Louise's story - William
Baby was due on the 17th of June. On the 19th of June (my
birthday) at about 3pm, I had just hung up from speaking to my mum
when I felt like I had to go to the toilet. I felt like I
could not stop peeing! I called my partner (Geoff) who
declared my waters had broken. I didn't have any contractions
so proceeded to hang new curtains in the lounge, after texting my
mum and cousins to let them know Bubs was on his way.
My contractions started just after 6pm but Geoff had a wee chat
with Bubs as he wanted to watch the All Blacks play. At about
7pm we started timing the contractions between cheering on the
AB's. We called the midwife when the game finished (AB's were
victorious of course). Unfortunately for her she had been
delivering babies for the last 20 hours and told us that she was
just shooting home for a sleep and to call when the contractions
got worse. She didn't even get to leave the hospital as we
called her again at about 9.45pm. She told us to come in to
the hospital and she would meet us there.
That was the hardest car ride ever as we had to drop off a DVD
at the video store and I'm sure Geoff managed to hit every speed
hump into the car park! He raced over the Wainui hill and we
were at the hospital in about 10 minutes.
I was determined to have a natural birth so had a warm bath
which I wish could have been a little warmer and alternated between
the bed and using a Swiss ball on the floor to try and get into
comfortable positions. I felt the urge to push just before 12
but was determined not to have Bubs on my birthday. With
Geoff giving me time updates, William Terry arrived at 1.04am on
the 20th of June in a bit of a rush at the end - all 8 pounds 8 and
a half ounces of him! The worst part of the whole process was
the stitches I required at the end as I'm not a needle-lover.
The euphoria and endorphins definitely kicked in as we welcomed
Will to life. We called my mum to let her know that her first
grandchild had arrived safe and sound, as I walked to my room on
the other side of the maternity wing.
The weird thing is, we had always said we would use my dad's
name for Bubs middle name as he had died suddenly 2 years ago...the
weird part is dad died on the 20th of June 2002 at 12.30am, 2 years
and half an hour before our son arrived. Very spooky!
Hope this makes it on to your pages to let people know that
natural births can be relatively fast and fun.