Well Ladies... I've waited what feels like forever to write this.. & yes, it's a birth story!! I've enjoyed reading everyone else's so much these past several months.. and as my babes due date neared I was getting ever so excited for me to have him..

So here goes:....

Tuesday 5th December was my babies due date.. and as I had no sign of him coming my midwife wanted to to a cervical sweep.. so I accepted.. I mean I was in so much pain from him pushing on my sciatic nerve, so I was just ready to get him out.. at the sweep my midwife said I was only 1cm and had a very soft cervix.. anyway, after my sweep me and my partner tried everything to get labour going.. we had sex several times, got a birthing ball, tried walking, eating spicy food, using 2 breast pumps to help stimulate the nipples.. trust me I tried it all.. anyway, nothing happened so comes to Monday the 11th and still nothing, so I had another sweep.. and at this point I was only 2cm dilated! 😭 anyhow, later that night I started getting some funny pains that I'd not had before but they didn't seem consistent enough to be any proper contractions, so i just shrugged them off.. this went on all the way up till Thursday when the pains would start getting worse on a night time when I was laid down or resting.. I began to time them and they were ranging from 7-15 mins apart.. I rang triage to see what I should do and for some advice.. and they said just to wait till my induction date (17th Dec) as it didn't seem like I was going to progress any further.. so I just left it be and took some pain killers.. comes to Friday night and I was the same again except the pains were getting more intense even though they were even more inconsistent.. so I still didn't think anything of it.. I hardly slept all night.. comes to Saturday morning (16th) and my partner got up to let the plasterers in at 7:45am to come fix my living room ceiling that had collapsed on the 11th on the day of my 2nd sweep.. anyway, I was laid in bed with a heat pack he'd done for me and as I reached to grab it from my back to put to my abdomen I felt this weird "popping" sensation, then a gush of fluid.. I jumped up and ran to the toilet and realised my waters had broken at 7:55am.. I sorted myself out then went to the landing and shouted to my partner, "my waters have gone", I heard back "couldn't you have waited 3 hours till these guys had gone?" 😂 he came running up and realised I wasn't kidding then he started fretting.. we got stuff sorted and rang my parents for my dad to come stay with the plasterers and my dog and my mum to come be my 2nd birthing partner.. we all jumped in the car and got on our way.. at this point my contractions were 3 minutes apart and coming out of nowhere! We got to the hospital for 8:45 and I was sent for an examination to see how far along I was.. i was only 3cm but baby was so far down he was stopping any bits of water from flowing out.. the midwife gave me another little sweep just to see it'd help me progress any more.. by 10:30am I was 4cm and was finally admitted to L&D; ... I was straight on that gas and air 😅😂 the pains was unreal guys 😭anyway, after an hour on the bed with gas and air I went onto the birthing ball with my mum holding my hand and my partner rubbing my back... the contractions then really started coming so I used that gas and air like no tomorrow to the point I almost passed out so they had to lay me back on the bed.. I got another examination at 12:05 and was 7cm.. I still used the gas and air to help me get through the contractions.. soon came around to 1pm and I wanted to be on the ball again so the midwife let me as long as I kept an eye on what I was doing.. after 45 mins on the ball I get the feeling of needing to push.. so I get rushed back into the bed.. the midwife checks me and I'm 10cm but here was a little problem with some cervix so I had to push down but for her to push my cervix back up.. it was so painful.. by 2pm I was ready to push.. they took the gas and air off of me and after that I felt every niggling pain I pushed for jus short of 1 hours when they realised baby was in distress and we both needed help.. so they called in more staff to help and I ended up having an incision and them putting wires to his head, the incision also help them put the suction cup on to his head.. at 15:08pm my babies head was out.. but they realised he was once again stuck.. so they moved me about and ended up pushing my knees upto my chin to help him.. at 15:12pm, the 16th December 2017, my baby boy Cooper-Jay was born.. I felt every single stitch whilst he laid on my chest but looking at his face made me feel amazing.. guys.. I can't stop crying with happiness.. my "little" guy weighs 9lb 6&1/2oz!! He's still really swollen, but I think he's beautiful..

Cooper-Jay Andrew Barber 💙