Ciara’s birth story
Hi Elaine! A baby update for you while I have the chance. Sorry for the long message but hopefully it'll help someone. I loved hearing these updates in yoga and I just can't believe I'm here writing one myself.
We are both doing amazingly well and myself and Fionn are just so in love with her. Heading home today too.
As for the delivery! What an amazing experience. I had been getting lots of Braxton Hicks at night time and lightening crotch last week so I had an idea that my body was gearing up for this big event.
On Monday evening I was at home with Fionn and my parents, just about to have dinner and my Mum was telling us about her lovely labour and delivery on me and how her waters went spontaneously. Low and behold, within 1 minute of her saying this, my waters went in a movie like fashion on the couch!!! We all just laughed and laughed. The more I laughed, the more the waters flowed. I was not prepared for the volume! The only other "sign" I had that day was bad leg pains that felt throbby and heavy. I had also lost my plug during the week previous.
Contractions started almost straight away and Holles Street said to come straight in given my waters had gone. I did hop in the shower quickly to relax myself and to get in the zone. We spent most of the drive into hospital laughing and excited about what was ahead. At that stage the contractions were lasting about 30 seconds and were 1.5-2 minutes apart. But were very well managed with breathing. We were brought straight to delivery at 8.30pm where I was assessed and it was confirmed that baby had done a little poo, so we needed things to get going quickly ish. We spent 2 hours in early labour. I loved the stairs for this, breathing and stopping to break for contractions. The shower was also amazing. And the birthing stool! I didn't even have a chance to think about the tens machine or anything else. At that stage I was assessed and it was recommend to start on oxytocin as baby needed to come sooner rather than later with meconium in waters confirmed. I was happy to do this once I got the epidural first. For anyone concerned about the epidural, it's a walk in the park compared to contractions. The only "pain" is a sting of the numbing injection which lasted 10 seconds max. I was a different woman after this.
Babies heart rate played a few games early on in labour which made it look like a section was imminent but I really pushed for us to try whatever was needed to get baby here vaginally and safely. Of course if I needed a c-section I would have done anything. The midwives played around with the oxytocin doses at 15 minute intervals and at times turned it off to allow my body to react and work too. By 7am I was at 10cm and we allowed just over an hour to pass for baby to start making their way down. At 8.30am I started pushing. One thing I didn't expect with the epidural was to still feel lots of pressure... No pain, just really good pressure! This helped me to work with my body to push, as I knew exactly when I was contracting and I could feel when and where to push. I felt very in control of the situation and the midwives were absolutely incredible - respectful, always listening, always communicating with me and just so caring. It really felt like a full team effort.
At 9.40am on Tuesday morning we welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Cadhla, into the world at 40+5 days weighing 7lbs on the button... A little dot! And a Halloween baby. Also, never listen to those estimated birth weights!! They're so far off.
It was such an amazing experience and I am SO proud of my body and what it achieved. Recovery is going really well and we are all doing great.
Thanks so much for the beautiful yoga classes over the last few months. Now I need to get signed up for baby massage and yoga!! You might let me know how to go about this?
Thanks so much from Ciara in your Thursday 5.30pm yoga class 💕