Contractions and the initial signs
Logans birth story starts on the Monday at exactly 41 weeks pregnant and just after I had had the stretch and sweep. Later that same evening, around 7pm, after lots of cramping and aches and pains, I began to start feeling contractions that were ten minutes apart from each other. Because I'd had back labor with my first, Ethan, I'd felt all my contractions in my lower back and had felt nothing at all in my stomach. I wasn't sure if this time around I might feel them in my stomach and so I wasn't quite sure what to expect - I was worried that if I did have stomach contractions I might not have recognised the pain as contractions. But it really is just like they say it is - when contractions come on for real - there really is no mistaking them! Plus, my little monkey decided to be just like his big brother and went back to back also!
After putting Ethan to bed, Adam and I got into bed and began to time the contractions which were getting closer and closer together - they were around six minutes apart at one point. We were sitting and watching an episode of the TV show Humans (What a great show!) and I had to keep pausing it every time a contraction came on. It got to around midnight and the contractions had begun to get further and further apart, I fell asleep (with my make up on) and woke around 3am feeling a similar pain and then again at 4am, but both times I fell back to sleep. At 5am I woke again and by then the pain was a great deal more intense. The contractions had returned, but this time a lot faster and meaner than the previous - they were now just five minutes apart. I knew at that point with how intense they felt and how close together they were that it was the right time to begin making my way to the hospital. We live thirty minutes away from the hospital that I gave birth at and Adam and I had to both get up, get dressed and then get Ethan up and dressed, and then we needed to drop Ethan off at his Grandmas, so everything from that point until we got to the hospital was rather rushed to say the least! After getting Ethan up, we literally flew out of the door. I was in a lot of pain in the car, so much so that I wasn't able to time the contractions any longer.
At the hospital
After dropping Ethan off and arriving at the hospital, we found ourselves in maternity triage. The midwives on at the time were just about to finish their shifts and so were handing over to the staff coming on. It felt like we were in triage forever and the pain by then was far more intense and I desperately wanted some sort of pain relief. Everything starts to become a little more blurry around this time, I think that that's what pain does to you though - you sort of start to zone out as the pain takes over. I think I was requesting the epidural at this point, but they couldn't do anything until I was out of triage and onto the labor ward. When they did get around to moving me, I was in so much pain that I couldn't even roll myself off of the bed - so the midwives helped lift me between the two beds.
My contractions at this point were literally out-of-this-world (even with the gas and air!). I don't mean to scare anyone that hasn't ever given birth before or anyone who is expecting soon, but I can't describe it any other way - the pain was absolutely horrendous and I screamed louder and for longer than I even realised that I could. I really do think that all births differ though and I've heard that back labor (when the baby is back to back) is generally more painful than when the baby isn't back to back. When I went in to have Ethan, who was back to back, I was told by the midwife at the time that an epidural would be one of the only forms of pain relief that would work for that type of labor pain. I requested the epidural with Ethan and it was fantastic, apart from how I believe it made me feel afterwards. But though I was screaming and screaming for it when in labor with Logan, it just wasn't happening. I didn't understand at the time why and I thought that were purposely putting it off and not helping me - it was making me so frustrated (pain, plus gas and air makes you go a little crazy sometimes!), but I found out later that there were no anaesthetists free. Hours later, an anaesthetist came to give me the epidural but struggled to do so as I couldn't sit up because of the amount of pain I was in. When he did manage to do it, it completely failed and I never felt any pain relief at all from it. It didn't matter at that point though as little did any of us know, Logan would be born just ten minutes later.
An unexpected second birth partner
At the same time as the epidural failed, much to my surprise and actually my relief, my Mum suddenly turned up outside the door. She'd been at the hospital for an appointment for herself and so had decided to pop over to the maternity unit to see how I was doing. I'd text her earlier that morning telling her I was in labor and on the way to the hospital. She literally turned up at what was the perfect moment - I was minutes away from giving birth to Logan and as much as a support as my Husband was, it was also nice to see my Mum and have her there as well to support me through the very last hurdle. I think that it must have been quite magical for her to see her Grandson come in into the world and to have shared that moment with us, I'm really glad that she was there.
The birth
Logan was born at 10.48am on Tuesday 30th June 2015 at 41 weeks and 2 days. He weighed 9lbs 1oz. If I'm completely honest the pain I felt whilst in labor and giving birth to him was absolutely unreal, I've never felt anything like it and I ended up with a very sore throat for a long while after due to the amount of screaming that I'd done. I actually clearly remember thinking that I was going to die, it sounds dramatic I know, but it's just honestly how I felt at the time. But despite this, the very moment that my baby was given to me, was the very same moment that everything that I'd just been through made absolute sense. I fell instantly in love and both Adam and I were in tears through pure relief and utter joy at finally meeting our little boy. The epidural may have failed, but that meant that much to my absolute delight - I was able to be up and out of bed within a few hours, which was totally different to the experience that I'd had when I'd given birth to Ethan. I wrote a post all about my postnatal feelings and how I've been getting on physically, if you'd like to have a read of that.
How I feel it all went
Overall, I'm happy with how things went. Yes, the labor was pure agony and would have been much easier if I'd been able to have the epidural again, but then I know that if that had been the case that I wouldn't have been up as quickly as I was this time around and then I may not have been discharged from hospital as quickly (the same day). Ethans labor and birth was less painful but I was unwell for a couple of weeks afterwards. Logans was more painful but I was pretty much back to myself and pain free the very next day. Quite honestly though, however painful their labours and births were, however hard things things may have been afterwards with Ethan, there's just no denying how absolutely worth it both my boys were. There really is just nothing at all that can beat having a child and creating life.
If you like to, you can read about Logans first few days and watch a little video that I made from some of the clips that we filmed over those first few days, including when my two boys met for the very first time.
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