I've promised some of you that I would post the story of Mackenzie's birth. And so I shall. I've been a little remiss in doing this for a couple of reasons. 1) Who has the time with a newborn, a toddler and 1000 things to do around the house that should have been done before the baby came (i.e. get the second bedroom done) but alas were not...... not sure why - oh yes that's right, I was finishing my PhD!!! :) and secondly, the story is short. The entire labour and birth was speedy, and hence writing about it almost seems surreal, like did it actually happen? of course I only need to step into our bedroom and view this in her cot
to remind myself that indeed it did happen. And this is how it all came about......
'twas the afternoon before Christmas and all through the house, everyone was making lots of noise and vacuuming and playing loud music and squealing and it was really pissing me off!! :)
Like a cat about to birth her kittens, all I wanted to do was lie in a dark room and be left alone - which is exactly what I was doing. I had left Dave to deal with Charli and I was lying on our bed with the curtains shut, trying in vain to block out the noise and desperately just needing everyone to go away. This in itself really should have tipped me off that things were starting to happen, but they didn't. I just thought I was being grumpy :)
I was also getting some bad back cramps quite frequently but thought nothing of it - those of you who know me know that I had been getting quite bad practice contractions for the weeks leading up to this point, so as far as I was concerned this was just one more day of that fun! i was exhausted and kept falling asleep between these back pains - would get another one, wake up, it would ease and I would drift back off to sleep. Suddenly I was awoken by that feeling of 'oh my god I just wet myself, oh no hang on that would be my waters breaking!!' (note: time 2.30pm) ..... calmly I got up and headed for the bathroom. I ran into Dave on the way and suggested that we should discuss what to do with Charlotte as my waters had just broken. His eyes widened in disbelief and he headed for the phone to call his mum. Not wanting to talk to anyone I sequestered myself in the bedroom until Mother-in-Law had collected Charli. Dave told her if nothing eventuated we'd be back to pick her up that night - it was after all Christmas Eve..... we wanted our little girl close to us for Christmas morning.
Dave kept suggesting we call our midwife or head for the hospital but the pains I was getting were weird - nothing like I'd had with Charlotte and to be honest I was still not convinced I was actually in labour. They all sat low - just under my bump - and never radiated around my entire tummy like I knew that they should. Oh and the back ache - that just never went away by this time. We tried contacting our midwife on her mobile, at the hospital and by page but all went unanswered so we assumed she was occupied with another labour or some such and I finally decided that perhaps we should just throw the bags in the car and drive up to the birth centre and just 'see what was going on' - if she said I wasn't in labour then we could just head home and pick up Charli on the way.
Well, I'd say five minutes into the car trip and contractions were BITING..... I was facing backwards in the passenger seat as sitting normally was out of the question. Just as we pull up at the hospital my phone rings and its our midwife - I tell her we're downstairs and on our way up. Strangely my contractions are still all just under my bump and the back pain was quite strong by now....... yet I was still confused about whether this was 'it'.... after all, wasn't my entire stomach meant to be contracting?
3.41 - arrive in birth centre and get blood pressure taken and take prescribed antibiotics for my heart
Midwife goes to run spa but by now I know there will be no getting in the spa. This baby is on its way, despite none of the telltale all over tummy contractions happening. All I remember at this point is the amazing pressure in my bottom and my back (too much information?). This little girl was definitely sitting low and to the back and it was not nice!!
at 4.13 I get this amazing need to push and after hollering my way through it (I was definitely screaming my head off more during this labour - think of all those bad acting scenes you've ever seen with the woman screaming - that was me - I actually wanted myself to be quiet but just could not have kept my voice lowered if I'd tried).....I announced to hubby and midwife that it was my first push. My midwife commented "wow you don't muck around do you?" I may have smiled at that point, it's hard to know. The next contraction hit with such force it knocked the breath out of me - not good really seeing as IT NEVER STOPPED. This contraction went on for well over 2 minutes and I think I nearly yelled myself hoarse. I couldn't catch my breath and I remember thinking that it felt like this baby was coming out of my bum. Not a pretty picture I know, and my fairly extensive knowledge of biology meant that I knew it wasn't coming out of there, but holy moly...... ouch.
This second push was it........ the head crowned, I yelled for Dave to grab the camera, he got one shot squeezed off (I won't traumatise you by showing you that!!) and the little mite just fell right out. The relief was immeasurable. I reached down and picked her up and there's a photo of me holding her that depicts my pure relief/joy/ecstasy felt in that moment.
Some will say that I'm lucky to have such quick labours. And I won't deny that given the option of birthing this way and being in labour for 12 hours - well I'll take the 9 minutes of pushing thanks. But I would also like to point out that birthing fast has it's interesting points. Not the least of which is that it's all very surreal. In those few minutes after the birth, with Dave holding Mackenzie and I from behind, well we looked at her and I could see my bewilderment mirrored in Dave's eyes. We had our new daughter...... nine minutes of intense screaming and here she was. It was almost too fast. There was no time to pace around having contractions preparing yourself for what was about to happen. No time for Dave to lovingly stroke my hair and hold my hands while this baby slipped in and out of the birth canal. No time for any of that. She was just there suddenly. We came home that night - against medical advice of course!! - so that we could spend Christmas Eve at home in our own bed. And even hours later, Dave unable to sleep because he was so wired, me curled up in bed watching her sleep in the cot next to our bed - even then it all seemed like it couldn't possibly have happened. Our Christmas Eve present was born in a little under 2 hours.
That's the end of Mackenzie's birth story. But I must share with you the following photo - the Christmas Day present that we gave to Charlotte - her own little baby sister - well it outdid any of the other presents we or Santa gave her. The squeals of 'baby' that resulted on presentation of Mackenzie were priceless and will ring in my ears for many years to come.
I thank the universe each and every day for the two lovely little princesses that have blessed our lives and continue to do so every waking minute of my life.
