Ok it's official, I'm hooked...
I had been on-call for Amanda for 4 weeks when I got a message that if baby didn't show this week, she was booked for an induction on Saturday morning 7am. Amanda was already over 41 weeks at this point so very ready to meet her baby. I laughed to myself getting that message, as when I booked in Amanda I knew her due date was around my baby's 1st birthday, but most likely she would have the baby before that. Either way it didn't matter if it did fall on that date, but I just had this gut feeling that because I made plans for her Party on Saturday 16th, that Murphy's law meant that would be the date she would deliver too, ha!
Then I got another message around 4pm on Friday that things were ramping up and they were hoping to be heading into the hospital that evening.
Eek! I was stoked for them as I knew they ideally wouldn't have wanted the induction, so typically, here was baby trying to make her entrance at the 11th hour before it.
The excited adrenaline kicked in so I quickly finished off dinner for my kids then made sure I was all ready to head off and meet them at the hospital.
A few hours went by and I hadn't heard anything by around 8pm. I had been sitting on the edge of my seat because after the super fast birth of my first client I was not going to miss this one!! I decided I should try get a quick lie down knowing it would likely be a long night, although I knew I probably couldn't sleep anyway.
Around 8.30pm I heard from Blake (husband) that things had slowed right down and if nothing changed then they would head into the hospital for the induction at 7am. Oh well, I was already in bed so thought I'd just get a nice early night ready for the big day tomorrow.
Then at 11pm I got another message that they were at the hospital as things had picked right back up - those good ol night hormones for the win!
I jumped out of bed and headed to the hospital.
I arrived at Northshore Hospital, got permission from the nightshift security guard to go through, and then tracked down their room number.
I walked into a lovely candle lit, very quiet hospital room with only the sound of low moaning as Amanda worked through a contraction.
The room was dark with some lovely fairy lights and candles they had brought from home to make the room as homely as possible.
To my pleasant surprise, it was the same lovely midwife from my first client.
I quietly got myself setup and this time definetely needed to whip my flash out! I'm usually very all about natural light and will choose that wherever possible, but there was zero natural light which is to be expected at a birth anyway.
I started taking shots and soon realized how loud my camera was in a nice quiet space ha, so figured out how to turn that annoying beep off. Check.
I was quickly in a state of awe watching these two work through each surge, and I was aware how privileged I was to be in this space. Blake was 100% in the zone with Amanda, supporting her however he could. He was the one in charge of the TENS machine connected to Amandas back, so was so in-tune with her that he would press the buttons when she needed.
Amanda had been working hard for over 30 hours now. She was using all her hypnobirthing strategies and breathing techniques, and they were really working for her. Unfortunately baby just wasn't in a great position and wasn't hitting her cervix enough to get progress, despite them already trying all sorts of positions to help.
They agreed to having her waters broken (ARM - Artificial Rupture of Membranes), to see if that would help baby get lower in the pelvis.
I could instantly hear the stronger surges that started once that happened. Memories of my own births and that pain I remember was flooding back watching her.
Amanda did so well getting through these stronger contractions, but she was exhausted and they were starting to get a little too much.
Amanda and Blake had asked to not be told how many cm's she was, which is a great strategy suggested with hypnobirthing as it can get your head out the game depending on what the number is! Alex, the midwife, told me when I arrived that she was around 5-6cm upon her arrival, and I knew by how Amanda was sounding that things had progressed since breaking her waters too.
Amanda was asking about an epidural and weighing up if that's what she wanted. Alex checked her cervix again at this point to give her an idea of how she was progressing to help her make a decision. Again she wasn't told how many cm's, but that she had progressed, but likely still had a good few hours to go. Amanda decided to get the epidural as it was all feeling a little too much at this stage. Alex told me she was about 8cm.
We had to move into a bigger room around 3.30am to give the anesthetist more space. I had a giggle when Amanda just took off without warning from the room we were in to go and find the room we were moving to. She didn't even know where she was going but knew she just wanted to get there before another contraction hit. So we all followed quickly behind her. It reminded me of my birth with my second baby where you're just so in your own world and zone that you barely know what's happening around you.
I wasn't able to take photos while her epidural went in so I sat in the corner giving them space, again thinking back on my own experience getting epidurals.
The epidural started working after about 30 mins, but only on one side her body. Which is exactly what happened to me with my first baby and I needed to get a whole new epidural! Thankfully for Amanda, it took a bit longer but it seemed to even out and started working.
The whole atmosphere in the room changed and I could feel the sigh of relief from both Amanda and Blake. Amanda had basically only mumbled a couple of words the whole time I had been there, but got a lot chattier now she was able to rest. It's an amazing feeling when that pain just disappears!
Around 4.30am Alex called in a few more midwives as she noticed that baby was having some pretty big decels. They all checked it over and were considering putting the little scalp electro on baby's head to better monitor the heart rate, as with the external CFM (continuous foetal monitoring) machines it's sometimes hard to distinguish which one is Mum's heart rate and which one is baby's. This was the case for Amanda as she had been on a CFM since I arrived. Alex had a feeling the decels were because Amanda had progressed so quickly after being able to relax (which is quite common with epidurals!) so was potentially 10cm and her body was starting to push which is where the bigger decels were coming from. Alex checked Amanda for the last time and was right, she was fully dilated. Woo!
Amanda started pushing with each contraction around 4.45am.
OK! Time to make sure I was fully ready for the big moment. Not like there are any do-overs! I changed out all my batteries and made sure my camera settings were all set.
It was so amazing to be there witnessing her baby's head start to emerge. From the first little sneak peek of it coming through, to when the whole head was out, but the body still inside, literally in limbo between two worlds. Honestly, our bodies are FRICKEN AMAZING.
From the perfectly synced muscles to push out the baby, to the soft and moldable bones allowing the baby to navigate our pelvis, if anyone wants to question our perfect design and where we come from, they just need to witness a birth!
The moment arrived, the head was out, and I was holding my breath waiting for that last 'flop' as the body followed. It didn't happen straight away and I kept hearing Alex the midwife saying "'It's a hand"'. Afterwards she said she was telling the other midwife this because sometimes when there is a delay in the body coming straight out, it can mean the shoulders have got stuck, and that needs urgent attention if that's the case. But for Amanda, her little bubba decided to come out with her hand up by her shoulder, so wasn't stuck, just needed a bit more wiggling! I got a shot of that little hand poking through too!
Baby Lydia was out and put straight on to Mum. I maneuvered myself around the midwives (while wiping tears from my eyes!) to get those precious after shots of their reaction meeting their brand new baby. I think some of those shots end up being my favourite as you can just feel the relief, joy and excitement all at once. They did it! Their little girl was here.
I took lots of 'firsts' photos for the 2 hours after birth, and then headed off home around 8am.
Wow! What an incredible experience. By the time I got to my car the adrenalin started wearing off and I realized how exhausted I was. I forgot to eat dinner the night before with all the excitement of getting ready to go and meet them, so I had the shakes a little too.
So I had a snack, drove home with my window open to blow cold air in my face, and then walked straight into my house to get ready for my 3rd Baby's 1st Birthday party!
I feel like I had prepared myself for the fact that I would have sleepless nights being on-call and attending births, but the part I failed to grasp was that I would come back home and still have to parent 3 young children all day long, ha! Oh well, sooooo worth it.
Thank you Amanda and Blake for welcoming me into your incredible journey into parenthood, it was been an absolute pleasure and privilege being there with you. You're both already amazing parents!
QUICK NOTE: Not all images from this birth/gallery are included in this blog as the client chose to keep the more personal/intimate images private.
