New Baby Girl :)

Our little Emilia is almost a week old! She’s constantly eating and keeping us on our toes. I’m in such awe of this little miracle! Everyone has been so lovely, reaching out, asking how we’re doing…and the answer is the same probably for all of us, which is the best we can considering the circumstances.

Who ever thought we’d have Emilia during a pandemic, under lockdown, whilst homeschooling Evie at the same time? No one has been allowed to hold her, or to really share in our joy. 😞 My midwife said that babies are thriving right now, due to them not being separated from their Mums, lots of attention, skin-to-skin etc. But the flip side of that, is there’s no break. No external support, you can’t go anywhere, you can’t do anything. Sure there’s FaceTime and WhatsApp and we do loads of that, but I am really missing everyone!! I just really hope we’re not stuck in this for months, but with Emilia being so little we can’t really risk her catching anything.

The birth definitely did not go the way that I thought it would! It all started around 2am Sunday night/Monday morning. I woke up to some pain in my lower stomach, and the pain made me realise I was hungry so I got up to have a snack! I couldn’t go back to sleep until nearly 5, but I woke Elliott up to tell him that I thought things had finally started. I went back to sleep and eventually we woke up, called the hospital (who said to come in for a check) and called Evie’s Uncle so he could come up from Southampton to watch her.

Around midday I went to the hospital who said I was barely at 1cm dilated, and to go home.

So we did. And the contractions got stronger and stronger…I was doing my Hypno birthing and I was using my Tens machine, but this time around my contractions weren’t in my back, so the Tens machine really was just distracting me from my stomach contractions. Fast forward to around 11pm and I couldn’t take the pain anymore, it was really wearing me out and I was worried I wasn’t going to be able to manage it much longer. Also the contractions weren’t getting closer together, or any longer in duration, so I thought it best we go in.

And I’m so glad we did! When we got there they said baby’s heart rate was too fast and the made me start drinking loads of water…which really worked quickly to lower her heart. But then they checked me again and I was only 1cm dilated!? WHAT ON EARTH!? I was labouring for 12 hours at home and hadn’t progressed at all!? I told them I really wanted my water birth, but they decided that I was too high risk, that they can’t monitor the baby underwater, so my only choice was the delivery suite. I was fine about this, but it was difficult in the moment because I could hear in another bay, a woman who was at 5cm getting to go have a water birth 😞 But I knew I needed to care more about my baby’s health.

The midwife told me I could go back home, but I told her I needed pain relief, so they admitted us to a delivery room (yay!) and gave me some Pethidine (pain reliever) and an anti-emetic. Then I managed to sleep until around 4, when the contractions woke me up. They checked me again, but this time I was only at a 2! So they said they would break my waters and if that didn’t work they’d give me something to speed up the contractions. By this time I had thrown up, since the contractions were doing a number on my stomach…so they gave me some anti-nausea. Then broke my waters with something that apparently looked like a knitting needle! Eek! The waters were green, meaning baby had pooed in them, so they needed to work to get her out quickly.

And then it all started getting crazy!

They decided I needed to have a cannula put in, the midwife messed it up though and blood was going everywhere, then around 5:30/6 I told them I needed an epidural and they tried to tell me it would take awhile, and why don’t I have some gas and air instead? To see how it goes, but I told them I wanted my epidural! They gave me gas and air and gosh it really took the edge off for me, meanwhile I’m still using my Tens machine.

At 7am there was a midwife handover, as mine was leaving her shift. Apparently this is when the crazy kicked off. Something just went off in my head, PUSH. I started shouting “PUSH” and got up on all fours on top of the bed. Elliott says it didn’t matter how many cables and cords I was attached to! They brought my midwife back in and checked me, they said they couldn’t feel anything, and Elliott’s freaking out saying what do you mean!? They said I was at a 10 and ready to push! I went from a 2 to a 10 in about 30 minutes!! I remember them all laughing and Elliott being really shocked! So after a very short third stage, out popped Emilia, with no pain relief (other than gas and air)! They flopped her on top of me and she was absolutely gorgeous! And with hair! So weird 🙂

We are so thrilled to have her in our lives, and whilst I don’t want to wish her life away, I would love to just skip forward a few weeks, to when she’s smiling etc. This stage now I just feel like her servant!!