My birth story!

Hi girls!

I’m back with another pregnancy related blog post and this time it's my birth story.

I never in a million years thought I would be sharing this with you all but to be completely honest, I love hearing other mothers stories and their experiences and in my opinion, the more you know about labour and giving birth and all the ins and outs of it, you can be that little bit more prepared or think you are anyways.

Going back to my first pregnancy and like any other first time mum, I was going in not knowing what to expect and even though I read & heard a lot of different stories, every pregnancy and birth experience is different & mine was pretty much straight forward. I was in labour for over 24hours, eventually was at 3 cm and got the epidural (yay), another 6 hours later I was ready to give birth and my beautiful baby Aidah was born with the assistance of a doctor and the vacuum. All went well and I was able to go home the next day & recovered in no time.

Second time around, they all said that everything happens really fast and boy, they did not lie. At 40 weeks and two days on the Wednesday morning I had my check up appointment at the hospital. I got the sweep, it was over in minutes and I was left feeling as uncomfortable as you can imagine but so ready to have this baby. I went home and a couple of hours later my contractions started. We arrived at the hospital at around 6 pm and it took about an hour to get checked out and in my surprise they said if I can handle the pain that I was able to go home.

Only after discussing it with my partner and experiencing contractions that were only a minute and a half apart, I said that there was no way I was going home. It only took me about 10 minutes to get a bed and when I got there my contractions were coming in hot and heavy and the very lovely midwife said that I should be going straight into the delivery room.

Everything was happening so fast and the only thing I can remember is that all I wanted was the epidural because comparing it to my first time, I never felt these type of contractions and I can’t even describe the pain, not to sound over dramatic but I thought i was going to die (lol).

The midwife that we got in the delivery room was the nicest, most caring midwife I ever came across and she got everything quickly ready for the big moment. I was finally getting my pain relief that I was asking for, only for the contractions and pressure was getting so bad that it never kicked in and I had to start pushing. They had to use the vacuum again just to assist me in getting the baby out quicker and had to perform an episiotomy. All sounds crazy but women are absolutely amazing in what their bodies can do. If someone else was telling me this story, I literally would think I would not be able to do that but in that moment, I was strong enough and ready to meet this little person that I spent 9 months growing and nurturing inside of me and nothing was going to stop me.

Andi & I minutes after she was born

When I think about it now and compare both of my experiences, I actually think that the second time around was that bit better because I felt everything and I was able to be in control of my own body It was short and sweet and we had another healthy beautiful baby girl weighing 7pound 4 oz born at 10 pm on 25th of April 2018.

Daddy holding Andi for the first time.

Andi Rose Giblin

This time it was all straight forward again and I was comfortably resting at home with my two girls the next day.

Recovery was probably a little bit slower this time round but saying that, I was feeling pretty good and two weeks postpartum I was back to my normal self and did not feel like I just had a baby.

I hope this post is not too scary for anyone that has no kids yet or is expecting their first. Trust me, no matter what you go through, it’s all absolutely worth it when you are holding your beautiful baby in yours arms and you would do it a thousand times over.

Last but not least I couldn't thank enough all the staff at UCHG maternity unit that night that looked after us, you always hear bad stories of staff at hospitals but the care I received was second to none. The midwifes, the doctors and everything in between was absolutely amazing and I am forever grateful to them for helping me bring my baby girl into the world.

Thank you for reading my story.

Love E x