Speaker 1: We acknowledged the traditional custodians of the land we're recording
Speaker 1: on today. The head moved a significant amount down even
Speaker 1: more into my pelvis, and I was just like, whoa.
Speaker 1: That was really intense, like something is going on. And
Speaker 1: then I kid you not. It was on.
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome back to Eat, Sleep, Shit, Repeat your
Speaker 2: wildly Unhinged podcast about the madness that is motherhood and
Speaker 2: everything in between. I'm Kelly McCarron and guess who's back.
Speaker 1: It's Key Resells.
Speaker 3: Y'all.
Speaker 2: Wow, that was a lot of energy for someone that
Speaker 2: hasn't slept much. Yes, she is back. Her nipples are
Speaker 2: currently being used as a pacifier, but she has popped
Speaker 2: out of matt Lee for the week to share her
Speaker 2: birth story. And if we hear babies yelling and i'l
Speaker 2: b Allen barking and actually my kitten's going crazy, that's
Speaker 2: why I thinks.
Speaker 1: That it's yeah. Sorry, This is a true representation of
Speaker 1: what it's like with a newborn, a toddler, a new cat,
Speaker 1: a dog, and just two very unhinged people in general.
Speaker 1: There's a husband somewhere around here. He hasn't come to
Speaker 1: get the barking dog, but anyway, I'll send him a
Speaker 1: text and hopefully he vacates soon. This is so exciting.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what a treasure it is for
Speaker 1: me to have a we break from a baby.
Speaker 2: I'm just also so excited. So Key gave birth two
Speaker 2: weeks ago, and I'm yet to hear the tale because
Speaker 2: I don't know. I kind of wanted to hear it
Speaker 2: properly in all of the entirety, Like I wanted to
Speaker 2: basically be you shitters at home listening to no detail spared.
Speaker 2: I just love a birth story.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and this one has got We got some
Speaker 1: great storylines within the story.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you, Oh excellent.
Speaker 1: Okay, So, I first of all wanted to start with
Speaker 1: the fact that I had to admit that we had
Speaker 1: been keeping a wee secret from our shitters, and that
Speaker 1: secret was that I told everyone, yes, that I was
Speaker 1: going for a bea, but there was a little bit
Speaker 1: more to the story because we were actually trying for
Speaker 1: a h back, which is a home birth after cesarean.
Speaker 1: So that was the plan.
Speaker 2: King Reese had her tinfoil bray on.
Speaker 1: I was a big old layer and I felt real bad,
Speaker 1: but my midwife had spoken to me and she's like, hey,
Speaker 1: just like a little bit of advice, be careful about
Speaker 1: who you tell that you're having a homebirth too, because
Speaker 1: people can have reactions that are written all over their
Speaker 1: face and they don't necessarily mean it. And with a
Speaker 1: bit of talking to but she's like, you don't really
Speaker 1: want to have to keep explaining yourself to people, and
Speaker 1: you don't want people's initial reaction to be detrimental to
Speaker 1: like your success and how you're feeling about your home birth.
Speaker 2: Which makes so much sense because like even people that
Speaker 2: I would tell, like even though it was a secret,
Speaker 2: it wasn't really a secret. So I tell people and
Speaker 2: your people would be like, oh why, And I was like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: that's why she's not telling people, Like, yes, exactly, it's
Speaker 2: her baby, Like let her do whatever she has and
Speaker 2: it's not like you were free birthing anyway you get
Speaker 2: into it.
Speaker 1: So just about this, because I do. I think it's
Speaker 1: quite interesting to talk about. When you're doing a homebirth,
Speaker 1: you engage the services of a private midwife, so on
Speaker 1: the day that private midwife comes, and then a second
Speaker 1: midwife is legally also required to be there so in
Speaker 1: the event something happens to you. Two of them can
Speaker 1: lift you or help or whatever, So there always has
Speaker 1: to be two midwives present at a homebirth. It's exactly
Speaker 1: the same as seeing a private obstetrician, except they come
Speaker 1: and do all of your appointments at home. So it
Speaker 1: was so fun, like sometimes Charlie would be there, Charlie
Speaker 1: and Ru would be there. It was just really lovely
Speaker 1: and it took us away from that hospital environment. So
Speaker 1: one of the key reasons that we decided to do
Speaker 1: a home birth is because we had spent a lot
Speaker 1: of time in hospital about a year ago and it
Speaker 1: just wasn't our lovely experience for us. And when I
Speaker 1: went and had that pesky Pooh stuck in my barm,
Speaker 1: we had another stint in hospital and we both kind
Speaker 1: of agreed that we weren't really loving how it was
Speaker 1: making us feel that we needed more of like a
Speaker 1: continuity of care, like personalized care for this birth in
Speaker 1: order for us to both feel like safe and secure,
Speaker 1: and that ended up being a private midwife and going
Speaker 1: the home birth route, So that was our decision.
Speaker 2: I loved Charlie's reaction when you first broached it with him,
Speaker 2: like you thought that he was going to be like,
Speaker 2: oh my goodness, like what are you in the woo
Speaker 2: woo type thing, but he was just like yeah, why not.
Speaker 1: He was so into it from the get go, which
Speaker 1: was so good, so I knew it was like definitely
Speaker 1: the right decision.
Speaker 2: We love a supportive king.
Speaker 1: And just on that my midwife, she's actually British and
Speaker 1: so she had been saying, or do you want to
Speaker 1: get a duela because the thing about home births as well,
Speaker 1: there is actually so much medical evidence to back it
Speaker 1: up as to how much more successful physiological vaginal birth
Speaker 1: can be. So she said, hey, something that also makes
Speaker 1: your statistics higher for achieving a v back at home
Speaker 1: is having a dula, so like having someone there who's
Speaker 1: like just there for you emotionally rather than your midwife
Speaker 1: who was typically there for you in a medical capacity.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, well, you know, like my
Speaker 1: best friend Lucy's going to be there, Charlie's going to
Speaker 1: be there. I love you, Like I think we're okay.
Speaker 1: Her mum was actually visiting at the time from the UK,
Speaker 1: or was going to be visiting at the time, and
Speaker 1: she was a dueler for years in Dubai. She had
Speaker 1: her own practice there, so she ended up being our dula.
Speaker 1: They got to do their first birth together as mother
Speaker 1: and daughter. So that was another really lovely thing that
Speaker 1: kind of came about from it. That is so special,
Speaker 1: really special. Okay, so let's get down and dirty, well,
Speaker 1: shitters and kel There were a few false starts. I
Speaker 1: wrapped up work on I think what was I thirty
Speaker 1: seven weeks?
Speaker 2: You wrapped up work on the fifteenth. You were like,
Speaker 2: I think I'll go over the next few days because
Speaker 2: my brain's like I'm done with work. I can have
Speaker 2: my baby now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And everyone was telling me, like my physio was
Speaker 1: like I don't want to see you anymore, like you
Speaker 1: are physically ready, and you're like everything soft, like your
Speaker 1: cervix soft, Like I don't need to see you. I'm done,
Speaker 1: I'll see you post Natalie, And I'm like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: And then my midwife was like, yeah, you're looking good.
Speaker 1: That was thirty seven weeks. I did not give birth
Speaker 1: to forty one weeks on the dots. So there were
Speaker 1: many false starts in that time period. It was hard.
Speaker 1: That is a month, It's a whole month. I was
Speaker 1: literally like, fuck, I could have worked for another month.
Speaker 1: I couldn't have couldn't though I was not feeling good,
Speaker 1: you're off it. I was so off it. I was
Speaker 1: off everything. To be honest, I was real big grumple
Speaker 1: stilt skin. But yeah, there were many false starts that happened,
Speaker 1: but kind of in that, I think I got to
Speaker 1: like thirty eight weeks and I got to thirty nine weeks,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, what the Hell's going on?
Speaker 1: And then I realized like, I've just got to like
Speaker 1: let go, because I think I was so convinced that
Speaker 1: it was going to happen that it was almost like
Speaker 1: not letting it happen. So I really had to just
Speaker 1: like give in and I just had to do one
Speaker 1: thing a day and keep planning, Like I was like
Speaker 1: crossing days off the calendar, and I stopped at thirty
Speaker 1: nine weeks, like putting it on there. And then I
Speaker 1: was like, all right, I'm just going to right up
Speaker 1: to forty two weeks just to give myself a little
Speaker 1: bit more anyway. So yeah, Emma, my midwife, was just like, Babe,
Speaker 1: you've got to relax, like just take everything off your mind.
Speaker 1: Figure out if there's just like spin something on your
Speaker 1: mind that's like niggling at you. So with the false starts.
Speaker 1: I had like a bit of mucus plug fallout on
Speaker 1: a Friday, and I was like, we are so on.
Speaker 1: I was looking after Rue laying on the couch and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, things are starting to get spicy,
Speaker 1: Like my cramps are cramping right now. And so I
Speaker 1: messaged Charlie and I was like, hey, I Reckon, you
Speaker 1: should come home just because things are starting to heat up.
Speaker 1: And then I called my sister in law and I
Speaker 1: was like, hey, just letting you know, lost a bit
Speaker 1: of my plug and my cramps are cramping. And she's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll be there in an hour to get Rue. That
Speaker 1: was so nice, But I think what happened is that
Speaker 1: I then realized I had this like freak out that
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, this is literally the last time
Speaker 1: it's going to be a FA family of three, Like
Speaker 1: she's gonna go and her whole life's going to change.
Speaker 1: And I completely wigged out, and I actually think I
Speaker 1: packed myself out. So Ru got picked up and then
Speaker 1: everything went away, like everything. I had no cramping. It
Speaker 1: was like my cervix was like like closed itself.
Speaker 2: Was that the night that you were also vomiting in
Speaker 2: diarrhea though.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that happened to me twice, so twice before that
Speaker 1: plot came out. So that's the thing. It wasn't just
Speaker 1: me thinking I was going to go at thirty eight
Speaker 1: thirty nine weeks. It was like I'd have these things
Speaker 1: where I'd open my bows, be vomiting, and then nothing
Speaker 1: would happen. There was one of those instances that I
Speaker 1: was having to like breathe through. I don't want to
Speaker 1: say that they were like contractions, but.
Speaker 2: Like a strong cramp.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I really had to breathe through them. So but
Speaker 1: as my doller kept saying to me, they're not false starts.
Speaker 1: That is your body starting the process. Like it's a
Speaker 1: long process. She was like to me, remember you haven't
Speaker 1: dilated fully before, so if there's a bit of work
Speaker 1: that needs to be done, you know that first. Like
Speaker 1: six centimeters should be pretty normal.
Speaker 2: What did you get to with rue for six centimeters
Speaker 2: over several days?
Speaker 1: Over two days? Yeah? Yeah, so it finally happened. Tell me,
Speaker 1: I want to.
Speaker 2: Know everything, because it was a day that I all
Speaker 2: of a sudden I realized that you'd gone really dark.
Speaker 2: Lucy had gone dark, and Lucy never goes dark, and
Speaker 2: I was like, it's on. And I sent you a
Speaker 2: message saying you've got this.
Speaker 1: Happy pushing, you can get this baby out or something like.
Speaker 2: I was just so aggressive with my ha. I know
Speaker 2: that you're in labor because you and Lucy are both dark,
Speaker 2: happy pushing.
Speaker 1: Monday Day, I had, like, was making breaky in the
Speaker 1: morning and I was like, oh, yuck, that's a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, when you're just pregnant and you're just
Speaker 1: there's a lot of sweat and things fluids coming out
Speaker 1: of down there. And I was like, oh, that was
Speaker 1: a lot yuck. And then but anyway, I made my
Speaker 1: toast because food comes first, and then I went to
Speaker 1: the bathroom and I was like, w that is the
Speaker 1: rest of my mucus plug, like a big amount of
Speaker 1: my mucus plug. And I was like, all right, we're
Speaker 1: on here. So I texted midwife Adulla. I was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: the rest of my mucus plug just came out, So
Speaker 1: just giving you guys a little heel that we might
Speaker 1: be on here. Charlie came home as usual that night.
