CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY
My husband and I woke to our alarm clock at 5:30am on Christmas Eve, 2009. I had a busy day in front of me. With 3 weeks until the due date of my first baby, I had only started maternity leave one week ago and I had managed to just about fit all of our Christmas Shopping into one week. Not easy to do when you’re eight months pregnant!
I dropped DH at work at 6:30am. As soon as the shops opened I raced to buy the Christmas groceries. The supermarket was packed! I waddled my trolley down the aisles trying not to forget anything. I joined the end of a long queue to the cashier and I was already tired! When I finally got to the front, the woman behind me helped load my groceries onto the counter. “Doesn’t look like you have long to go!” she exclaimed. “I’m due on the 10th of January,” I replied. “Three weeks to go!”
I arrived home with my car load of Christmas food, and raced back out again to visit my friend who had given birth to her daughter on the 22nd of December. I got to have a cuddle with her gorgeous girl! Her partner joked to me that there was still a possibility of me having a Christmas Day baby! “Don’t jinx me,” I said, “anytime after Boxing Day will be ok!” I was certain I wouldn’t have a Christmas baby. After all, they say that your first baby always comes late, and my body was giving no indication of going into spontaneous labour.
After visiting mum and baby, I headed to my workplace to join them for a buffet lunch and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. After spending a couple of hours there, I headed back over to DH’s work, where we all sat around chatting until about 8:30pm! We headed home, totally exhausted. DH had been drinking and was quite merry!
We got home and I got straight into the shower – how relaxing! DH kept himself busy by assembling the cot. “We really need to sort out the baby’s room,” I commented. The furniture was still jumbled in the middle of the nursery while we worked out where we wanted everything to go.
I reheated some left-overs for dinner and headed into the loungeroom to unwind. DH had just finished assembling the cot and we were quite content to sit and watch TV while chomping on our dinner. I stood up to take my plate to the kitchen when I felt wet all over my pants. I turned to DH and said, “Either I’ve just peed myself or...” He replied, “It can’t be your waters, it’s too early. You’ve probably just peed yourself!” There wasn’t a lot of fluid there so feeling rather embarrassed at having lost control of my bladder I agreed that’s probably what it was.
I put on a pad and waited to see what would happen. I wasn’t having any contractions, so my plan was to wait and see if I was still leaking. Half an hour later I was still leaking every time I moved, so I rang the hospital and the midwife told me to come in.
I waddled back into the lounge room to tell DH to get the car keys when it hit me that my hospital bags weren’t packed! I had a few things put aside that I wanted to pack, but none of it was packed. Foolishly I decided to take just my handbag, and I went to sit in the car while Paul locked the house up.
Because DH had been drinking, we decided that it was best for me to drive. While I was waiting for him to come through the front door, I felt a mild period pain feeling that went away after about 15 seconds. I thought, “was that a contraction?” DH came out minutes later and I reversed out of the driveway, when another period pain feeling came on... I knew that this was a contraction. And it was only minutes from the first one.
On the way to hospital we timed contractions and they were only 5 minutes apart. We were half way there and I was already having to breathe through some of them as they were getting painful and lasting about a minute each. I was terrified I was going to crash the car and DH kept saying, “are you ok, Babe? Are you ok?”
But we got to the hospital safely, thank God, The contractions were still 5 minutes apart but they were lasting 60 seconds each and becoming painful quickly.
We were escorted to the labour ward and I was ushered into a room where a midwife strapped electrodes to my belly to monitor the baby’s heart rate and measure contractions. The midwife confirmed that there was amniotic fluid on my pad and the electrodes showed that the pain I was feeling was indeed contractions! I asked her what the plan was now and she said, “Well it means you’re staying overnight and having a baby tomorrow!”
“No!” I exclaimed, thinking of my maternity bags that I hadn’t packed. I hadn’t even been fitted for a maternity bra. I was planning on getting a few in the post-Christmas sales! Coming up with any excuse I said, “I can’t stay overnight, it’s Christmas tomorrow and.. I.. I have to make a fruit salad!” DH laughed and the midwife looked at me slightly amused and chided, “Whether you like it or not, you’re baby has decided he or she would like to meet you!”
By the time I was moved into a bed in the maternity ward to get some sleep, DH was sober enough to drive himself home. I gave him a list of what to bring tomorrow and he kissed me goodbye.
The nurse gave me some temazepam, but the contractions which were now three minutes apart and lasting about 90 seconds each prevented me from sleeping properly anyway, so my night was spent mostly awake.
At 3am, I was moved back from the maternity ward to the labour ward for a shot of pethidine. She also checked to see how dilated I was. I was only 2.5cm! All that pain for only a few centimetres!
At around 5am, the midwife asked if I would like an epidural. I agreed and she went away to organise it for me. I called DH and blurted, “I’m in so much pain, I need you, you have to come to the hospital right now!” So he raced to the hospital.
The anaesthetist came in to give me the epidural. He was really good. He waited until the end of one contraction before inserting the tube and after it was in, I had one contraction and then... BLISS! NOTHING no pain at all! It was fantastic! Minutes later DH hurried into the room. I was just reclining on the bed having a good rest! He said, “Oh, so I could have had breakfast then?” I felt really bad!
My dear step-mum (DSM - my other birth partner) arrived shortly afterwards too. I spoke to my family and my best friend on the phone and everyone was so excited to hear that the baby was coming! Everyone was celebrating Christmas and the atmosphere made it feel as though everyone in the world was celebrating the birth of my baby!
Mid morning the epidural started to wear off so I went for a walk before the top up. DSM took me around the maternity ward and we stopped by the nursery to have a look. We headed back to the labour ward where my epidural was topped up. The midwife checked how dilated I was and I was 7cm. She predicted that the baby would come around dinner time and she called my doctor.
As dad and DSM were hosting Christmas Lunch, DSM decided to go home for a bit and see everyone, and DH was served a roast lunch by the hospital. I wasn’t allowed to eat anything, so I could only look on!
A little after lunch time my doctor examined me again and I was 10cm dilated with a bit of an anterior lip. He said I would probably be ready to push in half an hour, so we called DSM to make her way back to the hospital. 20 minutes later the epidural was wearing off and I felt like I needed to push, so the doctor examined me once more and I was fully dilated and the baby’s head was ‘right there’, so they gave me the go ahead to start pushing.
At first I wasn’t sure when to push because the epidural still had a little effect on me. But soon it had completely worn off and the pushing pains were excruciating! I was tiring quickly – having had little sleep since the previous morning.
By the time the baby’s head was crowning, it felt like every contraction when my doctor said, “ONE MORE PUSH AND SHE’S OUT” but I could swear he was saying that 10 contractions ago! DSM was fanning my face and encouraging me but I was screaming, “JUST GET THE FORCEPS AND PULL HER OUT!” So he said, “I’m just going to make a small cut to your perineum. It will be a lot easier for you to push her out” so I said “OK JUST DO IT!”
After the episotomy, at 2:22pm, in one more push Emilie Faith Dawn was born and I was totally exhausted! She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, she was put straight onto my belly and DH kissed me and said “well done, Babe!” I looked at her tiny fingers and gorgeous face. She opened her eyes and looked at me in the first few moments of her life. “Hello,” I whispered, “I’m your mummy!”
The doctor helped DH to cut the cord. I couldn’t believe I was finally a mum and my little princess was here on Christmas Day! I’m sorry to say to Santa that NOTHING he ever gave me for Christmas was as good as having my daughter, Emilie. What a great Christmas present!
♥ SAHM Mummy (28) ♥ FIFO Daddy (38) ♥ 
