Birth story - Thea and baby Noola

My beautiful girl's Birth will forever be the most wonderful, magical memory!!!!

I started with mild surges on the evening of the 23rd of June (40+3) whilst gaming with my Husband, Jonny. (This is what set me off 2 years ago when pregnant with my son, too! )

We were so hyper and silly thinking that we may meet our little Beauty soon!

We went to bed around 11pm. I really didn't want to halt the progression, but knew I may need some rest...

The surges woke me up every half hour or so throughout the night.

I would simply lay there feeling grateful through each one, then doze back off to sleep.

By 5am-ish, they were coming every 10 minutes. I was starting to feel the need to breathe through them, and laid there listening to the birds as the light of the day slowly crept in. It was truly blissful!

I turned to my Husband at around 6am and said 'Do you wanna have a baby today?'

We went downstairs and John set up the pool whilst I pottered round the House. We had Iron Maiden playing (rather loudly for the time of day ) and Lavender with Peppermint through our Humidifier.

I went for a few poos in a row, and remember looking at myself in the bathroom mirror during a surge and feeling so powerful and READY!!

We called my Mum and Dad (Mum for support, and Dad to look after our little boy, Atticus.)

I swapped the music over to the playlist I had prepared. A collection of relaxing Spa and Hypnobirthing music. (I am happy to share this if anyone is interested!) I also had a Rainforest scene on YouTube on TV.

Mum and Dad arrived at around 7:30, at which point my son was awake and having his brekkie.

I was going back and forth to the loo, and starting to have quite intense contractions with only a couple of minutes between.

John rang the Midwives, and they made their way over.

I started having rather powerful surges at this point, and started using my comb and leaning against our table.

John and Dad had finished filling the pool, and I decided it was time to get in.

The relief!!!!!!! It was amazing!!

Two midwives soon arrived (around an hour after the call)

They were happy to let me just carry on as I was, as I think they could tell I was established.

I agreed to a VE after around half an hour, as I was curious to see how far along I was. 6cm! Yay!

I laboured in the pool for quite a while with our doors open to the garden, spreading my wonderfully animalistic noises across our neighbourhood

The whole experience was so chilled. Exactly as I had wanted. My Mum and Husband were just chatting away and making jokes throughout, and giving me encouragement when needed. My Dad was sat reading and playing with my son on the sofa. Every now and then, Atti would come over and stroke my arm or hold my hand and say 'Well Done Mummy!' 'You can do it!'

I later hit a point where I felt I needed more gravity, so I got out and laboured around the living room for a while, before getting back in.

I felt her head dipping down and up for what felt like forever!!!

I was trying so hard not to get disheartened, but started to get frustrated once exhaustion/transition hit

I ended up asking for Gas and Air, which really surprised me, as I did a 30-hour labour with absolutely nothing with Atti!

Weirdly, I only puffed on it for a short amount of time before realising it had interrupted my focus. In the end, I seemed to find it helpful to literally just hold it, and sometimes had a couple of puffs between surges instead! It helped to just know it was there for some reason!

After changing positions a good few times, I decided I needed to be out of the pool, and stood up leaning forwards. This is how my beautiful baby girl was born Right in the centre of our Living Room

My waters broke once I birthed her head, which felt INCREDIBLE!!

A short wait, and the rest of her body came with the next surge.

I reached through my legs and brought her straight to my chest.

It was absolutely wonderful

She latched on almost instantly.

After a blissful half hour, I birthed the placenta.

I had second degree tears that the Midwives didn't feel comfortable stitching, so we drove to Hospital to have this done. I had a quick, internal stress about this before deciding that this was just all part of her/our Story. It was all very straightforward, and we were back Home within an hour or so.

Noola-Moon is so happy

She loves to sleep (Thank You!!!!!!) and eat, and is making us all laugh with her funny faces already.

Atticus loves her, and is an amazing big brother.

Thank you so much to all of you incredible people that have shared your stories. They really helped me feel prepared, supported, and powerful.

Good Luck to those of you yet to Birth. It really is the most phenomenal experience if you let it be!