Speaker 1: We put rude down the whole day, nothing, no, nothing,
Speaker 1: But do you know what I did that day was
Speaker 1: like on my head. I was like, oh, because we've
Speaker 1: been so ready for a month. The house was like
Speaker 1: kind of a bit in shambles, and then you know,
Speaker 1: life having a toddler all of that, and I just
Speaker 1: wanted to like fold everything and put everything away because
Speaker 1: it was just like some washing out and blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to just you know, spruce it up
Speaker 1: a little bit. So I did that that day, and
Speaker 1: then I sat down and watched like a little bit
Speaker 1: of TV. So the day went really quickly, and I
Speaker 1: swear that was the thing that had been on my
Speaker 1: mind that was annoying me.
Speaker 2: It was just like the messy house.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just the messy house needing to get ounder control anyway.
Speaker 1: So we put rud to bed and then I'm sitting
Speaker 1: on the couch. I'm just so uncomfortable because the baby
Speaker 1: was so low at this point.
Speaker 2: If baby was hanging between your.
Speaker 1: Legs, literally, I could not sit, babe. There was no
Speaker 1: position that I could sit or lay in that was comfortable.
Speaker 1: I wasn't sleeping.
Speaker 2: I was just bad.
Speaker 1: It was bad. Walking. I was like waddling like i'd be.
Speaker 1: It was like I was a caricature of a person
Speaker 1: who was pregnant, like I was so dramatic. It was
Speaker 1: just like, I'm embarrassed about how dramatic I'm being in
Speaker 1: this pregnancy above all of the other things.
Speaker 2: Like it's not that common to go to forty one weeks,
Speaker 2: especially with your second child.
Speaker 1: So well, it turns out it is, because remember when
Speaker 1: I put it up on my Instagram and everyone's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was engaged at thirty six weeks and didn't give
Speaker 1: birth to forty two plus.
Speaker 2: Who three And I'm like, oh wow, Yeah, I didn't
Speaker 2: realize it was that common.
Speaker 1: Honestly, it can be anything. That's what I learned as like,
Speaker 1: the baby will come when it comes, and it's its
Speaker 1: own personality. It's whether it's stubborn, it's whether it's comfy
Speaker 1: in there, whatever. This baby was like I'm feeling good
Speaker 1: and he I don't know about you, but I'm feeling good,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I'm not feeling good. Get the fuck
Speaker 1: out anyway. So we are brushing our teeth and I
Speaker 1: sit down on the toilet to do a wee and
Speaker 1: then I felt a massive drop of the head. And
Speaker 1: I've heard people say this, so it was just like
Speaker 1: so crazy for it to happen, but like the head
Speaker 1: moved a significant amount down even more into my pelvis,
Speaker 1: and I was just like, whoa, that was really intense,
Speaker 1: like something is going on. And then I kid you not,
Speaker 1: it was on. It was on straight away. So that
Speaker 1: all kind of kicked off at ten PM as we
Speaker 1: were going to bed, and for the next kind of
Speaker 1: hour and a half, I was just trying to breathe
Speaker 1: through the contractions basically, So I was laying down trying
Speaker 1: to breathe through but not really getting any reprieve. So
Speaker 1: I was finding it really difficult. And then the only
Speaker 1: position that was like really comfortable for me was standing up,
Speaker 1: but that was bad because my legs like was so
Speaker 1: sore by the end of it. So about an hour
Speaker 1: and a half and I said to Charlie like, hey,
Speaker 1: I think we need to call Nikki the dueler over
Speaker 1: just because I need help with like how to get
Speaker 1: through these contractions. Like I feel like they're just coming
Speaker 1: so fast and so quick that I need her there
Speaker 1: to kind of like be doing kip squeezes and just
Speaker 1: like coaching me through. Cheerleader yeah exactly. So Charlie's like, yep,
Speaker 1: we'll get her over. So she came over. She was
Speaker 1: like fifteen minutes away, so she got here and so
Speaker 1: that was about midnight. She arrived. She was really great.
Speaker 1: She was just like coaching me through it. She's like
Speaker 1: doing great. And as soon as she kind of got there,
Speaker 1: I relaxed a little bit more because I felt like, Okay,
Speaker 1: Charlie's there for me emotionally, but she's there for me
Speaker 1: as well, like to get me through it technically and
Speaker 1: to figure out like what to do. And we were
Speaker 1: trying a bunch of different positions and then she's like,
Speaker 1: why don't you do some sideline just to rest your legs.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, So in our room, we just
Speaker 1: had like a little mattress on the ground that I
Speaker 1: was kind of laboring on.
Speaker 2: Is Rue just sleeping through you laboring? Rue was asleep
Speaker 2: at this stage, sort of quiet.
Speaker 4: Then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So interestingly, for Roux's birth, I was really quiet
Speaker 1: as well. I didn't make any noise, and I was
Speaker 1: exactly the same for this labor. I didn't make any noise.
Speaker 1: I was more like breathing, really controlled breathing. I felt
Speaker 1: like that was the thing that was gonna help me
Speaker 1: the most. So then yeah, I'm sidelining and my waters break.
Speaker 2: What did that feel? Like?
Speaker 1: Warm gush of water that did not stop for ages?
Speaker 1: And then I can you know when you can just
Speaker 1: like sense someone's like oh, I saw the doeler's face,
Speaker 1: like oh, and then she kind of like tried to
Speaker 1: take a picture really slide. She's like, I'll just be
Speaker 1: back in a second. And I was like, okay, she's
Speaker 1: calling Emma because there's definitely maconium in my waters.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, you got that just from her face?
Speaker 2: Or could you smell it? No?
Speaker 1: No, no, I listened to so many birth stories that like,
Speaker 1: you know, you just know. I don't know. I just
Speaker 1: had a sense anyway, and she came back and she's like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I've just let Emma know that your waters are broken
Speaker 1: and she is going to come over. So Emma got
Speaker 1: here at like one or two am. She was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's a little bit of maconium in your waters. But
Speaker 1: what's happened is that as your waters are coming out,
Speaker 1: it's getting clearer and clearer. So it's not uncommon for
Speaker 1: babies to do who before they go into labor, they're
Speaker 1: kind of empty their bows. But if it was like
Speaker 1: consistently dark maconium. Then we would know that the baby
Speaker 1: was in distress. So she checked the feet or heart rate.
Speaker 1: Everything was fine, did my obs, like my blood pressure.
Speaker 1: Everything was all good. So she was really happy for
Speaker 1: us to continue to labor, and I felt confident in
Speaker 1: that as well. But then things started obviously getting even spicier,
Speaker 1: and I didn't think that they could get spicier because
Speaker 1: I was fucking red hol at that point.
Speaker 2: Is Lucy here?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: And so after kind of Emma gets here, I'm like,
Speaker 1: all right, I need to call Lucy because in my
Speaker 1: mind I was like this, this is happening so fast
Speaker 1: that she's going to miss the birth at this rate.
Speaker 1: So I just called Lucy and I go hey, and
Speaker 1: she's like, is it happening. I'm like, yep, you need
Speaker 1: to get here now.
Speaker 2: She's like, oh, for goodness sake, thanks, I've had my
Speaker 2: phone on laud all night, every night for the past month.
Speaker 1: And then that was it. And then I just like
Speaker 1: hung up the phone. And so she appeared and she was.
Speaker 2: Great, did she have the cake? No?
Speaker 1: There was no cake. There was no cake. There was
Speaker 1: no time for cake, let me tell you. So then
Speaker 1: I'm like saying to everyone, can you guys get the
Speaker 1: pool ready, like I need to not feel like I
Speaker 1: need to be in water like right now. So with
Speaker 1: the home birth, you get access to a birth pool
Speaker 1: that they give you as well as like a tens
Speaker 1: machine and other things to help you. We had birth combs.
Speaker 1: Birth combs are fucking amazing, I will say that. So
Speaker 1: they're just little mini combs that are that can be
Speaker 1: made out of anything. But howls are made out of
Speaker 1: like bamboo. We just got them of farmers on. They
Speaker 1: were dirt cheap withought. I'm in a pair of two
Speaker 1: and what you do is you have this pressure point
Speaker 1: between your thumb and your pointer finger and your palm
Speaker 1: and you bend the comb into that pressure point. When
Speaker 1: you're having a contraction, you push on it and it
Speaker 1: just distracts your mind because it's like a different pain
Speaker 1: and it also released. And that was what I did
Speaker 1: pretty much from ten PM until I got into the
Speaker 1: berth pool around like four And that was a wow.
Speaker 1: Like I wanted to get into the water because I
Speaker 1: just didn't want like I wanted to float around and
Speaker 1: kind of just have warm water around me. But the
Speaker 1: birth comb one hundred and ten percent the Tens machine.
Speaker 1: This time around, I was like, get it away from me.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, it's not working for me. I
Speaker 1: hate it. I hate it. I hate it. And Charlie
Speaker 1: was like, fuck, that was like my thing from last
Speaker 1: time that I was like contributing, like the Tens guy.
Speaker 2: I was like, I got I'm the Tens guy. I
Speaker 2: got it.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, babe, I don't want to tell you
Speaker 1: fucking I hate it. Get away from me. And he's like,
Speaker 1: got it. So he's filling up the pool and then
Speaker 1: we hear a little scuffle of the feet and little
Speaker 1: root Cearles appears. I was just like, fuck, it's like
Speaker 1: three four am. I don't really want to call, even
Speaker 1: though it would have been fine to call my sister
Speaker 1: in law, but I was just like, if she's sweet,
Speaker 1: I'm kind of fine for her to be here. I
Speaker 1: don't want her to be here on the business end
Speaker 1: because I feel like it's a little bit too much
Speaker 1: for her at that age. But I was like, let's
Speaker 1: just see how she goes. And she was amazing. She
Speaker 1: was just like super inquisitive, watching everything from the sidelines,
Speaker 1: just like would bring me her toys and say like
Speaker 1: here's lying for your mummy to help you. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: thank you, baby.
Speaker 2: They have got the purest hearts, don't they?
Speaker 1: They really do, And like she knew everyone right, so
Speaker 1: she knew Emma midwife. She spent a bit of time
Speaker 1: with Nicki as well, because in the Nicki had been
Speaker 1: here for a month, had to extend her trip twice
Speaker 1: because it was no baby, so they were coming over regularly,
Speaker 1: so Rue was like super comfortable with them, and obviously
Speaker 1: Lucy is really close with Rue, so she felt super
Speaker 1: comfortable and safe with everyone there. And I think that
Speaker 1: made like obviously a really big difference. So the pool
Speaker 1: finally is ready because.
Speaker 2: It's not a small body of water like I can
Speaker 2: imagine then you waiting and it's like taking its sweethearts
Speaker 2: don't feeling up and you're like, oh my god, oh.
Speaker 1: The thing is. It fills up quickly, But the fuck
Speaker 1: our tap water it's like came out at forty seven degrees.
Speaker 1: It has to be thirty seven to birth, Like that's
Speaker 1: the temperature that you want, Like the baby cannot be
Speaker 1: birthed into cold water, but ours is ten degrees high
Speaker 1: as so Charlie, bless.
Speaker 2: Them, he's so specific though.
Speaker 1: I think it's just like the warmth of maybe your
Speaker 1: tummy inside that the baby's in. I don't know, that's
Speaker 1: just a guess. But when they told me it was
Speaker 1: thirty seven degrees, I was like, please, please, don't let
Speaker 1: this baby come during a fucking heat wave. I'm going
Speaker 1: to be getting like my forty degree apartment into my
Speaker 1: thirty seven degrees like gross. But luckily the winds had
Speaker 1: changed that day, dyl and it was very cool for
Speaker 1: laboring was so good anyway. So I'm like, what's going
Speaker 1: on with the pool?
Speaker 3: Guys?
Speaker 1: Like, I'm trying to stay really calm, but I'm like
Speaker 1: every single person that came up to me was like,
Speaker 1: what's happening with the pool? I want to get in there.
Speaker 1: Charlie Busson was trying to bring the temperature down by
Speaker 1: ten degrees by putting cold water in. He got it
Speaker 1: to forty and Emma was like, just let her get in.
