[kristabelle01]

When I found out that I was pregnant with baby number 3 I cried for 2 days from the shock! We had only ever planned on having two children, and not 6 months earlier DH and I had a frank discussion and put any thoughts of another to bed. We were both happy and planning for the future with our beautiful DD's.
About two weeks before my BFP I had finally plucked up the courage to donate blood for the first time. When asked if there was any chance I was pregnant before proceeding I answered with a firm 'no!'. Little did I know my little boy had already been conceived. I felt pretty shoddy after the donation and didn't start to feel better as I had expected. I decided I wouldn't be donating blood again. Eventually something clicked in my mind and I got out the calendar and started counting. And rechecking. And again. My period was 5 days late. There were two lines on the stick and despite the waterworks my little bean had already become part of our family
DD2 had arrived with no problems in hospital 5 years previously, so after some discussion with DH we decided to apply to the Community midwifery program and have this baby at home. Although I feel absolutely revolting for the first 20 weeks my previous pregnancies had been normal and I'm pretty sure I have most boring medical history ever So we were offered a place and everything went smoothly, my midwives were lovely and very supportive and knoweledgable. Having them visit me at home in the last month was a godsend! From about 37 weeks I had a lot of prelabour and false starts and it was taking it's toll mentally. Everything was ready for the birth, the birthpool was ready, the girls were ready, dh was ready, I was most definately ready!!
My due date came and went...the girls were a little early so that was a first!...my midwife started doing stretch and sweeps every second day to try get things moving, I was 3-4cm dilated but no painful contractions. My backup hospital booked me in for induction at 11 days over. This hospital had a reputation for being difficult when it came to overdue babies so I was getting stressed.At 10 days over my midwife sought permission from the Consultant to break my waters at home. I had toddled off to a Melbourne cup lunch in the hopes that if I went and tried to have fun I would suddenly go into labour! Not 10 minutes after arriving at my friends house my phone rang, it was my lovely midwife with the news that if I went and had some monitoring at the hospital first, she would be able to break my waters at home!!! Hurrah!!
Sitting in the horrible chair having monitoring was so uncomfortable, I was having strong braxton hicks and due to the position I was in the pain in my back was unbearable. The midwife attending us was lovely and brought me sandwiches and lemonade to get bubs moving so we could skedaddle Throughout all this I felt very strongly that our baby was just fine and didn't experience a moments worry. After the registrar had a quick look at the trace he sent us on our way with cheery 'Goodluck!' and I breathed a massive sigh of relief that I would be meeting my baby very soon.
At 4.20pm my midwife broke my waters. Having it done on my own bed was slightly disconcerting, what about my mattress!! Seriously though, I felt so relaxed being in my own home. There was no great gush of fluid, merely a little trickle, I was still a stretchy 3-4 cm and bubs was fully engaged as he had been for at least 2 weeks. As I stood up I had a painful contraction. "ow, you broke me!' I said to the midwife, she chuckled and put her hand on my belly. 'Ooooh yeah, that's a nice one!'. I was so happy to finally be in pain!
She suggested that I go sit on my fit ball and bounce around a bit to put pressure on my cervix. Meanwhile she hung around for a bit to do a few observations and make sure bubs was happy. After 10 Minutes I needed the toilet and as I stood up whoooosh! I was laughing my head of as I toddled off to the toilet trying to hold in the flow(not very successfully). After that the contractions started to ramp up and were lasting a minute. My midwife left to watch her daughters netball game. My Mum had already arrived to tend the girls and she took them to drop DD1 at her pottery class. I called my friend who is a student midwife and was following my pregnancy for her studies, to come over as things were heating up. When I had to stop and breathe through the contractions I told DH to start filling the pool.
