Okay so this birth was the complete polar opposite to what we had planned. I was thinking scented candles, a birthing pool, midwives trained in essential oils and massage with soft music playing in the background. What really happened though couldn’t be further from this.

 

On Monday night I took a break from trying to get her out and was instead relaxing on the sofa with my feet up when something funny happened to my tummy. We heard a loud popping sound and then my tummy went from being uncomfortably hard and solid to quite soft. I thought my waters had broken but when I stood up there was no liquid. I felt a bit funny, (the same mild cramps I had been getting for weeks) but could feel her moving so wasn’t worried. I stayed up a little while longer (till 11pm) and thought maybe tonight could be the night. Not strange though as I had been thinking this every night for the past 3 weeks.

I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow and slept through until 12.45 pm when I woke up in pain. I quickly realised I was in labour and decided to run a bath. I was only in it minutes when I realised things were happening quickly…too quickly for my liking. I shouted for Husband who was downstairs, he didn’t come straight away but after another contraction he was there. I told him I thought we needed to ring my Mum. We timed two contractions which were 2 minutes 30 seconds apart and lasting 30 seconds. We quickly called my Mum to come and look after the girls.

I got dressed as quickly and calmly as I could whilst having to keep stopping for contractions, then came downstairs where Husband helped me attach the tens machine. By this time I was in a lot of pain so whacked it up high. I couldn’t tell you if it was any good or not but it was all I had. We called the Birth Unit and told them we were on their way.

Husband made me get in the car so we were ready to leave as soon as my Mum arrived. I had 3 contractions in the car before screaming to my Husband that “we are not going to make it, the baby is coming NOW”!

As we have a brand new car Husband was pretty keen for me to get out of it. With husband dragging me a lot of help I managed to get out and cross the grass to get to the house. He didn’t quite believe me when I was telling him “I can’t walk any faster, she’s coming”.

It was just as I stepped back through the front door at approximately 1.45 am, my waters broke and my little girl arrived with them. I screamed to husband “she’s in my knickers!”. Where he promptly pulled my trousers down and caught her…..wow, what an entrance to this world!

I have to say my Husband was brilliant, he put her on my tummy, chucked me a towel to cover her in and called 999. Apparently there was blood everywhere and it was pouring out of me. He explained to them what had happened, was very calm considering and told them I was loosing a lot of blood. He followed their instructions and Mum arrived minutes afterwards, promtly followed by the ambulance.

The reason I lost so much blood was because the cord had been ripped from the placenta which I then didn’t go on to deliver. I was still losing blood and shaking terribly when they decided to take me to hospital. We left my Mum with the house looking like a murder scene…honestly it was that bad. Bless her she cleaned it all up whilst waiting for news on how we were. Thank you doesn’t cover it.

I ended up going into theatre to have the placenta removed and all in all lost a litre of blood, only just missing out on the need for a blood transfusion. Whilst in labour with my other girls it was me who thought I was dying, this time round it was apparently Husband who was worried I might be!

Eventually I was reunited with my Husband and baby for a short time before I had to go onto the ward and he had to go home. This was so not the birth we had planned.

I ended up having to stay in hospital until the following day which I was not happy about either but here she is. My beautiful baby girl Daisy Ella:

Welcome to the World gorgeous girl.

Nine days over due but when she decided she was ready, she didn’t hang around.

Karen x