Speaker 1: She really wants to get in. So I got in
Speaker 1: and oh my god, instant relief. That fucking water. Oh
Speaker 1: it just felt so good. I felt. I just felt relaxed,
Speaker 1: Like you're also weightless, right because you're floating. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just really great to have that, and it was
Speaker 1: just really nice to then have everyone kind of standing
Speaker 1: around me. Were they chanting, No, there was no chanting.
Speaker 1: We had lots of music on and we had like,
Speaker 1: oh good, good good, kind of these like fake candles
Speaker 1: that we bought off Amazon just like scattered around. So
Speaker 1: it was very like Castle esque or.
Speaker 2: The one that you tricked me with. What was this
Speaker 2: did I drink in when you sent me a selfie
Speaker 2: like a week before?
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.
Speaker 2: And I was like, oh my god, there's candles in
Speaker 2: the background. Oh my god, we're in business. And then
Speaker 2: she doesn't ride back for ages and she was like,
Speaker 2: oh no, we've just been setting the mood every night.
Speaker 1: We had been every fucking night, Clarius Adoyle, fake candles,
Speaker 1: every bloody thing. She still just came when she wanted
Speaker 1: to come. Yeah. So we're in the bath, everyone's standing
Speaker 1: around and Rue is just like so hilarious. At this point,
Speaker 1: She's just like up in my face, just like giving
Speaker 1: me like a little cold compress and then she like
Speaker 1: disappears and reappears with her like frozen deck chair that
Speaker 1: she has. It's like this deck chair that her grandma
Speaker 1: got over Christmas a couple of years ago, and she
Speaker 1: pushes the deck chair like right up to the front
Speaker 1: of the pool and just like takes a seat as
Speaker 1: if it's an actual pool. Okay, she's just like got
Speaker 1: a front row ticket to mum giving birth. And I
Speaker 1: was just like, everyone's pissing themselves laughing.
Speaker 2: She's like, well, I need to be comfortable so I
Speaker 2: can enjoy the show.
Speaker 1: She's like, I've been standing for long enough. I also
Speaker 1: need a little bit of comfort right now. Anyway, So
Speaker 1: that was just beautiful. She is so funny, she's hilarious.
Speaker 1: So it started getting even more intense, I guess, but
Speaker 1: you know, it was so.
Speaker 2: Weird, like what time's this now?
Speaker 1: This is four or five am. And I probably stayed
Speaker 1: in there till about six thirty, and then I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: I need to change it up. They were like, why
Speaker 1: don't you try. I'm sitting on the toilet because that's
Speaker 1: like a really well the toilet and a berth stool.
Speaker 1: My god, it's just like the exact angle that you
Speaker 1: need for a baby to like increase your surges your contractions.
Speaker 1: So we did that for a bit.
Speaker 2: How many centimeters were you at that point? Like were
Speaker 2: they checking?
Speaker 1: They were not checking. So yeah, we weren't doing any
Speaker 1: vaginal examinations only when we absolutely needed to. But even then,
Speaker 1: I think maybe when she got there, I think I
Speaker 1: was already at six and then later on I got smaller.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you that in a second. Anyway, so
Speaker 1: I was like, I need to change it up. They're like, hey, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's go. Let's try birth stool. So we're trying like
Speaker 1: the birth stool, which was really good. It made it
Speaker 1: so intense. We were trying like kneeling and then leaning on
Speaker 1: the couch, which was really good. We went back and
Speaker 1: did sideline for a little bit, did the toilet.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: Then I realized the sun was coming up, and I
Speaker 1: was like, fuck, okay, I think Roote needs to well
Speaker 1: it's like seven am. I was like, Roue needs to
Speaker 1: go to daycare and things are firing up here.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling mentally at this point? You've been
Speaker 2: in a lot of pain, no pain relief, Like I
Speaker 2: know this is what you wanted, but how are you
Speaker 2: feeling mentally?
Speaker 1: I was feeling okay, you know, like I was really calm,
Speaker 1: but I was like feeling I was saying like I don't.
Speaker 1: I can't do it, guys, I can't do it, and
Speaker 1: they're like you can, you can remember.
Speaker 2: Lice he played the playlist.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. She played all of these videos from
Speaker 1: my friends, voice notes from my friends and also my godmother,
Speaker 1: my godparents from overseas, and that was like beautiful and
Speaker 1: she did like bring one out at like the right
Speaker 1: time when I was just having like a little crisis
Speaker 1: of confidence or just being like because I just thought
Speaker 1: like every fucking contraction was so intense, and I was
Speaker 1: just like I can't do it. And they'd be like,
Speaker 1: you literally just did it, though, you just did it,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, yeah, I just did it. I
Speaker 1: just did it. I just gonna remember I am doing it.
Speaker 1: And I was like that what the doueler was so
Speaker 1: good about, because she just kept saying to me, but
Speaker 1: you are, like you are doing it, and you're so calm,
Speaker 1: you're so composed. It doesn't matter how you birth, like
Speaker 1: you don't need to be calm and composed. But she's
Speaker 1: like you're okay, like you're getting through it all, like
Speaker 1: it's hard, it's meant to be hard, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're right, okay, and then Emma, my midwife, was like
Speaker 1: to me, Okay, I need you to go and rest
Speaker 1: for a little bit because I feel like you're getting tired.
Speaker 1: I need you and Charlie to go lay down on
Speaker 1: the bed for a little bit and rest because I
Speaker 1: feel like we've been going for a while and we've
Speaker 1: just kind of reached like a bit of a block.
Speaker 1: I don't know what words she used, but I need
Speaker 1: you to go and rest for a while. But what
Speaker 1: had happened is that I had also started to have
Speaker 1: involuntary pushing. So basically my body was like during a contraction,
Speaker 1: my body was like trying to expel the baby, right, so.
Speaker 2: Our bodies are wild, Like that's wild.
Speaker 1: And I was actually so excited about this because I
Speaker 1: had heard like not all women get that sensation, but
Speaker 1: like I was so excited when it started happening because
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, like this is such
Speaker 1: a cool thing to experience, you know, like this is
Speaker 1: when the baby is in the right position, When you
Speaker 1: have that involuntary pushing, that's often how the baby like
Speaker 1: comes out. So I was like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is awesome. And then she's like, I need you to
Speaker 1: go have a rest. And if you can, I need
Speaker 1: you to not push, because what has happened is that
Speaker 1: your cervix is you've got a cervical lip. So basically
Speaker 1: what that means is like the baby comes down pretty much,
Speaker 1: it has to be like on a target with your cervix.
Speaker 1: If the baby's slightly off, the cervix doesn't like dilate evenly,
Speaker 1: and you end up having like too much cervix on
Speaker 1: one side and the baby's kind of trying to push
Speaker 1: through and you're not properly dilated. So she's like, I
Speaker 1: just need you to stop pushing for a bit so
Speaker 1: we can see if some of that inflammation of your
Speaker 1: cervix comes down. And I was like, well, so you
Speaker 1: want me to not push when my body does like
Speaker 1: the involuntary pushing, and she's like, yeah, I know, it's
Speaker 1: really hard, and I was just like fuck. So, like
Speaker 1: I said to Charlie, like, how many do you reckon?
Speaker 1: I was like breathing through and letting through, and he
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, it was like fifty to fifty.
Speaker 1: Like you would breathe, breathe, breathe, breathe, breathing, and you
Speaker 1: would let like two through. And I was just like fuck.
Speaker 1: So we laid down for a while. Some really beautiful
Speaker 1: pictures actually that Lucy took of Charlie and I just
Speaker 1: kind of like laying there in bed and cuddling and
Speaker 1: he's just like, you can do it. And then she's like,
Speaker 1: I also want to try some front lying in versions.
Speaker 1: So it basically I had been doing these and the
Speaker 1: lead up to the birth, but one of them, for instance,
Speaker 1: was like on the edge of the bed, bringing my
Speaker 1: top leg forward and like my belly, letting my belly
Speaker 1: fall over the side of the bed, and with gravity
Speaker 1: it kind of sometimes can spin the baby a little
Speaker 1: bit to get into a better position. But she was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we need you to do this, and I was like
Speaker 1: I can't do that. It was like that is too painful,
Speaker 1: and she's like I need you to do it, and
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, let's do it. She's like you
Speaker 1: didn't take much negotiation.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I was like I really don't want to do this
Speaker 1: because it was just so painful, and I was like,
Speaker 1: any any additional thing that I'm doing is just like
Speaker 1: freaking me out. Anyway, So we did a few of
Speaker 1: those and I'll be like, how long are we holding
Speaker 1: for and she'd be like, we need a hold for
Speaker 1: a minute. I was just like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: was fun, Like I haven't been doing my pilates lately,
Speaker 1: very fit. It was honestly so intense because it's like
Speaker 1: your whole belly hanging off the side. It just wasn't
Speaker 1: the feeling that you want in the process of labor.
Speaker 1: It just was like kind of a yucky feeling. And
Speaker 1: then we did another position which I cannot, for the
Speaker 1: life of me remember what it was, but it was
Speaker 1: like rocking the apples, so you're like kneeling and then
Speaker 1: leaning onto like the bed and then they get like
Speaker 1: a wrap. So I think we just had like a
Speaker 1: terry towel, like a Terry beach towel. They put it
Speaker 1: under your booty and then they just like wobble from
Speaker 1: left to right basically, and it actually feels fucking amazing
Speaker 1: that one didn't have to that good and that kind
Speaker 1: of can jiggle the baby into place. Anyway. We did that,
Speaker 1: and then I was like, oh, I need to get
Speaker 1: out of the bed, Like I just want to get
Speaker 1: out of bed. I had also been vomiting a lot,
Speaker 1: but they were worried because I hadn't done a wee
Speaker 1: in ages, so they were like, I think what's happened
Speaker 1: is that you've been drinking heaps of water, but you're
Speaker 1: not getting a sensation to wei because obviously everything's so
Speaker 1: smushed down there. What we're going to do and I
Speaker 1: wish I could remember what the term was, but instead
Speaker 1: of putting a catheter in, they basically put something into
Speaker 1: your urethra and they drain it. So instead of doing
Speaker 1: a catheter. So what can happen, right, is it if
Speaker 1: you've got a full bladder, The full bladder can be
Speaker 1: impacting how the baby's coming down, right, So the head's
Speaker 1: like not coming down completely on target because the bladder
Speaker 1: is so full.
Speaker 2: Logistically it makes sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I was like, oh, here we go. Okay.
Speaker 1: So they did like an empty for me, and it
Speaker 1: was so much wee so much?
Speaker 2: Is it painful? It sounds painful.
Speaker 1: No, it was like a relief. No, they just gone
Speaker 1: through urethra. I actually have quite a nice urethra. I've
Speaker 1: had to do a lot of this because I've had
Speaker 1: that underactive bladder.
Speaker 2: How do you know what your urethra looks like?
Speaker 1: I don't know. But when I went to the hospital.
Speaker 1: They said I had a beautiful urethra. I think it
Speaker 1: just means I have a big one and it's easy
Speaker 1: to get a fucking carpeter into my board.
Speaker 2: I've got a wide set urethra.
Speaker 1: Anyway, so they emptied that, and that actually did feel good.
Speaker 1: It felt good to get that out. And then I
Speaker 1: just said to them, Okay, I need to get out
Speaker 1: of this bed, like I feel like I need to
Speaker 1: change up the energy. I feel like I need to
Speaker 1: sit on the toilet. But that just increased my pushing
Speaker 1: because of the fucking the.
Speaker 2: Like I'm on the toilet, I'm pushing.
Speaker 1: It's just also gravity. It's everything. It's like how they
Speaker 1: tell you, like the optimal way to push is by
Speaker 1: putting your feet on a little stool and sitting on
Speaker 1: the toilet. Same like that setup is really good for birthing.
Speaker 1: It's like too powerful. I was like, oh, that's too powerful.
