Michael John McDonald Sex: boy Born: 28 January, 2011 Age: 1 years & 17 days Birthday in: 348 days Starsign: Aquarius Development: See the 12 months page. Biggest achievement so far: Born in 2012, but the site isn`t accepting his DOB!

Birth details

Michael John McDonald`s birthstory

Jennifer May McDonald Sex: girl Born: 27 January, 2010 Age: 2 years & 18 days Birthday in: 347 days Starsign: Aquarius Development: See the 24 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

Birth details

Birthday: January 27, 2010
Original due date: January 28, 2010
Type of delivery: Vaginal (without pain relief)
Duration of labor: 5 hours or so
Weight @ birth: 3.51 kgs
Length @ birth: 51.5 cms

Birth Story

Monday 25^th January 2010

I awake from a snooze, open my eyes and look at the digital clock below the TV. It’s 11pm and Chris and I have both fallen asleep on the lounge watching TV; something that’s not out of the ordinary for us.

The only things on my mind are having a wee and curling up in bed. I struggle to get myself up with the weight of baby in my belly. I walk down the hall to the bathroom and I feel something trickling down my legs. I think I’m wetting myself a bit. As I reach the bathroom door I realise that the trickle has turned into a stream. I stand at the bathroom door and lift up my nightie and in my sleep daze I calmly watch as the stream running down my legs creates a pool of water around my feet which spreads across the floorboards. That’s when I realise that my waters have broken. I feel quite amazed that this is happening to me. I think to myself “So, this is how it happens”.

I walk to the linen cupboard which is thankfully not far away and grab a heap of towels. I spread the towels over the huge pool of water. I put one towel between my legs and find it’s quickly soaked through. I grab my mobile and phone the hospital, telling them what happened and asking if I should go in, or stay at home and wait for something to happen, wait for contractions to start. The hospital tells me to come in and get assessed. I wake Chris with the worlds “Chris, wake up, don’t panic but my waters just broke”. Chris looks up at me and says “You’re kidding aren’t you? But you’re not due until Thursday!”

We go to the hospital and they monitor contractions and baby’s heartbeat for about half an hour. I’m having contractions according to the machine, but I’m not really feeling them. They send me home and ask me to phone the next day after lunch if nothing has happened.

Tuesday 26^th January 2010

I hardly get any sleep, waiting for something to happen. Chris and I lounge all morning watching TV and wondering what’s going to happen next with baby. We know baby is going to be born soon and we’re just holding our breath waiting for something to happen. I phone the hospital around 2pm and they ask me to go in again to be assessed. We go in and the monitors say baby is doing fine. Some small contractions but nothing substantial. A Doctor comes in and says they’d like to induce me with a Syntocinon drip. They’re worried about infection due to my waters breaking. I ask if I can go home and see if anything happens overnight. They agree but warn me that if nothing happens they HAVE to induce me within a few days and the longer I go the more chance of infection.

Wednesday 27^th January 2010

I wake around 1:30am with pains in my tummy. It’s like a strong period pain and I instantly know it’s a proper contraction! I start to get contractions regularly and I try to sleep in between. Around 4am they start coming every 9 or 10 minutes and I have to sit up or get out of bed because the pain is getting worse. This goes on until about 6am. My moaning wakes Chris up. He tells me to phone the hospital which I do and they tell me to come straight in, even though my contractions are so far apart. I have a shower and Chris puts the hospital bags in the car. The contractions get milder and by the time we’re at the hospital they’re back to being just a strong period pain and they come less and less frequently. While I’m on the monitor I tell Chris I’m ready to have them induce me, that I think I’ve given my body enough time to see what happens naturally and I didn’t want to increase the chance of baby getting an infection any more than we have. I’m so ready to have this baby!

After seeing a doctor and being shuffled around the birth suite a bit as there were lots of babies being born that morning, I was finally put in a gown and had a catheter put into my arm. At 11:30 am I was attached to a Syntocinon drip. At first nothing happened. I was reading the paper and Chris was reading magazines.

About 45 mins later I started having mild contractions which were easy to breath through. I was relieved that something was happening!

As they increase the dosage of Syntocinon into my arm the contractions slowly get stronger and closer together. Chris starts to worry about me as I close my eyes and breath through each contraction. When a contraction comes, I don’t know what’s going on around me and I have trouble concentrating on what Chris or the midwife are saying to me. Chris sits in front of me and I lean on him when a contraction comes. When the contraction is over I can go back to reading the paper.

The midwife asks if I’m hungry and I say I’m STARVING and she brings me some lunch. In between contractions I eat, knowing I’m going to need all my strength. I tell Chris to go and get some lunch and get my bags out of the car. I know he’s glad for the break because he wants to help me but other than just being there for me he feels there’s not much he can do. I know it’s hard for him to watch me in pain knowing I’m stubborn and continuing to refuse pain relief. I don’t want to miss one bit of this experience; I want to remember every second of it for the rest of my life.

