4 minute read
Cottage Flowers Arrangement
Jaime Murland
As we arrived, so did my support crew and midwife. We went up and settled in the room. My midwife checked my progress and we were halfway there! She checked bubs heart rate and all was well. I wanted to stay as active as I could during labor and we decided to hit the stairs! I cheated for the first few, going down the stairs and taking the lift back up but decided it was probably better to go up the stairs too so up, down, up down we went countless times. My friend was on back duty every contraction (got to love a posterior labor) giving me great squeezes to counteract while I breathed and counted slowly to 20 knowing I’d reach the peak and that meant I could stay relaxed feeling the contraction ease off. I left the stairs as I was getting super hot and I went briefly out to the veranda and leant on the nice cool bar - the sense of cooling was amazing and just what I needed. Once I was cool enough we headed back to the room and I went back to sitting on the Swiss ball leaning on the bed, doing my slow figure eights. I asked for a muffin from Cravings Cafe down stairs so Rikar and Roman went to get me one. When they got back I no longer wanted it so it just sat beside me on the bed untouched, I figured I’d eat it later once baby was here. In my attempt to try different positions, I thought I’d give the bath a go to see if that would help the intensity of the contractions. It didn’t really and I got hot and needed flannels to help cool me down, oh how I loved those flannels! I couldn’t get comfortable in there with the shape of the bath not working for what I needed and it had also slowed my contractions down, so out I got back to my lovely swiss ball. I asked my midwife what other positions I could try to help things along and that’s when we remembered we could hang the wrap from the ceiling hook and I could use that so that’s exactly what we did. Standing was much more intense but I just kept counting and talking, my hand indicating one was coming by tapping whatever surface was near me and they needed to get to the back squeezes to counteract quickly. My midwife decided it had been long enough to check the progress again which I was keen for and we decided if I was far enough along she would break my waters for me. I was 9cm and she asked again if I’d like my waters broken. I said, “Yes! That means the baby will be here imminently! I am so ready to meet him!” Lying on my back during a contraction was incredibly uncomfortable and no one could give me my back squeezes! Pop! Waters have been broken. Yuss, please get me off my back before another contraction comes. But no, I could only roll onto my side before another came. It felt like a baby was coming out! I was determined to get off my side as soon as this contraction ended and when it eased off enough I quickly flipped up onto my knees, leaning against the bed head. Then another one came, they’re coming hard and fast and I’m trying my hardest not to push, therefore I was roaring and vocalising instead trying to distract myself from the pushing urge. Next thing I know, my midwife placed Bubba on the bed below me for me to grab him. While I’m trying to figure out how to move my leg to scoop bubba up everyone started to lean in to grab baby for me but I bet them to it and I scooped him up. He’s here! There’s nothing like that first hold and I breathed in that beautiful new bubba, quickly checked he was in fact a boy - yes, yes he is, phew. Once the placenta cord had stopped pulsing I decided I wanted to cut the cord this time around and gave it a go but man was it tough! I was using my non-dominant hand and it was too hard, so I said my friend could finish it off as she was an amazing help during labor and it was her first birth she had witnessed so I thought it would be a nice connection for her and us. We had organised a lovely muka tie so we got that out and my midwife tied that on. Everyone was keen to know his size as he looked gorgeously chub and we all stated our guesses and then he was weighed - 9lb 8oz, what a beauty! Everyone knew I was hoping for a chunky bubba, you can’t not love them glorious rolls. Caspian Wolf, born earth side on the 7th of December 2020 at 1:36pm.
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