Hey ladies, I'm a little late on this, but finally got a chance to write my birth story for my July baby which ended up being an August baby. It's gonna be long, but I want to have this documented for myself so I wrote it down anyway. 😊

EDD was July 23rd but she made her arrival on August 2nd, 10 days "late".

It started in the evening on the first, when at 11pm my water broke. That was a really sharp pain out of nowhere when I was lying down on a mattress in my living room (I hated our sofa in the end, so uncomfortable, so my lovely husband would bring my bed mattress in the living room almost every day so that we could watch TV in the evenings). After that I was leaking, not a big gush, but steady water coming out.

We called my midwife, and she told us to stay at home as long as possible, maybe there won't even be contractions for a few hours and when they start, they would start slowly and with breaks in between. No need to rush to the hospital and have to stay in the room even without my husband (due to the pandemic husband's were only allowed during the final few hours when it's almost time to push). It would be much better for me to be in my familiar environment during the first contractions. So that's what we intended to do. I had planned to take a bath to "welcome" and breath through the first contractions in there. What a lovely picture.... 😂

BUT: my contractions started 10 minutes after the water broke and immediately quite heavy, like under 4 minutes apart and for over a minute long. And, as a ftm, I didn't know better so I thought they very pretty intense as well. I couldn't move, hated to talk, I was miserable. We tried to stay at home as long as possible, but by 2:30 am, in the middle of the night, husband and I drove to the hospital. We met our midwife there, she checked me and said I'm at around 5 to 6 cm. So it was the right decision to come there.

My midwife got my husband in and we went to the delivery room and that's when the contractions got really bad. Right during a contraction a nurse came in and stuck a covid test down by throat, it was wonderful. 🙈 But that compared to contraction, you know, hahaha...

I didn't get an epidural, because I'm allergic to many meds so I wouldn't risk any complications due to me not handling the meds well. So I'm laboring, screaming, growling, whining..... My poor husband always by my side, watching me in pain. I think for him it was very hard as well. This time was the hardest for me, pain wise. I could literally feel my body (bones, muscles, organs, whatever) inside stretch and move when my baby made its way down the exit. It was horrible. I think most of you all know exactly what I mean.

Then my midwife told me it's getting time to start pushing and I thought, yay, almost done.. What a mistake..

I ended up pushing for a loooong time, quite a few hours, in almost every position you an imagine. She took a long time to come out because she was quite big and I'm not. I thought I would never get her out, it just seemed like she was stuck. In the end a doctor had to push on my belly while my midwife helped my girl to find her way out.

Finally her head came out, but her body was still in there. I had to wait for the next contraction to finally push her out. That were the longest 1 or 2 minutes of my life. Little girl was down there, head sticking out and already screaming like a champ. Get the picture. Looking back I think that's quite funny, me lying down with screaming head sticking out. 😂

After the next and again really painful push she finally arrived outside fully at 7:43 in the morning, 8.5 hours after my water broke. Not too long for a ftm they said.

She was put on my chest immediately.

Oh, what an emotional moment, painful as hell, but full of love as well. ❤️

I got a 3rd degree tear and needed a lot of stitches. That was really painful as well. But we had a lot of time in the delivery room afterwards to calm down and she immediately started to nurse perfectly.

Short story long, haha.

I love my precious little rainbow baby so damn much!

After two years of trying and two miscarriages I can finally say I'm a mom to the most perfect little wonder.

She is now almost 7 months old and the days are pretty challenging sometimes, but I won't change it for anything. I was made for her!