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i’m not entirely sure when my “labour” started, but after the baby shower on saturday (19 january) at around 11.30pm i started getting cramps/contractions, as though i had dysmenorrhea. i wasn’t able to sleep at all that night and i also had my “bloody show”. i rang up the hospital to check whether this was normal, at first i thought i was bleeding but the midwife said that it sounded like it was the bloody show. she said not to go to the hospital and wait it out cos real labour might not come until a couple of days later.

on sunday i think i was able to sleep for only 5 minutes at a time. the contractions were bearable but uncomfortable enough to not make me sleep. i rang the hospital again on sunday morning cos i was still having contractions and the midwife said that it would be best for me to stay home cos if i’m not that dilated yet, i could just be sent home. she said that when the pain becomes unbearable, i should go to the hospital.

on sunday night the contractions got much more stronger, but still bearable as i am actually used to getting bad dysmenorrhea during my periods. the contractions got to a point though where i could hardly do anything else during the peaks except to wait until the contraction fades out. i started feeling a bit dizzy during the peaks so i told my mum that maybe it’s time for me to go to the hospital. i was expecting for us to be sent home because i thought maybe i’m not really experiencing real labour. at 2am on monday morning we drove to canberra hospital and went up to the delivery suite.

labour in the hospital

at first the midwife wasn’t quite sure that i was in active labour, cos apparently i looked way too calm but when she did an internal exam apparently i was almost 6-7cm dilated! so we got to stay in the delivery suite to wait until i was fully dilated. for pain relief i started with the gas, but it didn’t seem to have any effect on me, so after about an hour i asked for morphine. when the morphine kicked in i could still feel the discomfort of the contractions but they weren’t as painful anymore.

From Matthew’s fir…

at around 6am the morphine seemed to have stopped working, or probably the contractions were really really strong then cos i started feeling the pain again and even felt the urge to push. we buzzed for the midwife and told her that i felt like pushing already. again she was skeptic cos apparently i still looked way too calm (!) but when she did an internal exam my cervix was already 9.5cm dilated! so she told me to start pushing during the contractions and i think she may have manually made my cervix dilate to 10cm cos it was really painful when she was doing her thing

pushing bub out

i started pushing but it was frustrating because the contractions weren’t happening as often and as plenty as they should be to make the baby come out. i was already pushing for about an hour and a half before the midwife asked the doctor whether or not forceps or vacuum was needed. the doctor didn’t want to use any of those methods cos she thought that i could deliver the baby on my own. they put some sort of hormone in my drip to make the contractions more effective. after they put the hormone in matt came out in a span of five minutes! LOL all that trouble they should’ve just put it in straight away!

From Matthew’s fir…

i think out of all the painful stuff i had to go through, the most painful part was the last five minutes before matt came out. all the stretching (and tearing) of the perineum REALLY hurt. i think that is what will make me think twice about having a second baby in the near future lol i’m not ruling it out, but after all the pain i went through pre and post birthing, i’m not in a hurry to have another one!