Birth Story - Lily Jade

When Jydan was about to turn 6 months I sent out a Breastfeeding Guest Post Call Out to celebrate and spent a couple of weeks sharing people breastfeeding posts until Jydan turned 6 months.

Jydan is about to ONE!

Until Jydan turns thirteen months I want to share birth stories, to celebrate his birthday!

Email me at harleymcocks@gmail.com if you want to guest post :)

You can read Jydan's birth story here:

Birth Story -Baby Jydan

This is one of my beautiful friends, Sarah, birth story of her first born, Lily Jade. So much love in this story!!

Lily Jade:

Well I made it to the other side. Lily Jade McCarthy was born on Monday 30th of August at 1:20am weighing a tiny 6 pound 7 ounces after a 22.5 hour labour! She is just perfect, there are no other words to describe her. She was 51.5cm and her head circumference 34cm.

So here is her story:

It all started Saturday 28th August at 8:30pm. Ross and I were sitting on the couch watching a move (Beatle Juice) and I had lower back pain. I hadn't had back pain for a long time so I knew something had to be up. I just could not get comfortable no matter how I sat or ever stood. We didn't end up going to bed until 11:00pm and we decided to try the deed to bring her on again. We went to go to sleep as it was 12am (Sunday 29th) but I was getting a few belly pains which I just put down to a tummy pain so I went to the toilet then back to bed, then the toilet again. I got three of these pains within the space of 30 minutes. But ended up going to sleep. I woke up at 3am with more stronger pains and so Ross and I layed in bed and timed them and they were 6 - 8 minutes apart and we both decided this had to be it. We went on for a little bit then I rang PAC (Pregnancy Assessment Center) and they said to make my way in and they would have a look to see what was going on.
We packed up the last minute hospital stuff in my bag and loaded the car up and made the journey in there. We took the car ride slow as we were in no rush. Each little bump we went over I really felt though. We parked at Market Place car park which is a 5 minute walk from the hospital and unloaded the car and made the walk up there. On the way I had a contraction so I just breathed through and took a break from walking. We met a guy on the way who was carrying a pillow and said his wife was in labour atm too. We got up to PAC and the lady to greet us was a midwife who my sister see's at the Health Care place. It was nice to see a familiar face. She set us up on a bed and got me to do a wee so she could test to make sure all was ok, and hooked me up to a CTG monitor which monitored Lily's heart beat and also my contractions. It was then we knew this was really happening. The contraction lines were up and down lots and bubby's heart beat was perfect. The midwife came back in and said she would do an internal to see how things were going. We found out I was 2cm's dilated already and we thought we would see our baby girl that day (Sunday). We were taken to delivery suite 4 and got comfy in there for the labour/birth. They hooked me up to the CTG for more monitoring. A doctor came in at about 10am to put a drip in my arm so that I could have penicillin every four hours as I had Strep B. The doctors name was Abdul. He tired to get it in and it didn't go in so tried again and still failed. It hurt so bloody much, contending with that and contractions was just horrible. The doctor said he would go get an anesthetist to try and get it in as my veins were "bad". The anesthetist came in and got it in with one go. It was in a horrible spot though near my wrist on the side. So when I would lean on the bed through a contraction it would hurt me.
After they put the drip in I kept labouring on and 3pm came along and they did an internal only to find I was only 3cm dilated so they decided to break my waters. They did it while I was having a contraction so it hurt a lot. There was soo much that came out, it was warm and gooey. I did a bolt to the toilet and put on their lovely hospital undies and pads. I walked around as my contractions got stronger and stronger, I couldn't bare it any longer without needing help. So the midwifes suggested trying the gas. I sucked on the gas as each contraction was coming and at first it felt like it was helping, but then after an hour of that I was feeling sick and dizzy from each suck. So I would try and breathe through the contractions myself rather than use the gas. The midwifes suggested trying a shower, so I stripped off in front of Ross and two midwifes, and jumped into the shower and still had the gas there to suck on. The shower was bliss for about two or three contractions then I just had to get out as I wasn't feeling comfortable anymore. So I got out and put on my nighty I bought for labouring in. I walked around some more and tried a heat pack on my belly which helped for a little while, but didn't do much in the end. They wanted to monitor me and bub again so I hopped onto the bed while they hooked me up. After a while of that I begged them for something else to help with the pain and the said Pethidine was the next option so I got that put into my cannula and about 10 minutes after that I begged and begged for the epidural as I really couldn't go on with the pain any longer. I did well to go the 14 hours without anything at all I reckon. The midwife went to tell the anesthetist to get ready to do an epidural in delivery room 4 and it would of been about 10 minutes and they were in setting up to do it. I