I want to share with you all my own personal story with giving birth. I wrote this not long after giving birth and I am so glad I did since I don't remember much these days.
About me currently. I live with my partner, Roman and in April our little boy, Rikar turned the big 2.
Here is my story of the day I met the love of my dreams!
8am - Went to the bathroom then back to bed, Roman asked how I was, I snuggled in and said that the cramping is starting, once again! about half hour later the cramping started to get stronger and my bowels have cleared out rather quickly! I start thinking maybe this is the real thing, finally? I attempt to time them but soon realise I am really crap at it so give up and just ring the midwife instead. She asked all the normal questions like how many, how long etc to which I wasn't able to respond so well having given up timing! She then told me that I am most likely in early stage labor, take some panadol and get some rest. I decided that I'll have a shower to try relax and forget about the cramps. While in the shower the midwife rung and spoke to Roman, said if anything changes like more blood or anything that I'm concerned with to give her a call. When I got out the shower I had some pancakes and once again had to run for the bathroom as all the food was going in one end and out the other very quickly! While all this is happening Roman is trying to ask for my help as we were taking the blinds in our bedroom down and replacing them with curtains! I was no help to him as I was busy feeling sorry for myself...The rest of the day the crampings continue and then around 4pm they started to really come and so I started timing again, actually got some figures down after an hour and decided to ring the midwife which was just after 5pm, I ring the midwife and got the answer machine telling me she is now off call untill tomorrow at 8am, I sit there thinking WHAT! I had no choice but to ring the back up midwife that was said to ring on the answer machine. I got a phone call back and she didnt think I was in labour but thought because I was complaining that she would meet me at the hospital and check me over and if I was no more then 3cm dilated I'd be going home.
6:15pm - I arrive at the delivery suite and meet the back up midwife for the first time along with a student midwife. They got me set up on the ctg machine and baby was looking happy where he was and I was getting contractions but they were not regular enough. She then did a check to see how dilated I was and she says "Your not going to believe this" I didn't hear her properly and I I said, what, I'm not even dilated am I? She replies with "You are 5-6cms dilated!" I look at Roman and go, woah! The midwife wasn't sure what to do as I wasn't getting proper contractions so she went and spoke to a Dr. When she came back she said that they will leave me here and come back at 10pm and see if there is any progress and that I am to call if I think anything is speeding up, if not then the Dr will come and break my waters for me to get things going as they said I could stay like this for days and I'd just get too tired. I quickly txt mum saying my waters will be breaking at 10pm if not before and that she should probably get on her way!
10pm - Nothing new, mum had arrived earlier and she is giving me a awesome back massage! The midwife comes back and does another check to see how dilated I am, I am now 8-9cms dilated and still no regular contractions! Just the normal cramping I'd been complaining about. So they go get the Dr and come back, to my surprise it's a male Dr and I'm not overly impressed. He introduces himself with a name I could not say so he said to call him Yogi, all I could think of was Yogi the bear. He does a check and then says there's something not quit right and asks for the scan machine, they do a scan, I have no idea whats going on but I'm getting a little worried. They then got the leg styrip things ready and I'm thinking whats going on!? Is the baby coming??? but no... babys head is on the wrong angle so each contraction I am to push and the Dr turns baby while I'm pushing, luckily contractions had picked up since he broke my waters but geez I was confused and it hurt! The Dr left and said baby will probably arrive a few hours later and until then to walk around to try keep the contractions going. I get up off the bed and go toilet, I walk back to the room and a contraction hits me and I'm curling over the bed, mum comes quickly and starts massaging me again. The midwife said she will fill the bath for me to help relax then about 5 mins later I said I cant hold on I need to push, I felt like I was trying to hold him in with each contraction. They got Roman to sit in a chair and put the birthing stool in front of him and I sat down.
10:30pm - I start pushing, midwife tells me it is okay to make noise, I don't have to hold it in but I wasn't bothered! A few pushes later babys head was out and then they helped the shoulders and baby was born at 10:39pm. They handed baby up to me and it was the best feeling I could ever imagine, he was so purple and so quite, just like his mumma was! A couple minutes later they said oh we should probably check he is a boy! I move my arms so I could see and I said "Yip, I can see some big balls" Roman then laughed and said "that's my boy!" I then handed baby to Roman and they continued the skin to skin while I moved up onto the bed to finish things off and be examined. I got a very small tear and so they gave me the gas while they stitched me up, I was having a blast on that gas! The midwife said "she is clearly a tax payer and getting her moneys worth!" I was going pretty hard haha I said "Its ok, my baby is out now so it cant effect him!" I then apparently said a few more things which I don't remember saying, my head was so numb and spinney. Baby pooed all over Roman and I said that was only fair as I'm getting stitches and he wasn't! After all that the midwife showed me the placenta and she was real into it and said my placenta was the shape of a love heart and she thought that was so cool.
For me my only regret is not having many photos of the best day of my life. My mum was meant to take photos but was more focussed on supporting me and it all happened so quickly that she forgot and so did I. Next time I will have a birth photographer on hand, I have it planned already!
I would LOVE to hear your birth stories, Please share them with me and lets get talking about photographing your birth!
Also, the pictures are: Me pregnant, it was the day before I gave birth and the picture of my son is the first picture I took of him and it was the early hours once Roman and mum had gone home and it was just me and my beautiful sleeping baby settled into our shared room in the ward.