Bubs2 Birth Story and our Journey into a Family of Four


Bubs2 Birth Story


As I sit here looking down at this little new face I find it overwhelming how much you can love another baby after giving all you thought you had to your first but somehow your just filled with double the amount again and again.
It's 3.30am on night one and Bubs2 has been up nearly every hour feeding since her dramatic entrance into this world, I don't remember Bubs eating this much on his first day but it's great to see her having a big appetite especially since she weighs in at a diddly 5lbs 7oz.


Saturday 11.55pm

So how did this little bundle get here - lets rewind back 28 hours to around midnight on Saturday night. Due to our ongoing loft extension me and Bubs had moved out and were staying at my parents house. Mr s had joined us for dinner but left around 11.55 to go back to our place. My waters broke whilst lying in bed around midnight and I immediately called him to come right back over but armed with the hospital bags this time. My brother had predicted they would break around 4.00am so his guess was very close, strangely both times I have gone into labour after eating chicken and mushroom pie, not on the standard lists of ways to induce labour but it seems to have worked for me - twice.

I was originally booked in for a planned c- section which was in the diary for the upcoming Thursday, so as soon as my waters broke I called the hospital who said as it was a very busy night there would be no doctors or theatres available until the earliest at 6am. I could come into the hospital or wait at home until this time, opting for the latter instead. At my last consultant appointment I was prescribed anti sickness medicine in case my waters broke earlier to prevent me from getting dehydrated like last time, after Mr S third trip back home to finally bring me all needed, I managed to take the drugs and glad to say they worked! No sickness this time around!!

Sunday 5.00am

Similar to my first labour my contractions came pretty regularly and strong soon after my waters had broken. Using the birth ball, massage and a hot water I managed to stay at home labouring until around 5am. It was strange labouring in the house I grew up in l, whilst watching my firstborn fast asleep on the baby monitor still looking very much like a baby himself - like doing a full circle in life. By this point I was contracting every 3-4 minutes and the intensity was becoming unbearable, so off we drove to the hospital mainly so I could get something a bit stronger than a paracetamol in me.

We arrived at hospital around 5.30 and the triage nurse said it's best for me to go straight up to get prepared and to continue to insist on my c section as it was likely I would have the same outcome as my first labour.
We were quickly admitted to a small room in the labour ward, not like the larger modern room we had first time round as the midwives were only going to prep me ahead of theatre. I was given some pre op drugs and Mr S was handed his scrubs while we were told to wait for the doctor to assess me.


I also requested my favourite medicine ever at this point, gas and air so for me after this point everything in life went a little fuzzy - I love the floating feeling you get from it and you end up removed from the pains and all the drama going on in the room too.

Sunday 6.30am

The nurses tried to get an IV line into me for a canula to be used during surgery but as is often the case for me they found it very difficult to find a vein in either arm, all this delay meant it was not until around 6.30am when the doctor arrived.

The worst part of being in labour for me is being examined and even though I wanted a C-section she explained she had to do this to check how dilated I was,  since a lot of my pains were across my back still I was convinced the baby was back to back however she said she was around 80% sure the baby was not back to back this time and ordered an ultra sound to be sure. 
The results showed I was now around 5cm dilated and in active labour, the doctor explained that as it was my second pregnancy things could move quickly now and wanted me to try to deliver naturally. I remember doing some kind of deal with her involving a guarantee my baby was not back to back and receiving an epidural if we were going down this path. 

However Bubs2 had her own plan and within around 30 minutes I was fully dilated,  and in the time it took for the sonographer to come up to the room, she wanted to make her entrance into this world.  Before I knew what was going on I was pushing with all the strength I had, completely forgetting most of my classes from being pregnant first time around. The hardest part of pushing was remembering not to breath at the same time. I vaguely remember midwives and Mr S trying to get me to lay off the gas and air to concentrate on using the contractions to push but with they being the only pain relief I had it stayed firmly in my hand!

The small room was soon filled with people and I was quickly administered a local anaesthetic and the doctor informed us she was going to do an episiotomy in order to use forceps to help Bubs2 out. I continued to use gas and air and with what felt like the biggest sh*t you've ever taken in your life, out came our little bundle. Not the most poetic way to put it but the truest way to describe it. 


Sunday 7.30am

She was immediately placed on my belly but with me still being fairly high and with the speed that everything had happen I was still asking the staff for my epidural. I was in a state of complete shock for at least 5 minutes not quite able to believe my baby had arrived within around an hour after my first examination I was holding little Bubs2, this was so different to my first prolonged labour. Since deciding on a planned c, I had not even prepared for a natural birth, thankfully the first time around I had done several classes in prep and remembered some of the breathing techniques for contractions but all the pushing breaths were completely forgotten and I just went with it. All the staff were great and really helped even in my crazy labour state they managed to deliver Bubs2 safely and quickly.


My experience after giving birth was also a very different to first time. An injection is administered into your thigh to help with the placenta which comes out in a similar way to the baby whilst having a contraction, also these don't stop straight away after delivering so I held Bubs2 in one hand and my trusty friend gas and air in the other. We were asked if we wished to keep our placenta but declined, not feeling any recipe inspiration personally for cooking it up.

The doctor then examined me again to make sure all the placenta had come out and topped up my general anaesthetic before stitching up my episiotomy, this was quite a slow process and took around 10 minutes, towards the end I could feel each stitch going in and out. 


After I was all stitched up our midwife came back in and reintroduce herself as she had come in during the crazy pushing part and wasn't sure I remembered her, I didn't so this was a good start. She helped clean me up, changed all the sheets and removed the part inserted cannula that never got used in the end. She then arranged the obligatory tea and toast which was well needed by both me and Mr S, luckily he had brought in the snack bag too so we celebrated Bubs2 arrival with a Kinder BonBon. 


We were then left to do skin to skin and nap for around an hour before the midwife returned and helped me have a shower, it was great to be able to stand up straight away and feel human again, she was really sweet and helped get all the blood off, giving birth is messy business. I then got into some comfy pjs before being moved down to the post natal ward. 

Sunday 11.00am

Both kids have been born on Sundays which is helpful as no-one is at work so after an hour or so on the ward Bubs2 steady stream of visitors began arriving, including her Big Bro. His initial reaction to her was great but to be honest he was more interested in the presents she had gotten him, they had a few cuddles and after explaining I wouldn't be going home tonight with him he toddled off with his new presents. He is very lucky that we have a lot of family close by who he is very attached too but the hardest part for him was probably when both me and Mr S stayed at the hospital, it did not last long though as he met more family and got more gifts on his way out. If there is ever a time to use bribery and chocolate this is it. 


Although partners are allowed to stay on the ward Mr S headed home to see to Bubs and make sure everything was ready for him to go to nursery tomorrow too, so me and Bubs2 settled in for our first night of fun, I hoped I would get a bit of rest as the night before I had been labouring and during the day had been non stop visitors but no such luck. So we partied all night long whilst changing nappies, feeding and trying to rock her back to sleep ..... rather than fall asleep myself I though I would write this all down. 


Again this was not the birth I planned for but the result was beautiful and to be able to hold her in my arms is the best feeling ever, knowing she will not be this small for long and has a whole lifetime of learning, adventure and fun awaiting her. 






Comments