Firstly if anyone is good at maths you will be able to work out that I am over 40 weeks pregnant.
So…
I would like to proudly introduce Darcy Ray
Hurley born on the 5th December at 8:17am weighing 8lbs 15oz
Words or dance moves cannot express how
much I love this baby girl!
Shall we talk labour…
It all started on the 4th
December and as far as we were concerned we were having a normal Friday. Baby
Daddy and I went and bought the Christmas tree, we tested out the baby carrier
using a Minnie Mouse cuddly toy, Baby Daddy went to work and I had a nap.
During my last bit of sleep for the next 72 hours (if I had known I would of
taken full advantage of the napping time) the phone rang which angrily woke me
up, after taking a good couple of minutes to get off the sofa as I was the size
of a whale I managed to get to the phone for it only to stop ringing. You
wouldn’t believe the anger I felt, 38.5 weeks pregnant the size of a whale and
finding it very hard to sleep to be woken up by the phone and not get it in
time grrrrr! At that point I felt my underwear get heavy with liquid as you can
imagine the first thought that went through my mind was “OMG I have wet
myself!” I felt my underwear but the liquid could only be described as water.
You watch the big movie blockbusters and
expect your waters breaking to be a scene from the movies; the water gushing
out of your body, you screaming in pain and obviously being in the most public
and inappropriate place possible. Where in fact mine was the opposite; I was
home on my own, felt no pain at all and lost barely any water this is why I was
no to sure on what had happened. The first thing I did was ring Baby Daddy and
explain that I thought my waters had broken he on the other hand thought I had
wet myself but was still heading home. I then rung the midwife and again
explained that I thought my waters had broke she was also unsure but asked us
to come in at 7pm for check-up, considering it was 4pm I was concerned what I
would do for 3 hours.
Baby Daddy got home and we both just sat
there wondering what was going on. We finally decided to put on a Christmas
movie and decorate the Christmas tree. I had already rung my parents to give
them a heads up that they might be going for a late night drive. After what
felt like forever and still feeling no pain we took a slow walk to the midwife
unit that thankfully was only a 25-minute walk for a pregnant person and 15
minutes for everyone else. After the check-up with the midwife she said that
she was 90% sure my waters had broken and booked me in for an induction the
following evening if I hadn’t gone into natural labor.
We were walking home when I got my first
contraction at 8:10am, it was a tight feeling in my lower abdomen very
bearable. By now my parents were on there way and my contractions were an hour
apart. At around about midnight my parents arrived and my contractions were 20
minutes apart and still very bearable they were still just period pain like.
We all decided to try and get some sleep but trying to sleep when you are in early stages of labor is practically impossible, for the one going through it Baby Daddy managed to fall asleep quite quickly, I just sat there.
Within an hour my contractions went from 20 minutes to 5 minutes to 3 minutes
apart but still very bearable pain. I rung the hospital and asked if I needed
to make my way in, as we are an hour away (the countryside has its
disadvantages) they told us to make our way in. I am very thankful that we left
when we did because as soon as we got in the car my contractions went to 2
minutes apart and became a lot more painful. I can’t remember most of that
journey as my eyes were shut breathing through the pain but I do remember that
it was incredibly windy and we had to make an emergency stop, as there was a
large branch in the road.
This is the point where my memory gets a
bit hazy as I do go onto inhale a lot of gas and air. When I got to the
hospital the lovely midwife Amanda checked me out and said that I was 4cm,
which means established labor Yay! Now the following is what Baby Daddy has
told me as gas and air is a bit like being drunk, it numbs pain but also strips
you of your memory. We got moved into the labor room and I got strapped to a
monitor that would check Baby H’s heartbeat and one that was marking my
contractions.
I couldn’t of gone through labor without
Baby Daddy and my mum by my side, on the left Baby Daddy was holding my hand
and supplying me with water as the gas and air and screaming was really making
my throat dry and on the right my mum was helping with my breathing and had her
hand on my head which I found really soothing. Without all these elements I
wouldn’t have got through labor with just gas and air and in 5.5 hours. I can
tell you that it hurt like nothing has ever hurt before in my life but I
couldn’t quite tell you how much because I honestly cannot remember how much,
which is strange I know. The part that hurt most was when she was coming out
because as you can imagine certain parts were being stretched like they have
never been stretched before.
I remember the midwife told me it was time to push and I really did feel the urge to push, after 35 minutes of pushing she
was out yet the next 3 minutes were the hardest 3 minutes in my life.
Darcy had the cord wrapped around her neck
she had also pooped and because of these she was in shock. The midwife had
pushed the emergency button and quicker than I could say go the room was filled
with at least 10 nurses, there were three surrounding Darcy I had new midwifes
looking after me, it just seemed everyone had a job to do. Like I said I can’t
really remember any of this, thankfully, all I do remember is wondering where
my baby was but also being exhausted. My mum and Baby Daddy said it was the
worst 3 minutes of their life as all they saw was Baby H come out blue in the
body and white in the face. There is a test that midwifes do on newborn babies,
which has a score out of 10, anything above 7 is good and Darcy scored 0 in her
first minute of life. After 3 minutes she was scoring 9, which is great. Even
though Darcy had a very hard start to life she was only in immediate danger and
thankfully had no long-term effects. I cannot thank those midwifes and nurses
enough for helping my baby girl in those crucial moments. During this time "supposedly" the midwifes removed my placenta and gave me 2 injections, none of this i remember.
They finally called Baby Daddy over to look
at her in the crib so we all knew that she was out of danger. Eventually they
put her in my arms and that was it I exploded with love for her and I knew at
that moment that I would never let her be in danger ever again. Here are a few photos of those first few hours.
Baby Mumma xx
