Early hours of Monday morning, I woke up with pretty consistent surges, very light, period cramp feelings, just coming and going. Lasting for 2 hours while I laid in bed, however slowed down as I got up and on with the day. They still made an appearance every hour, a sharp stabbing like cramp, but nothing that would stop me from moving. I told Dean to stay near by just in case anything dramatically changed.

Tuesday came by, and same thing was happening, went for a walk and tried to get things moving along, surges came and went but nothing too close together. We had mum’s birthday that night with the family, as I surrounded myself with my niece and nephew to boost the oxytocin hormones, hoping this will move things along. As I got into bed that night, it all just started to ramp up, regular surges, every 5-6 minutes, I couldn’t sleep as I knew this was it.

I laid in bed for about 2 hours, then got up and moving, Dean ran me a bath, started affirmations, and had some toast as I got back into bed. About 5am Wednesday morning, we made the decision to head into the hospital, at that point I was having surges every 2 minutes, lasting almost 2 minutes, for the past 2 hours. I was nervous that if we left it any later, we would hit peak hour traffic and I would become extremely uncomfortable in the car.

Arrived in the birth suit about 5:45am, and got examined, at this point I was told that I was hardly dilated, and my cervix was still very thick. The midwives advised, and strongly encouraged us to head home for a couple of hours, while I got to more of an active labour. We discussed this and decided to stay put as we had set up our space in hospital, and if we headed home, we would have absolutely got the traffic on the way back. The midwives really encouraged us to go home, we were wanting a natural birth as HypnoBirthing parents, and was told if we decide to stay and things don’t move along quickly, then we would have doctors pushing for intervention.

Dean and I stuck to our decision, and knew that we will always be able to say no if intervention was suggested. Our midwife was super supportive with our decision and explained that she would leave us to do our thing and would come back in 4 hours to see how we were tracking along.

4 hours went by, in and out of surges and feeling really good. Walking around in between however needing to really focus and breath through each wave. I got checked and was told I have dilated 4cm’s and my cervix wall was thinning nicely. Thumbs went up from the midwife leaving us with a really positive mindset and was told to keep doing what you are doing, you are doing everything right.

Surges started to increase about 1pm, lasting around 4 to 5 minutes, moved into the shower as I started getting really bad back pain and I knew the hot water would feel amazing. About an hour later, I asked to move into the bath as I thought it would save water and be really nice to float.

As I got into the bath, surges weren’t happening as often, but still very intense when they did come. The bath water was extremely hot, and I instantly felt dehydrated and sick as I vomited while trying to keep all fluids down as well as staying in my zone.

4pm came around, and the midwives suggested to get checked, as I felt like I could push. I got examined in the water and was told my membranes were still intact and have progressed 1cm. Hearing this I thought “no way am I only half way”, and my mindset went from really positive to completely disheartened and I thought “no way am I doing this, give me an epidural!!!!”

Dean and my sister saw it in my face, I completely lost hope and strength and started to cry while telling Dean “I can’t do this” (looking back, this was my transition phase). My sister told me to get out of the bath, move around and see what happens in the next hour, if things haven’t changed then I was allowed the epidural haha.

The minute I stepped out of the bath, my waters broke (best feeling ever), I moved to the toilet as I felt like I needed to go to the loo. Sat there for about an hour, with everything really ramping up, the urge to push was intense, and I couldn’t stop myself from pushing, while the midwives told me to breath and try not to push as they thought if I was only 5cm dilated, then I could be doing more harm than good. Shortly after, I was advised to get up on the bed so they could check me as I was telling everyone I needed to push.

Yep, up I got, moved to the bed, as I told everyone not to tell me my dilation, just to tell me to get ready to push if I was at that point as I didn’t want to hear anything that would negatively impact my mindset. The next thing I remember was opening my eyes to see Dean and Brooke jumping up and down with their thumbs up and the biggest smile, and telling me to get into my birthing position and get ready to meet our baby.

Twenty minutes later, Frankie girl was born, healthy, happy and ready for a feed.

We had beautiful skin on skin time, delayed cord clamping, and some bonding time with daddy while mum was being attended to, to stop some unwanted bleeding. Two hours later Frankie got weighed, assessed and dressed before we moved to our room for the night.

Everything we hoped for and more!! Positive mindset, breathing through each wave of labour, and staying in the zone. Couldn’t thank Dean and my sister enough for all the amazing support they gave me throughout the journey.