Speaker 1: I've got to get out of here. And then they
Speaker 1: were like, okay, we want you to come and lay
Speaker 1: down in the lounge, just on your other little thing
Speaker 1: there and we'll just do your obs. And at the stage, like,
Speaker 1: what time is it at this point, maybe eight or
Speaker 1: nine am? So the whole time this is happening, that
Speaker 1: involuntary pushing contractions are still happening, right and I'm trying
Speaker 1: to breathe through them, but a lot of them are
Speaker 1: getting through. And I did notice that I had a
Speaker 1: bit of blood that had started coming out as I
Speaker 1: was moving around, which I didn't really have before. I
Speaker 1: just had that clear liquid. But I had a bit
Speaker 1: of blood and kind of thought to myself and my head, oh,
Speaker 1: I wonder if that's like a flag. So when we
Speaker 1: went down, she was doing my obs and my blood
Speaker 1: pressure spiked and my heart rate spiked, and they were like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to give her some fluids. So I had some.
Speaker 1: They gave me like an ivy bag of fluids because
Speaker 1: they just thought maybe I'm really dehydrated. So they were
Speaker 1: trying to see if that would kind of stabilize everything.
Speaker 1: It didn't. Like my heart rate was still really high.
Speaker 1: And then the other thing that happened was the baby's
Speaker 1: heart rate decelerated. It went down. So Emma came and
Speaker 1: sat with me and she's like, key, we've had three markers,
Speaker 1: so we've had the spike and your blood pressure, we've had.
Speaker 1: Your heart rate is really high. We're struggling to get
Speaker 1: it down, and you've also got a bit of blood
Speaker 1: and she's like, those are markers for a scar tear.
Speaker 1: So that and also the fact that the baby's heart
Speaker 1: rate decelerated when we were doing checking. She's like, I'd
Speaker 1: like us to go into hospital. I think as a precaution,
Speaker 1: just to make sure that we are we need to
Speaker 1: be should anything happen. The one thing we wanted to
Speaker 1: do was labor at home for as long as possible,
Speaker 1: because I feel like with Rue, we just didn't know
Speaker 1: enough right first time parents giving birth, we just didn't
Speaker 1: know enough. We actually stayed at home for quite a
Speaker 1: long time in comparison to other people. But we were
Speaker 1: listening to an app that was saying, your contractions are
Speaker 1: so close together, go to hospital, go to hospital, like
Speaker 1: and we went to hospital and that kind of started
Speaker 1: us down the path of rus birth. But this time
Speaker 1: we got to really stay at home. We got to
Speaker 1: do the laboring that we did, try everything, We got
Speaker 1: to use the pull. At that point, I felt like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I need something to actually stop the involuntary pushing, because
Speaker 1: she was saying to me, the reason you have started
Speaker 1: bleeding is because your servix is so inflamed and that
Speaker 1: is just blood from your cervix, but it's as a precaution,
Speaker 1: you know, all of these things together. And I was like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: that's fine, Like I feel fine to do that. And
Speaker 1: I just said to her, do you think I'm going
Speaker 1: to have to have a cesarean? And she said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that that will be the likely scenario. So
Speaker 1: the decision was made not to call an ambulance because
Speaker 1: we weren't in an emergency. And also if we had
Speaker 1: called an ambulance, they would have had to do obs
Speaker 1: and like basically do a whole thing.
Speaker 2: How are you feeling?
Speaker 1: I was feeling emotional. I was feeling that the thing
Speaker 1: that was detrimental to what was going on was involuntary pushing,
Speaker 1: and I wanted that to stop. And I was just like,
Speaker 1: I just want that sensation to be taken away because
Speaker 1: I'm really struggling now to I mean, I had been
Speaker 1: dealing with that for two and a half hours, right
Speaker 1: I And I was trying not to push against what
Speaker 1: my body was wanting me to do. So I felt relief,
Speaker 1: I guess because I felt relief in that Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna meet my baby soon regardless of what happens. And
Speaker 1: I felt relief in that the experience I had was
Speaker 1: still really beautiful, Like it felt like it was a
Speaker 1: really posit that of experience, and I knew that I
Speaker 1: had done everything in my power at that point.
Speaker 2: It was literally your body that like, well one part
Speaker 2: of your body that wasn't letting you progress.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and it's just unfortunate. And the thing is you
Speaker 1: can persevere and continue to labor with a cervical lip,
Speaker 1: but for us and those markers, it was just like
Speaker 1: not worth it. For us, well not not worth it.
Speaker 1: It was just like to labor then for another day
Speaker 1: or so with no guarantee that it would happen. So
Speaker 1: that was for our choice to do that. Charlie like
Speaker 1: six four, he ran to get the car. He was
Speaker 1: back in two minutes and I was like, do you
Speaker 1: think I had packed a hospital bag at forty one weeks?
Speaker 2: No, of course you didn't.
Speaker 1: I hadn't.
Speaker 2: It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: We were like, oh, we'll pack that during the labor.
Speaker 1: It'll give us something to do. So I'm going to Lucy, Lucy,
Speaker 1: I've poked my hospital bag and she's like, I'm on it,
Speaker 1: so she's like throwing stuff in. It was fine, you
Speaker 1: don't need like that much. But I was like, I
Speaker 1: don't need anything, you just need few things exactly. I
Speaker 1: was like, put the adult diapers in.
Speaker 2: Put those bloody diapers back here. I love those things.
Speaker 2: I noticed, yes, and the other day when I was
Speaker 2: talking to you that you had one, and I was like,
Speaker 2: key in those diapers. She loves them.
Speaker 1: Honestly. I'm like, literally almost stop bleeding after like two weeks,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh no, I don't have to wear
Speaker 1: normal undies again. It's just so nice.
Speaker 2: Just chuck them in the ben when you're just going
Speaker 2: to pretend that she's still bleeding simply so that she
Speaker 2: can wear them.
Speaker 1: Literally. So we get in the car, so it's me
Speaker 1: and Charlie and Adula. Niki in the back, who's wedge
Speaker 1: between two car seats. She's tiny, she's like five feet
Speaker 1: so it was fine. And then Lucy and Emma are
Speaker 1: in the car behind us. Oh, I forgot to say.
Speaker 1: Sorr the second midwife had been there for ages, just
Speaker 1: like pottering around waiting for her thing, and she was
Speaker 1: really lovely.
Speaker 2: Oh what was her name, Kate. It's a full house
Speaker 2: it's a lot of house.
Speaker 1: And the dog was there too, obviously pottering around.
Speaker 2: Oh god, of course I'll be allen.
Speaker 1: He was good though, he didn't hit him, bark or
Speaker 1: anything like that. So Kate stayed behind. And this is
Speaker 1: the other great thing about having a private midwife. They
Speaker 1: clean the house for you. They drain the pool, they
Speaker 1: pack the pool down, they take everything away, so you
Speaker 1: come home to like a really neat house. We just
Speaker 1: had some washing and laundry that we needed to put
Speaker 1: on and that was it.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's so good, so so good.
Speaker 1: Anyway, so the car ride to the hospital was about
Speaker 1: as good as you'd expect it to be. It was
Speaker 1: fucking terrible. I thought I was really loud, but Nikki
Speaker 1: was like, you didn't make her sound, so in my
Speaker 1: head I was going fuck.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but in reality you were just like.
Speaker 1: She's like, you did squeeze my hand a little hard. Anyway,
Speaker 1: we get to the hospital and Emma's like, just parking
Speaker 1: the five minute parking thing. It's fine if you're like,
Speaker 1: if they give you a ticket, we can just say
Speaker 1: it's to the birth whatever. So we pull in and
Speaker 1: it's Simon's right, Royal Women's. Yeah, in Sydney, amazing hospital,
Speaker 1: the greatest, the best, the best, and I can't walk
Speaker 1: Guys like I am, yeah, deary, pushing is still happening.
Speaker 1: And also the contractions were on top of each other
Speaker 1: so they were not stopping, so it was like it
Speaker 1: was just fucking mental. I was just like, how is
Speaker 1: this happening? This is so crazy? Sorry, I was making
Speaker 1: noise with the involuntary stuff, like if I couldn't breathe
Speaker 1: through it, then I was like like letting it out.
Speaker 1: And would you believe that happened in the car park
Speaker 1: in the front of the hospital, just everyone there, and
Speaker 1: I'm just like it was like out before.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 1: But I was just like in my head like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is just so funny. These people are leaving.
Speaker 2: Did they still make you do a COVID test as
Speaker 2: you enter? No?
Speaker 1: No, no one did. It's so lax. Emma went and
Speaker 1: got me a wheelchair, so that was good. And luckily
Speaker 1: it's like right there, you just go straight into the
Speaker 1: lifts and up to the berth suite and we went
Speaker 1: into the room and they're like, sorry, we don't have
Speaker 1: any big rooms, and they wheeled me into what is
Speaker 1: the biggest room I've ever seen in my life. What
Speaker 1: do you mean this is a small room? This is
Speaker 1: like the same size as my private room. When I
Speaker 1: burst threw like, I was like, what do people expect?
Speaker 1: Like I was expecting nothing. Public hospital was expecting.
Speaker 2: Like like a tiny room.
Speaker 1: I would just be happy with whatever I got, Like
Speaker 1: I'm getting it all for free care.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, it's public. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But it was a massive room. It had like four
Speaker 1: chairs in it. I mean I was like, fuck it,
Speaker 1: it's bigger than my apartment almost anyway. So we get
Speaker 1: in there and I'm straight onto the gas, and let
Speaker 1: me tell you, the gas was good, but the contractions
Speaker 1: were so big that it wasn't really touching the sides.
Speaker 1: I was like thinking, are they just give me fucking oxygen?
Speaker 1: Like is this in my head? I would never say
Speaker 1: this out loud, obviously, but I was like, is this
Speaker 1: just oxygen? Anyway? It wasn't, and I just said to them,
Speaker 1: I just want to stop the involuntary pushing because like
Speaker 1: it's really scaring me about how intense it is. And
Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, yeah, we're going to do that. We're
Speaker 1: going to give you something for that. So they're like
Speaker 1: we're just waiting for the obstetricians to come. The obstetricians
Speaker 1: came and it was three women, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I just said to them, I cannot tell you how
Speaker 1: amazing it is to see three female obstetricians. I'm so happy. Yes,
Speaker 1: because what had happened is as we're going to the hospital,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, Okay, the thing about having a vback but
Speaker 1: also a H back is that there can be a
Speaker 1: lot of judgment, right, And I was worried that us
Speaker 1: coming in was going to be like, oh great, here
Speaker 1: come the you know, the hippie dippies with their h
Speaker 1: from home. Yeah, coming into the hospital. But everyone was
Speaker 1: so lovely. Everyone was like, okay, so you're coming in, like,
Speaker 1: let's do a vaginal examination just to see where we're out.
Speaker 1: Like they've got to do the whole thing obviously, and
Speaker 1: they're like, wow, okay, you've actually gone up to seven centimeters.
Speaker 1: So I think what happened is because I was like,
Speaker 1: on the way to the hospital, I knew that the
Speaker 1: baby was going to be here, and a few hours
Speaker 1: ish that maybe my body had relaxed a little bit,
Speaker 1: and then my servics had dilated a little bit. So
Speaker 1: they were like so we actually could still have a
Speaker 1: chance here at birthing vaginally. And I was like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, Like I didn't even think that was like
Speaker 1: an opportunity. So they said, Okay, what we'll do is
Speaker 1: we'll give you an epi dural and then we will
Speaker 1: see how that goes. And they did say, like, look,
Speaker 1: the thing about an epi durl is that we need
Speaker 1: it because we need you to stop the involuntary pushing.
Speaker 1: But the thing about an epidural is that every it
Speaker 1: can slow everything down. So we might be kind of
Speaker 1: like counteracting and a little bit here, but let's give
Speaker 1: it a go. This was the only bad experience at
Speaker 1: the hospital. Everyone else was fucking rainbows and butterflies, so supportive,
Speaker 1: so nurturing, so loving. The anetheist comes in, lovely guy,
Speaker 1: the kindest eyes I've ever seen. The senior an ethetist
Speaker 1: walks in now, because this anetheist hadn't practiced at this hospital.