By now it was about 5.30 and I had to stop flitting around the house and concentrate. I laboured on my hands and knees on my bed. The pain in my back was horrendous and never really went away between contractions. DS was in a good position and not posterior, but I always seem to feel the pain in my back, my mum was the same. I was timing the contractions on my phone and when I had 5 contractions 3 minutes apart I called my midwife"It hurts, you'd better come back" I whimpered. I'd told her that if I said it hurts she'd better get here quick smart as I'd been fully dilated with DD2 when I finally cracked and started complaining That was at about 5.50 and by 6.00pm she was here. I asked if I could get in the pool and she said yes, but DH had made it too hot!!Argh! While I was waiting for cold water to be added I had a contraction on the couch, then decided to dash off to the toilet between contractions. Scampering past the front door in the buff I encountered two backup midwives on their way in. At this point I still had my sense of humour beacuse I made a comment about a 'naked pregnant lady coming through!!' According to the notes they arrived at 6.12pm. I had another contraction in the toilet before I headed back to hop in the pool.
Oh for the love of God the relief. I wish it had been ready a lot earlier but I refused to get my hopes up that I was really in labour. I laboured on my hands and knees, I tried to rest my head on the side between contractions but I had to have my belly horizontal to keep the pressure off my back. By this point my arms were shaking from holding me up. A midwife was getting me to have sips of water. DD2(5) was pouring water on my back and calmly encouraging me. It was actually really soothing to hear her little voice. My breathing changed from a slow blowing out to a frantic 'ffffffffffffffffffff' sound and I said the baby will be here soon. Halfway through the next contraction I started pushing and I was startled because I hadn't meant to. My midwife just said 'Go with it Kristie' and left me to it. Up to this point I had been quiet apart from the sound of me breathing but now I was making a lot of noise and I didn't care. I didn't hold back and was aware that I was probably doing myself an injury but didn't care about that either. I wanted this baby out. Like, yesterday
Liam Jon was born after a 6 minute 2nd stage at 6.36pm on November 6th, 2013, Melbourne Cup day I scooped him up into my arms and settled back to look at him. I had warned DH that babies born in the water tend to be quiet and bluish and he will be eternally grateful, as Liam just made a little yelp and promptly went to sleep. Very different to our DD's who came our screaming and went pink straight away. Lying back in the water and looking at him was pure bliss. DD1 arrived home just as her brother was being born and DD2 had been right in the thick of it the whole time. Everyone gathered around to look at this calm little bundle and I remember thinking that this was exactly what I wanted - my baby entering the world with his family around him and caregivers who were known to us, with no unnesscesary(sp?) fuss.
I got to wallow with him in the pool for 43 minutes while his very stubborn placenta tried to emerge, I was absolutely spent and could barely rustle up a cough to try and help it out! Eventually out it came and it was enormous and perfectly healthy, no wonder he didn't want to come out he had it too good on the inside! (I had the placenta encapsulated it was too good to waste ) The midwives did their 'things' Liam was weighed at 4.28 kg and 57cm long, though his length was wrong because at 3 weeks he was only 54cm! So maybe 51-52cm. It was pretty dark when they were doing the measuring
After a breastfeed and general checkover(I only had a little graze, yeah!)I had a shower while DH snuggled with Liam. I felt pretty faint getting out of the shower so I called out and the cavalry came running I think I was a bit dehydrated, not to mention exhausted from a fast and furious labour.By 10.30 I was tucked up in bed with my little man My mum got the girls off to bed and cleaned up
I had a fantastic experience with the community midwives, the ante and postnatal care was awesome(after the birth they came to my house every couple of days for 3 weeks!). For me it wasn't just about the birth but the whole period surrounding it. I'd certainly do it all again. But there wont be 'next time'. Honest!

This post has been edited by kristabelle01: 15/01/2013, 08:31 PM

[frogsong]

That's a beautiful birth story. Congratulations to you all on the safe arrival of little Liam.

[Pretty Boy Floyd]

Lovely story, congratulations,to you,and family

[Alina0210]

lovelly... love births like this... xx congratulations

[monkeys mum]

Gorgeous, sounds like a wonderful birth!

Congratulations, i bet your two dds are loving Liam!

[Jax12]

Such a lovely birth story. God I am so clucky. This didn't help!

[Barefoot]

Wonderful story, thanks for sharing.
Congratulations.

[~Peaches~]

So lovely congratulations on the birth of Liam.

[deejie]

What a beautiful birth story. Welcome earthside, Liam Lovely name, but I am biased. Our DS1 is Liam too

[briandrea]

Congratulations on a lovely birth experience! We are hoping for a homebirth this time and I agree with your last paragraph, it's about the whole experience. Wish we had a community midwifery system in QLD though! Hope you're enjoying your little boy