Before I start with the usual "really long post" disclaimer, I'll introduce you to the people in my story.

Mark is my amazing partner and baby daddy.

Emily is my bestie who has basically been the 4th person in this pregnancy with us. She prepped herself for the entire pregnancy and faced her fears so she could photograph the birth.

Henry is our housemate.

Jodie is my other bestie.

Ok buckle up amigos, it's a wild one.

Thursday 5th of September

Contractions started around 5pm. I had my 38 week midwife appointment that day which I walked to and I spent hours with Marks mum at the shops so I just thought my body aching from that. Mark had just gotten home from work and we were waiting for Jodie to join us for dinner and Thursday night footy (🐇💪). They felt like Braxton hicks, which had really ramped up in the week leading up to this and even though they seemed to be a little more frequent than usual, I didn't think much of it. By 6-6.30pm, I clued onto the fact that they weren't just practice contractions and we started to time them. I was still fairly nonchalant at this stage because they were more uncomfortable than painful and quite frankly I was annoyed because there was no way I was missing my team crush the Roosters 😂

I started to make dinner and fluff around while Jodie and Mark frantically tried to figure out the baby car seat. We had planned to install it over the weekend seeing as I was being admitted on the Monday for the cesarean.

We video called Emily who was meant to be our photographer to fill her in. She happened to be in Brisbane having dinner with friends. Que mild breakdown 😅 While I'm sitting there laughing on the phone to her, trying to convince her to stay and enjoy her night through contractions, Jodie and Mark in the background flailing around with the car seat, our housemate Henry walks in the door. Henry has been prepping for the birth for weeks, (bless his cotton socks). He had downloaded calming music, (which I strongly contested and requested Metallica or Queen at the very least 🤘), researched random baby facts and mapped out the quickest way to the hospital 🤭 He takes one look at me and for shits and giggles, I yell "ITS GO TIME HENOS!" I've never seen someone's eyes pop out of their head to that extent 😂 He started running around like a headless chook, he did 3 nervous poops, packed a bag and got the car seat into the car with Jodie in the blink of an eye.

Once we calmed Henry down, we all sat down for dinner. I was starting to have to stop what I was doing and breathe through contractions which were averaging 3-4 minutes apart. The game started and I tried to ignore what was really going on but relaxing was becoming increasingly difficult. By half time, I was definitely feeling pain. I had a hot shower which seemed to help and Jodie braided my hair afterwards, because you know, I needed a bouji hairdo for the hospital 😅💅

Friday 6th of September

By midnight I was in and out of the shower while everyone else slept and Jodes had gone home. We had already called Hannah, the midwife, to make sure everything was tracking well and to let them know we might be coming in. 1am rolls round and I'm already exhausted. It's way past my bed time and there's absolutely no way I could get any shut eye 😒 Contractions are 2 mins apart and lasting between 50 seconds and a minute long. It's actual go time now. I wake Mark up and he loads the car with our bags and goes through the last minute list I had prepared. I'm on the couch eating Allens Snakes between contractions wondering if we should even be going in yet.

I'm still in disbelief this is really happening. Am I really in labour? Why am I not screaming in pain?

The car ride seemed to take forever. It's no more than a 20 min drive but each contraction made it drag out to what felt like hours. Little did I know I was making each one worse by tensing up.

We got to the hospital and walked to the birthing suite as directed by the midwife on the phone. Fuck she was awesome. Somehow she reassured both Mark and I and even though neither of us knew what was ahead of us, we both remained so calm thanks to Hannah.

I was hooked up to all sorts of monitors and my cervix was checked and swept. I was only 2cm so we were given the option to stay or go home. We wanted to be at home where we were comfortable. Eventually a Dr came in and advised us against leaving due to my heart condition. Sometimes it's a real pain in the ass having a fucking pacemaker. I was given 2 codeine tablets and we tried to sleep.

By 8am my contractions had virtually disappeared and we were discharged.

It was nice to be home in our own bed. We managed to sleep for a good 5 or so hours and if I was having contractions they can't have been strong because I was out like a light.

At about 3pm I woke up and decided to eat something. I started to get out of bed only to be stopped in my tracks by one motherfucker of a contraction. I stood up and sure enough my waters broke. Not the dramatic gush like in the movies... disappointing 😒 I went and sat on the toilet and waited for more fluid to come out. Yep, definitely go time now.

I actually fucked around a bit before I woke Mark up and we didn't get to the hospital until around 6pm.

We got settled into the same birthing suite with a new midwife, Ally. She was another legend and had a thick English accent. She hooked me up with the gas even though I was told I should have the epidural straight away, I wanted to be mobile for a bit longer because the thought of being stuck in bed pissed me off.

The gas was useless in my opinion. I used it through my contractions and honestly it was more a distraction than anything else. I hopped on the medicine ball and that felt like I was pushing the baby back up so that was a write off too.

Eventually Emily and Jodes turned up with a special delivery... maccas 😍😍 We all ate and joked around for a while with the midwife. Time was passing quickly surprisingly. We went for a couple of walks around the hospital to get things moving. Well, I was in and out of a wheelchair because I could barely stand through contractions.

By 10.30 I decided to get the epidural, so Ally came back in to hook me up to the IV before the block could be placed in my back. This was the limit for jodes so Emily drove her home. By the time Emily got back the Dr was setting up and ready to put the epidural in.

Que anxiety attack 😳😒

Continued in comments

6 pound 11 ounces

48cm long

Full head of hair just like her mumma had.

No tearing and I didn't poop 🙌