Birth Stories > Nicole's Birth Story

Nicole's Birth Story of baby Isabella

Pre-Pregnancy

My husband and I had made a firm decision at the end of 2005 that we wanted to start our family, which saw us see a naturopath to get extra healthy, and me going off the pill. We had planned to go on our health kick for most of 2006, but in August we found ourselves pregnant much to our surprise, and joy. We had been using natural fertility management methods to avoid getting pregnant, but as my cycle was not regular, it caught us by surprise that month when I ovulated on time! I knew I was pregnant within a couple of days of my missed period, because I had been tracking my cycle so closely.

Pregnancy

The first trimester saw a bit of nausea (but no actual morning sickness), and a bit of tiredness. We told our family a week after we knew, because we needed to get used to the idea ourselves! They were ecstatic of course, being the first grandchild on both sides of the family. We started telling friends around 10 weeks, before the end of the first trimester, and I told work at 12 weeks.
I also started reading up about birth options as soon as I was pregnant, and became very keen on giving birth in a birth centre in a birthing pool as my first preference. I had decided very early on not to get an obstetrician but to go through the hospital’s birth centre directly – I ended up in shared care with my local GP, which worked well, and was convenient because she was located around the corner from home. I had also been advised to book into the birth centre early as it filled up quickly!
The second trimester felt great – I felt healthy and like I had lots of energy, and my bump was starting to show, so I could start talking about it with people. I also started to feel like being pregnant was a very natural state for me to be in at this point in my life – not a feeling of ‘I wish I’d done this earlier’, nor a ‘why am I doing this now?’, but a feeling of being happy to be having a baby. Quite a few people commented that I had that pregnant glow!
During the third trimester I started to be slowed by the size of my belly, making me a little more tired than usual, and less able to move in the same way! I continued to do karate up until 34 weeks, at a reduced level of course, and enjoyed keeping fit all that time. We also attended our birth and preparation classes with Julie Clarke as well as the calmbirth course at this time, both of which were invaluable. Although I had done some reading, the ante-natal classes gave a practical approach to labour and birth, as well as a friendly atmosphere to discuss issues in. The calmbirth class was also helpful, and with the cd and exercises in the book provided useful tools for late pregnancy, the labour and beyond.
I finished working at 36 weeks, and not a moment too soon – I realised how tired I had been at work once I had stopped working. All those snacks I’d been eating weren’t because I was eating for two, but because I needed energy boosts through the day to keep me going. Although I did organise a few last minute things during my time off, I also took the time to relax and rest, which had been the very good advice given to me by various people. I don’t know how people work longer, and up to their due date!

