Hi Kate!!!
He’s here!!! (3 weeks early!)
Fraser decided he wanted to join us early! (I knew you’d like the name Fraser).
It was about 8pm Thursday night and I was laying on the couch waiting for Cam to get home from work. Of all days, Cam had a late meeting that day. He gets up for work at around 3am but is usually home by around 4pm. On this particular day, he didn’t leave work until around 8pm so I knew he was going to be tired and probably a bit cranky depending on how his meeting went.
When I was laying on the couch, I felt this little ‘pop’ and thought ‘hmmm that felt a bit weird’ but didn’t think anything of it. Cam called to let me know he was on his way home just after 8, and when he called I stood up and felt this little trickle down my leg. I told him I thought maybe my waters had broken and he laughed it off and said no way. Sure enough they had broken with the trickle continuing to come. He was about an hour’s drive from home so I called him back and said I’m pretty sure this is it and said I’d call the hospital to see what they say. They said I had to come in so they could check if it was my waters.
I started to have little surges but nothing painful. I think I was in a bit of denial it was happening and fully expected us to drive another hour to the hospital for them to say false alarm. My bags weren’t packed (of course they weren’t), so while I waited for Cam to get home I got a few things together just in case. I also started cleaning the house and put a load of washing on.
Cam got home and sure enough, he was cranky and like me didn’t quite believe it was happening. I told him to have a shower and take our time before we headed to the hospital. My surges were coming around every 10-15 minutes but I still didn’t believe they were real surges. I thought it was all in my head.
We arrived at the hospital at about 10.30pm and she confirmed that yes, my waters had broken and I was 2cm. By this time, surges were coming around every 7 minutes but still very manageable.
Cam set the room up with little candles and started playing my tracks. He helped me put my TENS machine on and I started pacing the room trying to find a comfortable position for every surge. I tried so hard to get into the ‘zone’.
It’s all a bit of a blur. Looking back now I feel like it went super quick, but I remember looking at the clock between 12 and 12.30am and thinking omg that was the longest half hour of my life. I continued to move around the room trying to find a comfortable position and I think by this stage the ‘boost’ button on my TENS was just constantly on. I couldn’t really feel it anymore. At around 2.30am I asked for some gas, the midwife checked me and I was 8cm and by this stage I was really starting to struggle. I remember thinking, ‘I know I can do this without the epidural but I just don’t think I want to’. I wanted to be able to enjoy the birth and the negative thoughts were starting to get louder (I guess because I was on the verge of transition). I asked if I could have the epidural. Cam asked me if I was sure that’s what I wanted and reassured me I could do it but I think I had already decided in my head. Looking back now I’m so happy I did. We were able to get an hour’s sleep before I started pushing. The nurse came in to check me after an hour and I was 9cm and she said have another hour sleep and then you should be ready. 10 minutes later she came rushing back in because Fraser had very rapidly dropped into my pelvis and his heart rate started to drop so my doctor said we needed to get him out now. I started to get a bit panicky but Cam was so great at keeping me calm. I started pushing and it was just the most amazing experience. I wasn’t in pain anymore and I could really enjoy the process of him coming out. I only pushed for about 15 minutes and when his head was out my doctor told me to reach down and feel his head. Oh my god that was just the best. One more push and our boy was born. He was crying, I was crying, Cameron was crying. It was just amazing.
My doctor put him straight on my belly. The cord was quite short and wouldn’t reach up to my chest. Cameron got to cut the cord and once he did that I lifted him higher. I looked down at him and our eyes locked and we just stared at each other. It was such a surreal moment.
I honestly had no idea how my birth was going to go but I can truly say that it was the most amazing experience of my life and I 100% believe my hypnobirthing techniques helped me achieve that. Even though it wasn’t a drug free birth I’m still so happy with how it went and the feeling is just indescribable.
Thank you so much for all of your support and guidance!! I have recommended the course to all of my pregnant friends and will definitely be revisiting it (waaaayyyy down the track) when we think about baby number 2. It truly was a game changer!!!
Thank you so much again!!!!!!
Taneal
Photos shared with permission