Speaker 1: He's he's been working for years, like he's like our
Speaker 1: age or a little bit older. This was his first
Speaker 1: day at this hospital, so he needed to be supervised
Speaker 1: by a senior attendant there. And this guy is us,
Speaker 1: like this old prick of a guy. So I'm having
Speaker 1: these involuntary pushing contractions and he doesn't give a shit,
Speaker 1: and I'm saying to them, I cannot sit still. And
Speaker 1: it's lucky that Emma was in the room. Like Emma
Speaker 1: used to work at this hospital, so she knows everyone,
Speaker 1: like she knows the Oh my god, my boob's fully leaking.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that you've just wasted milk.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I was like, oh my.
Speaker 2: God, look I feel a bit moist. Look at you,
Speaker 2: you little milk machine.
Speaker 1: Milk machine. Anyway, and that was just like an awful experience.
Speaker 1: And who I felt worse for was the actual anethetist,
Speaker 1: because what would happen is he's administering something and I've
Speaker 1: just gotten through a contraction. I'm like, Okay, the contraction's finished,
Speaker 1: and he's like, okay, I'm going to do the first
Speaker 1: step now, and he does it, and then the fucking
Speaker 1: guy that's supervising is like, and why would you do that?
Speaker 1: So like testing him while he's doing it, and he's.
Speaker 2: Like he's only got like ten seconds.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and bless the guy, he's like he's like trying
Speaker 1: to speak so quickly. He's like, ah, I would do
Speaker 1: this because then I would do that.
Speaker 4: Da da da da da.
Speaker 1: And I'm just like, in my head, I'm going to
Speaker 1: bless you your kind soul, like thank you so much.
Speaker 1: He was trying his hardest, but this this guy, like
Speaker 1: I was trying to sit up to get into the
Speaker 1: position for them to administer the thing, and he like
Speaker 1: put his hands on me, like he was like pulling me,
Speaker 1: and I was like anyway, And when I had to
Speaker 1: lay back down again, he was like pushing me, and
Speaker 1: I said to him, please don't push me. I'm in
Speaker 1: a lot of pain, like I'm trying to move in
Speaker 1: a way that is least painful for me. And his
Speaker 1: answer was, we are the priority here, the anethetist, And
Speaker 1: I was just like, in.
Speaker 2: My head, I'm my father in labor, the old doctor.
Speaker 2: He's the priority.
Speaker 1: And I just think he's one of those guys who
Speaker 1: thinks that women are hysterical when they're having pain.
Speaker 2: He's one of those guys that would like institutionalize us all.
Speaker 1: Exactly the Emma the midwife doing is she like, oh,
Speaker 1: she was fucking not happy. She was advocating for me
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. She was like, look, guys, she's in pain.
Speaker 1: She will tell you when she's finished, like blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: Like she was really good and she actually, like afterwards,
Speaker 1: went and spoke to some people and everyone's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a dickhead, like literally walked in arms crossed like
Speaker 1: such attitude, and it just changed the whole mood. Anyway,
Speaker 1: We're gonna forget about that part of it because we
Speaker 1: ended up just roasting him for the whole rest of
Speaker 1: the labor, so it didn't even matter.
Speaker 2: It was like, also, like, what's a birth story if
Speaker 2: it doesn't involve one sad little old man?
Speaker 1: Exactly? So true. So they ministered the epidural and they
Speaker 1: both left and then kind Eyes, an ethetist, came back
Speaker 1: in and he was like, I'm so sorry about that,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, no, I just want to thank you
Speaker 1: for oh crushing rushing your answers in order for us
Speaker 1: to get through that as quickly and painfree as possible.
Speaker 1: And his epidural was fucking slay. He was sligh under
Speaker 1: all that pressure. That fucking epy durol was slay. They
Speaker 1: did do a top up, but my gosh, it felt good, honey.
Speaker 1: My epi dural with route didn't work, so I was
Speaker 1: a bit like, oh, yeah, they're gonna give me an
Speaker 1: EPI dural. Will it work, won't it work? Who knows? Anyway, spoilery,
Speaker 1: Well it's working.
Speaker 3: It's good.
Speaker 1: It's real good. It's real good. So then I was
Speaker 1: just like cracking jokes. I was just like the life
Speaker 1: of the hospital room guys.
Speaker 2: It was so cute.
Speaker 1: And then everyone's like, you need to have a sleep,
Speaker 1: and I was like, so true. I've been up since
Speaker 1: ten pm the previous day and it was like literally
Speaker 1: mid day by that point, and so I ended up
Speaker 1: having a week sleep. And then they came back and
Speaker 1: did a vaginal exam I think maybe four hours later,
Speaker 1: and they were like, Okay, hasn't been any progress. We're
Speaker 1: still sitting at seven centimeters, but let's give it another
Speaker 1: couple of hours and then let's have a chat then
Speaker 1: and see how you're feeling about everything. So two hours
Speaker 1: or three hours later, two three hours later, they checked
Speaker 1: again and nothing had happened. It was still the same,
Speaker 1: and so they kind of had a chat with me.
Speaker 1: They were like, you can continue to keep laboring like this,
Speaker 1: but like explaining, the epidural has slowed everything down, obviously
Speaker 1: we need that to control the pushing that you're having,
Speaker 1: so we would recommend getting a sea section, and I
Speaker 1: just said, yeah, I'm super comfortable with getting the sea section,
Speaker 1: and then yeah, that was kind of it. We went
Speaker 1: through the kind of procedure. They talked me through the
Speaker 1: risks of everything, which I feel like didn't happen the
Speaker 1: first time around. I don't want to say that for sure,
Speaker 1: but they talked me through every single risk that could
Speaker 1: possibly happen as a result of a sea section. And
Speaker 1: another thing happened that they gave me the stuff to
Speaker 1: stop the clotting and I had to take the injections
Speaker 1: home with me and give myself an injection every day
Speaker 1: for five days. That did not happen.
Speaker 2: Everyone has to do after a sea section.
Speaker 1: I did not have that with RU. We never had
Speaker 1: to do that.
Speaker 2: So that's literally just everyone has to do. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: They were like really shocked when I said that, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I think it's because remember how I said.
Speaker 1: When I went and got my hostpital records, they had
Speaker 1: discharged me under a different name. I think that's what happened.
Speaker 1: I think I fucked up my discharge, so which is
Speaker 1: lucky that nothing fucking happened. It's really bad anyway. Then
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, how long until this is happening? And
Speaker 1: they're like seven thirty and I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: it's seven pm right now and half an hour I'm
Speaker 1: going to meet my baby. And they're like yeah. So
Speaker 1: we were just so excited, like it had been such
Speaker 1: a beautiful and long day and now we were going
Speaker 1: to meet our baby, and we were just fucking stoked.
Speaker 1: I had a new anethetist because the other one is
Speaker 1: just on the ward, and this anetheist comes into the
Speaker 1: C section. He explains all of the things about the
Speaker 1: epidural just and also kind of the procedure that's going
Speaker 1: to happen, just so from start to finish, so I
Speaker 1: understand what's going on. And he's like, we're going to
Speaker 1: wheel you in to prep you, and then I'm going
Speaker 1: to take you in to get the drugs and everything right,
Speaker 1: and then Charlie can come in after Emma was allowed
Speaker 1: to scrub in with us, which was awesome because she
Speaker 1: still work there. So we had two midwives present, which
Speaker 1: was awesome, and then we did have to do a
Speaker 1: spinal tap. It was awesome. He just gave me a
Speaker 1: bit of time, and that's what happens.
Speaker 2: The spinal tap on top of the ePIE is what
Speaker 2: makes you like, gives you the really bad shakes and stuff.
Speaker 1: Right, Oh, no, I get the shakes anyway from from it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not good. I was like shaking it immediately as
Speaker 1: we went in there, and they're like trying to talk
Speaker 1: to me and I'm.
Speaker 2: Like, no, put a blanket on me, please. They're like,
Speaker 2: you're not cold.
Speaker 1: I remember, yes, from last time. But we said to them, hey, like,
Speaker 1: obviously we'd really love skin to skin straight away. We
Speaker 1: want to do delayed cord clamping. And also Charlie will
Speaker 1: announce the gender because we didn't know the gender. Obviously
Speaker 1: we thought it was going to be a boy and
Speaker 1: they're doing it and so obviously we didn't know this
Speaker 1: at the time, but Emma, our midwife, told us this
Speaker 1: after the fact. Was that the surgeon who did the
Speaker 1: C section ended up being doctor Harry, my other doctor.
Speaker 1: Because they were going to give me the spinal she
Speaker 1: ran out because it was like an emergency on the ward,
Speaker 1: and then because the spinal didn't happen, epidurer worked, she
Speaker 1: missed out on the berth and she was really devastated.
Speaker 1: She came in the next end She's like, I cannot
Speaker 1: believe that I missed the birth, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, it's fine. Doctor Harry was amazing, lovely,
Speaker 1: loveliest guy and really like OCD like it took him
Speaker 1: an hour to sew me up, and I was like, well,
Speaker 1: list oh it was starkay. Anyway, he did this thing
Speaker 1: called a gentle cesarean, which I had never heard of,
Speaker 1: and basically what happens is that rather than like pulling
Speaker 1: the baby kind of out of your stomach, they still
Speaker 1: put pressure on you. So I felt still pressure on
Speaker 1: the top and the bottom of me, but it's almost
Speaker 1: like a bit of a reflex that the baby ends
Speaker 1: up pushing itself out, and it's it's something that they
Speaker 1: do to kind of mimic the feeling of and it's
Speaker 1: obviously not the same, but to mimic the feeling of
Speaker 1: them coming out of the birth canal, so it's like
Speaker 1: they're actually birthing. And it was really cool because I
Speaker 1: felt like our whole experience, even though we didn't get
Speaker 1: our v back when we went to the hospital, I
Speaker 1: obviously had resis about how people would view our choices
Speaker 1: for birthing, even though I feel confident in them, but
Speaker 1: you just never know we'll welcomed like so nicely, had
Speaker 1: full female obstetrician team. Everyone was like, yeah, let's keep going.
Speaker 1: There could be you know, we could do a vaginal birth.
Speaker 1: I didn't say this before, but they actually did do
Speaker 1: another vaginal examination on the table just to make sure
Speaker 1: that I hadn't like miraculously dilated to ten centimeters, to
Speaker 1: be like really sure that we had exhausted all opportunities,
Speaker 1: and then for it to finish with this like gentle cesarean.
Speaker 1: I just thought it was so nice, such a beautiful
Speaker 1: end to our birthing story. And I never had any
Speaker 1: trauma from Ru's birth, so I wasn't like worried. I
Speaker 1: just was so emotional about everything, and I just felt
Speaker 1: like when I found that out, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this was meant to be the birth that we had
Speaker 1: on the day. And so they lifted the baby up
Speaker 1: and doctor Harry was like okay, and the father's going
Speaker 1: to announce the gender. Everyone so no one say anything,
Speaker 1: and then Charlie goes.
Speaker 7: It's a it's a girl, and then we both just
Speaker 7: like pissed ourselves laughing because it was so funny, Like
Speaker 7: we were one thousand percent convinced that this was a boy,
Speaker 7: so for her to.
Speaker 1: Be a girl, it was just like the biggest and
Speaker 1: best surprise, Like there is something in not finding out
Speaker 1: the gender because you always think it's going to be
Speaker 1: one thing, and then for it to be the exact opposite.
Speaker 1: It's just so fucking funny. So anyway, it was beautiful,
Speaker 1: and she was.
Speaker 2: So chubby, like she was chubby but like the photo,
Speaker 2: she's like, there's big chunky monkey. How much way when
Speaker 2: she came out, so.
Speaker 1: Rue was like three kilos and this baby was three
Speaker 1: point eight, so almost almost a kilo more, like not
Speaker 1: far off from being a whole kilo more than Ru
Speaker 1: was no wonder. I was like hobbling around like it's
Speaker 1: biggest baby I've ever had. But yeah, she was just
Speaker 1: so beautiful and has dark coloring, like I could tell instantly.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, looks like you. She
Speaker 1: looks like me, like jet black hair, so much hair,
Speaker 1: which I already knew from the scans. I had said,
Speaker 1: like they've got a lot of hair, but jet black
Speaker 1: hair and this like darker skin. So it's just so
Speaker 1: interesting the way that genetics all works. Like I was
Speaker 1: just straight away, I was like, oh my god, she's
Speaker 1: so different looking to rue definitely my coloring, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it was just really exciting. So they put her straight
Speaker 1: on my chest and she was there the whole time.
