So with that, my wanting to move around ended for a bit! I got into bed and was hooked up to the heartbeat monitors again to keep track of how the baby was doing.
The contractions were pretty intense. My midwife was busy setting up the room for the delivery. It felt like she was doing this forever, apparently a lot goes into setting a room up! Eventually she asked if I wanted the exercise ball, so I said sure. They got that for me and I was able to sit on it for awhile and kind of sway. I think it helped a bit, or at least gave me something to focus on other than the contractions.
After awhile longer, I took a bathroom break and then got back into bed. They had put me on antibiotics even though I was GBS negative, but my midwife didn't think I really needed the full 4 hours worth. So after a little while she checked me and I was at about 7cm so she decided to break my water. She wanted to wait until the other midwife was there, just in case things progressed quickly. So she called the backup midwife, and once she arrived they broke my water.
Things didn't move quite as quick as I had hoped. With Parker when they broke my water, the need to push happened pretty much right away. This time, the midwife checked me and I was 8cm. The contractions got really intense, so she checked again....still 8-9cm and I wasn't really feeling the need to push, I just really wanted to since I wanted the pain to stop. They talked about getting me laughing gas and the other midwife went to get the machine. It took so long that I never actually got to use it....
I said I felt a slight need to push, but not that badly. So the midwife said I was 9 cm but that she could hold my cervix back if I wanted to push. She tried and it was the most painful thing I've ever experienced, so that wasn't going to happen! After what felt like forever (but was probably half an hour) I could finally push. The contractions hurt so badly that pushing was really hard. I think I probably pushed for 3 contractions. On the third contraction I was kind of like enough is enough I need this baby out of me, so I pushed really hard, and out came a head full of dark hair! He just kind of hung out there because it had taken all my strength during the last contraction to get him that far. With the next contraction I was able to push him out the rest of the way.
They immediately put him on my chest. A few minutes later someone said "so what have we got?" Oh ya! What's the sex! They lifted his leg and said "it's a boy!" I was honestly shocked. And terrified. I was so sure it was a girl, and although I'm so happy with a boy I know that having two little boys less than 2 years apart is going to make our lives very hectic.
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| Excuse my hair... |
After a little while they took him away so that the paediatrician and respiratory therapist could check him out and make sure he was breathing ok, since he was still premature. But it didn't take long and then they put him back on me. We had skin to skin for a long time. We tried to nurse and he did latch on briefly. Parker had no idea how to eat when he was born, so this was very different for me. Eventually they took him and weighed him and we got the next big shock, 7lbs 1.6oz. He was huge! Good thing I didn't go full term! I was so exhausted by this point I remember thinking that I hoped we could go to our actual room soon because I just wanted to sleep.
I've been lucky to have relatively "easy" labours I think. Overall I'm just so happy that I have been able to deliver my babies the way that I wanted to deliver them despite them being early, and that Cooper is here safe and healthy. Labour is called labour for a reason. It definitely isn't easy. But that baby at the end of it makes it so worth it!
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