Labour and Birth

I had had a few signs that labour was coming – I had the bloody show 3 or 4 days earlier, and some pre or false labour the week before.
The labour itself started at about 12:30am on 14 May, when I felt a noticeable knock on my cervix, and a small leak of my waters. I rang the birth centre, who said it could be labour, but may not be, and told me to go to sleep (i.e. what was I doing up at that hour anyway!)
I’m not sure what time I started early labour during the night, probably soon after, but the contractions seemed far apart, so I managed to sleep in between them. I had had false labour contractions like this a week before, so wasn’t convinced myself that this was labour, which helped relax me. I practiced my breathing through these mild contractions (which just felt like intermittent period pain), and didn’t wake my husband to tell him, in case it wasn’t the real thing and he had to go to work the next day.
When he woke up after 7am I told him I had been feeling contractions and was still having them – we decided to time them and they were about 7 minutes apart, so it looked like the real thing. We rang the Birth Centre and they said if I could talk through them I was fine, and not to leave home until they were 5 minutes apart. So I stayed in bed a little while longer, then decided to lie on the rug in the living room – I seem to remember asking my husband to have some porridge with him, but by the time it was cooked I definitely was in no mood for it! I had some energy drink though, which helped my stamina through the morning. I then decided to jump in the shower, which was lovely, and found myself thinking after a while that I didn’t know how I was going to bear getting out. I asked my husband if we could go to the Birth Centre yet – so we decided to time some more contractions and they were 3 minutes apart! That was at about 10 o’clock, so we rang in again and told them we were on our way. My husband packed some last minute things, got the car out and helped me into it. He then drove ever so calmly to the hospital with me in the back seat – I felt every bump on a route that I had never noticed had bumps before!
We got to the hospital around 10:45am and slowly walked into the birth centre – as I walked to our room I requested that the midwife run the bath, which she promptly did, and when she checked I was 6cm dilated! So I got into the birth pool, my husband set up a few things and went and moved the car, and by the time he was back 15 minutes later I was already 10cm dilated and wanting to push!
So I guess I pushed for just over an hour – the pain was pretty full on, and I was rather vocal, but your mind is so in another space that time seems to go quickly. I remember at some point the midwife telling me she could see the head and I couldn’t believe it – I was having our baby! Soon after I could feel our baby’s head with my hand – it felt so soft, being covered in hair. I continued to push and our baby was born at 12:21pm. My husband said as soon as she was out she floated to the surface and the midwife handed her to me – I was on cloud nine! I held her for a minute or two before we checked for gender, and we were both overjoyed to have had a little girl! We knew straight away she was going to be Isabella! A few more minutes of family time, then my husband cut the cord and took Isabella from the bath, and I got out to get on the bed and birth the placenta – which was surprisingly firm unlike my expectations. Then Isabella and I cuddled a bit more, skin to skin, while my husband rang everyone to let them know we’d had a girl!
The midwives were wonderful during the birth, and because it was such a quick birth, they were with me almost the whole time –I had met Helen during one of my birth centre check-ups and Claire was a trainee midwife who helped out (and held my hand while my husband was moving the car!).

My mum was first to arrive – she’d got the message standing at Circular Quay station, so she came straight over, followed closely by my husband’s mum, dad and nan, who were already in the car on the way over when they got the call. My husband’s mum was speechless, apparently there was only screaming down the other end of the line when he told her we’d had a girl.

With everyone arrived, we went through the business of weighing, measuring and checking she was OK, and then everyone had a cuddle with our alert and calm little girl. My dad arrived a few hours later, after we’d moved to the post-natal ward.

Isabella didn’t breastfeed at first, it was nearly 24 hours before her first breastfeed, but she took to it after that. We stayed 2 nights on the post-natal ward, and once we’d got breastfeeding under wraps, we decided to head home.
The Birth Centre and the private room at the post-natal ward were more than adequate facilities, but I’m glad I brought the stuff I had read about on various ‘hospital bag’ lists. Particularly useful was the bag for my husband, including food, toiletries and a change of clothes, as well as my own favourite foods to supplement the hospital food. I’m also glad we brought the cameras, music and oil burner, which brought a homely touch to the stay.

The first few weeks

The drive home was pretty surreal – we were now a family, with a precious little cargo on the backseat!
We were on the early discharge program, which meant that a midwife came to visit our house each day for five days to check on our progress, which was really handy. On day 4 my milk came in, which was interesting, and not long after I started develop sore nipples, probably because Isabella couldn’t latch on properly to my big breasts! It took a few weeks for them to heal over, making breastfeeding rather painful, but everyone I talked to was encouraging, and let me know that if they weren’t getting worse, I was on the right track, and that they would get better eventually!
I did wonder how I’d cope with a new baby at home, not having dealt much with babies before, but it came naturally enough, and my husband seemed to know what he was doing, having helped with his younger brother Sam as he was growing up.
As for Isabella, she has been alert and keen to watch her parents from very early on – tracking our eyes and watching our faces.
I found the first two weeks I was on a natural high, tired but happy. However when my husband went back to work in the third week, the tiredness started to kick in, and I found the following 2 weeks rather difficult emotionally and physically.
I’m now in week 6, and I (and we) can’t imagine life without our beautiful little girl.

In Conclusion

Looking back I don’t know that I would have done much differently – the advice to learn as much as possible about breastfeeding beforehand was very good advice, and although I thought I stuck to this advice, I wish I’d learnt more!
The best pieces of advice I was given before having Isabella was to a) follow my instincts (in regards to Isabella), and b) to not fear the birth, which is the advice I would give to anyone about to have their first baby!