My birth story turned out better than I could've hoped. I was woken by my water breaking while at home in bed at 3am on Monday, July 1st. After waking James, I made my way to the bathroom and sat on the toilet while fluid continued leaking, followed soon after by my bloody show. The contractions came on quickly and strongly, about every 5 minutes and lasting 1-2 minutes. I made my way back to the bed and continued contracting while poor James ran around the house like a headless chicken throwing things in our hospital bag, feeding our dog and making sure we had everything we needed. He'd leave me for a few minutes and before he had a chance to do anything I was screaming for him to come back and help me through another contraction. By 5am my contractions had increased in intensity and were only 4 minutes apart so I called the hospital and was told to come in immediately. As I still had my cervical stitch in place, it was important to have that removed a.s.a.p. to prevent any complications with baby boy decending into the birth canal and for my labour to progress naturally.
James and I arrived at the hospital at around 5:30am and I was admitted to the birthing suite and examined. My OB was called in and within minutes had removed my cervical stitch, stating that my cervix was measuring 1cm. The stitch had prevented it from dilating but once removed it could open and dilate easily. My contractions became extremely painful so I moved to the shower and while seated, had my husband and mum massage my back and run warm water over me to help ease the pain. A little while later I felt a lot of pressure and was moved back to the bed for an examination that revealed my cervix had dilated to 7cm! My mum stayed by my side whispering words of encouragement as James made his way to the business end beside our Obstetrician, taking his place to assist in the delivery of our baby boy. Within an hour my cervix had dilated to 10cm, my legs were around my ears and I was being instructed by every man and his dog to PUSH!! It took around 6 good goes of it before we saw a crop of hair and the top of little man's head. By the next push his head was out! And after one final push and an obscene amount of excrutiating pain unlike anything I've ever felt in my entire life later, our beautiful baby boy Rhys Alexander was born. Delivered by my husband James and placed on my chest immediately for skin to skin. Words can't explain the overwhelming emotions that took over me as our eyes met for the first time. It was love at first sight!
Despite being so small and barely full term, Rhys didn't need any medical intervention and had no complications or health issues at all. James cut the cord and we both just stared at our perfect little man in amazement for quite some time before he was taken to be weighed and measured. Once he was all cleaned up I continued cuddling him while James played with the placenta. Our midwife Kellie was keen for a show and tell but I opted out and just watched from afar as James picked it up and put his fingers in places I'd rather not know about. We decided against keeping it (although I did enquire about the possibility of having it encapsulated - unfortunately not an option at our hospital). In hindsight I regret not taking it home and planting it in our garden as it was such a vital part of Rhys' life while he was in my womb.
After all the excitement of the labour and delivery, our family of three was taken to a private room at the hospital. Due to Rhys' small size and as my milk hadn't come in, a feeding tube was inserted into his little nose. For the first few days he was tube fed a combination of my colostrum (as much as I was able to thumb-express between feeds) and formula to help him gain weight. By day 5 Rhys had enough of the tube and pulled it out himself! But by that stage my milk had come in and I was able to transition him to the breast exclusively. It was such a relief but also a lot of pressure on me to be solely responsible for him gaining weight.
By day 8 we were told Rhys only needed to either maintain his weight within the next 24 hours or gain a little extra to be discharged so I made it my mission to make this happen. Unfortunately I think I put too much pressure on myself and ended up with no milk! As if this wasn't upsetting enough, Rhys got really upset when I wasn't able to feed him and ended up pooping and peeing everywhere during a nappy change. Then on top of that, he knocked his belly button stump off! By this stage I was a blubbering mess. I was so run down after not sleeping for the past week so against my wishes, the nurse from the hospital's special care nursery took Rhys for the night and fed him the milk I had expressed earlier that day so I could get some much needed rest. He was back on the boob the next morning and fed really well so I was hopeful he hadn't lost weight and we could go home. James arrived mid-morning and we anxiously wheeled Rhys in for his weigh-in. By some miracle, and despite the horror of a night we'd just endured, he had gained 10 grams and we were discharged!
We left the hospital on July 10th, 9 days after Rhys was born, and finally took our baby boy home. He's such a good eater (has such a strong latch and suck) and really only cries when he's hungry, naked or needs a nappy change. After being home for 2 days we returned to the hospital for a follow-up weigh-in and were so happy to hear Rhys had gained 70 grams! We must be doing something right.
It's hard to believe but baby Rhys is now 2 weeks old! He's growing and changing every day and we couldn't be happier to finally have him here. Being a parent is the most amazing, challenging, scary, rewarding job in the world but I wouldn't want it any other way.
