The Birth of Jordan

All my pregnancy I had a feeling our baby would be born a little earlier than their EDD. I knew I had ovulated very early in the month babe was conceived, and at each of the dating scan + 12 week scan + 20 week scans, babe was measuring at least a week ‘ahead’.

That also meant we fell in the ‘big baby’ category which, when using the system, means more scans, and usually more intervention including early induction.

Fortunately we had the support of our private midwife and we were able to collect all the information to make informed decisions along the way.

Although I honestly did not feel like baby would be ‘big’, I was confident no matter what size or gestation our baby was born that my body and my baby would ‘know what to do’.  I opted out of any further growth scans and had to submit a Record of Understanding to the hospital confirming the informed decision I had made.

For the last month or so of pregnancy I was getting very exhausted and I ended up finishing work a week earlier (36 weeks according to EDD / 37 weeksish according to my calculations) than originally planned.

After the 2nd week of mat leave I was starting to wonder when babe would arrive, would I be waiting 4 more days or 4 more weeks? And wow - would I cope if it was that much longer (eg 4 weeks)? (given I’d been telling myself for so long that the birth would be earlier)

I didn’t really have any ‘symptoms’ of impending labour, though I had started to feel some inconsistent period type cramping during on some days which is similar to the last little while of my first pregnancy with Samuel - maybe I was a bit naive or blasé but it mainly just felt like discomfort due to baby’s position more than anything else (eg contractions).

I met with our midwife, Jannie on a Wednesday for our 37 week appt (37+4 days according to EDD) and didn’t have much to discuss really, everything was feeling normal. Babe had dropped slightly but nothing really notable. We made an appt for the following week on Wednesday.

The following Saturday night (38+1) I was woken up from a very specific dream at around 1.30am (so technically Sunday morning), it was a dream I will probably never forget - giant flying Hot Wheels cars. They were landing at an airport. I was amazed as they were the cars that Sam (our 3yo) had.

I woke up from the dream due to a period cramp feeling that was a bit stronger than anything previously. I felt my belly and was comforted to feel baby moving happily. I laid awake a little while and thought I might need to poop. I did have a thought pass over - ‘ooohhh could this be the start of something?’

I went to the toilet thinking maybe there might be a bit of a show but… nothing… and I didn’t end up pooping either! …Back to bed, oh well.

The next few hours I woke up a few times with more of the same cramping feeling but as it wasn’t really foreign to me (given i had been feeling those sensations on and off for weeks) I didn’t think too much of it and fortunately was able to go back to sleep each time.

We all (Sam, Chris and I) got up as normal around 5.30am on the Sunday morning. When I got up or moved it seemed to bring on the cramping again.

I took a photo of my bump not really realising it might be the last bump picture.

I went in to Chris who was playing with Sam and told him not to be alarmed but I’d been having these cramps for a few hours and maybe this was the start of something ?

Maybe baby would come this week?

Who knows?

Should we go out for breakfast in case it’s the last time as a family of 3?

Sam was keen to go out for brekky so off we went.

In the car I decided to start noting the times of each ‘cramp’. They were around 14 minutes apart at that time, just before 7am.

We had breakfast at a local cafe. I had a big ol’ bowl of porridge and a bacon and egg roll (well half the roll was all I could manage).

I’d been taking videos of Sam and the last video before we left the cafe was at 7:51am. By then the cramps were getting closer together - 6 minutes, 8 minutes, 5 minutes… I had been noting their times but didn’t pay attention to how frequent they were, so it did not occur to me that they were closer together than an hour previously.

We had made a plan the day before to visit chris’ mum on the Sunday but after breakfast I told Chris I needed to get home and didn’t want to be out of the house. 

(I probably should have realised then my mind subconsciously knew that maybe something was happening? Lol) 

…6So Chris took me home. 

When we got home, we felt like we could do with a few more towels (for our planned home birth) so I suggested to Chris to take Sam out to Kmart to get the towels and then visit his mum, that way Sam could be out for a bit and kill some time, and I could have some peace and quiet (again, maybe I should have realised that my intuition needed me to have space/quiet etc and that meant something - but I think at the time I just felt exhausted from pregnancy and didn’t want to try to parent a toddler right then). 

I asked Chris to be back by 11am ‘just in case’. They left not long before 9am. 

I quickly tidied some of the house (as I usually do the second Sam is out somewhere) but then decided I wanted to have a shower and wash my hair. By the time I managed to get in the shower the cramps were getting more intense. 

The last ‘cramp’ I had recorded was before the shower at 9:09 - I made a note that said ‘more like a contraction and longer than the previous’ and at that point they were around 3/4/5 minutes apart (however it was not until I wrote this recount of the birth story that I realised they were so close together lol). 

I messaged Chris at 9:13 to tell him I was getting in the shower and asked him to actually skip his visit to his mum and hurry home after they got what was needed at Kmart. 

I washed my hair amidst the cramps, it was tough - not sure if I really thought at that point they were contractions/surges? 

