Kayleigh & Baby Roman

I finished work on Friday 16th October, two days before my due date. On the Saturday morning I went to the gym as usual and did a tough workout which included 60 burpees. I’d continued doing burpees throughout the pregnancy, as well as lifting weights and pretty much everything I usually did pre pregnancy, but that day I got fanny daggers with every burpee which I’d not had before. An hour or so after I got home from the gym I started to get some pains like period type cramps but different, they came and went a bit but were mostly fairly constant and not particularly bad. I spent the afternoon having dinner at my dads and went to bed with the same pains kind of expecting things to kick off over night. However, nothing happened at all overnight and when I got up for the loo in the early hours I was a little disappointed. 

Sunday morning I got up out of bed at around 9am and almost immediately started getting the pains again. This time they were coming and going but were very mild and really far apart. I was a little bit excited as today was my due date but was also fully aware things could tail off again as they had done the day before. I spent the day pottering around the house, bouncing on my ball and just generally chilling out. At 2pm we were due to go to an Italian restaurant for dinner to celebrate our niece’s (socially distanced) baptism. We decided we would see how things were and decide whether we would go or not. I decided that although they were increasing a bit they weren’t that bad and I needed to eat and also figured it would take my mind off things. So I squeezed myself into a tight black maternity dress for the last time and off we went to the meal not telling anyone what was happening. By this point I was pretty certain these were contractions but it was still early days.
About an hour before we left the restaurant, after I’d eaten a 3 course meal, the contractions ramped up a bit and I was having to, discreetly, breathe through them. I started timing them on the Freya app and my husband noticed that things had changed so started trying to plan a way of leaving a bit early. I really wanted to pace up and down but stayed seated so as not to draw attention to what was happening. We eventually left at about 5.30pmbut the walk to the car across the road and the journey home was not very comfortable. There was a lot of pressure in my bum when sat in the car and I couldn’t wait to get home and make myself more comfortable. 
Once home I changed into more comfortable clothes and bounced on my ball until my husband took our 3 year old son Rocco up to bed and I phoned the midwife to give her a heads up that I was pretty sure I was in labour. I still didn’t want to get too excited! She said I sounded like I was coping well but that she would start getting her things together and head over but she wouldn’t hurry. 
When my husband had put Rocco to bed he came down and blew up the pool. Unfortunately Rocco heard it and came down so he knew what was happening. He was reluctant to go back to bed but did and only came down again briefly when the midwife (baby doctor) arrived at 8pm to say hello. He really wanted to see his brother be born but my husband made a deal with him that if it happened around 6am or after he’d wake him up and he could come down and watch. 
When the midwife arrived she listened in to baby and checked my BP. The whole time I was lying on the sofa my contractions completely stopped and I realised I needed to stay upright. I asked what we did next and she said she could examine me to see how far along I was or we could just wait a bit. I opted to wait so we all sat around drinking tea, eating chocolate biscuits and watching Friends. I soon realised that even sitting on my ball was slowing my contractions down so I stood up and found that standing or wandering about the lounge was the most comfortable. Whenever I had a contraction I lent over the coffee table and swayed my hips and breathed through it. We had done a Wise Hippo hypnobirthing course and it had completely changed my way of thinking about the contractions and rather than tensing against them I just went with them knowing that with each contraction it meant I was getting closer to meeting my baby. The course really helped change my mindset so although I didn’t use the scripts during the labour I was really relaxed and able to just breathe through each contraction, dare I say it, fairly easily. 
The whole time I never felt watched by the midwife. She listened into baby’s heartbeat a few times but she completely respected my birth plan and didn’t offer VEs or any pain relief as I has requested. I knew there was only 40 minutes of gas and air available so I was ‘saving’ it for when I really needed it. I had a TENs machine and paracetamol as options for early on but as it happens I never felt the need for any of it. 
I’ve no idea of the time but at some point after a trip to the toilet and commenting that I’d had three contractions in the few minutes I’d been gone the midwife decided it might be an idea to give the other midwife a heads up as she was about half an hour away. I asked if I could get in the pool so my husband started to fill it. I think I got in at about 10.30pm. My back had been feeling a lot of pressure and the warmth of the water really helped ease that. I tried kneeling and leaning over the side but wasn’t comfortable so tried to find another position. I ended up laying on my back with my arms on the edge of the pool. The second midwife arrived just after 11pm and at 11.15pm the first midwife commented that I only had 45 minutes left of my due date. It was at this point I realised my contractions had stalled in that position so there was no way I was going to be giving birth on my due date again. I tried to get into a more upright position so ended up kneeling leaning over the edge of the pool. At some point I felt a feeling in my stomach that reminded me of the feeling you get when you are going to be sick. I said I thought I was going to be sick so my husband gave me a bucket. Rather than being sick the feeling kind of forced downwards rather than upwards and I wondered if that was my body pushing. I waited for another one and then announced that I thought I was pushing but wasn’t sure. They all came over to the pool and the midwife assured me that yes I was indeed pushing. It was the strangest sensation as my body just took over and I had no control over it. Not something I ever experienced in my first birth despite pushing for an hour. I’m not sure how many pushes it took but I was soon told that his head was out. The midwife told me to push just to get his chin to come out but I couldn’t work out how to push as I hadn’t been doing it myself. Once his chin was out I then felt him turn which was amazing and then suddenly he was out. I reached down and pulled him up to me and the second midwife helped me unwrap him from his cord and I lifted him up to my chest! Baby Roman was born at 11.50pm making his due date by 10 minutes and weighing 7lb 6oz exactly like his big brother! 
I stayed in the pool for a few minutes but as I wanted to keep my placenta for encapsulation I got out to deliver it. We waited for the cord to stop pulsing and then the midwife was happy to use the cord tie I had bought. 
Placenta was delivered naturally, I was checked for any tears, there was a small one but I decided against stitches, had a wee and a shower, breastfed baby and was tucked up in my own bed by 3.30am. 
The midwives were amazing and completely respected all my preferences. It was the most perfect home birth and went exactly how I had hoped it would. I’m still on a bit of a high from it! 
Should also say, my husband was totally against a home birth until our home birth visit at 36 weeks where the midwife managed to put his mind at rest and the Hypnobirthing course helped too I think. On the day I could see he was loving it and I think he’d definitely recommend it now!
Rocco was really excited when he came into our bedroom in the morning to see his new baby brother but also gutted he had missed seeing the birth. Luckily my husband managed to film the actual birth so we have shown him that and he’s happy he has now seen his brother being born ❤️

Kayleigh x