Welcome to the ninth instalment of our Real Birth Story Series! This lovely installment was contributed by the gorgeous Nicole Langmaid, mother of her now one year old sweet and smiley little daughter. 

I hope you enjoy this contribution as much as I did xx

Wow! A baby was on the way. When we found out we were expecting, my husband and I were in Byron Bay at a wedding. We were very excited and our expected arrival was then nicknamed ‘Byrone’ for the whole pregnancy.

I really had a great pregnancy. Other than being very hot, and a couple of relocated ribs towards the end, I really was so lucky. I put all my faith into the fact that my body knew exactly what it was doing and also trusted that little Byrone knew what it was doing too. This seemed to work so well… that is until the day of the birth!

I was due on the 5th of January, so heading into Christmas, I crossed my fingers (and legs) that the baby would wait until the new year to arrive.

Once 2016 began, I was ready! And then my due date came… and went.

Everyday after that I told Byrone in no uncertain terms to ‘get out’, but nothing happened.

At each appointment the doctors and nurses told me the baby wasn’t engaged, but was in the right position, so all we could do was wait. Then after waiting nearly two weeks, I was booked in to be induced. I was really annoyed because it was like my body just didn’t know what to do anymore.

No birth plan was made as I didn’t want to be disappointed if it didn’t happen that way. I did however explain to my husband that I would rather not have an epidural and I really didn’t want to have a caesarean if it could be helped.

Anyway, I was booked in to begin the induction on the Sunday night and woo hoo, waters broke on the Saturday morning. My faith in my body had returned and I was ready to meet Byrone.

I rang the hospital straight away and they told me to make my way in as I would require antibiotics during the labour. Once at the hospital I was told that my waters had only partially broken, so the doctor finished the job and we were well on the way to delivering a baby.

Apparently, hour after hour came and went (or so my husband says), although I couldn’t tell you, as all seemed a blur. I was progressing nicely and when the nurses told me I was fully dilated I was ready and raring to go. The need to push came on strongly and I got to the job at hand. After nearly an hour of pushing and many different positions, nothing was happening.

The doctor was called in and they explained to me that the baby wasn’t moving down the birth canal like it should. Oh really!!!!

I was then instructed to stop pushing. Now anyone who has had a baby will be laughing at this stage, as that is no easy task!

It was then decided that a synthetic hormone would be used to try to help speed up the delivery. At this stage we were about 18 hours in (and 3 shift changes of staff!) and I was exhausted. Absolutely exhausted! My husband took one look at me and said to the doctor “I don’t think she can keep going.’ So an epidural was ordered.

I sent my husband out of the room while I had the epidural. He had done so well up to this stage, but the colour in his face was slowly vanishing and the thought of him fainting while I had a needle stuck into my spine was terrifying. So off he went and the epidural was given to me. Oh what relief!!!

I then started to wonder why I hadn’t opted for this lovely pain relief much earlier in the labour. But in hindsight, I wouldn’t have known how good it was unless I had experienced the pain first.

I had a synthetic hormone pumping through me, the epidural was working wonders, and baby’s heart beat was absolutely fine!

It was all looking good… until MY heart rate absolutely lost it.

They performed an ECG on me to check on my poor little heart, which was beating like crazy. At this stage I didn’t even care about me, but I was constantly reassured that Byrone was fine and quite happy hanging out inside me. The doctors and nurses were amazing keeping me up to date with what was happening and how the baby was doing.

After nearly 2 hours of this hormone, nothing had really changed, so an emergency caesarean was decided upon. It makes me laugh now that they called it an ‘emergency caesarean’ as no one seemed to be in a hurry. Everything was so relaxed and calm. My husband even had a coffee with the anaesthetist while they were prepping me!

Once we were in theatre it was all so quick. All of a sudden there was the most beautiful sound of a baby crying and it was mine.

We didn’t know what gender baby we were having and the marvellous midwife, who by this stage had spent a lot of time with us, told everyone in the room not to ruin the surprise for us. She and my husband had organised that he would announce to everyone in the room, including me, the baby’s gender once it was born.

A beautiful, healthy little human was brought over to us and my husband had a quick look and turned to me in some shock and said ‘It’s a girl.’

I replied with ‘I know.’

My Real Birth Story Series – Nicole Langmaid – Image (c) mummalifelovebaby on behalf of Nicole Langmaid

My Real Birth Story Series – Nicole Langmaid – Image (c) mummalifelovebaby on behalf of Nicole Langmaid

I’d had the feeling throughout my entire pregnancy that I was having a girl. She was named right then and there because we knew what we would name a little girl. A boy would probably have been unnamed for days.

That moment when my daughter was born, was by far the best moment of my life.

My Real Birth Story Series – Nicole Langmaid – Image (c) mummalifelovebaby on behalf of Nicole Langmaid

And every moment after that has made me a better person. She is such a wonderful little person and she is a very easy-going baby, which makes me think, she just wasn’t all that interested in coming out once I went into labour. We also think she may have had her little hands up by her face during the labour, which made it all so hard to fit out.

Looking back, I feel like I had a crack at everything during the labour.

In the days following the birth, I felt a little bit ripped off that I had come so close to giving birth vaginally with no medical pain relief. But now I feel pleased that I got to experience so much in that day. I had many hours of no pain relief, many hours of pain relief, nearly gave birth naturally, had an epidural and then ended up with a caesarean.

However in the end I had the best outcome anyone could ask for.

A healthy, hilarious and oh so happy little girl. xxx

My Real Birth Story Series – Nicole Langmaid – Image (c) mummalifelovebaby on behalf of Nicole Langmaid

My Real Birth Story Series – Nicole Langmaid – Image (c) mummalifelovebaby on behalf of Nicole Langmaid

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xxxxx