Birth Story: Caspians Birth Story

My due date. The anticipation and excitement of the arrival of our baby. 9 months have gone by. I was busy helping at the Parent Centre’s Christmas party when I felt a mild squeeze around my tummy. Oh...is he going to arrive on his due date...or is he just teasing? I put my hands around my tummy and said with a smile, “I am busy today. Can you wait until tonight? That night I had just had dinner and was lying about on the couch after being on my feet all day. I tucked my 7 year old (at the time) into bed and then went to find my partner, Roman to have him take a photo of me and bump so I could do the very same post on my Facebook page that I did 7 years ago for my first son’s due date, all while secretly excited knowing I was having mild squeezes often. I decided to lay down and watch a TV show and get the contraction timer out just to see if they were regular - turns out they were! Because I had a fast birth with my first, I sent out the text to my birth support crew just giving them a heads up to what was happening. They continued to come and my mum lives over an hour away so I said she might want to head our way and that I would get the spare room ready for her in case it fizzled out or if it was a long night she would be able to get some sleep. I went and had a shower, shaved my legs, and had some time to myself thinking and relaxing. Mum arrived just before 11:30pm and I was buzzing with excitement - I get to meet my baby boy soon! I called my midwife to let her know things were regular and that when I went to the bathroom there was some bloody show, she said she would call in a couple hours to see how things were going. I then hung out with mum and continued to get frequent squeezes. We decided it was best to get some sleep while we could and all went off to bed. I didn’t really get much sleep, I was too excited! I dozed on and off, feeling the squeezes and tapping the start and stop button on my phone for contractions which continued to get longer, stronger and more frequent. Around 4am I gave up on sleep and sat on my swiss ball doing slow figure 8 movements and leaning against the bed, listening to the meditation link we were given at the antenatal classes. It was nice, the dim lighting of my salt lamp, the quiet of the middle of the night and just me and my baby, working together to meet each other. I decided at 6am I had itchy feet as I was so looking forward to heading to the birthing unit, I woke Roman up, said I wanted to see my midwife so I called her and organised to meet her at the birthing centre. I went and woke mum and my son Rikar and told them to get ready and that we were heading to the Birthing Centre. Rikar was dozing and snuggled up in his blanket and I don’t think he was quite awake enough to realise what we were doing, despite me excitedly saying, “your brother is coming, let’s go!” We got loaded into the car and we only got a few minutes down the road before the next contraction came, the first one while in the car - ooof, that wasn’t comfortable, let’s get to the Birthing Centre quick but also, don’t lose mum! Mum was in her car following us. Roman laughed and said he was surprised I hadn’t gone in the car with Mum as he knows I am not a fan of his driving!