Elise's birth story

Some background on my other kids' births...

Taylor was born at 41 weeks in 2001 after being induced via ARM and synto drip. I had pethidene and gas and after an almost 12hr induced labour, she was born in one push flying onto the bed (I was laying on my back) 7lb 15oz of gorgeous…

James was born at 40+3 in 2006 after a spontaneous labour but with ARM at 6cm. After a grueling 27.5hr labour with gas for pain relief (grueling because hubby had BAD food poisoning whilst I was in labour and was effectively pretty useless at the time and therefore I got to share the experience with my lovely Mum), James was born weighing 9lb 12oz.

Fast forward to 2008 and I sat here 36 weeks pregnant having problems with the hospital I was booked into and wishing and praying that I made it onto the funded homebirth program here in Perth… that didn’t happen but I did end up finding an independent midwife Sally who was available and lovely!

I had my 40 week appointment with Sally with no signs of anything happening and by the time my 41 week appointment came around, I was hoping desperately to go into labour before the appointment lol. That didn’t happen but I did ask Sally to have a poke around to see if anything was happening (with a VERY interested DS watching on lol). My 41 week appointment was on Monday 15th .

I woke at 4:30am on the 16th of September with contractions about 6 minutes apart and lasting around 45 seconds each. I got up and fuddled around on the net for a bit before going back to bed at 6am to tell hubby that he wasn’t going to work today. My contractions continued and increased in intensity and started becoming more frequent but I was still in denial… after sooooo many people seemingly waiting sooooo long for me to give birth, surely it wasn’t ACTUALLY HAPPENING lol.

Hubby started setting the birth pool up and then took the kids off to school and a friend looked after James for us as it was evident that he just had no clue lol.

I got into the pool at around 10am and by 11am I started wondering if homebirth was a good idea lol Hubby called the midwife at about 11:30 to see how long she would be and to say that my contractions were 3 minutes apart and that they really hurt… at this point, I was still thinking we had quite a while to go and so did my midwife – especially after having a long labour with James.

Just after hubby got off the phone, he got back in the pool with me (I was laying on my side and pushing off the walls with each contraction) and then there was NO gap between the contractions and I remember saying to him “why aren’t they stopping!?” of course then I needed to push and with a couple of pushes, the head was out. Hubby cried “what do I do?” and I just said hold it! Hehehe With the next push, she was fully born (at 11:45am!!) we brought her up to my chest and hubby got a blanket to lay over her and keep her warm with me in the pool. Our gorgeous new little daughter had been born into her daddy’s loving arms with just us in the house and it was really lovely!


Our midwife arrived around half an hour after DD was born and my Mum about 10 minutes after her… I ended up delivering the placenta around 1pm (I was lazy and just wanted to sit holding my new baby). Whilst I was in the shower, DD was weighed and measured and she is almost the same size as DS was! She was 9lb 12oz and 53cm long with a 37cm head.

Taylor absolutely in love with her new little sister (who remained nameless for a couple of days)

James hasn't actually hit her with the car, she just didnt want to see it! haha