Born on the due date!!

According to this BBC article, « a baby is born on its predicted due date just 4% of the time ». Well, I must say I am more than happy our LO arrived on the D Day!

She was expected on the 28th of October. Good thing it was during the school holidays as my mum didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. My parents arrived from France on the 25th. I really wanted them to meet their grand daughter and even though I knew my mum would be able to come back real soon, it wouldn’t be the case for my dad. The pressure was on!

I’ve always been quite active throughout my pregnancy. The day my parents arrived, I went shopping for quite some time, looking for last minute bits and pieces I would need for the baby, knowing I wouldn’t be able to go once they were here. I think that’s what started it all. We picked up my parents from the airport that night and that’s when I had my first sore contraction.

This being my first pregnancy, I didn’t know what a contraction would feel like. Even though I knew I had those Braxton Hicks ones, I wasn’t sure if what I was experiencing was proper contractions or just some random period like pain. The next morning, I had a show and got quite excited! I told Floubi but not my parents as I knew it could still take some time for labor to properly start.

We spend the day playing board games and this took my mind off of it. I felt pain but I still didn’t know if that was it or not. Over night I had 5 or 6 big, painful contractions and I knew labor had started. At least I thought I knew because the next morning, all the pain was gone… I was a bit disappointed and started to wonder if it was all happening in my imagination.

That day, I tried to get on my knees and do some hips movements to get the baby to go down. I had another show early in the afternoon and the contractions started again. As the pain grew stronger, I felt the need to move. I watched an episode of Grey’s anatomy while pacing around the living room and ended the afternoon dancing to Avril Lavigne after « Sk8er Boi » randomly came to my mind.

We made sure with my mum that the hospital bag was ready. I had everything prepared for the baby at week 37 but not much for myself. Floubi’s mum brought dinner over to ours and I spent the evening between the kitchen where a nice roast chicken was waiting for me and the couch where I had to lie down every time the pain was too strong. I went to bed at 21h, slept a bit and then…

« Don’t worry, it won’t be like in the movies » said the midwife at our first antenatal class.

The contractions were getting really painful and closer together. I went to the bathroom slightly after 22h and noticed I was bleeding. Nothing major but still enough to get me to worry. I tried to focus on the baby’s movement and couldn’t feel anything. I told Floubi who phoned the hospital. We left straight away. We didn’t speak much in the car. I think both of us were expecting the worse but didn’t want to think about it.

We arrived to the EOU at about 23h where a midwife took a urine sample, checked my temperature and monitored the baby. Floubi was still waiting outside and I couldn’t really work out what was going on. They finally brought him in and I felt the baby moving slightly. It was nothing compared to her usual moves but it was still reassuring. Once they were done monitoring, they said they would come back to us and had us wait outside.

Nearly 1h, Floubi was flicking through reddit, letting me deal with the contractions. He tried to distract me a couple times but I made it clear it was not the time for some casual conversation. The waiting room emptied and we changed sits to more comfy ones. That’s when it happened. I felt a big flush of liquid running down my legs. First I thought it was blood (so dramatic… XD) but when I looked at the floor I realised that my water had just broke.

We knocked at the door and two midwives opened. They saw my face, looked at each other and smiled. They told me to come in but when I tried to stand up « BOOM » another flush. It was chaos, they made me go through the entire EOU to get to the bathroom where they gave me pads (like it would stop anything…!!!) People in their boxes could hear everything, some could even see. I’m pretty sure I left a trail of water behind me… 😮

They finally examined me and said it was time. As we didn’t have any problems during the pregnancy, we were able to go to the Home from Home unit of the hospital. They put me in a wheel chair and brought me upstairs, leaving a bit more water here and there on the way. Once in the room, the midwife ran a bath in which I dived into with delight. It felt great! It instantly took some of the pain away.

The combination of warm water and gas and air was amazing. I was able to focus on my contractions and my breathing. I also felt really thirsty and had to sip water in between contractions. Floubi was great, handling the gas and air and the glass of water like a boss. I shouted at him a couple times for not being fast enough but from what I remember I was nicer to him that I had expected^^

After a while, the midwife wanted to check on the baby and had me get out of the pool. She could see the head. She asked if I wanted to go back in but I felt more comfortable pushing on the table. Less than an hour later, our baby girl was born. I delivered the placenta with gas and air and had a bad tear which was then stitched up. I got a local anaesthetic but still didn’t let go of the gas and air.

I lost nearly a litre of blood so they wanted to keep us for 24h. We used that time to try and tackle breastfeeding, changing nappies and getting baby dressed. The midwives were amazing and we learnt a lot. We eventually got home 40 hours after she was born. We had to ask the midwives for a bit more help before leaving as we struggled to put her in her car seat.

At home, mum and dad had done an amazing job at cleaning everything and getting things sorted for the baby.

Here we are, a week later. Recovery takes a long time and even though I’m not a 100% yet, I feel much better. Our LO is amazing. She’s obviously perfect to us.