Birth Story

My sweet little girl was Born today, December 16, 2018, at 8:18am. She was 51cm (20.07inches) long and 3.31 kg (7.5lbs) heavy.

My due date was 20th. I have been dilated 2cm since 36 weeks but haven’t progressed further than that, despite constant diarrhea, loss of mucus plug, daily contractions, nightly contractions that would wake me up and keep me up; however, nothing was happening. Nothing would ever progress into the real deal.

On Thursday I had a membrane sweep done at 39 weeks. I had no contractions afterwards. I did a few errand And noticed I started losing more mucus plug. Excitement was building up. About 24 hours later I had bloody show! For last two pregnancies that meant this baby was coming within 24 hours. HA!

Joke was on me, because that wasn’t the case this time.

Had more contractions and then they would just fade away... as per usual. I was so frustrated.

Due to certain family issues that we have to deal with next week, this weekend was the perfect time to have a baby so I decided to give a shot to midwives brew.

Recipe is 8oz lemon verbena tea (hard to find but tazo zen green tea contains lemon verbena leaves so I used that instead), 10oz apricot juice, 2tbs castor oil and 2tbs almond butter (I used peanut butter). The butter helps castor oil stick to your guts rather than run through it and prevents stomach ace, upset stomach, etc. If I was not to go in labour, I was excited about a decent poo as I haven’t had a decent one since my symptoms started at around 36 weeks.

This thing was naaaaaasty!!!!!! But hey it made me poop 10 TIMES without any stomach pain! Like 2 min pooping sessions, empty and done. In the mean time I decided to clean the whole house. I mean deep clean. Behind and under furniture, dusting, mopping, deep cleaning washroom, folding laundry, changing sheets, you name it, I did it.

I finally finished at 3:20am..... crazy, I know... but hey contractions started! I slept but got woken up by them at 5:06am. By 6:30 I was waking up my partner, getting ready the kids and it was time to go to hospital. We dropped them off at my in-laws and by 7:30 we were in the hospital.

While nurse was telling me that I am 4cm dilated, my water ruptured! She said she accidentally broke it... bullshit she was digging to break it hahaha and I know it, but I didn’t mind because I knew I’m staying and it will help me progress fast. And heck yeaaaaah 40 mins later and 10 mins of pushing and my baby girl was here! I told her I needed to poop (thinking it’s castor oil again) so she checked me and I was 7cm, 2 mins later another contraction came and I had to push! I couldn’t control it! The doctor came in and it was go time. Her head was turned sideways (hence why I didn’t dilated anymore since 36 weeks) so I had to push with all my might to get her out.

Here is what happened which I’ve never seen before and I hope it helps others to simply see little things that can happen during labour. My capillaries bursted in my face. Nothing painful, simply ugly I guess.

But it should go away on its own. I had no complications whatsoever, and babygirl and I are doing great!

Not sure whether membrane sweep encouraged me to have a bloody show which I gave birth about 48 hours after the bloody show, or whether it is midwives brew (which apparently has 85% success rate) or whether it is insane cleaning I did, but my baby girl is here. It might have all been coincidental as I believe baby only comes when baby wants. None of the above worked for my first. Second, membrane sweep did the job and this one needed a little bit of help.

Now I do not recommend anything except maybe cleaning your house hahah but I just wanted to share my experience :) btw, it was all natural birth. I didn’t plan on takin an epidural but I don’t know how crazy you need to be to want to do this naturally. The mind power it takes is mind blowing. It is so so so hard but I didn’t have a good experience with epidural with my first so I chose to not do it. I didn’t even have time for bath tub or gas and air this time around. I was lucky to have fast labour. I have no idea how you ladies do it naturally for hours and hours and hours!!!! We are freaking warriors! I wished so hard to get an epidural today hahaha and have no desire to give birth again but it was so so so worth it :) it’s always worth it all in the end!