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Casey's Birth

This baby is our third child. Rogan, now 5 yrs old, was born by caesarian. He was in the footling breech position, and after 7 hours of labour (which started with spontaneous rupture of membranes at 37 1/2 weeks), we had been stuck at 6 cms for 4 hours and intervention was necessary. Kyle, now 2 1/2 yrs old, was an attempted homebirth but we ended up transferring in to hospital (only 7 minutes away) as his head was presenting on the side and he was starting to show signs of distress. A forceps delivery was performed 2 hrs after arriving at hospital.

My pregnancy with our third baby was heaps easier than the previous two pregnancies, I had virtually no morning sickness and kept fit with lots of walking. The due date was January 15th, but our two previous children had arrived at least 2 weeks early so we were rather worriedly contemplating having a Christmas baby! Luckily that didn't eventuate, and for the first time ever I actually managed to have some time off work before going into labour! (My husband is at home full-time, I take 3 - 4 months off when we have a baby). By New Years eve I had decided this baby obviously intended to go full-term, so we stayed up and saw the New Year in. We went to bed at 2 am, and at 4 am I woke feeling restless. I was having the odd Braxton Hicks contraction, nothing regular or painful or anything.

By 6 am I decided to wake Tony. As soon as I woke him the contractions suddenly settled to 3 minutes apart and started intensifying. Tony promptly decided to call the midwife, Margaret. I said there was no need yet as it would take all day, he made some excuse about wanting to get hold of her before she went out anywhere, and proceeded to get her out of bed at 6:15am on a holiday! I told her that it would be ages and we would ring her back, but Tony and her decided she should come around anyway. (Tony always seems to have a much better idea of when I am in labour than I do!) Tony rung his Mum at 6:30 am to say things were happening, she lives 4 1/2 hours away and it was intended that she would be at the birth. She was on the road by 7am, plenty of time. Tony also started assembling the portable birthing pool, which we intended to use for pain relief but not necessarily to birth in. It takes a good 30 minutes to assemble, if you're concentrating on the job, and then needs to be filled and heated which takes at least 3 hours. No problem, heaps of time.

Margaret arrived at 6:50 am. Poor Tony is trying to read instructions and assemble the pool, all while answering the door, greeting people (midwife, friend, another friend to care for 2 1/2 yr old), and leaping up every 3 minutes to help me through a contraction. I'm still walking around swearing it'll be all day. Margaret watches me carefully for a while, and then at 7:20 says 'I think I'll just have a little feel to see how it's going, if that's alright with you.'. This line we have heard before, with our 2 previous deliveries, and invariably I was stuck at 6 cms and Not Allowed to push. But this time it reveals I am a 'very stretchy 8 cms'! We forget the pool and invoke Plan B, our awful, short, shallow, bright blue bathtub. With it full, if I lay on my side I can just submerge my belly. I am lying there enjoying the feel of the cool side of the bath on my head, meanwhile everyone keeps offering me pillows or towels to rest on! All of a sudden I just have to push, I semi stand hanging onto the sides of the tub. With the first contraction the membranes rupture and the babies head crowns. I tell Tony 'That hurt', and he seems at a loss what to say so says something suitably nice and encouraging. Then the next contraction hits, and Boy does That Hurt. I say to Tony 'That REALLY hurt', and our midwife calmly says 'well, the head is out'! The baby opened his eyes and looked around. The next contraction arrives, and I think to myself, everyone says the head is the worst bit and body 'just slips out', so I give a good push, and I am highly indignant because the body hurts just as much (turns out he had his hands up by his shoulders). I turn over and lie back down, and my brand new son is placed on my tummy : 7:40 am! Casey is perfect, breathes straight away, just gives a couple of squawks and then settles down. He is coated in vernix, which soaks into his skin over the next day or so.

Ruth, who was watching our 2 1/2 yr old, brought him in immediately following the birth, just after I had laid back down and before the placenta was delivered. Kyle covered his eyes and peeked out between his fingers for 10 seconds, and then came over for a good look at his weird looking baby brother. Our 5 yr old was unfortuantely on the road returning home with Granma and missed the big event!

Unfortunately I bled a bit too much, so I received 2 jabs and the placenta was delivered smartly. My midwife gave me a shower lying down, the bath is a very convenient place to birth, and I only have to get to my bed. An hour later I had a BP of 80/30, but as my normal is often 90/60 this isn't too bad for me.

It is a glorious sunny day, they tucked me up in bed with a very content baby, and there I stay! Breastfeeding went fantastically, I didn't even get tender at all. Casey was, and still is, a very laid back, easy-going baby. Extremely happy and content.

Incidentally, Casey was slightly jaundiced, initially we assumed this was from being early (the others were too), but when the magical 2 weeks mark passed with no improvement we ran tests etc. The results were high, but as he was so happy and content and vigorously feeding and piling on the weight (he went from 7 pounds 6 ounces to 15 pounds 7 ounces in 12 weeks) our paediatrician felt it was just breastfeeding jaundice so there was no need to treat it. This type of jaundice doesn't do any harm, (this was been confirmed with a hearing test) and there was no need to discontinue breastfeeding. We have some rather spectacular photos of a very yellow baby!