Freddie was born on Saturday 8th July, just one day over his due date, We didn’t know we were having a boy and it was a lovely surprise. It had been quite an easy pregnancy the whole way through, not knowing I was actually pregnant till I was over 9 weeks said it all. I didn’t suffer from any sickness just major heartburn and a little nausea.
I had to be monitored closely due to having a heart monitor because of previous fainting spells, but everything was going well and the consultants were happy with me but I was classed as “High Risk” so could only go to Heartlands Hospital.
A few days before my due date I had experienced a heavy feeling quite low down in my groin area but didn’t think anything of it. I hadn’t experienced any other pains or aches so just ignored it. I had no trouble sleeping and was going straight through the night.
The evening of the 7th July I went to bed as normal then I was woken at 4am with stomach cramps, I wasn’t sure what it was, so lay in bed and tried to get back off to sleep, but when they didn’t go away and gradually got worse I knew I was in labour. I let the OH sleep untill about 6.30am then decided to wake him up and tell him my contractions had started.
I decided to go and have a warm bath later that morning, I spent a good half hour in it but our bath just isn’t big enough to lie down and get comfy so ended up giving up and it didn’t really help.
About 10am we phoned my parents as the car seat was at theirs (my mum superscious so wouldn’t let us have the pram etc here). Then tom’s parents so they could come pick up our dog Carly. Mum and dad arrived, so Tom and dad fixed the isofix base in the car (Probably should have done it a little sooner) and then they ended up talking outside for ages. By this point it was getting on for lunch time and my contractions were getting stronger and closer together so we started timing them.
The hours were ticking by and I was tiring and struggling to cope with the pain but just kept breathing through them and trying to concentrate on something else. Eventually, I decided at about 2.30pm we should go to hospital, we rang the ward and went straight to willow suite. We were greeted by a lovely midwife – unfortunately can’t remember her name, we settled in to our room and she came back a short while later and asked if she was ok to do an internal examination and I was only 3cm dilated, felt like I was a lot further than that with the pain. She advised that I needed to progress to at least 5cm within the next 4 hours otherwise I would be sent home
The midwife suggested walking round to get things moving quicker plus I needed to eat as my body was running on low energy which wasn’t good for me or baby, I just couldn’t eat but Mum and tom were force feeding me food – sweets, sandwiches and biscuits, unfortunately a short time after I remember shouting “I’m going to be sick” – the joys of pregnancy.
My waters finally broke at approx 16.25pm, the relief of those going was amazing even just for a short time till my contractors got worse. My contractions continued and the midwife kept a close eye on baby’s heartbeat the whole way through. The minutes seemed like hours.
Eventually, I had that feeling that you can never mistake – the urge to push. For anyone who has never had a baby, this is like the feeling of wanting to do the biggest poo on the planet. The midwife, who was lovely, tried to get me to go on all fours and push, but I wasn’t having it. The worst part of it all was I couldn’t get comfy – I ended up in the traditional lying down position, but that was the most comfortable way. I don’t know how long I was pushing for, before they told me they could see the head. The next thing there was an incredible burning sensation (the head being born) and then at 19.12pm, out our baby popped. It was a little boy. We called him Freddie. Immediately after he was born he had to be rushed off to resuscitation unit as he decided to twist and wrap the cord around his neck not once but twice, thankfully he was perfectly fine.
Would I do I again, Yes!
Freddie is now over 2 months old and changing everyday.