Freya's Birth Story....

After carrying this baby for nine months I was so ready for the little one to make and appearance on her due date, as my due date came and went I cursed the people that said 'ooooh you gonna go early I can tell' yeah right!!! after several stretch and sweeps which did nothing but make me fear my midwife and her rubber gloves, gallons of rose leaf tea, curries  and nipple stimulation, 10 days after my due I was still pregnant!!

I was starting to think things would just not happen naturally and awaited my induction date with a mixture of excitement and pure dread!

Thankfully, 9am Thursday morning I started to get regular mild cramping in my lower abdomen and back they were 10-15 minutes apart, as I had no idea what contractions felt like it took me a while to realise this was the real deal!

This continued all day and into the night 3am Friday  morning the cramps turned in to full on contraction 6-8 minutes apart by Saturday morning 12am I went into labour and delivery to be accessed and I'd managed to get to 5cm dilated.  

I was booked in and went to labour ward. I was hoping for a water birth however all pools where taken so a dimmed relaxed environment was my next best thing. 

After 5 hours I was checked again by my midwife and was actually only 4cm dilated!!!! I hadn't slept for 2 days so decided to have diamorphine  just to get some rest as contractions where thick and fast! I loves that stuff! Got some much needed rest only to be faced with the fact that I still wasn't progressing and only 4cm dilated still!!

Ended up being put on hormone drip to bring on more contractions it worked bringing on 4 every 10 minutes that where very strong, tried gas and air and threw up!! had to have more diamorphine only to be told I'd still not dilated further (this was at 12pm Saturday)  they turned up the hormones which then gave me some crazy pains, so I had an epidural whilst having it inserted I threw up again this time like the exorcist as I projectile vomited green sick. They checked my cervix and I had not progressed baby was in an awkward position. So my birth plan went truly out the window.

I had to have a c-section as did about 6 other people so waited about 4 hours as I was low risk. 

I had a good cry over the loss of my magical natural labour where my baby would ascend from my vagina on a cloud surrounded unicorns! not ripped from my gut by some surgeon. Mr naturalbelle was a great help in telling me that I had done great and hadn't failed at giving birth! (after the section I would be told my frame would not have allowed for me to deliver vaginally as babies head was quite (very!) large!)

c section went without a hitch, besides feeling like someone is doing the washing up in your stomach! our surprise little girl Freya was born 17:18 weighing 9lbs 2oz 

So my labour didn't go as intended but overall I had a really the good experience, the staff at the Royal Berkshire hospital were amazing, and made the process really relaxed and at some points quite enjoyable.

Mr Naturalbelle was AMAZING, he did so well and was so positive and kept me going throughout the 3 days.

and now the real hard work begins.....