Around 3pm the contractions are coming on thick and fast; 1 to 2 minutes apart. Nothing I do makes me comfortable and my back is killing me. Sitting, lying standing, nothing eases the pain in my back and the reverberating pains that wash down my stomach and into my pelvis. I try sitting on the birthing ball but each time I sit on it baby’s heartbeat drops below 80 bpm so the midwife says I’m not to use it. I stand for most of the time, leaning over the dinner trolley with my legs apart, or leaning on Chris, trying to imagine myself opening up. I hang onto the pain knowing it means baby is coming soon. I breath and breath and imagine baby being born and being put into my arms. I tell Chris I have to poo, so he helps me to the toilet. No poo is forthcoming! I’m feeling dizzy from all the deep breathing and very nauseous.

About half an hour later I feel there’s no break between the contractions. It’s just continuous wave after wave of pain. Both the midwife and Chris have been urging me to have pain relief for some time and finally I say I’ll try some gas. I feel as though the gas doesn’t ease the pain, but it helps me to have something to concentrate on. It helps me with breathing through the contractions. My eyes don’t open anymore; they’re closed as I focus on my baby being in my arms soon.

Through all this Chris is awesome. He’s telling me to relax and breath. He’s telling me to suck on the gas which I keep forgetting about. He holds my hand and I squeeze and feel his love and support even through all that’s happening with my body and it makes me strong.

The midwife comes in and I tell her I need to poo really badly and I feel a bit like I might want to push. She’s surprised and says “already?” and goes out to get another midwife. The other midwife lets me get on the loo and I do poo this time and the pushing sensation starts to come on strong. The midwife tells me it’s a great position to be in and to get rid of some poo and I can push all I like because baby has to start moving down the birth canal. After a little while I get worried that I’m going to have baby on the loo so Chris gets me up and I get on the bed on all fours. I forget about the gas, I want nothing clouding my mind, I need to concentrate. I start pushing in earnest and I’m surprised that my body is taking over and telling me it needs to push. I’m bearing down and my body is telling me what to do. I’m surprised that I need to bear down on my bum hole area and not my vag area. Surely baby is coming out of my bum, but she can’t be!

They lose the baby’s heartbeat and ask me to lie on my back. It’s certainly not an easy ask at this point! My eyes are squeezed shut the whole time. With Chris’ help I somehow get onto my back and they find baby’s heartbeat. I get onto my side and I start to push with earnest now. At first I can get only two pushes with each contraction, but it doesn’t take long before I’m feeling baby’s head starting to crown and it gives me so much power! When a contraction comes I push with all my might, I push and push and squeeze my eyes shut and grit my teeth and after a little while I feel baby’s head pop out!

Chris tells me to stop pushing and I open my eyes and look at him. He says the cord is wrapped around baby’s neck and I have to stop pushing. I can feel the midwife trying to get the cord from around babys’ neck. I start to get a bit panicky before the midwife says it’s fine I can push again and I look at Chris and he says it’s fine, the midwife has got the cord from around babys neck.

I scruntch my eyes up again and grit my teeth and push with all my might. I’m on my side holding Chris’ hand and the midwife has my leg up on her shoulder. I know baby is so close now! I bear down with everything I have, everything, and I feel baby slide out of my body.

I hear her whimper and I know she’s here! They put her up on my chest and she is all white with bright red lips and she’s whimpering and I hold her and touch her and my Lord she is just beautiful! I look up at Chris and he’s saying to me “good job honey, very clever” which is strange but I know what he’s trying to say and I can tell he’s in total shock of what he’s just seen! We are both dumbfounded and staring at this little girl who is wriggling on my chest. She’s born at 4:43pm. I can’t believe what I’ve achieved! I feel a peace come over me knowing my little girl is finally here. I’m so proud of Chris.

I feel pains in my tummy as the midwife coaxes out the placenta. I feel it slip out of me and it’s the biggest relief ever! All the pain is gone and forgotten. I’m so proud of myself and proud of my little girl and proud of Chris who is now a Daddy.

I’m freezing cold and they wrap me all up with warm towels and baby finds my breast and feeds. It’s hard to describe how I feel; so overjoyed that she’s finally here and I have my baby girl in my arms safe and sound and happy. I’m also feeling daunted and know this little one is my sole responsibility from now until forever!

I ask Chris if he can go and phone our families. He writes down the time of birth and I tell him to write down “Jennifer May McDonald”. He asks me how to spell Jennifer, hahahaha.

That’s the story of how Jenny was born. Her birthday will be a day I will never ever forget and I’ll tell her every year on her birthday the elation I felt on that day, January 27^th 2010 when she was born.