Speaker 1: They'd like, they're like, oh, we can do her way
Speaker 1: in now, or we can do it later and recovery,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, let's do it in recovery.
Speaker 1: I just want to like spend that time with her.
Speaker 1: So we just like spent time as a family of
Speaker 1: just me and Charlie and the baby and just cuddling
Speaker 1: and just looking at.
Speaker 2: Hercuse she looked quite alert after a long labor and
Speaker 2: also so cooked. She looks like quite an alert little baby.
Speaker 1: Well, the thing was, her heart rate was fine the
Speaker 1: whole time except for that deceleration. She was like so normal.
Speaker 1: That's why they were so happy for me to continue
Speaker 1: to try and die, because she was fine. Once they
Speaker 1: got that involuntary pushing stopped every my heart rate, my
Speaker 1: blood pressure was all good. So she was so calm,
Speaker 1: Like she let out a massive cry instantly, and that
Speaker 1: would like flooded me with tears because they're like oh
Speaker 1: my god.
Speaker 2: And then she was just like when they come out,
Speaker 2: and then the rest of the time that they're they're small,
Speaker 2: you're like, please don't cry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's enough now. But then the most sort of
Speaker 1: chillst thing, like she just wanted to kind of feed
Speaker 1: straight away because she's a chunky monkey. But yeah, she's
Speaker 1: really alert for sure because she cooked for two more
Speaker 1: weeks than Ru. So it's just completely different. Rue was
Speaker 1: like quite a sleepy baby. But I also think that's
Speaker 1: because I labored for so long with drugs like I
Speaker 1: did the potocin, I did morphine, potocin, had the epidural, Like,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of drugs in my system with
Speaker 1: that birth, whereas with this birth, I think the total
Speaker 1: amount of drugs I would have had would have been
Speaker 1: seven hours worth of drugs and the whole which started
Speaker 1: at ten pm. So like it's just a different, yeah,
Speaker 1: different scenario. But yeah, she has been awake, alert and
Speaker 1: ready to fucking live life. So that's the story.
Speaker 2: You took her home the next day, right.
Speaker 1: We took her home. No, So technically the day they're
Speaker 1: born is day zero, so day one and day two,
Speaker 1: so we took her home on day two.
Speaker 2: I've never heard of someone being able to leave that
Speaker 2: soon after a sea. Well, I just like.
Speaker 1: There was one actually one complication, Like it wasn't end
Speaker 1: up being a complication, but when they were closing me up,
Speaker 1: they saw a little bit of blood in my bladder
Speaker 1: and they thought maybe they had nicked something. So they
Speaker 1: had to like clear it out with this methylene blue
Speaker 1: twice just to make sure that it wasn't actually blood.
Speaker 1: In the end, they just think it was a bit
Speaker 1: of blood from her. But because of that, they wanted
Speaker 1: me to keep the catheter in, like they wanted me
Speaker 1: to stay. They wanted me to have the catheter and
Speaker 1: basically the whole day. So typically they'd take it out
Speaker 1: the morning after the sea, but I had to leave
Speaker 1: it to the following morning. And I just was so
Speaker 1: uncomfortable with the catheterine. Like I was really bedbounds, you know,
Speaker 1: like your bedbound until the epiduro and things were off.
Speaker 1: But I just just doesn't feel good having that catheterine.
Speaker 1: That made that first night really difficult. And then it
Speaker 1: came really down our decision to leave early came really
Speaker 1: down to how it was affecting Rue. Like Charlie went
Speaker 1: to go pick her up from daycare to bring her
Speaker 1: because that's like Jem, friend of the Pods, sister in law.
Speaker 1: She had been taking rid of daycare picking her up,
Speaker 1: but after we birthed, Charlie wanted to pick her up
Speaker 1: just for a bit of normal scene that the educator
Speaker 1: said to him, Oh, we're so glad that you picked
Speaker 1: her up today. Apparently she had just been like she
Speaker 1: was fine when Jem dropped her off. She's so happy
Speaker 1: with Jim, loves her, loves her cousins, but just was
Speaker 1: like sobbing in the educator's arms and she's just not
Speaker 1: like that, you know. So the educator yeah, oh my god.
Speaker 1: And they were obviously fully aware of what was happening
Speaker 1: and everything like that, but me finding that out and
Speaker 1: then having her come, so she came. Lucy was there.
Speaker 1: We had like a little birthday party for Suki. Lucy
Speaker 1: baked a cake and brought it. We had some champagne,
Speaker 1: and Rue got to meet her, and then we stayed
Speaker 1: like roue stayed till like eight o'clock, and then Charlie
Speaker 1: took her back to our sister in laws. But we
Speaker 1: were both kind of talking like we need to get
Speaker 1: out of here. We just need to all be together
Speaker 1: because the transition is really difficult, and she was already
Speaker 1: showing signs of struggling like that early on the baby
Speaker 1: was had only just arrived or wasn't even there yet,
Speaker 1: you know, when she was really upset. So yeah, we
Speaker 1: just said, like, can we leave tomorrow? And they were
Speaker 1: like you can. I think they wanted us to stay
Speaker 1: a bit longer, but they were like no, you know,
Speaker 1: if you want too, you can, but just like, obviously
Speaker 1: call us if there's anything going on. It was fine. Look,
Speaker 1: it wasn't ideal.
Speaker 2: Could you not have stayed by yourself or you wanted
Speaker 2: you wanted all of you to be together.
Speaker 1: Well, we did talk about that. Charlie's like, I'll go home,
Speaker 1: But the thing was, it was like it's a bit
Speaker 1: useless meeting hospital by myself. Like what had happened actually
Speaker 1: when he was dropping her back at eight o'clock that night,
Speaker 1: is that the baby started crying. I couldn't move because
Speaker 1: I still had the catheterin and the buzzer had dropped
Speaker 1: on the ground and I was in a amount of pain.
Speaker 1: I needed pain relief. So it took me probably fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes to get the courage to push or pull myself
Speaker 1: up to then get out of bed and get the buzzer,
Speaker 1: and I was in tears, and I just was like,
Speaker 1: there's a reason why, like you need a support person
Speaker 1: with you in hospital, because like if the fucking buzzer
Speaker 1: falls on the floor, you were fucked. Like I was
Speaker 1: like trying to think, like what number would I call
Speaker 1: right now to reach the midwif sit outside my door?
Speaker 2: Like it was, so do you not just be like
Speaker 2: help help?
Speaker 1: I did think about that, actually, I was that would
Speaker 1: be my next thing, right, But anyway, I managed to
Speaker 1: get the buzzer and they came in and I was
Speaker 1: just like in tears. So when Charlie and I were
Speaker 1: talking about that, I was just like, but I kind
Speaker 1: of need you here, so I'd rather all be together
Speaker 1: so that you know you can be there for real,
Speaker 1: you can be there for me and I can be
Speaker 1: there for the baby kind of thing. The funniest thing
Speaker 1: happened though not funniest thing, but like the fire alarm
Speaker 1: went off. It was like cold red, evacuate, evacuate, and
Speaker 1: I was like, fuck, You're like I can't. I was
Speaker 1: like I can't.
Speaker 5: Really do that.
Speaker 1: I'm like, should I be evacuating right now. And then
Speaker 1: people pop the head and be like, hey, it's all good,
Speaker 1: nothing nothing to see here.
Speaker 4: Both um.
Speaker 7: But then it was like evacuate now, evacuate now, and
Speaker 7: I was like, evacuate now, yeah, and they're full on, like.
Speaker 2: The yeah, and there was aggressive and.
Speaker 1: They're like, oh, there's just been a little fire on
Speaker 1: the floor and.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, no, worries.
Speaker 5: All good.
Speaker 1: But they had it all yeah, they had it all
Speaker 1: on to control. But I was like, I think it's
Speaker 1: time just to get home to creature comfort. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we went home on day two. And I will say
Speaker 1: something about leaving in the hospital early that because and
Speaker 1: Dona is a controlled substance, they only give you ten.
Speaker 1: So had I stayed in hospital for like the full
Speaker 1: five or whatever days that you're meant to after a
Speaker 1: C section, they would have given me because they are
Speaker 1: controlling the substance and how it is been dispersed. I
Speaker 1: would have been able to continue like the four a day,
Speaker 1: but the ten lasted me two days.
Speaker 2: Would they not have given you a script or something?
Speaker 1: No, Like I would have had to go to the
Speaker 1: doctor and ask for a script. And even then it's like,
Speaker 1: because it's a controlled substance. They like, I really want
Speaker 1: to make sure and I just didn't really want to
Speaker 1: go to the doctor's surgery. I was like fine, So
Speaker 1: we just took major like my panadol and my I
Speaker 1: took voltairein for inflammation was regular and there was a
Speaker 1: bit a day where the pain was like not ideal,
Speaker 1: but I just had to really stay on top of
Speaker 1: the panadole and it was okay. I mean I liked
Speaker 1: the end.
Speaker 2: It was a controlled substance. I've got so much here.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, you could have told me that, I would
Speaker 1: have realized.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that it was because I don't like
Speaker 2: the way that it makes me feel. So whenever I've
Speaker 2: been given it, I just s.
Speaker 1: A take it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well it's it's it's
Speaker 1: an opiate.
Speaker 2: It just makes me sleep, which I don't like.
Speaker 1: Anyway, So we all came home and that was at
Speaker 1: and now it's been crazy ever since.
Speaker 2: So talk to me about your feeding and latching, Like,
Speaker 2: how's the feeding process going?
Speaker 1: Okay, So this time around, I really wanted to like
Speaker 1: nail breastfeeding the first time. It was also new to me.
Speaker 1: I also got different advice. Saw that Dodgy lactation consultant.
Speaker 1: I was fine with bottle feeding Rue, but I was like,
Speaker 1: if I can do it, yeah, So best feeding has
Speaker 1: been going really well. We have Look, it's been really hard.
Speaker 1: At the same time, I'm not gonna lie. Obviously, when
Speaker 1: you have a c section, your milk can take a
Speaker 1: little longer to come in. I felt like my milk
Speaker 1: did come in. But she has was cluster feeding for
Speaker 1: like a week straight and it was just insane.
Speaker 2: Are your nipples okay? Have you been using those little
Speaker 2: silver things? Hello?
Speaker 1: The silver eggs? Hello, Sheilby.
Speaker 2: I can't wait to squeeze your cheeks. She was so cute.
Speaker 1: Look, it's been really challenging the feeding, just because of
Speaker 1: it's so different to Rue. She's just such a completely
Speaker 1: different baby in every way, Like she's so hungry all
Speaker 1: the time, she's clinging, so she wants to sleep only
Speaker 1: on me. She doesn't like the snow, she doesn't like
Speaker 1: the snow as a busnet. So it's just been a
Speaker 1: lot different. And the midwife. The thing about also having
Speaker 1: a private midwife is they come every second day in
Speaker 1: the first week, every four days, every five like, and
Speaker 1: it kind of peeters off after six weeks so you
Speaker 1: see them quite regularly. So she was like, would check
Speaker 1: her latch and she'd be like, her latch is amazing,
Speaker 1: she's good, she's pink. We weighed her and she'd only
Speaker 1: lost four percent of her body weight in the first
Speaker 1: way in which is awesome. So she's like, everything is happening,
Speaker 1: like you're doing really well. It's just whether or not
Speaker 1: mentally it's too much for you with you know, the
Speaker 1: slipless nights and that you maybe want to introduce a
Speaker 1: pump or you want to do a little top up,
Speaker 1: like that's completely up to you. But she's like, you know,
Speaker 1: your milk's still establishing, so those things can also be
Speaker 1: detrimental to that. And I was just like, look, we've
Speaker 1: come this far, let's just like get there. And I
Speaker 1: think the two week mark is when I'll make the decision,
Speaker 1: like if I start pumping then, because obviously like doing
Speaker 1: a fake pump, like your body doesn't know that that's
Speaker 1: milk for the pump versus milk for the baby, so
Speaker 1: it can fuck up like your supply. So only because
Speaker 1: I had issues with my supply last time, like other
Speaker 1: people who don't have supply issues wouldn't have to think
Speaker 1: about this too much, but because my supply was so
Speaker 1: bad last time, we're just trying to get it up
Speaker 1: as good as it can be as a standalone and
Speaker 1: then introduce some of those things. So I'm seeing Emma
Speaker 1: today and we're going to do a way in for
Speaker 1: Suki then to see how much weight she's lost. Hopefully
Speaker 1: I founder up a little bit, and then we'll make
Speaker 1: a plan for how everything's.
