Beth's birth story (late!)

i'm a baaaad blogger! but here (almost 5mos later) is elisabeth jade's birth story

Beths EDD was Oct 11/12th depending on if you went by LMP or U/S dates. I had no idea what my body was going to do as far as baking this child was concerned as Siân was induced.

October 9th started out as a normal day, the only odd thing was Siân having a mega long nap in the afternoon- i ended up having to wake her for her tea at 6.45ish, and she didn't go back to sleep till after Beth arrived and everyone had left GrannyJans. It was one of the few times I've *ever* left her to cry it out to sleep, I hate doing it. We walked to the store to get a little credit on my phone (£5 goes NOWHERE when you've got a midwife and doula to keep updated!) Siân decided to swing from our hands all the way there and all the way back, I think it was a combination of that, the pineapple and clive feeling neglected! that caused the events of the evening!

around 9.30 i couldn't get comfy for love nor money so i asked clive to call dad as i wanted to be somewhere with a working shower (ours leaked into the kitchen so i couldn't labour in it, and we'd always planned to have teh baby at there house) Siân was not sleeping for love nor money and I just decided to nurse her for a while. brainiac decided he didn't want to disturb dad so early. i had to tell him about 5x over the next hour to call to get Siân and myself picked up. In the end I did it myself!

10.47 i called fiona (mw) to tell her i was on my way to mums and she'd probably meet me in teh shower! i also sent a message to my doula (who never was!) to ask how much notice she needed to get to me. while on the phone to fiona the backache that had just niggled became constant and i was having to breathe through it

10.55 dad came to get us, clive installed Siân's carseat and i made myself decent and hobbled out to the car... hopeing my waters wouldn't break on the journey over (they did, but we put a towel under me and i had a towelling dressing gown on, the seat was saved!)

11.00 i sent a text message to fiona to say i'd had a show, and my waters had broken mid message! so the delivery was likely to be quick as we seem to go in fo rthem in my family lol dad jumped a lot of lights tonight hehe good job no police cars were around! i did have to make him take a slightly longer route though cause i was NOT manageing over the bumps, a head in the birth canal made them rather uncomfortable!!!

11.07 (12mins for a 15-20min journey, not bad!) i got to mums and walked in while dad got Siân sorted out. bless my mummy. she was there for me, all drugged up for the night on morphine! there was no time for a shower or my TENS machine (which was upstairs) "eljay" was going to make an appearance!

11.16 baby was crowning and i was trying to hold out for fiona to get tehre.......... erm nope! this was NOT going to work, i tried!! Siân asked me what was going on so i told her "mama's having the baby sweetie" she knew right from the moment I got the positive that we were having a baby, and she came to all my appts & scans wtih me

11.20 oooooh boy. i neeeeed to push. mum had a go at perineal massage lol but i confused us both so we gave up there. she just carreid on massageing my back- which she'd done since i managed to flop onto her bed 10mins ago and just rock on my hands and knees!

11.21 elisabeth jade came out all in a rush. dad couldn't beleive it when we yelled at him for a little assisstance! i talked mum through guideing her head out, and she wasn't sunny side up lol i guess i just have back labour.

11.22, it's a girl! sian got to see her baby sister as soon as mum had managed to unwrap the cord from round her mouth. she came out and gave a good ol' yell btw. i couldn't do anything but flop lol. i did manage to tell mum that the cord was to be left as long as possible before cutting... the midwife still wasn't here just yet so i relaxed a little while mum wiped and wrapped beth up.

11.30ish... fiona, clive and my FIL all turned up within mins of each other. poor clive lol. he didn't get to cut the cord or be at beth's birth!

I'd told mum that I wanted the cord to stop pulsating before it was cut. And that I didn't want a managed 3rd stage. Fiona was smashing. She waited as long as possible before cutting the cord. Asked me what I wanted to do with Bethy about cleaning and nursing her. And didn't even think about helping the placenta out! I'd also said that Beth was to get her Vitamin K orally not IM

Clive took Beth to see grandparents and sister while Fiona and I meandered bathroom wards to get the placenta delivered... gravity was a great help there! Trying to guesstimate the blood loss was interesting though lol. Mum has one of those sensor flushes on her toilet and everytime I leaned back.........! Two more pushes standing over the loo and the placenta was there. On later inspection Fiona said to me "oh, you have a dirty duncan" I'm thinking... huh?

Fiona checked me over and I had a 2nd degree tear, that didn't need stitching. Beths Apgars were 9 & 10, she was 7lbs 13oz so 4lbs heavier than big sister. and 7cms longer at 52cms