Hello everyone, I’m finally back to the blogging biz, and I have a new member of the blogging family here to introduce. His name, Sullivan Richard Jones, weighing a very healthy 7lb 14oz, a whole 10 oz more than his big brother Logan was. He was 6 days overdue and decided to arrive in 2018 instead of the expected 30th of December 2017.

I started having niggly, mild uterine cramps on the 4th of January which started around 7 am, and I noticed I was having these pains progressively more as the morning went on, so I decided to start timing these contractions.

These were my contractions at around 10 am that same day, so I knew this was the real deal after I’d had a bath and they actually got a bit stronger so I told my mum and rob about the impending labour. My mum advised I come over to her house so that I can go straight to the hospital from her house as they live closer to the hospital and they could just drive me straight there.

So there I am bouncing on my ball all day and night with no signs of baby yet, until around 7 or 8 pm where my contractions had been getting a lot stronger and less manageable and painful, so I rang Blairbell, the labour ward at the Wrexham Maelor, and they said I could go in to be assessed if I wanted and risk being sent home or stay at home longer and risk giving birth on the bathroom floor! (Jokes – that’s not what she actually said!)

I decided it was time to go into hospital at around 8.30 that evening, they noticed my blood pressure was a bit raised so she strapped me to the monitor and looked over my notes, after about 20 minutes on the monitor she did a cervical exam and said I was 2cm dilated, so I then went for a walk around the hospital hoping to get things moving, I noticed that the contractions were coming a lot closer and stronger.

After about an hour and a half of walking in between contractions, we went back up to blairbell which is when they decided to admit me to the MLU (midwife lef unit), the room I was taken to was amazing, there was a lovely pool, a nice low bed, with fairy lights and a cd player which I hooked my phone up to so I could listen to my own music, by this point the contractions had hindered a little bit, but the midwife I had who was lovely by the way, said that can happen sometimes, so I contiuned bouncing up and down on the birthing ball for about an hour. The midwife then checked me and said I was at 3 cm and this exam caused me to have a bloody show.

(Skip past the boring details)…

I should also mention that I didn’t have any pain relief besides a couple paracetamol, and co-codamol as well as using breathing techniques.

It is now the next day (5th January) at about 3 am and I am totally exhausted by this point but the contractions were coming on thick and fast and my mum could tell that I wasn’t far off. I had to get onto the bed for the midwife to check the baby’s heartbeat, and she had to call in a more senior midwife because Sully was being a right wriggler and quite stubborn, but they eventually found the heartbeat and all was fine. By this point, i was on the gas and air and laying down made my contractions very intense so much so that i felt the need to push but the midwife said not to as she doesn’t think im quite ready, so she did another cervical exam and said i was 7cm and said i was ready to get into the pool if i wanted.

I was so tired but so relieved to be finally at the end and I was so ready to meet my little baby, was about 4.30 am i think (honestly im making these times up because i was so out of it on gas and air and pure exhaustion i had no idea what was going on, i could just feel pain) apparently it was a very quick 2nd stage probably 1 push and baby’s head was out and another push then sully was born, and he arrived into the world at 9 minutes past 5 in the morning on the 5th January.

Pictures to follow…

Sully latched first time and perfectly after i had delivered the placenta, but i was just that exhausted i could barely keep my eyes open, so i ended up giving him some formula just so that i could get some sleep and time to recover.  After a much needed sleep, we came home that same day, about dinner time, and i was so glad to be home and never once had a show of baby blues which i had with Logan.

I cannot believe that i am now a mum of 2 beautiful boys.