Speaker 4: Going to go.
Speaker 2: So how are you feeling mentally?
Speaker 1: Look, it has been quite different this time around with Rue.
Speaker 1: I didn't have baby blues. With Rue. I had a
Speaker 1: drop in my hormones after I stopped breastfeeding, which we've
Speaker 1: talked about in our feeding episode or the mental health episode.
Speaker 1: But other than that, I was pretty blissed out for
Speaker 1: that whole pregnancy and newborn phase. Obviously, our life and
Speaker 1: our family was a lot different back then.
Speaker 2: You were really in the bubble, the baby bubble, really
Speaker 2: in the baby bubble. You also were working for a company,
Speaker 2: so maternity leave looked a lot different exactly.
Speaker 1: And just like money stuff, even like you know, government
Speaker 1: stuff is great, we've applied for that, we're getting that
Speaker 1: money amazing, But you know, there are more significant stresses
Speaker 1: this time around, and more things that are sad at
Speaker 1: this time around. So the baby blues definitely kicked in,
Speaker 1: and in the first few days it really kind of
Speaker 1: grasped onto the that we didn't get our v back.
Speaker 1: So even though like logically and rationally in my head,
Speaker 1: I was saying I was so happy with the birth
Speaker 1: and the labor and how everything went, and I was like,
Speaker 1: there literally was nothing else they could have done, my
Speaker 1: baby blues were like, you failed at that.
Speaker 2: You know, when you messaged me and told me, you
Speaker 2: were like, it's all fine, though you know I didn't,
Speaker 2: And I was like, no, it's not no one. When
Speaker 2: you have a plan and it doesn't go to plan,
Speaker 2: or it doesn't matter how rational your brain can be,
Speaker 2: that doesn't change the way that you feel. And of
Speaker 2: course you would feel that way, like it's just normal
Speaker 2: and that's okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so that was pretty hard. And then we
Speaker 1: had a lot of they just shouldn't let your name
Speaker 1: a human when you've just had a baby and you're
Speaker 1: emotional and the.
Speaker 2: Especially if you've got no idea what to call it.
Speaker 1: And it took us days and it was just like
Speaker 1: I don't know what to call this because we thought
Speaker 1: she was going to have a penis and we had
Speaker 1: only penis names.
Speaker 2: Well, I loved the story about the white board that
Speaker 2: you had, like all of the names and a white board,
Speaker 2: like as if it was a like a spy show
Speaker 2: or something. You're like, right, we have to name this kid.
Speaker 2: We were just trying to have a name for like
Speaker 2: what five days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, a week, almost a week, and it was
Speaker 1: just like, what did you call her?
Speaker 8: Baby?
Speaker 1: Yeah, we called her a lot of different names to
Speaker 1: test them out. We were like, hey, but Susie, Susie,
Speaker 1: rue Wren, but we yeah, ended up picking a name
Speaker 1: and then it just we started telling people and it
Speaker 1: was in my mind it felt like it was like
Speaker 1: this runaway train because I don't know. It's just like
Speaker 1: with Rue, I knew her name was meant to be
Speaker 1: her name straight away, but Charlie had a lot of
Speaker 1: like we because we talked about this, because I was
Speaker 1: like having a full meltdown, and Charlie was like, I
Speaker 1: felt exactly how you feel about Rue, Like, but you
Speaker 1: you were so confident in the name at that I
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, it's going to be like it's fine.
Speaker 1: He loves the name of this.
Speaker 2: You just mean that you feel like now that everyone
Speaker 2: knows what her name is, but you're still like not
Speaker 2: one hundred percent sure, and you are like, but what
Speaker 2: if I wanted to change it?
Speaker 1: Exactly?
Speaker 2: What mean?
Speaker 1: That's exactly what I said. And then Charlie was like,
Speaker 1: if we want to change it, we can who cares?
Speaker 1: And I was like, so true, a famie, Shuma can
Speaker 1: do it. When the kid's a year old, you can
Speaker 1: do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I remember she named her kid like Gene, I'm a
Speaker 2: Janital or something without realizing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a bit silly. Someone should have told
Speaker 1: her it was a tribute to her bestie the middle name.
Speaker 2: Not one person was like doll, no, no, So that
Speaker 2: was just Trumas people don't have good friends clearly.
Speaker 1: No they don't. They need us in their lives to
Speaker 1: tell them. But yeah, it would just attach itself to
Speaker 1: things like that. And so it's just been a bit
Speaker 1: different that there's time around, like you know, and you've
Speaker 1: been struggling a lot with Ruth, and Rue has been
Speaker 1: the hardest challenge of it all, Like having a new
Speaker 1: baby is hard and normal like way like lack of sleep,
Speaker 1: but it's really difficult with Rue. She's just not handling
Speaker 1: it well. She loves her sister. She comes and she's
Speaker 1: so gentle with her, and she cuddles and she's like,
Speaker 1: I want to do this, and like holds her hands
Speaker 1: like she wants to hold the baby, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: you want to hold the baby.
Speaker 3: She's like yeah.
Speaker 1: So she obviously loves her, but I don't think she
Speaker 1: fully understood how that would impact our dynamic as a family.
Speaker 1: Like she didn't understand her getting a sibling meant. She
Speaker 1: was just like, oh, I get a baby.
Speaker 2: Cool.
Speaker 1: I've got my dolls they're pretty cool, but this baby.
Speaker 2: And then she see other people with siblings, like her
Speaker 2: cousins or whatnot, and think that that's what it meant.
Speaker 2: But for the first while, it doesn't mean that at all.
Speaker 2: It means Mom and Dad in particular, Mom, a lot
Speaker 2: of that your energy is just on the baby and
Speaker 2: forever more the energy is.
Speaker 1: Split, exactly. And so she's just having a lot of
Speaker 1: meltdowns about different things. And you know she wants something
Speaker 1: and you don't want her to do it or have it,
Speaker 1: and you're kind of putting a boundary in place. She'll
Speaker 1: just scream and cry and be upset and it's really difficult.
Speaker 1: And what we're finding at the moment is she'll scream
Speaker 1: on purpose to wake the baby up because she knows
Speaker 1: that that gets me upset. And I'm just like, but
Speaker 1: do you not understand that the baby being asleep means
Speaker 1: that I can give you attention, Like, babe, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do this for us, And so I just feel
Speaker 1: like I've been really grumpy with her, and you know,
Speaker 1: Charlie's like your sleep deprived babe, like you know. And
Speaker 1: so basically at the moment, we're having to all go
Speaker 1: to bed in our bed together because she doesn't want
Speaker 1: to sleep in her bed. She doesn't want to miss out,
Speaker 1: you know, she wants to be with the baby. Is
Speaker 1: So once she's asleep, we're just transfer her and then
Speaker 1: we're just going to bed early, just to get a
Speaker 1: little head start on the bloody cluster feeding monster.
Speaker 2: Because Suki is feeding every twenty to thirty minutes. You
Speaker 2: said during the night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's kind of eats a little bit more, but
Speaker 1: in the last two days eased up a little bit.
Speaker 1: But even though last night's tenth card again, yeah, so
Speaker 1: that was the first you know, ten days and then yeah,
Speaker 1: in the last two days, it's gotten a bit better.
Speaker 1: She's starting to do long distance of sleep during the day,
Speaker 1: so the day is better dependently independently. Yeah, I put
Speaker 1: her in the pram. She seems to like the pram bassinette.
Speaker 1: You know, whatever works, whatever works. She hates the bloody
Speaker 1: cocuona babay.
Speaker 2: It is not cheap.
Speaker 1: I just got a whole new cover. I'm just like, well, fucking.
Speaker 2: Hell, apparently a lot of babies don't like this new
Speaker 2: till they're like a little bit older.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well we put it on really gently and she lost
Speaker 1: her shit. So I'm actually getting a side sleeper because she,
Speaker 1: like Emma said to me, the midwife was like, and
Speaker 1: she actually asked her other midwife that she works with,
Speaker 1: and she was like, one of them said, I had
Speaker 1: a baby exactly like this. They just want to be
Speaker 1: on you, and often second babies want to co sleep.
Speaker 1: So I'm getting like a side bed coat. Oh that's
Speaker 1: a good idea, yeah, And iltatoan to test that out
Speaker 1: and see if that works, because I'm just also a
Speaker 1: little bit anxious about not having my eyes on her.
Speaker 1: This is the other thing that's happened. Like I've got
Speaker 1: like weird things I'm anxious about, Like people were looking
Speaker 1: after Rue, but yeah, she was going to like a
Speaker 1: pool party, and then our other friends were looking after her,
Speaker 1: going to their like Nana's house with the pool, and
Speaker 1: I just had this like crazy anxiety about like not
Speaker 1: being there to supervise her. And it wasn't like I
Speaker 1: didn't trust them to look after Rue. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: Ru is just so different to her normal self at
Speaker 1: the moment, like worrying that she gonna just like run
Speaker 1: off because she wants to find me, and then like so, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's just been a few I get it around. My anxiety.
Speaker 2: It'd be so hard, Yeah, just hard because.
Speaker 1: You're not there, and I don't want her to like
Speaker 1: I don't want want her to send her away, but
Speaker 1: also I want her to have fun, you know, and
Speaker 1: have these outings, and it's good for us to have
Speaker 1: like a little rest as well. But it is very hard,
Speaker 1: and I thought I had prepared myself for that, but
Speaker 1: I don't think you really can because you just don't
Speaker 1: know how your child's going to react. So that's the
Speaker 1: hardest thing at the moment, and that's the thing that
Speaker 1: I is really weighing quite heavily on me, but I
Speaker 1: just have to keep remembering it's a sibling for her.
Speaker 1: Yeah that hopefully one day they'll get along and.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, they will look at me and my
Speaker 2: sister like and my brother like they will. I was thinking,
Speaker 2: next week, once Charlie's back at work and you could
Speaker 2: use the extra hands, I'll come over and just even
Speaker 2: play in the backyard so you can still see us.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, nice, love that.
Speaker 2: And then Lenny and Ruke can just like play in
Speaker 2: the backyard. Yes, supercure arrest upstairs.
Speaker 1: I love that, Thank you.
Speaker 2: What would you say is the best thing? You know,
Speaker 2: you've spoken a little bit about that, you feel a
Speaker 2: lot more confident, Like, what's the best thing about the
Speaker 2: second time around?
Speaker 3: Ah?
Speaker 1: I think this time around just like knowing how hard
Speaker 1: our like family life has been and everything, just seeing
Speaker 1: the joy that it's brought Charlie, Like, because I've been
Speaker 1: pregnant for nine months, you know, so I'm having this
Speaker 1: connection with the thing that I'm growing. But they've been
Speaker 1: for ten months actually ten months, thank you. But the
Speaker 1: guys kind of sit on the sideline. So I think
Speaker 1: for me, the best thing has been seeing him become
Speaker 1: a dad. Again and just like how stoked he is
Speaker 1: and how happy he is, and it's been like a
Speaker 1: very long time since I've probably seen him that happy.
Speaker 1: So that's probably my favorite thing about it so.
Speaker 2: Far, Like watching him in the birth video that you
Speaker 2: put up will link it. He was just the pillar
Speaker 2: of strength that men should all like look to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he did a really a good job he did.
Speaker 2: So I can't wait to hear his little thoughts about everything.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, hopefully that don't make me cry.
Speaker 2: They probably will, that's okay. Now we're lucky enough to
Speaker 2: have insights from a few other people who were at
Speaker 2: Sukie's birth.
