Fe2O3Baby2 was born on Friday morning at 6:20am, weighed 8lb 10oz, and we are all doing well.
On Thursday I had some niggly pain and light bleeding but no progression. I had a bath in the evening and added rose, lavendar and clary sage oil to the water. I was woken up by my contractions at about 2am on Friday morning. After about half an hour I phoned the labour ward to ask for a midwife to assess me (was booked for a homebirth). They were extremely busy and couldn't send anyone. I decided I was coping at that point, and would wait and see if they were able to send someone later.
My in-laws came over at 3:15am to collect our little boy, and my MIL sat with me for a while. By this point I was leaking lots of fluid with every contraction, so I was glad of the inco mats the midwife had left. After MIL and FIL left with William, I rang labour ward again and they were still too busy to send anyone, so I knew I had to go in.
Grant put my TENS on me, and I slowly got dressed between contractions. We set off, and on the way to the hospital I started to feel a slight urge to push. I was assessed at 5:20am and pronounced 4cm dilated, which didn't seem like much progress!
As soon as we went into a delivery room I got on my knees resting my head and arms on an armchair. The gas and air was set up by the bed, where I couldn't reach it. and I couldn't face moving. From then on the urge to push got much stronger, the midwife came back in and stayed with us until Charlie was born at 6:20am. What an amazing, incredible experience! And thank God for TENS!
Grant said that after his head and one arm came out, he looked around! Then the rest of his body slid out. He cried immediately. Grant cut the cord, then held him while I got up and sat on the chair and got my shirt off, then we had skin to skin contact and he latched on after a few minutes.
I had a physiological third stage and the placenta was delivered 40 minutes later.
Despite not being at home it was exactly how I wanted it to be, and I am so pleased to have been able to have such a great, normal, low intervention birth.
Charlie is gorgeous and we are both doing well. I have a second degree tear which is doing fine without being stitched and not painful at all, and monster piles which are more than making up for it.
Rachel and Charlie xx