"It was our "last" Friday we said to ourselves venturing out to the pub (I wasn't drinking obviously)
as that morning I'd begun losing my plug but I'd heard so many mixed reviews on how soon that meant labour was starting so I decided to keep my mouth shut until something more happened.
After polishing off a battered sausage in the car about 7pm - what baby wants baby gets guys! - I started to feel what I can only describe as period pains, these came and went every half an hour and were nothing more than slightly uncomfortable. By 10pm I wanted to go home and get some sleep, still in slight denial this was even happening.
I texted my mum and best friend saying it's happening!! I was excited but mostly just trying to focus on all the breathing techniques I'd learnt.
My other half had typically passed out on the bed, I was tired too so I tried to lie down but as soon as I got onto the bed I felt the pain ramp right up and I immediately jumped back up. It was in that moment I knew (39+4) it was all about to get very real.
I went down stairs made a drink and got myself as comfy as I could leaning over my yoga ball. Timing the contractions using the Freya app suggested I should call triage, only just meeting the contraction criteria but they advised I should come in to get checked as I was in a lot of pain and being sick at this point.
I woke my partner up and we headed into the hospital with bedroom bin for being sick in hand.
By this time it was 5am and I was told I was 5cm dilated. I originally wanted a meadow birth with little pain relief but that soon went out the window as I not so politely asked for an epidural (10/10 recommend)
Everything went smoothly from here on, my continuity midwife arrived and looked after me every single moment, my amazing student midwife handed me anything and everything I needed and I was literally loving life.
12 hours later I'm still in labour and they're contemplating speeding things up with an induction as I wasn't dilating very fast. My body didn't like that thought and before we knew it I was 8cm and progressing quickly to 10cm.
The pushing stage started and with fantastic guidance from the team within an hour of pushing my big 10lb boy was born completely naturally. I used little effort and felt my body doing all the hard work for me, it was incredible. Did I know he was going to be 10lbs? Absolutely not! Am I glad I didn't know? Absolutely yes!
He was placed on my tummy to which I exclaimed is he ok and gosh he feels heavy, but it was the most amazing moment of my life. Something I truly cannot put into words. I was surrounded by amazing strong midwives and my fantastic partner whom I'd totally ignored for around 24hours by this point.
We were stitched up, cleaned up and wheeled off for more tea and toast. The days following were just as great as we were visited daily by the continuity team and we were allowed to borrow the hospital breast pump due to latching issues. I loved the experience so much and would love to be able to share my story to others to enable them to have a positive experience too. "
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