Archie, born 16 June 2016

We are very happy to announce the birth of Archie on the 16.6.16 at 1145am.
Archie weighed an impressive 9 pound, was 55cm long and has a 36cm head!
He has settled into home life beautifully and is sleeping, eating and pooping like a champion.

Here are some of the details and learns I can share about my day.

Firstly, did it work??? Hells yes – thanks Melissa!

So I had my first contraction on 7pm Tuesday night and then had regular contractions from 130am- I got out of bed, watched a movie and sat on my fit ball.
Life was chilled and relaxed. At about 1030am my contractions were 3 in ten minutes but it wasn’t really hurting, I was using a few yoga positions, reading a book and not even up to the getting in the bath stage.
My first learn? Don’t be pressured to go in too early. I ended up caving to this pressure – but mainly as I hadn’t felt any kicks for the last 3 hours. I had become a bit paranoid about reduced fetal movement and had been in the week before for monitoring. Little did I know this would have an impact later on!

So we packed up slowly and made our way in around 11am.
When we got there of course they said I was nowhere near ready and they wanted to send me home- I did mention the reduced movement so they said to stay so they could monitor. Then they looked at my chart and noted I had come in previously for reduced movement- long story short- if you report it more than 3 times either to hospital, to your OB or your doctor the policy at GC hospital (and I am sure at most) is that they wont let you do a water birth as they need to monitor the baby. They were also pretty insistent about breaking the waters.

Luckily for us there was a misunderstanding and we only reported it twice- we had a great midwife that campaigned for us and we were able to convince them a) to stay and labor at hospital rather than go home – but not be induced b) they could let me in the pool after an hour of monitoring.
2nd Learn? Reporting reduced movement may result in what you can and can’t do on your birthing plan- however hospital policy is just that- you can campaign or ask for exemptions and bargain with them!

Luckily at 8pm my waters broke naturally and we were sent down to be monitored.

They let me in the pool at 10pm- and I tell you what by then it was the ONLY thing I could think about! I kept asking, when can i get in the pool, how much longer till i can get in the pool, why arent they running the pool, how long does it take the pool to fill up??

It was bliss- I floated around, listened to my playlist (take your own bluetooth speaker in), and was on another beautiful planet- they did a shift change and i didn’t even notice- Conan could have slept and I wouldn’t have cared (wish we had of known that poor thing was trying to stay awake in the dead of night in the most relaxing place ever!!). We had the lights on low and clary sage wafting around.
I thought he would just slide out and pop! We would have a baby!

Sadly by 5am nothing had happened.

Whilst our birth didn’t go completely to plan (Syntocinon, epidural and vacuum) – we were still very happy with the choices we made.

Would I recommend Hypnobirthing? Yes. Absolutely.

What was the pain like? Not any worse that bad period pain of upset stomach when in the pool.
Does the pool make a difference? Yes. A world of difference!

We’ve just dropped off homemade hampers to the midwife team at GC hospital ( yep thats how easy my baby is i have time to bake cookies!)
Without them believing in us we would have ended up with a c section for sure, been induced and not been allowed in the pool.

Fight for what you want- bargain with them- nothing is ever a firm no.
Dont ever be rushed into anything- many times we asked for time to make a decision- sometimes it was 3 min sometimes it was a few hours.

Its all worth it in the end.

I wish you all the very very best of luck in your birth- at the end of the day a successful birth is one where you and your baby are healthy.

Acupuncture worked for induction too, thanks Melissa!

Gemma x