It’s taken me a while to write this labour and delivery story. Adjusting to life as a mother of two, during a global pandemic has been…interesting! It’s currently 3.56am. I’ve just finished giving Evelyn a feed and now I’m wide awake. So I thought I’d utilise the time and write Evelyn’s birth story. All about having a baby during lockdown. Grab a cuppa and get comfy…
Friday 3rd April…
I experienced reduced movements from Evelyn. I stupidly didn’t want to go into hospital during a pandemic to be told everything was fine and be sent home again. Honestly, I didn’t want to go to the hospital unnecessarily. I was anxious, and scared too. Completely normal in normal times, let alone when facing having a baby during lockdown. Over the weekend her movements picked up but then dropped again come Monday. Reluctantly, I went to get checked out. After being told off by the midwives for not going in sooner, I was told everything was fine and sent home. With the instruction to call if they reduced again. I wasn’t having a baby during lockdown just yet!
Tuesday 7th April…
I had little to no movement. We rang the pregnancy advice line who advised to go and get checked out. I headed to my local hospital where I was greeted by Rachel. A midwife I’d come in to contact with many times – a true gem! She was dressed in her PPE ( plastic apron, gloves and face mask ). She popped me on the monitor and she took a full set of observations, asking if I’d any symptoms of Covid-19 – which I hadn’t. I was observed for 20 minutes, baby was perfectly fine, but had hardly moved.
As I was 37 weeks and had been contracting for 10 weeks she offered to examine me and see where we were at. Turns out I was 1cm, and she offered a sweep. I had the sweep and was told to pay close attention to baby’s movements. If they hadn’t increased by dinner time, I was to call the advice line again. I went home and bounced on my birthing ball, hoping to either have baby kick up a storm, or to go into labour. Neither happened. 5pm came and I rang the advice line again. I explained what had been going on. I was sent to delivery triage to get checked over again. Due to hospital regulations Liam was not allowed with me. I had to go in alone.
A surreal experience having a baby during lockdown…
When I arrived, all midwives were in full PPE and scrubs. It was weird and overwhelming. I was incredibly anxious, and not having Liam there made it worse. I had a lovely midwife who eased my anxiety straight away. We were checked over, and baby was fine. The Dr on shift had a look at my pregnancy history, and the reduced movement episodes and advised an induction. But a natural as possible induction without hormones. This is because I was already contracting (like I’d been for weeks), and they didn’t want to risk making them uncontrollable. It was decided to insert a Foley catheter. It’s a small balloon that’s inserted and inflated with air or water to naturally encourage the cervix to open. I had this inserted at around 9/10pm. Then I was then left to try and get some sleep.
Following morning…
The next morning I was moved down to the antenatal ward. Liam dropped off a bag of drinks & snacks for me; I had to meet him by the lifts as he wasn’t allowed on the ward. The catheter fell out around 9am. I was checked, and was dilated just over 1cm, could be stretched to a 2. They decided to insert a tablet to help get things going. The plan was that once that 6 hours had passed if nothing had progressed I would be taken to delivery and have my waters broken.
I spent the day on my own. The 4 bed room I was in was empty. I was quite bored. I ate snacks, watched Disney+, and face-timed my mum and Liam continuously, as well as having the odd nap. To some that my sound prefect, but I hated being alone. I paced round the room to try and get things going as I wasn’t allowed to walk around the ward. Nothing was working.
It all happened so quickly…
At 4.30pm I was checked. I was told I hadn’t progressed an awful lot, and was taken to delivery to see if they could break my waters. When I arrived, they got me settled. I unpacked my candles and got my oil roller out. The midwives set up the candles for me and shut all the blinds to make it dark. It automatically became a calm, relaxing space. They told me I could ring Liam and he could come join me. This made me extremely happy as they said things could progress quickly if waters were broken. Boy were they right!!
My waters were broken at 5.30pm. My contractions started pretty much straight away. Evelyn’s heart rate dropped so I had to be checked to ensure the cord hadn’t prolapsed. It hadn’t, but I had to lay on my side. Liam arrived not long after, and I face timed my mum to give her an update.
At 6pm things got super intense very quickly. I was 3cm. My contractions were now back to back. I was using gas and air and trying my hardest to implement the hypno-birthing breathing techniques. Gas and air makes me high as a kite. I was more talkative during this labour compared to Molly’s. My mum was still on face time through all of this. Her and Liam were talking and even the midwives were joining in the conversation, including my mum with everything. I was checked at around 7.15 and was told I was 4cm dilated. They also put clip on baby’s head so they could take off the Doppler from around my stomach because as I was on my side, they weren’t getting a clear reading.
