The birth of Carla Rose

[*Sal*]

I must write this before it becomes all fuzzy (she's nearly a week old now).

I was due to give birth on Thursday 30th March. Had a doctor's appointment on the Wednesday and I had my hopes up that I could be induced, however he told me the baby's head was still too high and my cervix was not ready to dilate. After having pretty strong Braxton Hicks and several 'shows' since the previous Monday, this was really disappointing. I stopped taking my raspberry leaf tablets as I felt they were just getting my hopes up. With my previous two babies, the first contractions I felt were the start of "real" labour.

Anyway, my cousin had a baby the same week and we were going to visit them on Friday night. Went shopping on the way for some baby clothes and was having some niggly pains. We were at the shops for perhaps half an hour and I guess I had about 4-5 contractions. Not convinced it was the real thing, we decided to still go visiting. My son put a stop to that by falling asleep in the car, so we went home and I stayed with him while DH and DD went visiting. By this stage it was 8.30pm.

I decided to have a long hot bath whilst I had time alone. I should have thought it was strange that I was not at all hungry but had missed dinner. I was always ravenously hungry throughout the pregnancy. The contractions kept coming while I was in the bath, but I was dozing off between them, only needing to breathe and concentrate on the pain for a few seconds. I knew it had to get a lot worse before the baby would be born. Finished my bath at 9.30 and got into bed to try and relax. The contractions were getting stronger, but there was still no real pattern to them. It did get to the point where I couldn't lie down anymore though, and decided I needed to walk every time one hit. By 10.30 I had rung DH and told him to come home as "I think it's the real thing".

He turned up at 11.00 and promptly fell asleep. By this stage I was wearing a track into the carpet in the hallway, I just couldn't stop moving. Beginning to feel some pressure, I decided to get the hot pack onto my back and that helped for a while. I woke DH at 12.30am and asked him to ring his sister to come and look after the kids. By the time she turned up at nearly 1.00, I was shaking uncontrollably, my teeth were chattering and I had started throwing up. Amazingly the pain was still quite easy to manage.

The hospital is close (3 minutes drive) so we were there by about 1.00am and had to go through Emergency. There were a lot of people waiting to be seen, and I must have looked a sight, by the looks on their faces. The nurse buzzed the delivery suite and advised them I was on my way, then got me a wheelchair. Once I was sitting down, the contractions all but stopped and I thought "oh no, they are going to send me home".

I met with a midwife, Amber and she told DH to go and get my bags from the car, whilst I peeled off layers of clothes as it was so warm in there. She said "I don't need to do an internal yet" so I just left my underwear and top on. I didn't get changed into the clothes I planned to give birth in. I was standing up, leaning over several pillows on the bed, breathing through the contractions when my water broke. It was 1.20am. I just thought it was a bit of bladder weakness! Amber asked me "Did your water just break?" and I told her I didn't think so. She asked me to take off my underwear so she could smell them and said, "No, that's definitely not wee."

DH was back with the bags and started to rub my lower back as the contractions intensified. I somehow managed to get onto the bed so they could do an internal and see if I was ready to push. The midwife wasn't doing too well shining a torch between my legs as she sat on the floor behind me. My doctor had been called and was on his way. I felt this amazing sense of achievement when Amber said I was fully dilated, I hadn't even asked for gas yet. My intention was to give birth squatting, but I never managed to get back off the bed.

The urge to push was incredible and I tried to just listen to my body and let instinct take over. DH was giving me water to drink and mopping my forehead with a cold washer. Every contraction after that brought with it an overwhelming need to push, and Amber and DH encouraged me with my breathing and panting. I could not control my screaming though, it felt so good to scream at the start of the contraction, then hold my breath and push at the end. It felt like an eternity, but at 2.23am my beautiful daughter Carla Rose entered the world and was placed on my chest. She weighed 3030g (6lb 7oz), 50.5cm long with a 33.5cm head circumference.

DH and I were both crying and laughing. I said "Look it's our baby". The cord was between her legs so I couldn't see the sex. At that moment it didn't seem to matter. I was given the injection to make the placenta come out and it was only then that the cord could be moved away and we saw we had a daughter. She spent a few seconds snuffling, then let out a huge cry as her skin turned from purple to red. Within minutes she was searching for the breast and spent her first hour of life suckling. At this point my doctor arrived (a bit late) and I needed 4 or 5 stitches for a small tear. He sutured me and left, I think he was upset that the midwife had waited a little while to call him. I was glad he didn't make it though as he would have given me an episiotomy, because I have had two before and in his opinion, scar tissue doesn't stretch.

Right now I feel a lot better than I did a week after giving birth to my other children, physically and emotionally. Carla is a good sleeper, feeds well and hardly cries. I'm sure that will all change, but right now I am enjoying her so much.

Thanks for reading this, and to all the Mum's in waiting I hope you can have an easy labour like mine.

[Ruby Slippers]

Well done welcome to the world Carla Rose

[Melo]

Thanks for sharing!

Welcome to the world little Carla Rose! (Love the name too!)

[reAllytee]

Wow thats amazing congratulations mama !

[Faithcomesinnumbers]

Welcome to our newest Bub Hub Baby Carla Rose

C'n'C'sMum thank you so much for sharing this joy with us. I can't believe how well you did to be totally dialated and not have had any pain relief.

[PinkBinkie]

Congratulations !! What a BEAUTIFUL birth story............makes it all seem worthwhile. :bday: Carla Rose!

[mrsrobo]

Congrualations on the arrival of your little baby girl I glad to hear Mum and Dad are well.

[♥Heaven Sent♥]

Congratulations on the arrival of your baby girl!!!
Welcome Carla Rose!!
What a wonderful birth story i hope #2 for me is as good as your's

[zenifa]

Congratulations!! Welcome to the world Carla Rose!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful birth story, it gave me goosebumps!! I am so happy for you!! Hope you enjoy your beautiful new baby girl!!

[Foxymoron]

Wow what a great birth!

Welcome again little Carla Rose