On the 18th May, we went into Joondalup Hospital with the plan of getting a cervix softener (Cervadil) inserted that night and then being induced the next day. We arrived at the hospital at 6pm filled with excitement and nerves. We had to wait in our room for a couple of hours because they had 14 babies born that day. At 8pm we were taken to birth suite. They monitored me and bubs for about an hour because bubs heart rate kept elevating, they gave me 2 litres of fluid through an IV to help him. Once his heart rate regulated, they inserted the Cervadil. There was an increase in bub’s heart rate and a big dip in my heart rate and I had 6-7 contractions so at 10pm they removed the Cervadil. From then on I had    contractions coming regularly. I needed to go to the toilet twice and they gave me a pethidine shot in my hip to sedate me because they wanted me to sleep through it.

I tried to sleep but woke up with every contraction. At this point Ash was trying to sleep on the couch too and kept complaining about the beeping sound from my blood pressure monitor since they took it off. He even asked the midwife to make the beeping stop when she came back in. By 2am I was 5cm dilated and they had broken my waters for me. I got an epidural at 2:30am but the lady who did it wasn’t very good. Ash held my legs while it was being done and was freaking out as the lady struggled. My body was going into shock while I was getting it done: I was covered in sweat, shaking and felt like I was going to spew. The lady wouldn’t believe me that it wasn’t working and kept putting ice on my leg to test it but I kept being able to feel it. She even made me close my eyes as she tested it to make sure I wasn’t cheating.

Ash tried to play music to help me with the labour but I made him stop it straight away. Luckily the epidural kicked in just as our little Alfie was coming out. I went from 5cm to 10cm in one hour and was told to start pushing at 3am. By this time, the epidural still wasn’t working and I was still in agony and I turned over to the midwife and said “I don’t want to do this anymore”. They got a mirror to help me see the baby’s head when I pushed to encourage me to keep going and to prove it was happening. They also gave me gas and air to try and help me. I tried to breathe it in twice and didn’t notice any difference. I realised later that I was still breathing in my nose and out my mouth like the midwife had told me to at the start, so it was no wonder it made no difference.

Dr Isdale came in not long after and took control of the room. She removed the bottom half of the bed, put my legs in the stirrups and told me to keep pushing. Marion (midwife) was telling me when to push and Dr. Isdale said “You are going to have your baby in 3 minutes, I’m going to help him out with the vacuum because he’s not happy”. It turned out that the umbilical cord was around his neck. So before I knew it I was looking down and could see our baby’s whole head and Dr.Isdale pulling the cord back over his head. Dr. Isdale said “One more push and you will meet your baby”, so I pushed one more time and Dr.Isdale pulled with the vacuum attached to his head and I had a baby plopped on my belly. She had to give me an episiotomy to help him out and I had a second degree tear and a ‘papercut’ as well. Alfie was taken over to the table to be checked over and measured and Daddy got to hold Alfie while I was stitched up (it took 30mins and the doctor even ran out of thread).

The funny part of the whole experience was that I was in denial about being in labour the whole time. At my antenatal classes, they always said that contractions start right at the top of your belly and move down like a wave but I only felt intense pain in the bottom half of my belly. I was sure the whole time that it was just cramping from the Cervadil because the midwife told me that can happen. So I just wouldn’t believe that I was in labour or even having contractions. Ash wanted to time them about half way through but I kept saying “no, they’re not contractions”. So when a baby was put on my tummy and I heard him cry, I was just in shock and couldn’t believe it. It was an amazing experience and it was quite a blur to me. Ash was a great support and helped me the whole way through. He was amazing. We were so happy to finally meet our little man.