1pm I started feeling a bit more uncomfortable and went to the toilet where discovered that my mucus plug which started to come out the day before had changed color from white to a bit more bloody. Then I had a little nap on a sofa and when still feeling discomfort decided to use other girls advice and take a bath. I decided to call my husband as he was at his break at 4pm and he asked me if I wanted him to come home. At that time I really wanted him next to me and also the bath only gave me a 15 minutes pain relief. The way I felt didn't really give me hint on a early labour as that wasn't the surges I was described by midwifes. It was just constant with no breaks. At that point Nick suggested to call Triage and ask their advice. The midwife on the phone suggested to come in for a check and to see if my water broke without me realizing it.

 

It was around 6.00pm when we arrive to the hospital. I did notice at that point that my surges started to be around 30 min apart. Midwife asked if she can do internal examination and said I was 2cm already. She suggested we went back home and call them later on when I couldn't hold any more pain. When we came home I went straight to bed and put my TENS machine on. I was still asking Nick to check if we have everything ready. I also didn't want anyone to know that the things had started to avoid interruption and stress. I just wanted my husband at that time. However even he couldn't do much for me as my body was really sensitive on every his touch and I had to ask him to take TENS machine off as the sticky pads were making me so uncomfortable. So he just sat next to the bed and occasionally was offering me either water or food (as I really fancied a cheeseburger when he was on his way home) or just asking me how I was and making sure I was breathing properly.

 

Some time later, I went to this stage when I couldn't talk or say much so when Nick was counting my surges to let hospital know next time he's on the phone, I just made this noise at the beginning and then at the end of each surge. At some point I lost track of time but asked him to call hospital. For some reason which I think is really hard the midwives always wanted to talk to me but I physically couldn't say much. Apparently that time they told me to still stay at home as my intervals were more than 6 minutes and wait until they were at least 5 minutes. As me being totally out of this world I didn't even pass it to Nick and continuing being on the bed. The way how I was feeling is difficult to describe. I think I was half asleep between surges and was trying to breath through during them. I kind of didn't know what was going on around me anymore. Later on my husband called hospital again to see if we can go. It was around 1am and my surges were around 60-90 sec each with the interval of 3 minutes. Funny enough but later on my husband would tell me that I had asked him to call hospital as I was ready to go, however up to now I cannot remember doing that.

 

That time the midwife on the phone told us to come now. Nick ordered a taxi and started putting all the bags near the front door. However my task, which is no pressure but just get downstairs and in the taxi, was just too difficult at that time! I thought that I really wanted to go to the toilet but nothing happened when I sat on the loo. Nick was just so persuasive to make me get into the taxi but it was even a challenge for me to get down the stairs as I got stuck with my surge and had to lye in the middle of it to rest and breath trough. Eventually I got into the back seat of the car, luckily Nick asked the taxi company to send us a regular car and not people carrier where I'd have to climb into it and it wouldn't have any big seats in it. The taxi driver was shocked and scared when he saw me as just before I came out of the house he asked Nick if we were going anywhere nice, like holidays, well, the answer was - "to the hospital to get the baby as my wife is in labour right now!"

 

Lucky for us that there was no traffic and we did ask the taxi driver to avoid roads with sleeping policemen. I believe it was around 2.30am when we got to the hospital. I remember running from the taxi to the nearest wall so I can lean on it. Then, as we were there earlier that day, I just stormed into the same room and lied on a bed. The room was empty and dark. I was happy!

 

"Where is your wife?" - a midwife asked my husband in the corridor.

"She's in this room"- said Nick.

"Why is she in this room?! No one is in it as we don't have staff there at this time of the night!"

"I don't know!"-he didn't know either.

 

Hmm I don't think I cared at that time. But she came in and asked me to go to another room where she can examine me. So it had to be another difficult task for me but I put myself together and did it. I went to the room and just said that I really needed to have a poo as I felt like pushing and run to the loo. The midwife just wondered why do I have this feeling if I'm not fully dilated yet. I was just speechless as I didn't know the answer but I was just following my instincts. Obviously nothing happened in the toilet and I just went back to bed where she just told me that it was time to be examined so we all knew how far I progressed. So she waited until my surge finished and while she was examining I actually didn't feel much at all but to her and our surprise she said that I was already ten centimeters. She said that they would need to transfer me to the delivery ward and I was just happy that it was all happening on the bed and didn't have to walk anymore.

When I got into the delivery suit the midwifes only asked me to roll from the bed I was lying onto the bed in that room. Just as I did it I felt like few liters of warm liquid came out of me and washed all my legs. The midwife confirmed that my water just broke.

 

Then Nick gave Jo - our midwife, my birth plan and she said that I wouldn't be disturbed anymore and I can continue my hypnobirthing. It was quite a challenge for me to get my head back into calmness and to drift away so I asked for gas&air. Personally I didn't feel much of the effect from it but at least I could control my breathing better. It was warm and quiet in the room. The lights were dimmed and my midwife with a student midwife were just looking and occasionally telling me that I was doing great. Nick was standing behind me as I was lying on my right side. I was just asking him to give me so e water.

 

I felt that I had been pushing for some time already and asked Jo if everything was fine. She said yes and that the baby's head was on the way to come out. I couldn't resist myself and touched it. It was a nice feeling to feel something soft and warm coming out of me. I felt positively relieved that I was doing everything right and just continued pushing. Then I felt like my skin was stretching, a bit hot but not painful. I think I didn't feel any sort of pain only a need to push like never before. After two more pushes our sweetheart little baby came out and was placed on my tummy. Nick was the first one who spoke in his presence. He said it was a boy. I couldn't describe my feelings at that time. It was my world over there lying on my tummy. I didn't need anything else just wanted to cuddle him and look at him. But the umbilical cord was too short and according to my birth plan I wanted to wait until all the blood would go from my placenta to my baby's body before cutting it. So after couple of more minutes my husband had an honor to cut the cord and welcome our baby into the world.

 

I just had to go through the third stage of labour which is placenta delivery. Apparently it was harder than I thought! My hips were aching and I didn't have any more surges so I had to make myself push. The midwife suggested I change the position as it might help. As I did it my placenta came out so fast like nothing was holding it. Straight after I felt so painless and comfortable as I didn't feel for few weeks already. Nothing was hurting me. I was just happy! I have everything now. My family - my husband and my son. We called him Aaron and he was born at 4am on 24th May 2014, weighing 7lb 4oz. Little baby boy. Our miracle, our world and our everything from that day onwards.

 

P.S. We can't wait for the next one!