Owen Tate finally decided to join the world, 10 days past his due date, on June 16, 2011 at 9:19 am. Weighing in at a massive 3.85 kg (8 lbs 8 oz) and 55.5 cm (22 in) long. I had my membranes swept 3 times, but to no avail! From about 40 weeks 4 days I was dilated 3 cm and 75% effaced.
I had been having braxton hicks contractions every night for about a week or two, so there were many times where I wondered if this was it. On the evening of June 14th, the contractions felt a bit crampy and were relatively consistent, coming every 10-12 mins for a few hours. I went to bed and woke up as usual in the morning, disappointed that those contractions never amounted to anything.
The next night on June 15th the same thing happened, but this time, shortly after I went to bed I had a feeling that this was going to be it for real and never really fell asleep. At around 11 pm, as I was laying in bed, the contractions really began to take off and I woke Mark up. We quickly organised for Mark's brother to come over and spend the night (he took Henry back to his house in the morning) and I finished packing my hospital bags.
Contractions were coming every 7-9 minutes with an occasional 5 minute every so often. I had a few cases of diarrhoea during this time too. I knew pretty early on that I wanted the epidural, so we decided to go to the hospital at around 2 am. When we got there I was disappointingly still only 3 cm dilated (I had been that dilated that much for about a week now). It was apparently very crowded that night and they didn't have any birth suites available, so I had to wait in the assessment unit for a couple of hours until one was free. Contractions majorly slowed down at this point, but were extremely painful and there was nothing we could do but wait. I also threw up while we were waiting and had more diarrhoea. It was especially gross because I had fish for dinner and I now had a fishy taste in my mouth.
At about 5 am I was finally moved to a birth suite. I was able to get the epidural at 5:45 am and was shockingly already 7 cm dilated! I couldn't believe it! Labour had been way easier this time than with Henry! The epidural was great and they broke my water at around 8 am because the epidural slowed everything down (still 7 cm at 8 am). Once they broke my water, the epidural started to wear off and I was starting to feel contractions again. Painful, but bearable.
I got the urge to push at around 8:30 am (felt like I had to do a number 2 really badly) and contractions were getting really painful. This was actually helpful because I knew when to push and could feel what I was doing. But, for some reason pushing was taking a really long time and they were getting worried that the baby was going to go into distress and I learned later that they were just about to do a vacuum birth when I finally was able to do a few good pushes and get him out. I ended up having to push for about 45 minutes and the part when his head was coming out was the most painful thing ever! I definitely felt what they call the "ring of fire."
It was the most amazing thing ever watching Owen come out of me. He was pink and crying and just perfect. APGAR scores of 9 at both 3 and 5 minutes. He began breastfeeding shortly after birth and has been a champion breastfeeder ever since. So far (at only 3 days old) he is quite sleepy and relaxed. Doesn't really cry much. I just got home from the hospital, so it's really too soon to tell how Henry will adjust to our new life, but so far I think he is fascinated with Owen.
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