Baby B's Birth Day

After thinking on it, I've decided that baby boy will remain baby boy, or Baby B for short. As he lies asleep beside me, I'll take this chance to record his birth story.
I'm sure the hormones have given me selective memory and/or dulled a lot of sensations I felt during the labour and delivery, but I can only look back with happiness at the whole experience. Beware, this post has got long and detailed.. I won't be offended if you stop here!

Monday evening, 5 pm (40 + 2)
We finally finished repainting and cleaning the glider chair for the nursery. I'd been joking that Baby B was waiting for it to be done before he would make his appearance! And, no joke, as I stood up from finishing, I felt my first contraction! I wasn't sure if they were real or fake so I didn't tell my Bloke. I just practiced my Hypno breathing and waited. They kept coming so I started timing them.. Seemed to be about 6-7 minutes apart which made me think they must be practice ones because they wouldn't start so close together!

8pm
Contractions still coming - I needed more concentration to breath through them. Told my Bloke and decided to get in the bath.

8.30pm
Got in a lovely hot bath.. Felt amazing and almost immediately my waters broke a little! Decided to call our Doula and she told me to get out of the bath and try to sleep for a couple of hours because my contractions still seemed a little irregular and it could be a long night. But when I lay down, I had some big gushes of waters so decided to go to our birthing clinic to get checked out as Baby B didn't seem to be moving well. We could always go home again if nothing was happening.

9.30pm
Arrived at our clinic and got an NST and vaginal exam (1st during all pregnancy!)... Turns out I was 3cm dilated with contractions 3 minutes apart! We all agreed I wasn't going home! I had antibiotics through a heparin lock IV, my Doula and her trainee arrived and then it was into the birthing tub.

Fast forward about 6 hours!...
I spent the night in the tub with my Doula and/or trainee and/or my Bloke keeping me calm, helping me breath and relax. I have little memory of these contractions.. Don't remember any 'pain' though.

4am
This is based on what I've been told because I lost all concept of time! I felt the urge to push and used Hypno birth breathing to try and 'breath the baby down and out'. I was 10cm at this point. Apparently he was moving down well, but after an hour I was so tired that my 'pushes' weren't having much effect (despite being fed raisins and energy drinks by my Bloke). The OB and midwife came in and got me to squat, holding onto 'ropes' above me. (Before that I was sort of floating on my back.) One contraction and a few big pushes in this position had Baby B crowning! Back onto my back, one more contraction, some intense pressure and stretching and he was born! Baby B was placed on my chest whilst we waited for the cord to stop pulsating - I felt the cord and cut it when it stopped.

After this it was out of the bath into our room to birth the placenta and Baby to have skin to skin time with Daddy. Then breastfeeding with help from our Doula and midwife whilst the Dr examined me. I had a small tear but didn't need stitches and I'm healing well :)

Thanks for persevering if you got this far :)  Here is our little guy propped up on my Boppy on my lap.