... and then there were six!

In the closing moments of Wednesday 25th April 2018 at 11:53pm, and at 38+6 weeks pregnant, we welcomed our fourth and final baby into the world. 

In a bit of a hurry. 

At home. Unplanned.

On our bedroom floor. 

Without a midwife. 

Or any pain relief.

But then that is a longer (or not as the case may be) story for another time. 

A very much longed for little boy and little brother. Weighing in at 7lb 15oz and every inch total perfection. The absolute image of his older brother, but with his eldest sister's hair and his littler sister's nose. 

And our little wildcard baby, with his wild arrival into the world, looks all set to live up to the name we chose for him. Our little Wylder Heath. 

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a third birth story {part seven}

You might want to check out the story so far over on my third birth story page before reading this final part of the tale...

"Are you ready to start pushing Lucy? Let's give it a really good push down into you bottom." And just like that I was pushing. The gas and air was cast aside, and I was pushing with all my might. And just like that the pain changed. It's a really hard thing to describe, but pushing actually stopped the pain. I could still feel really intense pressure, but pushing seemed to stop it from hurting in quite the same way. Pushing felt really helpful and powerful somehow.

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a third birth story {part six}

If you haven't read the first few parts of my birth story, it might be worth popping over to my third birth story page to catch up on what's happened so far...

Things seemed to simultaneously speed up and slow down from that point on. Rich came back with a midwife very quickly and said they'd better get me over to labour ward quickly and ran off to get a wheelchair. Rich helped me try to get off the bed in between two contractions, which wasn't easy considering how quickly they were coming together now. When the midwife returned I was hunched over the bed, moaning through another strong contraction and fighting, what was without a doubt, a strong urge to push. 

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a third birth story {part five}

Make sure you check our part one, part two, part three and part four of my birth story, so that you know what has happened up to this point. It probably won't make very much sense otherwise.

When they finally called my name to go through I was mid contraction, and rocking back and forth in a trance like state. I was aware of Rich telling the midwife that they would have to wait a minute before I could move again, and I heard her saying to him that they clearly needed to hurry me through the assessment unit and get me into the labour ward by the looks of it. I remember thinking "No s**t Sherlock" but not actually saying anything at all. I didn't have any desire to enter into any conversation with medical professionals, I wanted them to just do what I wanted but to telepathically know what that was; and looking back at it now it's so obvious to me that things were progressing quickly. With both previous labours I became quite moody and grumpy and basically rudely refused to speak to medical staff right at the point I was in active labour.

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a third birth story {part four}

Make sure you check our part one, part two and part three of my birth story, so that you know what has happened up to this point. It probably won't make very much sense otherwise. 

In that lovely quiet, dark space I was beginning to breathe my way through contractions; controlling the ebb and flow of the pain by slowing my breathing and really focusing in on slowly filling my lungs and then emptying them again. I continued to monitor the pains, waiting for more consistency and for a clear pattern to emerge, and waiting for that moment when I would just "know" it was time to wake Rich and to go to the hospital.

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a third birth story {part three}

You will need to read part one and part two of my beautiful little lady's birth story in order for this to make sense. So I'd recommend you give those a read first, if you haven't already. But anyway, on with the story...

We arrived to a deserted maternity unit, and two midwives falling over themselves to help us. It was clearly a quiet night baby-wise. The midwife confirmed that my waters had broken and strapped me onto the monitors to check that baby and I were both doing okay. She decided against checking how dilated I was, because I wasn't contracting yet, so there seemed little point and as my waters had broken I was already at increased risk of infection. They left us on the monitors to sort out booking my induction for the following evening, and we spent a calm half an hour watching our baby's heartbeat on the monitor. It turned out that I was actually contracting, but nothing that I could yet feel; so after a phone call to the main hospital it was agreed that I could go home to wait for things to progress. I was sent home with a mountain of pamphlets to read on induction, and also all about how to monitor myself for signs of infection. I was also instructed to ring and head straight to the hospital as soon as anything got started, as third babies can often come quite quickly, and we had a reasonable drive to get there.

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a third birth story {part two}

In order to "get" this post you probably need to read part one of my birth story first. I'm sharing the story over a few posts. This is how it continued to unfold...

I gasped really loudly. It was the shock. Genuine really shock. Rich looked at me and asked "What?" like something on the television show had surprised me and he'd missed something. 

