Ethan's Birth Story

Ethan’s Birth Story

The night before, I was giddy yet anxious. I was going to meet my son! I was up at 6.30 as we needed to be at the hospital for 8am. DH & I arrived and a lovely midwife came to take my Obs, I showed her my birth plan and She hooked me up to the CTG machine to monitor Lil Bean. He was happy as larry,  They then inserted the propess. I tried my hardest to relax and stay calm. My hubby was so proud of me. Once it was placed behind my cervix, They explained that it will remain in there for 24hrs to ripen my cervix & I was left to it.

Hubby & I just chilled while we waited, The midwives came in and out to monitor me & lil bean. The propess made my frou sore & I tried to walk around to help things along but a combination of my pelvic girdle pain & the effects of the propess made walking a nightmare.

By 3pm, I was having contraction every 5 minutes lasting 1 minute. At 6.30pm whilst laughing at a joke my hubby told, the floodgates opened. My waters broke. Boy oh boy there was tons of it. Now I knew why I had a huge bump. I just kept gushing. The propess dropped out. I was elated.

From that moment, the contractions intensified & I had my hubby massaging my back in a shape of an ‘8’ like we learnt at our NCT Class. Then I put my Tens Machine on. I was coping quite well on the whole and my breathing was in check, then as time went on I started to lose it.

I wanted pain relief, a midwife came to check my progress. To do that she needed to examine me vaginally, I insisted on Gas & Air. She reported that I was  2cm. I then used G&A to cope from then on & refused diamorphine because I didn’t want it transferring to lil bean. The next 2 hrs flew by & before I knew it I was 4cm & was transferred to the labour ward.

Once up there, I decided to have an epidural. I asked for one but the anaesthetist was in theatre but I was happy on the G&A so didn’t complain which the midwives were impressed by. They examined me & I was 6cm, the epidural was put in. I didn’t freak about the needle like I thought I would.

My blood pressure shot up extremely & they tried in vain to lower it but I’m pleased to say my blood sugar was normal throughout.

I was progressing nicely & enjoying the release from the intensity of the contractions. My labour playlist was playing & I was slipping in and out of sleep.

By 8am the next morning, I was fully dilated & ready to push. My friend Lou just started her shift & came to help me with the pushing stage, I could feel the contractions & we started to push. I pushed for about an hour with no progress, Lou couldn’t feel his head moving down. She asked the Obstetrician consultant to come and have a look, She arrived and felt around and discovered that my pelvis was kidney shaped & so was too small for Bean to get through & they needed to get us to theatre to deliver Bean.

The caesarean procedure itself felt like 10mins although we were in theatre for almost an hour. When Bean was lifted out of me and he let out his first cry the strength of the emotion we felt nearly floored us. Hubby & I were sobbing with joy. Bean aka Ethan was placed on my chest and I felt like we were complete. Sounds cliché but the bliss I felt is hard to explain in any other way.

Ethan Ebunoluwa Andrew had joined the clan. He was a healthy 8lb 10oz born on the 27^th April,2011 at 11.16am. I was a proper mummy to the scrummiest baby ever. My pregnancy journey was over and my motherhood one had begun.

Watch this space for the adventure continues in earnest!