Birth Story of Oscar
On the 28th of September I went into labour with our second child. After having no signs whatsoever and no progress I was feeling disheartened and had convinced myself that I would once again go to 42 weeks, as I did with my daughter.
We had called it a night early and I was laying in bed and started to notice a pinching/pulling sensation in my lower abdomen. I had felt it a few times that night but thought nothing of it. After laying in bed next to my husband (who was noticably sick and fevering) I decided to start timing them. And holy heck, they were 10 minutes apart. Woohoo! Contractions! It was 10pm.
I messaged my birth photographer on fb, to give her fair warning that I might be in labour. She was a great support and actually I chatted to her to distract myself from the contractions, which were lasting almost a minute and half each time!
I had never felt front contractions, with my daughter the only pain I felt was in my back and they were irregular. These ones were different, they started rather intense and I was finding I had to breathe through them very early on. I continued to lay in bed on my side but the pain became too much. Another hour had passed and the contractions were now 8 minutes apart.
I woke my husband who was still ill and told him of my regular contractions, he figured, as did I, that I would be in labour for some time – like my daughters labour of 32 hours. So I let him go back to sleep and I got up to finally finish packing my hospital bag, packed my daughters lunch for school and contacted the hospital and my brother and his girlfriend to come and watch Nora for me.
The midwife told me to stay home until the contractions were 5 minutes apart. At this point they were 5 minutes apart but I had to wait for my brother to arrive, who lived 30 minutes away. I braced myself for every contraction, moaning pretty loudly and leaning against the wall. It was incredibly painful, more painful then I can describe. My entire stomach was on fire and I was feeling so much pressure.
I went outside and laboured under the stars, swaying and singing to myself while the cool breeze distracted me from the pain. Contractions were now 4 minutes apart and it was just past 2am on the 29th of October.
My brother and Bonnie arrived. I messaged my photographer and called the hospital so they could fill up the bath. I talked to Bonnie and Daniel for a while and they witnessed me beginning to enter transition! I knew I had to leave NOW. But I was overcome with nausea and ran to vomit. Yep I had hit transition and I hadn’t even left home yet and my husband was still asleep.
Eleanor woke up from all the noise and I gave her a cuddle while I contracted, I tried not to scream because I didnt want to scare her, but I informed her I was leaving to bring her baby brother into the world and she seemed to understand. She was happy to go to Bonnie to be put back to sleep.
I went into the bedroom and woke up Dave, it was now 2:35am.
We got into the car and went to the hospital, contracting every 2 minutes in the car was the most excruciating thing I’d ever felt. Every bump made it feel like the baby would just shoot out of me.
We got to the hospital and it was 2:50am. I met with the photographer at the front door. I had a heap of contractions just walking through to the birthing suite. I walked in and got onto the bed so the midwife (Wendy) could check the heartbeat. I started feeling pressure and Wendy asked if I wanted to try to make it to the bath. And I did.
I waddled, still contracting, I stopped at the doorway and heard a bit of a pop and exclaimed that I had peed myself haha, which the midwife assured me was most likely my water breaking. I got into the bath. I squatted down and lent over the side of the tub. The water was very warm and instantly my contractions stopped, it was the calm before the storm.
I breathed deeply for about 30 seconds and then my entire body told me to push. I had no idea if my body was ready. I didn’t have a single vaginal check, but it told me to push and I did just that. One big push and out popped his head, burning as it came. Another push and his body just shot out. It was now exactly 3am.
Wendy told me to grab my baby, I looked down and there he was, gently floating in the water with his arms out having a bit of a swim. I scooped him up from between my legs and held him to my chest, cue ugly sobbing and crying!
I checked his gender, it was a boy. My boy, baby Oscar. Born after 5 hours of labour and out in two pushes.
Wow, what an intense experience!
