The start of the adventures of a mum of 2 with a lucky fin

He is here!! My bump turned into a beautiful baby boy who was in a slight hurry to arrive into the world ... well, actually, he couldn’t make his mind up. I love a good birth story so here is mine ...

The birth story

I managed almost a whole week off work before I went into labour. The day before my waters went my husband and I decided to go out for lunch as our daughter was visiting her auntie and uncle for an overnight stay. I’m so glad we actually had lunch together just the two of us, as little did we know we would become a family of 4 within a few days. That night I had a very restless sleep, I couldn’t really settle and my mind and body were very restless, I did managed to fall asleep around 1/2am and was woken at 3am by a a funny feeling followed by a little gush ... needless to say I jumped out of bed and went to the loo where my waters continued to go. My husband and I were sleeping in different rooms as I needed the space to be comfy, so I rang him and told him the exciting news.

Due to being 35+4 we had to ring triage and come in to be assessed as technically I was in premature labour ... or my waters had ruptured prematurely. The journey to the hospital was lovely and quick at 3/4am, and when we turned up we were assessed straight away. Well, I have never experienced my waters going the way they kept going!! I had to change my trousers once we arrived at the hospital and then again following an intense pressure followed by a pop (I got my pop yay!) and more waters going everywhere, and hoped that that was the majority of my waters ... I actually couldn’t believe how much there was.

We were hooked up to the CTG, I had my observations and bloods done, followed by being seen by the doctors shortly after. We were admitted to labour ward for a short while to see what was going to happen, my contractions were irregular but there. I could still talk through them, eat and drink etc so knew I was in the early stages. I hoped things would start to speed up within the next 12 hours, just as they did with my daughters labour - Its funny how you constantly compare from one labour to the other, whether it be for a rough time line or hoping it goes the same or differently.

Annoyingly 24 hours later and I was still waiting for labour to start properly. The contractions had been stop/go the whole time, and at their worst I needed to put my TENS machine on the lowest setting. They were manageable and let me sleep in between them. Due to being prem and labour taking a while to get going, we managed to get the full two doses of steroids in plus a decent coverage of antibiotics - the NICU nurse in me did give myself a little high five ... but also wanted labour to start!

Morning ward round came and we made the decision to induce the labour. I say we, as it was very much a decision made between me and the docs/midwives. I knew enough about prem babies, I knew the risks either way and I spoke to the midwife and doctor about this. They were totally fine with the decision and felt the same to.

At 3pm we were taken to labour ward, we were assessed and my body was slowly getting ready. The midwife did a sweep and put the gel in to start Labour. We were placed on the CTG again to monitor baby during this process, I stayed on the bed initially and then got onto the birthing ball to try and get things going. My contractions started quite soon after the gel was put in, I was really surprised how quickly it started but also very pleased that things were finally starting to get going.

I don’t remember and exact time line but at some point I asked for gas and air and I was in complete, perfect high bliss for a good while. I remember feeling the contractions getting stronger and using my husbands arm to hang off during the big contractions. At one point I did loose control a little bit and felt like I couldn’t do it ... at this point I was at 7cm ... the need to push was overwhelming and primal ... 2 minutes later a little wet, purple, crying bundle was placed on my stomach. I couldn’t believe I’d done it, I looked down and saw a tiny human who looked just like their big sister. The cutest, roundest face with little dark eyes staring up at me.

During that moment, I knew my baby was perfect.

My husband and I finally remembered to look at ‘the bits’ to see if we had a boy or a girl ... at that moment I felt a warm trickle over my tummy, we lifted a towel and there were some boys bits and he was weeing on me already, Boys hey! After a breast feed and cuddles we decided to look at his foot, I hadn’t forgotten about it, but it also didn’t feel important to do straight away. As you have read from my previous blogs, I have felt quite anxious about the foot, in my head I have been imaging the worst and worrying about how it will affect him. I looked at the foot and honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. Yes, he has one toe (we aren’t sure which one) and his foot is small, but it’s smooth, round, and tucks perfectly behind his other foot when he crosses his leg. I had been worrying that I would feel shocked by the look of his foot and worried I wouldn’t like it, but actually, it didn’t shock me and that foot is him. I can’t imagine what he would be like with all 10 toes and at the same time it doesn’t matter. Before we left the hospital the doctors wanted to do an X-ray to see what was there and to have a starting point for future appointments. I have no idea what the X-ray shows, part of me wants to know but the other part of me knows it won’t make any difference to us.

During our time at the hospital, he passed his hearing check and baby check - all things that have reassured me that everything else is okay. We now just have to wait for an appointment with the orthopaedic and plastics team at St. Georges to see if we need to do anything for function or for cosmetic reasons. I' m not sure when this will be, but in the mean time I'm just looking forward to getting to know my son and watching him grow.

So here we go, our journey as a family of 4 starts here 💙