30 minutes later…
I don’t know if it’s just me that did this during labour, but with Molly, I reached a point where I asked for an epidural. This was when I was 10cm and about to push. Well, the same thing happened this time. At around 7.45 I asked, no begged for an epidural. The midwife said she needed to examine me to see how far gone I was.
As I went to turn from my side to my back, my body started to push, uncontrollably ( if you know, you know! ) and suddenly they could see Evelyn’s head crowning. The midwife pressed the emergency bell to ask for help as nobody was expecting her to be coming quite so quickly, considering I was 4cm 30 minutes prior. Suddenly the room was full of midwives. Evelyn’s heart rate dropped so I was quickly rolled onto my right side, with a midwife holding my leg. Then 10 minutes later, with 3 pushes, Miss Evelyn Elizabeth entered the world at 7.56pm.
She was placed onto my chest, and Liam cut her cord. Guess what? My mum got to witness the whole thing via face time – completely unintentional, but I am so glad that she did. One of the positive things of having a baby during lockdown. I then delivered the placenta; I had a small bleed, but nothing compared to when I had Molly, I didn’t loose nearly half as much. However, I will say this though, after pains are a bitch! I do not remember having these with Molly and apparently they get worse with every child you have. I needed 1 set of stitches as I had a small internal second degree tear.
Choosing a name…
As I was being stitched up, Evelyn was weighed and Liam got to hold her to have skin-to-skin. I then gave Evelyn boob as we sat for about 30 minutes trying to think of a name! Once we had chosen her name, we rang and messaged close family and friends to let them know of her arrival. I then had the dreaded first pee (not as bad as I thought it would be), and a shower.
Once clean and dressed it was around 11pm and I was moved to the postnatal ward. Liam wasn’t allowed up to the ward, so he went home. Evelyn and I had our first night together. No sleep, lots of boob and lots of skin to skin cuddles…It was perfect. The midwives on shift that night were so lovely, bringing me copious amounts of tea and the odd cheeky biscuit!
The next day…
The following morning was spent with Evelyn having all her checks and tests. She had to have a glucose test done, but it came back fine. I had my checks done and all was also good. Just like last time, I struggled to get a good latch, and had the most amazing support from a lactation specialist midwife. I was hand expressing colostrum between feeds and saving it in 1ml syringes to try and encourage my milk to come in and having lots of skin to skin with Evelyn. I used cloth nappies in the hospital, and had so many questions and compliments from the midwives. They were happy to see someone using cloth and couldn’t believe how easy it was! I drank more tea and got myself ready to go home whilst watching ‘This Morning’. There was a lot of waiting around if I’m honest. Because of the virus, the hospital was short staffed. Finally, at around 2pm we were finally allowed home. A lovely midwife helped me down to the main doors to meet Liam as he wasn’t allowed inside to meet me. We then set off home. I was gutted that nobody could come to the hospital; that Molly couldn’t have the normal sibling experience of going to the hospital to meet baby sister. This was a downside of having a baby during lockdown. If I am honest, it broke my heart a little.
Meeting her big sister…
When we arrived home we placed Evelyn in the moses basket. I gave Molly a huge cuddle, and we introduced her to her little sister. We managed to record the moment they met. Molly is besotted from the get go. Stroking Evelyn’s head, and saying “baby is cute” as well as asking to hold baby. My heart honestly, hands down one of the most magical moments I have experienced. Molly has been the best big sister ever since, helping with feeding, changing nappies and just being incredibly loving – couldn’t have asked for anything better.
Recovery after having a baby during lockdown…
It took me a little longer to recover this time round, despite having the same degree of tear as I did with Molly. The position of it was different and this time I could definitely feel it more! I tried to spend the first week doing nothing but soaking up my girls, pumping milk and drinking all the tea. After pains were on and off for around 48 hours after the birth and going to the bathroom for the first week was a little more…interesting this time round. Bleeding stopped after 2 weeks and by that point I was up and feeling back to my normal self, just a little tired. Overall, and compared to some, I had it pretty easy, and I will forever be thankful for that. There we have it. Evelyn’s birth story. Despite the having a baby during lockdown, the regulations in place & it being a bit quick, it was a wonderful and truly unique experience. You can follow me over on Instagram where I post daily snippets of our life as a family of 4! Fancy Reading Some Other Birth Stories? Check out the ones below!
This is such a beautiful post! The photos are incredible, especially of your two girls meeting, so sweet!
Becqui
http://www.becquijean.com