remember saying sorry to everyone that I gave into an epidural. Sorry to Ross mostly because I knew how much he didn't want to have a needle going into my back. And I felt so gutless having it as I really didn't want it while I was pregnant, I wanted drug free all the way. So they gave me a local in the back which hurt, and told me to keep very still while they did the epidural. It was so hard to keep still while having contractions. It took about half an hour for the epidural to take effect and then I was in heaven I couldn't feel any pain what so ever. I could just move my legs and that was about it. They put a catheter in not long after the epidural as I wouldn't feel when I needed to go to the toilet. A while after the epidural was done I could start to feel pain in my right side, so they upped the dosage I was receiving but I could still feel it so they upped it to the highest amount they could give me which worked for a while. I remember Ross having a nap in the arm chair for a while and I also got a little bit of shut eye and rest until I woke with the pain there again. It ended up I had to put up with it. A midwife every now and again would get a block of ice and check to see where I could feel the coldness on my skin. The most time it wasn't until the ice block got to my belly button/ribs. As the time went on we had a few different midwifes as they were changing shifts. They put a drip in to try and quicken things up around 9pmish but it was only in for a while as they seen bub's heart rate was dropping as she wasn't liking it, so they took it out and it got to about 10pm and they decided to do another internal and found me to be fully dilated. They said when you have had an epidural they like to wait an hour before beginning the pushing stage just to make sure all is ready to go as I wasn't getting "that pushing urge" that most women get.
Once the hour was up it was around 11pm and I started pushing. The midwife would feel my belly to feel when a contraction was coming on and told me when to push. It felt like I wasn't even pushing at all, but I was. The midwife did two to three internals while I was pushing to see how bub was progressing. She wasn't getting very far down the birth canal with each push though. Before I knew 2 hours had passed by and I was still pushing. I would give two to three good pushes each contraction. The midwife went to get the doctor as they don't like to let people go 2 hours pushing without being seen by the doctor. The doctor suggested that we would need some help to get her out, meaning the vauntuse (suction cap on her head and pulling her out) the midwife asked if I could go another half an hour trying by myself before we got help as bub's heart beat was happy and I still had a lot of energy. So we went on how we were the midwife helping me and me pushing but it was getting really hard, I could really feel pain in my right hip and it was stopping me being able to push hard. So I said to the midwife cold we get the doctor back in and get some help. The doctor came in and put the suction cap on bubs head, and when she was ready I pushed and she pulled. Lily came out basically to her ears and the suction cap came off and her head slipped back in. The doctor put it back on and waited until I had another contraction, and we tried again but after about 10 seconds of pushing and pulling and trying to stretch me the doctor decided that I would need to be snipped to get Lily out. So they told Ross to look away and I remember begging them not to cut me, but they did. Lily came out with the next contraction with a bit of a push and pull. Her head came out and they told me to stop pushing for a second, then I went again and she was out. The feeling of relief and accomplishment swept over me, and she was handed up onto my belly. I could not believe she was finally here, on me, all slimy and slippery. After what seemed like forever (which was only a few seconds) she let out a huge cry and didn't stop until she found my booby. Ross got to cut her cord which they said wasn't very wide and she crawled up and found her food within about half an hour. There was two midwifes, a doctor, two pediatricians and Ross there at the moment she was born. The pediatricians were there because we had an assisted birth and sometimes things can go wrong with bub. But they didn't need to take her away at all, I got her all to myself. The midwife gave me the injection in my thigh to help with the placenta, and I didn't feel it at all! Not long after having her on my tummy I got the urge to throw up, and I did, sooo much I was afraid I was going to let Lily slip while I was throwing up but I didn't thank god. They delivered my placenta while Lily was having a little feed, and stitched me up, I felt nothing thank god. Ross got to have a hold of Lily and then they took her over to get properly checked out,weighed and dressed. We got left along to have a rest after that. Even Lily wanted a snooze.
As tired as we both were we were so excited and in love with our girl we found it hard to shut our eyes.
So a 22.5 hour labour, 2.5 hours pushing and we had a gorgeous baby girl all to ourselves. I do not regret anything about her birth, not even having the epidural. Her birth was perfect in every way, and I loved every minute of it. They are right when they say the pain is just a distant memory as soon as you get them onto your skin.

So there you have it. The birth of Lily Jade McCarthy as Ross and I remember it. (Hopefully we didn't miss out too many bits)

Sarah