a second birth story - part six

You can read all of the beautiful girl's birth story so far

by click on the birth story page.

My waters broke at home

but with meconium present.

I've arrived at the hospital with regular contractions

and have been booked in as high risk.

We were shown into a room

two doors down from the room that I had given birth to my little man in.

I rocked backwards and forwards on my feet holding onto the bed

to get myself through the contractions

while we waited for the midwife to arrive.

The contractions were really intensifying,

and doing so very quickly,

but were definitely still manageable through keeping moving

and concentrating on my breathing.

My husband rang my mum

basically to confirm that we would be staying in hospital

so she may as well get comfy at our house.

And as he came off the phone

our 'no-nonsense midwife' arrived.

Lynne came in, introduced herself and asked a bit about us.

She asked what had happened so far and how I was doing.

She didn't seem unfriendly but there wasn't any unnecessary chit chat.

I am a big fan of chit chat

but when I'm nervous I hate it,

so this suited me down to the ground.

She was matter of fact with us and explained to us again

that meconium in the waters might mean that the baby was unhappy

but that it could also mean nothing at all,

either way they would need to monitor the baby and me

and just see what happened for the time being.

She gave me a hospital gown to put on

and then asked my permission to do an internal exam.

Any woman who has ever been in labour will know

that as you go through the discomfort and pain of this examination,

that you are secretly hoping the entire time 

that they will finish and tell you that you're ten centimetres already.

The difference with the second baby is that you know your body a little better,

I knew that I was in nowhere near enough pain yet to be anywhere near ten centimetres

so when she told me I was 2cm I wasn't surprised.

I knew we still had a way to go yet

and I knew I needed to be as positive about that as possible in order not to lose the plot.

You can read the next part of the story here.