6 weeks ago we welcomed our little baby girl into the world; as a way of remembering the experience I wanted to share our birth story on my blog.
Throughout the whole of my pregnancy I was extremely lucky; I hardly suffered with any morning sickness and my only complaint was swollen feet in the last trimester. I really did think that because I'd been so lucky throughout that I was destined to have a frustratingly long and painful birth.. but oh how wrong I was!
My due date of the 2nd September came and went with no signs of labour beginning and for the next week I patiently sat and caught up on Bake off, Netflix documentaries, cheesy rom-coms and daytime tv. I'd nested my heart out already so everything was ready in the nursery so I just took the time to relax.
On the 6th September I went to see my midwife for a sweep; something I'd been petrified about in the days running up to it.. but I kept telling myself that the quick slightly uncomfortable feeling I was likely to experience should be the least of my worries with the birth due to happen in the very near future.
As a result of the sweep my midwife found that I was in fact 2cms dilated and 100% effaced; she was pretty shocked that I'd not felt any contractions already. She confidently said to expect labour to start in the next 24 hours and that I was likely to experience my waters breaking- something that not all women actually experience contrary to what you see in the movies. I waddled out of the doctors surgery with a huge smile on my face and feeling rather pleased that my body had managed to get me to this point without putting me through any pain!
For the next 2 days I again rested up on the sofa, conscious of every twinge/ movement and hoping everything would begin before having to go in for another sweep the following week.
By Friday morning I'd given up hope of anything happening off the back of the sweep so decided to get myself showered and dressed in preparation to head off into town to do some shopping. As I stepped out of the shower I felt a gushing sensation... but, being over 9 months pregnant I couldn't work out whether it was just a bit of an accidental wee or whether my waters had actually just gone!
Just as a precaution we decided to head up to the hospital to be checked over; at this point I was convinced that I'd just pee'd myself to be honest so hadn't got my hopes up.
