Whew. Almost 5 months later and I realised I haven't truly shared my birth story with anyone even though I've really wanted to so here ya go ladies. It's probably going to be long but I hope you enjoy. 🤗

I was 41 weeks and 3 days and getting anxious, lol. My plan was to do an all natural water birth in a birthing centre. The problem was, after 42 weeks I'd have to birth in the hospital affiliated with the birthing centre because of the possibility of certain complications after 42 weeks gestation. I'd been eating dates, walking on my lunch break, walking up and down stairs, had some pineapple juice, I was TRYING 🤣 This particular day I went to the park with my sister and her boyfriend to walk around and just hang. We walked and I jogged a little bit for about an hour? I wasn't really keeping track, lol, but when I got tired we left. I came home and by now it was around 10pm so I figured we weren't having a baby. I get into bed and just as I'm dozing off I felt a small bit of liquid between my legs. I was confused cos it didn't feel like I was peeing but y'all know how that goes, haha. To make sure I decided to get up and use the bathroom but after I finished there was still liquid coming out 😯 ssooo I called the centre! She had me put a pad on and check it after an hour: if it was soaked, it was my water. (Spoiler alert: it was 😉) After I called her I called my SO (we live separately as this was an unexpected pregnancy early in our relationship and as ironic as it may sound we decided it would be best not to rush our relationship) and he has just finished putting the crib together at his place y'all 🤦🏾‍♀️ (remember I'm past my due date... men 🙃). I told him I was fine and gonna try to go back to bed so he didn't need to worry or rush over and we'd talk in the morning.

I barely slept, LOL. The adrenaline from what was about to happen and some anxiety and the contractions (irregular but still painful) at this point had me tossing, turning, and bouncing on my yoga ball all night. The next morning (Saturday) I called the centre (thankfully my fave midwife was on call!!!!!) and I was reminded of when to come in, etc. etc. Y'all know the drill. Anyway, I didn't go to church that day even tho I wanted to cos even tho the contractions were irregular, they were painful and I just wanted the control of being able to leave from home rather than from somewhere else. Around 5 I called my midwife again because my contractions were still irregular and I was approaching the 24 hour mark for my water breaking so I was unsure about what they'd want to do. She said that they suggest going to the hospital after 24 hours of broken water but if I didn't want to do that I'd just have to sign a waiver & if I didn't go into active labour by the 24 hr mark she'd want me to come in regardless for a non-stress test. She ALSO suggested I try nipple stimulation and/or castor oil. Now. I'd read about castor but I'd also read that it can cause diarrhea considering it has laxative effects. Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to poop during labour let alone have diarrhea. SO I took half of her recommend dosage, did a little nipple stim and my sister convinced me to "dance him out", LOL. Well y'all idek which of the three was the cause but it worked and the contractions I'd been feeling irregularly all day picked up and kicked into high gear. This was about 3 hours later (8pm) so at this point I called her back to let her know and I called my SO to tell him to come on over. *I'd like to pause the story to say: THIS IS WHEN WE PROBABLY SHOULD'VE GONE TO THE CENTRE*

I was nervous about how it was going to go because my SO is a big jokester. I'm definitely the more serious one in the relationship but y'all he really was amazing. While we were at my house he was eating (I wasn't hungry) while I was bouncing on my ball/walking to deal with the contractions but he was timing them and applying counter-pressure on my lower back (this felt great in case anyone needs ideas on stuff to try during labour). This went on for about an hour then.. that castor oil hit my intestines 🥴. The only good thing about this was that I didn't poop during labour 🙌🏾. I keep labouring and I think we still have so much time but everything got very intense very fast.. I threw up and it was then that my SO decided we were heading out (haha, my sister said at this point she thought he looked nervous but he says he was fine). He calls my midwife to update her, packs the car, my sister helps me to the car (I throw up again then tell her that I want to go to the hospital and get all the drugs but she tells me that I did so much research and preparation and I just gotta remember why I'm doing this and I'll be fine... It worked, lol) and off we go! The absolute worst part without a doubt was the car ride to the centre. I NEEDED to move through my contractions but I couldn't (duh) and it was awful. My poor SO was speeeeeeding and even asked if I needed him to pull over (of course I told him no just hurry hah). Ironically as we pull in to the centre my contractions ease up 🙄. I must've looked upset cos my midwife sees me and says "this is what we wanted, right?" & I respond "is it?? 😒" 😂

They (my midwife and her new hire/trainee) test the water on my pad to double check that it's my amniotic fluid, I give a urine sample, I throw up again (fun times lol), and they take my vitals. After this they want to check how dilated I am but I needed a couple minutes because I was going through a bout of contractions. My babe set up his essential oil diffuser I asked for without me knowing and suddenly it smells so good and relaxing, & my contractions calmed down, so I let them check me. Y'all. I was already NINE cm, fully effaced, and she could feel him ready to go. 😩 They start to fill up the pool and I was secretly so annoyed because I just wanted to get in there!! The put the yoga ball on the bed for me to lean on while I laboured and my babe is by my side rubbing my back, applying pressure and giving me juice (I had to have juice instead of water cos I had ketones - I believe - in my urine) 🥰. My doula walks in at this point and my butt is in the air facing her so I apologise 😅. She takes over the task of feeding me juice and is such a sweetheart. ♥️

After what felt like forever they FINALLYYY have the pool filled & it's the right temperature so I hop in and IT FELT GREAT. I was kinda sad because I was starting to feel pressure when I got in so I knew pushing was near which meant I wouldn't get to be in the pool long & my babe wouldn't get in (he was cool with getting in while I was labouring but he didn't wanna be in there when I pushed cos the thought of being in there with blood and other stuff grossed him out 🤣. It was okay though cos he stayed right by my face the entire time. Encouraging me, talking calmly to me, stroking my arms/face, and feeding me juice. I have my babe give our doula my phone so she can record/take pictures.

It's about 0030 at this point (Sunday morning) and (this was the most incredible thing) my body just starts pushing on its own. Tbh, it FREAKED me out and I started panicking a little cos even though I'd read about how it's instinctual and reflexive, I thought I'd still have to bear down or something but I didn't. He was literally just coming out on his own. When he started crowning the midwives had me stop so that I could stretch and get used to him to prevent tearing (kinda worked, lol). Once his head came out his heart rate started to drop so they asked me to push but I didn't know how 😂😩 so it didn't work. They asked me to turn from the position I was in (picture hands and knees but I'm leaning on the side of the birth pool rather than my hands on the ground) and face up (picture my arms behind me on the top of the birth pool for support) and he pretty much came right out on the next contraction; only 15 minutes of pushing! I alwaysss thought I'd cry because I'm an emotional person but I think I was still processing everything (my babe also said it looked like I was). I did fall in love right away tho. There's no question about that. My baby boy was finally here 💙!!

Okay, if you've been with me this long, thank you!!, but I'm gonna try to wrap it up, lol. I ended up needing three stitches for a minor labial tear, delivered a healthy looking placenta, dad got skin to skin time, baby latched well & we basically took turns doing skin to skin until it was time to go home. Family came to visit for about an hour (my babes immediate family came but mine didn't.. my sister ended up falling asleep so she didn't hear her phone ring and my father didn't really understand that a birthing centre is different from a hospital.. he said he'd come in the morning but that's when we were leaving. I think he expected us to be there for a couple days but alas). I needed to eat a full meal, pee, & shower before we could go home. After I did all that we got baby boy dressed, discharged and we left to go home around 0830. Probably spent about 10ish hours there give or take.

It was a wonderful delivery experience and I'd do it all over again for my sweet boy. Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy/are enjoying being mommas. ♥️♥️

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