He’s finally here!

Ma

I’m so excited to finally be able to share that my beautiful second baby boy is finally here!

At my last midwife appointment (39+4) I was already 3 cm dilated, although my cervix was still fairly long. It had thinned out about halfway since my last visit but we still needed to do a bit of work. I was able to get a stretch and sweep which I was really hoping would help jump start labour.

Later that day I had normal cramping and blood from the sweep, nothing unusual.

The following day however, 39+5, I was experiencing some decently painful contractions that would last about 25 seconds and would come every 20 minutes or so. I was so sure this was the start of labour and that baby boy would be born today. After about 3 hours the contractions stopped and I sadly went to bed hoping tomorrow would bring better news.

The next morning, 39+6, I was experiencing the same type of contractions as the day before, except even less consistent. I’d have one, then an hour later another one. This was something I had never experienced during my first labour.

At about 2pm I noticed that they were getting stronger, although they weren’t coming closer together. By 4pm they were still every 20 minutes but they HURT. I decided to call my midwife and just plain my situation and she recommended we come to the hospital to get assessed.

We got to the hospital for 5 pm. She checked my cervix and we were at 5 cm and ready to be admitted. By this point the contractions had become regular and very strong. I tried using the laughing gas, but it didn’t help. After about an hour I decided I wanted an epidural, even though my last labour was completely natural.

I’d like to just say that the epidural was the best decision I could have made. It helped me relax, it took away my pain, and it took away my fear and anxiety.

My labour progressed so quickly that baby boys cord got wrapped around his neck as he was trying to descend causing his heart rate to drop. My midwife called in the doctors, and everyone was trying to get me to change positions to help elevate it. It wasn’t working.

The doctor told me we needed to get him out and that even though we weren’t quite at 10, I think we were at about 9, I had to start pushing. 11 minutes of pushing and he was out!

He was perfect and healthy. I felt so relieved and blessed. He was born at 829 pm, weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long. We were home from the hospital by 11 pm and resting comfortably.

Bosko Malcolm