I got out and tried to get dressed and put the TENS machine (which I’d hired from Jess at Mothermoon Hypnobirthing) on myself which was actually really difficult (to get it on my back myself between the cramps). My waters hadn’t broken and I still hadn’t seen a show, so I put some disposable undies on just in case. 

I had grand plans to vacuum and put the slow cooker on but by the time I managed to get dressed and put the TENS on all I could manage was kneeling against the side of the lounge. 

I called our midwife, Jannie at 9:42am and let her know that the contractions were feeling very close together. I felt like I was maybe being a bit dramatic but wanted to give her the heads up. While I was talking to her, I had to breath through the contractions and I didn’t know it at the time but she timed them while we were on the phone and said she’d start getting ready to come over because they were lasting about 40-45 seconds and only about 2 mins apart 

I let Jannie know that Chris wasn’t home and I was home by myself, but he was due home with Sam any minute. We agreed to see if the surges would quieten down when Sam got home / would that take me out of my ‘labour brain’?

Chris and Sam got home at around 10am. Sam was his usual self and wanted mummy. Despite that, the surges just got more intense. I was still kneeling against the lounge. 

I asked Chris to call Jannie back and let her know that were getting more intense. Jannie said she would be on her way shortly, but she was about a 30 min drive away. 

Chris was madly trying to set the birth pool up, as well as keep Sam occupied and happy, as well as call Jannie when I needed. 

My mum was close by (my parents live next door) so Chris asked mum to help set up the pool. We had also asked Chris’ brother Jimmy to come over to hang out with Sam (Jimmy is Sam’s best friend) so he soon made it over too. 

I hadn’t really moved and was still on my knees leaning onto the lounge. It all progressed so quickly and at 10:09 I started to feel like the baby was moving down and would be born any moment. Chris called Jannie back and I asked her how I could slow the baby down?? Jannie suggested I put my elbows on the floor and my bum up higher and make use of gravity. I did this. 

Within a few minutes however the sensation got more intense - I could still feel the baby making its way down the birth canal - and we were back on the phone to Jannie. This time we stayed on the phone to her, she was still over 15 minutes away. 

While laying my head on the floor, I was inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my lips making a long noise. 

Our wonderful student midwife, Kyla, arrived too somewhere in there amongst the chaos and her presence from the moment she arrived was just what I needed especially given Jannie wasn’t there. 

I didn’t want to take my pants off and was doing short breaths (pants) during contractions to slow down the descent of the baby. I think I felt subconsciously that if I took my pants off it would give my brain reason to birth the baby. 

Jannie arrived at around 10.30. I asked if I could hop in the pool yet? Our tap was filling it up very slowly unfortunately, so Jannie let me know it was only about 8cms deep and nowhere near enough to get in. 

Jannie checked baby’s heart rate with the Doppler, the heart rate was a little lower than she would have liked so she suggested I move back to the position I was in originally and kneel against the lounge. She had also by then helped me get my pants off with the help of Kyla. 

Chris was keeping Sam quiet next to me (as Sam didn’t want to be elsewhere), while rubbing my back - Sam was watching Trash Truck on our TV (lol - no birth playlist for me). 

I was still using the TENS for support, along with 2 birth combs. 

The surges kept coming and by then with our support team around, I was able to let me body do its thing. My waters still hadn’t broken and soon enough the sac was born intact, ahead of baby’s crown. With another surge, baby’s head was born and the sac burst at the same time. 

After bursting, the sac ended up like a mask around baby’s face, Jannie was able to peel it down over the top of baby’s head so it didn’t prohibit any breathing should baby decide to try to take a breath. During these last few surges I found myself biting into one of the birth combs to get through them. 

It was only about a minute until the next surge; I breathed through it without any pushing and with that, our baby was born at 10:50am - not even 3 hours since we left the cafe. Jannie caught him and guided him to the floor between my knees, while untangling the cord from his neck. 

I saw he was a boy. A baby brother. 

Sam was a bit more interested in Trash Truck at that point (lol). 

We untangled the TENS cords and I took my top off so we could do skin to skin. The midwives made the lounge comfy for me to sit on and I sat there with our baby boy as he suckled on my boob. 

We were waiting for the placenta to be birthed; after a little while I got up and tried sitting on the toilet to encourage it out. That didn’t work so after a bit on the toilet I came back to the lounge. After a bit longer (by then it had been about an hour since baby was born) our 2nd midwife, Alex, suggested I get into a half lunge position and blow into an empty bottle. This helped a little and with a push I was able to birth the placenta.

Our little guy stayed connected to his placenta for around 2.5 hours before Chris cut the cord. Sam stood with Chris as he did this and watched eagerly.

I was then able to go have a shower and Chris had skin to skin with baby boy.

And I was finally able to cuddle Sam with no giant pregnant belly in the way. It was the best feeling ever.

Jannie and Kyla then measured baby - 3.99kgs, 53cm long and head circumference 35.5cm. A perfectly healthy baby born at the gestation he was meant to in the comfort of our own home.