Liam's birth story

It started with my 41 week appointment at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon, the19th June. We talked about induction, she checked me to see if I was favourable and in doing so stretched me to 3cm dilated. She said its a 50/50 chance of going into labour after doing that, so we were hopeful. But she went ahead and booked us the earliest induction date which was Saturday the 22nd.

I woke up at 2 am on Thursday the 20th, went to the toilet and then went back to bed, and felt some pains.

I started looking at the time whenever I had a pain to see if they were regular, and noticed they were every 10 minutes quite consistantly. After a bit i woke up Matt (3am). I told him i thought i was in labour so he started timing the contractions with an app on his phone. Once they got to around 4-7mins apart, and were getting painful I tried getting in the shower and bouncing on my gym ball to manage the pain. At around 430-5am we rang the hospital, she said to try and wait another hour before coming in as she thought i would still have a while to go. We waited a bit, but by the time 530am came around I said to Matt we have to go now as they were getting very strong and painful and i didn't know how i was going to manage strapped into the car having a strong contraction every 4 minutes! It's around a 30 minute drive to hospital in reasonable traffic, and we were concerned that it was getting close to peak hour.

We got to the hospital just before 6am, took a little while before we got into room (I think they forgot about us!) and the midwife checked me. I was 4cm, so the midwife told me i was halfway there. This was at about 630am. I told her i think i needed the epidural as i didnt think i could do it without and i was worrying at this stage about sitting still to get it in as the contractions were very painful.

She said she would order it but unsure if i would get it soon as it was shift change time (around 7am). At that point i got a new midwife with shift change, Dimity.

The anesthesiologist got there very quickly luckily for me and was setting everything up very soon. It was agony to sit still through the contractions but i did very well and it all went in smoothly. At around 730am she started the first dose of epidural and i remember thinking it better start working soon!

Not long after this i started feeling intense pressure and had to push, which broke my waters. I didnt tell the midwife, but next contraction i wanted to push again and she asked me if i was pushing. I said yes, i hadn't wanted to tell her as i didn't want to be pushing yet because the epidural hadn't started working yet and i could feel everything. She checked me as she didn't want me pushing if i wasn't fully dialated. I was 10cm and ready to go at 745am, so i started pushing! I think i pushed twice and then the next push his head was out, and one more and the rest of him was out! At 7:59am Liam Alexander was born.

So completely different to his brother. I think that was the first thing I said when i saw him. 

I am having my post labour meal of milo and toast with jam! Its what I had with Cadell after not eating for 12 hours and was the best thing I have ever eaten, so I had to have it again after this labour. They don't call it labour for nothing, its hard work!

He was smaller than we thought at 3210grams, or 7 lb 1 oz. This was at 8 days overdue, so if he had arrived on his due date he would have been in the 6 lbs! Cadell was 8 lb 3 oz, so it was strange to have a little baby. He was long though, 51 cm. A perfectly round head, due to only being in the birth canal for a matter of minutes! Fortunately his head was a lot smaller than his brother's at 34 and 1/2 cm.

I was a lot more alert with this delivery than with Cadells as it wasn't as long, and also I wasn't drugged up. I was aware of them delivering the placenta, and doing injections etc. Liam was given straight to me when he was born and they didn't take him to weight him until a few hours later. He started feeding straight away and although the latch wasn't absolutely perfect he was mostly there, and we got feeding established in no time.

So tiny! He was very tightly curled up (obviously how he had been inside) and was difficult to get into the car seat! We ended up leaving hospital the same day he was born. He was born at 7:59am and we left at around 3pm. I didn't intend on leaving hospital the same day, but we were feeling so good and I was recovering a lot better that we thought it would be nice to get home to my own bed, and Cadell of course. I wanted to have the support of Matt over night as Cadells first night I was alone in the hospital and didnt get any sleep! Liam was quite mucousy also as he had not spent much time in the birth canal so we were watching him closely to make sure he was breathing ok.

Cadell meeting his little brother. He was so lovely meeting Liam, giving him a cuddle and kiss straight away and patting him like he does the dogs. He immediately knew when we were saying 'Here's the baby' that this is the baby that was in mummy's tummy, as he pointed to my tummy and was looking at Liam.

Being a family of four was difficult in these early days, but we are settling into a routine now and loving every second with our boys.