So I’m 37 weeks and we go to hospital for an ECV (External Cephalic Version) to get baby’s head down. After an uncomfortable hour he’s finally head down and thought we could relax. But no. The midwife told us that he isn’t comfortable in this position and will likely turn again before my due date. This of course devastated me because I knew the risk of having an ECV ending in a C-section was likely. She told us that if I want to go ahead with the water birth I have planned that I’d have to be induced within the week - I couldn’t believe it, yesterday I thought I had 3-5 weeks left of pregnancy and now I only have days! We got booked in for an evening induction on August 11th, 8pm.

Then the day came. Elliott’s mom and step-dad arrive at our house just after 7 and we make our way to the hospital which was so calm and very much unlike last time - no pains, no contractions. We arrived at the hospital and were immediately shown into a room with a pool, given my induction medication and the waiting game began.

Then the cramps started. I’m definitely in labour then. No going home without a baby now! They weren’t painful but I decided to get Elliott to time them using a contractions app on his phone. They were so regular coming every 4 minutes and lasting about a minute. By this point it was about 9.15pm.

The contractions kept coming and were more intense than earlier but still not painful and in between contractions it literally felt like nothing was going on and so for 4-5 minutes I was left wondering ‘is this actually labour?’ Or ‘am I going to get another contraction soon’ I think I was so convinced it would all just fizzle out.

Things stayed like this for a while and by midnight I was ready to get into the pool - it’s so relaxing and you just ride out the contractions with ease.

By 1am my contractions were coming thick and fast and were getting really painful to the point I had to be on all fours and really breathing through them. At 1.45am I had 3 contractions in the space of 10 minutes. It was like this for another 45 minutes before I was able to turn and sit in a more comfortable position

At this point they did and examination and I was 5cm dilated (honestly I thought I was a bit further on than 5). I started to get uncomfortable again so I switched back to kneeling and leaning on Elliott. It was the only position I could really get through the contractions in. I was offered gas and air but I wanted to practice hypnobirthing as I did with Clea and go as much as possible without medication, so I refused.

My contractions were getting stronger and much more painful and my knees were starting to hurt from kneeling in the pool for so long. We agreed that I’d get out of the pool again to see how much further along I was. I was 6cm. To me I didn’t feel like that was much progression.

At 3am the midwife suggested that she could break my waters to speed things along but I wanted to wait for them to go on their own, so it was back to waiting.

I carried on in the same position, kneeling on the floor and over Elliott and squeezing his hands at every contraction. At about 4.30am I was feeling so much pressure. My body was just telling me to start pushing despite all the pain. All of a sudden my waters just burst underneath me. I knew this meant the pain would get worse, it was already pretty bad.

I had to get out of the pool and have another examination, 9cm. Baby’s heartbeat was perfectly fine but my body was telling me to push at each contraction, I didn’t even take in what was going on around me. It wasn’t time to push yet but because of the pressure I was getting I had to get an injection down below and had an episiotomy (a cut) to allow for more room during delivery. I got back in the pool and was finally able to sit comfortably with Elliott right behind me.

Then at 5.50am I knew it was time. I could feel the need to push for real this time and I did, with every fibre of my being. Then baby’s head was out and I pushed even harder to deliver baby’s body, desperate for it all to be over. After 20 minutes of pushing (it was over an hour with Clea), he was here, baby was here. I had done it again on my own with no medication.

The midwife got him onto my chest and I just remember Elliott’s face when we both looked at our son for the first time. He was beaming. We both were, so happy. But our baby hadn’t cried and he was a bit grey. They took him away to rub him, dry him and give him some oxygen and from the corner of the room I heard this little cry for the first time. Beautiful.

While they were weighing him I still had to deliver the placenta. With Clea I had Placenta Accreta and it wasn’t a great experience to say the least. And with Fletcher it seemed the same. I felt everything while they tugged and tugged to get the placenta out of me. It was horrible. My baby was born but I couldn’t even enjoy him yet, I was still going through more and more pain. Eventually after what felt like forever I was all stitched up. Baby Fletcher was handed back to me for some skin to skin time and we were left on our own for a few hours to spend some time as a family. It was wonderful.

We spent about an hour or so just soaking him all in, staring and cooing over him before getting him dressed and making some phone calls to the family to inform them of Fletcher’s arrival. After 37 and a half of the longest shortest weeks ever our baby was finally here. Our baby boy Fletcher. Weighing 8lb 1oz and born on 12th August 2018 at 6.13am. Thank you all for your kind messages and phone calls since Sunday, life as a family of 4 is just glorious (for now!) and Clea is loving her baby brother, she’s so gentle and takes the big sister role very seriously! Our hearts are so full ❤️