And I mumbled; "I think my water just broke" as I headed for the bathroom at high speed. Standing up seemingly confirmed my suspicions because I could feel that telltale warm trickle, but I knew for sure when I got the bathroom and the water just continued to trickle. 

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a third birth story {part one}

Anyone who has followed this blog from the beginning, or who as read my previous two birth stories, will know that I like to take my time with it. I just like to pour the whole thing out in words, with as much detail as I can remember (it's amazing how quickly after the details become hazy) and with a little help from the hubby who often remembers different details to me. And this time is no different. I joked soon after our third little treasure came along that anyone expecting a long, multi-part birth story this time around like the previous two, would more than likely be disappointed. This third little one made a pretty swift entry into the world after all. But as it turns out, whether is happens quickly or not, there is still so much that happens and so much to remember. And so today I'm going to begin sharing my third birth story. And it will be in multiple parts (but I promise not as many as the other two). So here goes...

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a second birth story - part fourteen

In my second birth story so far;

My water broke at 11.30pm,

I booked into hospital as high risk

with meconium present in the waters.

At 4cm just before 3.30am I got an epidural,

only to be fully dilated just after 4am.

After a break to let the baby descend and the epidural wear off a bit,

I pushed my baby into the world at 6:05am.

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a second birth story - part thirteen

The birth story so far is on the birth stories page.

My waters had broken, 

I'd book in as high risk,

I'd had an epidural at 4cm dilated

only to be fully dilated 45 minutes later.

After an hour I had started pushing . . .

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a second birth story - part twelve

You can read the beautiful girl's birth story so far on the birth stories page.

Having had an epidural at 4cm dilated, 

I promptly dilated the final 6cm in 45 minutes.

I was now waiting, resting, giving the baby a chance to descend

and getting myself ready for what was to come . . .

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a second birth story - part eleven

The full story so far can be found on the birth stories page...

I had been working through my contractions really well

until suddenly I wasn't.

I was ready for an epidural

but was fighting an increasing urge to push.

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a second birth story - part ten

The story of the beautiful girl's birth so far is on the birth stories page.

Having started out dealing with the labour quite well,

I had gradually started to lose the plot as the pains got more intense.

Booking as high risk meant that constant monitoring

was hampering my attempts at helping myself.

I agreed to an early exam

in hopes that things were speeding ahead,

and that I was closer to active labour

and an epidural.

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a second birth story - part eight

You can read this story so far on the birth story page.

I booked into the hospital as high risk

when meconium was present in my waters.

I'd been given a no-nonsense but fantastic midwife

and was just in the waiting game now . . .

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a second birth story - part five

The story up to this point 

is on the beautiful girl's birth story page.

My waters had gone two days before my due date
but with what appeared to be meconium in them.
Contractions started kicking in as we made our way to the hospital
to find out what would happen next.

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a second birth story - part four

You can find the story so far here
but in a nutshell . . .

My waters broke just as I had gone to bed,
but with suspected meconium in the waters
the maternity unit had said I needed to make my way straight there
as it may mean the baby is in distress.

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a second birth story - part three

I had gone to bed feeling grumpy and fed up with being pregnant,

only for my waters to go minutes later.

But with no contractions yet

I had decided to go back to bed

while the hubby had decided to get up and catch up on some work.

You can find the first and second parts of this story

on the beautiful girl's birth story page.

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a second birth story - part two

I was two days away from my due date

and I was grumpy and fed up.

So my husband had suggested I head to bed

and get some rest . . .

You can read the full part one of this story here.

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a second birth story - part one

Anyone who read the beautiful boy's birth story

will know that I didn't get the easiest time of it.

It was long and it was hard

and it didn't end up being anything like I had expected it would be.

So approaching a second labour came with baggage.

I had experience to call on,

I had a clearer idea about how I was when in labour,

but whether that would be a good thing remained to be seen.

After documenting my pregnancy from 12 weeks

with fortnightly updates and bump photos

this bit is the last chapter of one story

and the beginning of a whole new one.

This is the story of my beautiful girl's birth . . .

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a little help from nature

When I had the beautiful boy

I felt pretty prepared for the fact that labour would hurt.

I had no idea what my pain threshold would be like

but I knew that whatever happened

it would hurt

but that there would be drugs available to help me if I needed and wanted them

and that in the scheme of things that pain would be short lived 

and I would have a baby at the end of it

so it would be worth every second.

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