After being sure I'd be overdue this time, I accepted a sweep from my midwife. On Friday 12th January, at 39+5 my lovely midwife popped over to our house. She did all of her regular checks, and performed the sweep - my very first despite this being my third pregnancy!
Baby girl was 3/5ths engaged and in prime position, but my cervix was still long and not really 'labour ready'. My midwife left with the intention of coming back on the Monday, sure that the sweep wasn't really going to do much. I had slight bleeding the rest of the day, but just as I thought, no labour signs.
Saturday 13th January arrived, and just as expected I was still pregnant. We decided to have a relaxed family day - snuggling on the sofa, a walk around a local NT property (followed by hot chocolates and cake of course), and I did the bedtime routine just in case. It was the perfect last day as a family of four.
That evening I noticed a few more cramps, and getting ready for bed around 10.30pm I noticed I had had my bloody show... something was happening! Slight back cramps soon followed, although as my waters hadn't broken I didn't think anything serious was happening.
I managed to doze in and out until around 4am, when I thought I'd starting timing my tightenings. From very early on they were around 5-6 minutes apart lasting around a minute. They were completely bearable though; I could breathe through them and once one passed I felt completely normal too. During this time I did go to the loo a couple of times as well (I think they officially call it a 'clear out').
As time passed I noticed the pains becoming increasingly more painful. Always in my back. Standing made them more intense. They were building in waves... These were definitely contractions! But still my waters hadn't gone, so I thought I had a looong way to go yet.
The whole night I let Jack sleep - why wake him when I was managing okay? But at 6am something felt different, and I thought it was time to let him know the situation. I told him to call his parents too, as they were having the littles while we were at hospital. He was completely calm, and didn't seem in a rush to get his parents over.
The time between this call and Lilah being born are all a bit of a blur. Things picked up SO fast, and it wasn't long before I was crying from the pain and begging Jack to call the hospital. He put the Tens machine on, but honestly it was probably waaay too late for it to have any effect. The contractions were basically on top of each other by now!
Finally Jack's parents (and my sister, who was my second birth partner) arrived, and we made our way to the hospital. Looking back I was definitely in the transition stage at this point. I refused to get in the car, cried saying goodbye to my big babies, and shouted how "I couldn't do this!" a number of times.
Thankfully they managed to get me in the car, and we made the short 5 minute journey to the hospital - where I had about 3 contractions - so you can imagine how intense things were by now. The pressure down below was building too, so baby girl wasn't far away.
I couldn't walk, so they got me on the bed and practically ran us down the corridor. It was on this journey that my waters finally broke too - such a strange experience, as they had always gone so much earlier in my previous labours.
Hanging over the bed, I had absolutely no idea who the midwife was delivering our baby girl. I was handed the gas and air, and immediately went into a world of my own. My body was in control, and it was pushing! And just a few minutes later, at 7.59am on the 14th January (my due date), our beautiful little Lilah was born.
Still in complete shock I turned around to see our littlest lady; Jack cut her cord, and we had a blissful hour of skin to skin. I was so pleased to only have a minimal 2nd degree tear, especially considering she weighed an impressive 9lbs 7oz of chunky perfection!
After a quick newborn check and no problems with me, we were discharged straight from the delivery ward. And we were home having snuggles by lunchtime.
It was the most perfect labour. But the speed and intensity of that last hour was something else... they say third labours are unpredictable, and they were't wrong! If I hadn't have got in the car when we did, there is no doubt I would have had the home birth we originally planned. Our beautiful baby girl wasn't hanging around!
Indiana's Assisted Birth {First Baby}
Parker's Water Birth {Second Baby}