This is well and truly overdue, but, better late than never!

Bilby was very eagerly awaited! Every time Puggle woke up from a nap or a sleep he’d ask ‘Baby brother or baby sister?’, and of course I had been thinking I was on the verge of labour for weeks now! When asked, Puggle would say that he thought Bilby was coming on ‘Monday or Tuesday’ (mind you, this is his answer for almost anything related to time:-) )

He was right about the Monday bit:-)

I woke at about 2 am with the first contraction I couldn’t sleep through. I was due to go to the loo (I was pregnant after all!) so I got up and wandered out. Back to bed, sleep and another couple of contractions. They seemed to be about 15 minutes apart. By 3 I was fairly sure that this was real (that’s about the time Paddington came to bed, having just sent an email to work saying that he guessed he’d be in the next day:-) ). About 4 I decided that I couldn’t continue to sleep and this roused Paddington. He got the phone and we called the birth centre to give them a heads up, and then my parents to get them to collect Puggle (we weren’t sure how quickly things would progress, as it turns out we could have left it a couple of hours, but it was definitely easier not to have to consider him further!). They arrived a little later and we passed Puggle on to them (he was so excited! I worried he might not go back to sleep, but apparently he did:-) )

Then it was a matter of waiting… I pottered around, getting the last minute things together and just pausing every now and then. We used the contraction timer that someone posted on my mother’s list:-) Paddington lay down for a couple of hours nap on the couch… things were just plodding along, and I was doing fine—and I didn’t want him falling asleep later when I actually needed him! And then about 6.30 I decided that I might be able to doze. The contractions were somewhat regular, although they alternated between real doozies and somewhat milder ones.

I managed to doze between contractions for about an hour and a half, conscious that they were becoming more intense. About 8am I decided that I didn’t think I’d last much longer at home. We timed a couple (I’d stopped while napping) and they were about 5 minutes apart, lasting between 90 and 120 seconds. So we rang the birth centre, loaded up, and headed out.

We arrived about 9am. I perched by the edge of the bed, on the birth ball and went through things with the midwife. (She had taken one of the two classes we did, and we found her good value. I didn’t end up having any appointments with her, but we thought we’d be happy if she ended up attending the delivery.) She went off to make sure that the bath was cleaned (there’s only one in the centre, and it had just been vacated) and refilled for me. Before long I moved into the shower. It was a great relief:-)

After a while though, I began to feel that I couldn’t keep going, that I wanted drugs, I wanted the baby cut out, it was too hard (although, I hadn’t quite reached the point of saying so:-) )… this was the point that the midwife came back to say the bath was ready:-) Paddington reminded me that I had wanted to use the bath… and I figured that I probably should or I would end up regretting it:-)

I made my way across the hallway and had another contraction on the side of the bath. I got in, and it was fabulous! I had another contraction, and the midwife asked if I’d had any urge to push. I told her that I’d had a little bit with each contraction, but nothing to speak of. Then the next contraction hit and I had to push! She told me that if I didn’t want the baby to be born in the water, I’d better get out… she then went to get the trolley.

(Technically, the birth centre doesn’t do water births. We had been told that they do happen on occasion, mostly because people can’t get out in time. I had hoped that I’d be able to have one, but given that the only place in Perth where you can have them is with a home birth, I was not expecting to.)

Perhaps if I hadn’t been hoping for a water birth, I might have been able to summon the energy to get out, but as it was, I certainly couldn’t! When the midwife returned, she told me I’d need to turn myself so as to be sure that the baby was born properly under the water.

I have no real idea of the passage of time. It certainly wasn’t as long as with Puggle. I was on my side, near the edge of the bath (it was kind of an awkward size, it was difficult for me to find a spot where I could brace my feet, so I wasn’t quite as comfortable as I might have been). I pushed a number of times (I have no idea how many). At one point Wendy suggested I put my hand down to feel the baby’s head. (One of the many things about the birth centre that I appreciated was that the midwives made suggestions, but I didn’t feel the force of them as instructions, just as suggestions. I was free to follow if I chose, at my own pace.) Another contraction or two later, I did. I found it very comforting to be able to ‘push her back in’ (not that I knew she was a she at that stage!) each time that I felt I wasn’t ready to push her head out. I felt so much more in control of things than with Puggle.

Eventually, I managed to push the head out, a pause, and then the rest came. Delivery was at 10.32am, after between 4 1/2 and 8 1/2 hours (depending on how you count it). Bilby was put up on my chest, and I felt the cord still pulsing… We let the water out so that the placenta wouldn’t come into the filled bath. Paddington looked to see what she was—he was reasonably certain she was a girl, although it was an awkward angle with her up against my chest. Within about 10 minutes she had rooted around and with minimal assistance, attached, and was nursing.

I had said I was happy to have an injection of oxytocin to deliver the placenta, but as the rest of the delivery had proceeded quite relaxedly and naturally, the midwife suggested that we could delay the injection and see how the third stage progressed. Before long the placenta was delivered, and then the cord clamped and cut. The midwife took the opportunity as she was inspecting the placenta on the side of the bath to show it to us… very cool!

Eventually, Paddington took Bilby, and the midwife helped me out of the bath, helped me wrap up, then we all moved back to the room. I hopped into bed, Paddington returned Bilby to me, she re-attached, and we rested. Paddington sat with us, and rang our parents to tell them. Some time later, the midwife returned to weigh (3560 grams), measure (50 cms, head circumference 34 cms) and check Bilby over. Then me. No tears, just some grazing:-) Bilby had been nursing for a long time by then:-) And it didn’t hurt!

Then we were left to ourselves again:-) I took the opportunity for a shower, then returned to bed. We all napped for a while:-)

This delivery was so peaceful and relaxed. I’m not saying it wasn’t hard work and painful, just that I felt in control of what was happening, and that it was all occurring as it should.

Nursing continued well. We stayed over night and just needed to be seen by the paediatrician. She arrived and checked Bilby over. She had difficulty finding a femoral pulse as Bilby got very distressed when her nappy was removed… so then we had to wait for her to return a couple of hours later. She arrived just after lunch, found the pulse and then we left. I felt good enough to drive home (just as well, with the baby seat in place, the driver’s seat has to be further forward than Paddington finds comfortable!)

Breastfeeding started to get a little uncomfortable, and I had some blood (discharge or graze, I’m not actually sure which) just before the midwife visited. So when she asked how it was going, she suggested booking me in to see the LC at the breastfeeding centre. (I had a month of agony when I was starting to nurse Puggle, so I was very keen to avoid the same thing this time around.) I got an appointment for the next day. The appointment went well. I made a follow up appointment for the next week just in case. But by the time Tuesday arrived, I rang up and cancelled, nursing has continued to progress well. I can’t get over how comfortable it is! I think with Puggle it never got past a certain level of discomfort, rather than reaching comfort… I wonder how much is due to the fact that everything has been so much more relaxed.