Right well here goes…

As many of you know I had had an irritable uterus for over 4 weeks before Holly’s birth so when a strongish contraction woke me at 4.30am on Sunday the 6th I was suspicious but still unsure. I continued to have cxs over the next couple of hours in bed before hopping in the bath for a while and calling the mw to let her know it could be D-day. By lunchtime I was in discomfort but the cxs were still about 7 mins apart and moved out to 10 mins apart after a largish lunch. Feeling disappointed that it was yet another false alarm, I tried to go back to bed but couldn’t really rest and my DH rang the mw again to tell her I was progressing, just very slowly. We then arranged to meet the mw at the hospital for an assessment at 6pm and dropped the boys off at Nana’s for afternoon tea. At about 4pm everything seemed to be getting a bit much despite no other “signs” of labour so we headed to the hospital early and met up with the mw. Because of my two previous false alarm assessments at hospital I was quite worried that we were giving in too early and I joked to the mw that I could offer no guarantee I was even dilating.

Anyway, after 15 mins or so of monitoring the mw checked me and announced that I was 6cm dilated with waters bulging and bubs would be here soon. It was a very surreal feeling after all the uncertainty and I asked to be moved to one of the birth suites so I could relax in the bath. After walking down the hall, I had a rest on a chair and the mw teased me about taking it too easy. I hopped on the bed while the bath was running and the mw checked me again. I was now a good 7-8 cms and she broke my waters. I expected the pain and cxs to increase greatly then but everything stayed pretty calm and my cxs remained about 5 mins apart with big rest gaps in between. In fact, even as we turned off the unused bath (only ¼ full), I still couldn’t believe that bubs would arrive anytime soon. However, after another couple of front pressure cxs, the pain quickly moved into my back/bottom and we were off.

Now, so far the labour had been pretty manageable. I had used a “mantra” similar to one I read about on another MTB board – My body is a machine M-A-C-H-I-N-E. It has the power P-O-W-E-R - to allow me to concentrate on the labour process rather than the pain. Once I started pushing though it was a completely different story and the pain was huge and intense. Although I was pushing hard and fast my cxs stayed mins apart so all up it took 23 mins for Holly to appear. I even had her head crowning and had to pant for several mins until the next cx came to push her out completely and welcome her to the world.

Wow Claire, that is an amazing story!

Sounds as though you were nice and relaxed through your cxs, unlike I was with Cameron, I was a bit of a wuss.

Thanks for sharing your story - you have a beautiful baby daughter to show for it now!

Wow Claire - well done!!

Congratulations on the safe arrival of your baby Holly!! Wonderful news!

I am away now for 10 days but would love to see a photo on my return!