We went in to Gold Coast Private Hospital on Sunday night, 11th April, for the third time, to check on reduced movements. He was doing well on the trace however, I had truly had enough of being pregnant and had already spent several weeks with early labour signs and barely being able to walk with the weight of this heffalump bubba I was carrying around!
I asked if we could break my waters and we were able to come back first thing in the morning for an AROM to get things moving along.
It was definitely the right decision, I couldn’t imagine how much bigger he would be if I kept waiting for spontaneous labour to establish!
We came in around 8am the next morning. After two attempts for the cannula to be inserted, my body went in to a bit of shock and I almost passed out. It was awful, I felt so sick and thought I was going to die.
Finally, I came around and we had an hour or so of a break just to let my body settle and have something to eat.
They broke waters around 9:30am and I started having relatively strong contractions straight away, about 10 min apart. Every contraction pushed a flood of fluid out. Huge amounts of fluid! Wow!
He already had meconium (he pooed inside the amniotic sac) and all the fluid was green. I laboured for maybe an hour in total.
10:45ish: Our little bub’s heartrate wasn't ideal and not giving any response to contractions for over an hour - a sign of distress - so it was decided to avoid trauma and potential resuscitation if we tried labour/vaginal birth, we would go with a c-section. Sad, but all in bubs best interest.
It was a really happy, calm experience from start to finish and everyone communicated with us so well. We were always informed, and everything was smooth going.
Once he arrived and went through his initial checks, his sugars were low, his temp was low but all in all, a very healthy, super-sized baby! My biggest bub of all four of my boys.
We spent 4 nights in hospital and have now been home for a little while, settling in. I am so grateful to my whole team for getting baby William here safely. My OB, Dr Suhad Hassan, and Judy and the team at Gold Coast Private Hospital for making every visit encouraging and empowering.
I managed to survive pregnancy once again - for the fourth time - and this one was definitely my most challenging. Recovery has also thrown me lots of bumps in the road, but it’s pretty much been one beautiful love bubble with William in my arms and I can’t wait to show him off every chance I get!