Home / Community / Birth Stories

Giovanna's Entrance to the World ☺️♥️

El • Fri, Jun 08

Trying to find the time to write is a mission 😂 I'll keep it brief. (Which is probably not gonna happen lol)

Rewind 10 weeks ago.

Labour started on a Monday morning, around 3am. Didn't go to hospital till Tuesday noon, as my contractions were already 5 minutes apart. After being checked, I was 3cm dilated.

My midwife stated concerns regarding my prolonged labour. Although during my appointments, I have been told she's in a good position. Turns out, she's positioned posterior or "sunny side up" as they say. Therefore, hello back labour 😅

Another concern was her unsteady heart rate. It was apparently not normal and at a pace they didn't want it to be. The solution was to strictly lay on my left side. Screw birth plans, I thought. But since I'm a first time momma, I truly wanted to do several things to speed up labour. I told myself "Oh yes, I'm gonna walk around, bounce on the birthing ball, submerge in warm water, such and such". Clearly, baby girl got her own way and made her own plan instead 😂

Due to personal reasons, I wanted a drug free birth so I tried my best to endure all of that doing proper breathing.

Tuesday around 6pm, I didn't make much progress. Midwife broke my waters, gushed a few times but this entire time, I was stuck at 4-5 cm 😩 I was very frustrated, stressed and really exhausted , I cried & whined for almost an hour because of how she's taking so long and how I'm losing energy.

(Shoutout to my husband for being so damn supportive and understanding of my situation. Thanks for letting me take my frustration out on you lol, as well as making sure I'm comfortable and have whatever I needed.)

Again, 10pm, still no signs of improvement from bubba.

Medical team starting to be more concerned. If in 2 or 3 hours, I haven't progressed, they will be required to perform an emergency caesarean.

Labour got the better of me so I demanded for an epidural at 11pm. Oh what a relief. I managed to have an hour sleep until I started feeling contractions again. Though not too long after that, I had the sudden urge to push 😦🤯😳 Midwife checked and yes! 10 CENTIMETRES.

A little annoyed at the fact that I had to wait for the team to get ready and constantly being told not to push yet, however, I was filled with excitement and was very keen to push.

So I pushed for 15 minutes, baby girl finally made an arrival at 12:23 AM, Wednesday, 28th March 2018.

As unpleasant as the labour was for me, God knows I will go through it all over again. I'm so in love and she's worth every second of it 😍

Some photos taken by hubby 😋

But wait, there's more... Lol

First degree tear. Being injected in the vagina for anaesthesia is a horrible experience of mine 😂 Sorry TMI, but seriously. It was awfully painful and the fact I didn't feel numb at all, I was feeling every stitch being done. Wasn't a nice experience either. I never thought this shit could get any worse 😅 I wasn't sure if the epidural wore off or what.

Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to do skin to skin, I had to be sent to the operating room. My placenta didn't come out whole so it had to be manually removed. Apparently, I was slowly losing consciousness too. I just know that I woke up in a room at 3am, all alone.

I didn't get to be with my baby until 6-7AM as she needed to be monitored.

Thank goodness she did well and came out healthy as ever 😋 I guess she just wanted to give momma a hard time lol

Look at 'em, giving me plain ass breakfast 😂