On Wednesday 4th of August at 41 weeks pregnant, I have been desperate for a while not to be. In the last weeks, I have been dealing with such severe pains that it was hard to even wee. I was desperate to get things going. I have gone for two decent swims, walks, ran up the stairs on Miami like I used to with Josie. (Her story is here.) I was drinking raspberry leaf tea, eating dates, stretching on the exercise ball and eating spicy food. I have also cleaned the whole house and spend one evening baking. At 41 weeks at midnight, I started to feel mild contractions, I got up to exercise to help the process along if it were the real thing. Unfortunately they didn’t escalate. We dropped Josie at kindy after breakfast on Wednesday and went to our midwife appointment at 8AM. She confirmed that I was in early labour. Her exact words were I think you will have bubby in your arms by tonight, but it could also take several days. She also said that I was already two centimetres dilated and that I was in early labour. Her advice was just to take things easy, but go to the hospital as soon as I can feel regular contractions because second time around the labour comes quick.
So we went home, I went straight for the couch to put on Netflix and chilled. About an hour later my contractions started, they were again just like heavier Braxton Hicks, but as soon as they were regular, I packed the rest of the things in the hospital bag, messaged Lisa and Bara instructions regarding Josie and off we went. Some contractions were pretty bad I had to breathe through them, but they weren’t extremely painful, by the time we go to the hospital they became milder still and the midwife who examined me said that I wasn’t in active labour yet and that she cannot admit me.
That information made me so depressed because I could have easily just stayed on the couch instead. I was suddenly so tired that I asked Lukas to go sleep in the car and see what happens next. Despite the contractions the fatigue allowed me to sleep in between each of them. So we decided to go home instead. Lukas was joking that when I promised him a good nap that day I didn’t say that it was going to be in a hospital parking lot costing us seven bucks an hour.
So we decided to go home and Lukas said he bets anything that we will be turning around at Nobby’s traffic lights and boy was he right with the preciseness of the exact location I had two real (can’t just breathe through) contractions right at the lights at 3.15PM. Since we were already so close to the house we went home, I washed my hair in the shower (which resulted in looking awesome after labour) and Lukas made coffee and before we left they house I was already in so much labour pain. In the car I was screaming and felt like the baby was about to come in the car because the pushing sensation was unreal. We got to the hospital at 4.40PM, took the lift up and as soon as I got up, my waters broke. This was kind of cool because now second time around I got to experience what all the movies are about. At the initial examination I kept saying it will happen quick that I can already feel the baby. I couldn’t even stay still during the check up and kept rushing things, telling Lukas to go and get the car and hurry. I felt like I was a little ignored with the urgency. Finally we got to the birthing suite and I asked for water birth and told the midwife what I said before, it already hurts a lot I don’t think it will take long. Lukas finally went to park the car and I told him to run, which thankfully he did because Sebastian was born 15-20 mins after he’s arrived back at the suite.
As soon as the bath was full I got in, I could immediately feel a little bit more relaxed. The midwife said that it might still be a couple of hours, which I decided not to believe but still asked for the gas. I didn’t really get to use it because with the next two contractions I said that I am pushing that I cannot hold it anymore. I think they were all a little bit surprised that the last stage is already here, almost like as if I didn’t say that maybe ten times. Thankfully Lukas was already back in the room, I was kneeling in the bath working my ass off. Working like I have never fucking worked in my life before. I cannot explain enough how much effort, how much strength, how much sheer will I have put into that push. I got a mirror shoved down there, maybe for motivation I don’t know, but what I saw resembled lord Voldemort and scared me more than anything.
Next push part of the head came out and I kept pushing even thought the contraction wasn’t there because I was so desperate. They forced me to slow down and to use my breath. It felt like the most impossible of tasks that I was ever given in my life. In my head just thinking, it will soon be over, the nine months of pain, it will soon be over and then never again, never again. On the next contraction Sebastian swam out. Like literally, they told me to sit back and there was this purple baby swimming in between my legs. He started crying as soon as I picked him up and put him to my chest.
It was pretty amazing, but unlike with Josie the relief was not coming because while the worst pain was of course gone, it was still hurting way too much. One of the first things I asked for was some pain relief. I was offered panadol and straight away asked whether there’s something stronger. Turns out that after nine months of no pain killers, two panadols worked the charm and I could finally relax. I started breastfeeding, after I took a shower and Luky got some skin on skin. I straight away wolfed down some food, I think it was curry, but hard to tell due to the speed with which I ate it. We took about thousand photos and then slowly moved to our room where we got instructions from midwives, but all I wanted to do was get into bed and eat my chocolate croissant that Lukas even this time around did not forget to buy for me.
The night was fine, however in the middle of it I had to get some pain killers again as the uterus pain was unreal, I definitely don’t remember this being so bad the first time around. Interestingly enough I didn’t tear at all with Sebastian, which made a lot of a difference. It was also pretty cold at night, which I expected, but unfortunately we didn’t bring our own blankets, which I definitely would do, but will never have to because I will NEVER ever give birth again. We totally slept in, much longer than we have in the last two and a half years, nearly until 8AM and it was fantastic and so needed. Afterwards we were so keen to get home and get all the checks done. As expected it was taking forever and we also had one instance of Sebastian briefly not breathing as he was coughing up some water, which was not squeezed out properly due to the quick labour. Finally we left the hospital around noon excited to get home. We stopped in Bam Bam Bakehouse for some celebratory cakes and went home to introduce Josie to Sebastian, which was an amazing experience, one that must be extremely heart warming for any parent. We spend most of the afternoon just talking with Bara and getting Josie used to being gentle with her brother.
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