Speaker 5: Hi, shit is longtime listener, first time caller. This is Lucy.
Speaker 5: I wanted to give you my perspective on Key's birth. Spoiler,
Speaker 5: she was amazing. I got a call from Key at
Speaker 5: about three point thirty in the morning, and for a
Speaker 5: good four weeks, I was so scared that I was
Speaker 5: going to sleep through this call that I had my
Speaker 5: phone like not on, do not disturb on four volume,
Speaker 5: but one ring and I answered and Kay just said
Speaker 5: it's happening, come over here, quick, quick, and then hung
Speaker 5: up the phone. So when I got there, Key was
Speaker 5: in her bedroom on the floor with Nikki, her Dula
Speaker 5: and Emma, Andrew and Alan and Charlie, and it really
Speaker 5: was a really beautiful experience from the get go, like
Speaker 5: it just felt very peaceful, very calm. There were many
Speaker 5: comments throughout the whole labor from the midwife, Emma and Nikki,
Speaker 5: the idola just saying how calm and controlled and kind
Speaker 5: of like introspective Key was. She was really really looking
Speaker 5: inward for that strength. And Charlie was setting up the
Speaker 5: bath and I decided that it would be a good
Speaker 5: time to play Key the first video message that I
Speaker 5: had gathered from people in her life, and this one
Speaker 5: was from George, her sister in law, Charlie's sister. And
Speaker 5: my intention with it with these messages, I gathered about
Speaker 5: ten from her nearest and dearest, and I just wanted
Speaker 5: them to be little moments of kind of community and
Speaker 5: support throughout Key's labor in those tough moments, just hearing
Speaker 5: from the people that back you the most. Even I
Speaker 5: can imagine, like I haven't had a baby, I haven't
Speaker 5: been through labor, but I can imagine that it gets
Speaker 5: to a point where like I don't know if I
Speaker 5: can do this, and I obviously knew he could do it,
Speaker 5: and so did everyone else, but I wanted her to
Speaker 5: hear that from them, so I played that, and then
Speaker 5: from her godmother Sue, I played a voice note. Of course,
Speaker 5: Kelly got a voice note in there, and there was
Speaker 5: lots of other videos throughout, but they were just moments
Speaker 5: of kind of lifting spirits, I think. And then Kee
Speaker 5: was like, something's coming out. I think I'm giving birth
Speaker 5: and it was her. I'm sure she's talked about this
Speaker 5: her like the sack, like the amniotic sack. But I
Speaker 5: was like, holy shit, I think she's having a baby.
Speaker 5: And I've run out to the midwife being like I
Speaker 5: think she's having a baby, like something is coming out.
Speaker 5: Obviously I was wrong, And then Rue was amazing. I
Speaker 5: just kept being like, gosh, she is so calm and
Speaker 5: collected and wasn't like wigged out by the experience at all.
Speaker 5: Every now and then she'd look over to me and
Speaker 5: be like, is mummy okay? Just like a look like that,
Speaker 5: and I'd just be like, mummy's okay, Mummy's good. And
Speaker 5: there was like a couple of really cute moments. So
Speaker 5: obviously prior to the birth, Key was like, look, you
Speaker 5: might see me pooh, like I just need to get
Speaker 5: that out there. That happened sometimes in birth, and I
Speaker 5: was like, truly the least of my worries, but glad
Speaker 5: it's out there now. And Key was in the bath
Speaker 5: and Rue was at the business end and she looks
Speaker 5: at me and goes mummy, poo pool and Key's face.
Speaker 5: She turns to me and just gives me this look
Speaker 5: like did I just shit? And I was like, you
Speaker 5: actually didn't. Like I was like, no, you did not, pooh.
Speaker 5: So there were lots of like really funny little moments
Speaker 5: throughout it. Rue like pulled up her favorite Elsa chair
Speaker 5: and literally sat right in front of Key in the water,
Speaker 5: like she was just divine throughout it all. And Key,
Speaker 5: I was obviously Key and I've been friends for you know,
Speaker 5: a good time now. But seeing her in labor and
Speaker 5: delivers Suki, like seeing her bring Souki into the world,
Speaker 5: I can't quite even express how incredible it was to witness.
Speaker 5: I was in awe of her and her strength and
Speaker 5: her courage and her determination to meet her baby, and
Speaker 5: oh gosh, I had just so many moments where I
Speaker 5: was like, this is incredible. Like people who give birth
Speaker 5: are unbelievable, and this person that I love is so unbelievable.
Speaker 5: I did have a few teary moments. I cried when
Speaker 5: we got to the hospital and it was time to
Speaker 5: go to the hospital, and that decision was made just
Speaker 5: because she was in pain. And I went.
Speaker 1: To give her a hug.
Speaker 5: She looked at me, she started tearing up. I was
Speaker 5: tearing up, and it was just kind of a moment
Speaker 5: of like not necessarily a sad cry, but like you
Speaker 5: got this, like I'm just trying to transfer all of
Speaker 5: my strength to you. When we went up to the
Speaker 5: hospital room, I just felt that Key had a real
Speaker 5: sense of calm and control around the berth, you know.
Speaker 5: Of course she was going for a vback and the
Speaker 5: team was so amazing, Like once she had the epidural,
Speaker 5: they really gave her her body that chance, do you know,
Speaker 5: to keep trying. They didn't rush her into surgery, they
Speaker 5: didn't try and speed it along. She really was given
Speaker 5: a lot of choice, as she should be. But I
Speaker 5: just felt like Key was in control of a pretty
Speaker 5: like out of control situation, you know. And of course
Speaker 5: then I was sitting in the waiting room while she
Speaker 5: was in theater, and then we went up to the
Speaker 5: room where she would be recovering and Charlie walked in.
Speaker 5: A couple of nurses and doctors walked past me going
Speaker 5: do you know? Do you know about the gender? And
Speaker 5: I was like no, no, I don't know. And then
Speaker 5: Charlie walked in with Key following behind him in the
Speaker 5: bed and he just said, has anyone told you? I said,
Speaker 5: no one's told me anything, and he had this look
Speaker 5: of pure joy and delight on his face and he
Speaker 5: just said, it's a girl. And I was convinced it
Speaker 5: was a girl. So it feels good to be right again. Crying,
Speaker 5: just so proud of Key and of Charlie. He was
Speaker 5: an incredible support. And also just witnessing Emma and Nikki.
Speaker 5: It really as someone who hasn't experienced this before, it
Speaker 5: made me think, I think this is the kind of
Speaker 5: experience that I would want to have. These people who are,
Speaker 5: you know, advocating for you, you and by your side
Speaker 5: and seeing you through this transformative experience. I was just
Speaker 5: in awe of everyone, and it's an experience that's changed
Speaker 5: my life, There's no doubt about that. And I feel
Speaker 5: more connected to Kay than ever and Key and Charlie
Speaker 5: and Souk and Ruit and Alan of course and Allen
Speaker 5: are my chosen family. Like I really believe that we
Speaker 5: have a bond that is very special and being there
Speaker 5: in that moment was the greatest honor of my life.
Speaker 5: And even I feel like saying that is an understatement,
Speaker 5: Like I just can't express enough how much it meant
Speaker 5: to me to be there with them in that moment.
Speaker 5: Just congratulations, Kay, you are a rock star like anyone
Speaker 5: who gives birth. I'm like, you really fucking did that?
Speaker 5: Like that is wild and I'm just I'm just in awe.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's your name?
Speaker 3: Very good? And did you just become a big sister?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: What's your sister's name?
Speaker 4: So cute?
Speaker 3: What's your favorite thing about being a big sister? Mid baby?
Speaker 1: Do you like holding your sister? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Do you like giving her big cuddles, hair and kisses?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Nice work.
Speaker 3: You're such a good big cissy.
Speaker 6: Hi. I'm emma. I'm Key and Charlie's midwife. My experience
Speaker 6: of Key and Charlie's labor is just awe and I'm
Speaker 6: just so impressed with how they both coped, and especially Key.
Speaker 3: It's been such a difficult.
Speaker 6: Year and throughout the pregnancy she just fought for what
Speaker 6: she wanted and for what she wanted to achieve, and
Speaker 6: that's very much how she was in the labor and birth.
Speaker 6: She overcame so much. It was really amazing to watch
Speaker 6: him and be a part of you know, she genuinely
Speaker 6: had the full home birth experience, and you know, I
Speaker 6: know that baby Soukei wasn't born to her vagina, but
Speaker 6: she did absolutely everything she could her power to try
Speaker 6: and that wasn't what was meant to be on the day.
Speaker 6: But Key and Charlie should be so immensely proud of themselves.
Speaker 1: So what they achieved. I haven't seen so.
Speaker 6: Much love in a room before, with Rue running around,
Speaker 6: our running round, My mum was there as Adula, Lucy,
Speaker 6: so much support, and I know that he will look
Speaker 6: back at this as a positive experience. I know I
Speaker 6: left that long labor and birth feeling really positive, and
Speaker 6: that's not always the case when somebody has necessarian but
Speaker 6: I remember leaving feeling like we have done absolutely everything
Speaker 6: in our power to try and achieve this, and it
Speaker 6: hasn't gone that way today, but I know that, you know,
Speaker 6: Key will look back at this and use it to
Speaker 6: do something positive, because that's just what she does. And
Speaker 6: I know that her sharing her story and her experiences
Speaker 6: is going to be huge, and that's It's been the
Speaker 6: absolute pleasure. And I'm just in awe of that beautiful family.
Speaker 8: Hi, I'm Nikki, I'm Key and Charlie's doula. But the
Speaker 8: thing that I was really struck with straight away was
Speaker 8: their openness to not to be stuck just to the
Speaker 8: idea of having a vaginal birth after cesarean, but to
Speaker 8: go with whatever was right on the day, So the
Speaker 8: right birth on the day for everybody, and that's exactly
Speaker 8: what happens. And you know, the labor and birth itself
Speaker 8: was absolutely lovely. It was a joy to be part of,
Speaker 8: you know. For me, I see the whole experience in
Speaker 8: two parts, really, the part at home where I went
Speaker 8: and spent the earlier part of labor with King Charny.
Speaker 8: And at home it was just beautiful, really relaxed and
Speaker 8: happy and lots of laughing dogs running around, really bringing
Speaker 8: her elsa chair to sit and watch mum laboring, something
Speaker 8: I shall never forget. It was just beautiful and to
Speaker 8: watch the obvious adoration that Charlie has for Key and
Speaker 8: the support he gave which was really lovely. So we
Speaker 8: had that part and Key labored beautifully and was very
Speaker 8: determined and strong and just kept on going. And then
Speaker 8: when Emma and Kate arrived and we tried all manner
Speaker 8: of things and to keep Key comfortable and in charge
Speaker 8: of everything, and then the decision was made obviously to
Speaker 8: get to hospital at that point, which was the decision
Speaker 8: that everybody agreed was the right thing, and it was
Speaker 8: a decision that Key helped make, and the fact that
Speaker 8: she felt empowered and had the information, she knew what,
Speaker 8: you know, what she wanted and was happy and you know,
Speaker 8: at the end of the day we had a lovely
Speaker 8: happy experience. And then when we went to hospital, we
Speaker 8: had a lovely happy experience as well. Key was relaxed
Speaker 8: the situation, It was handled really really well staff around us,
Speaker 8: and you know, for me, it was just an incredible
Speaker 8: experience really seeing Key and Charlie become parents again, so
Speaker 8: the gorgeous little girl, and you know, watching their family grow,
Speaker 8: but most importantly seeing them have a birth that they
Speaker 8: felt was right for them. So I feel incredibly lucky
Speaker 8: and happy to have been part of it and to
Speaker 8: have been there doers. I thank you, Key and Charlie, Henry.
Speaker 4: I now, hey, I'm Charlie and baby Dunny. Like Monday night,
Speaker 4: we'd just put my head, I'd feel head to go
Speaker 4: to bed. Key, that's something change, you know. I'm probably
Speaker 4: it's going to be like contraction to the first few hours,
Speaker 4: so let's just trying to get to sleep and you
Speaker 4: pick things up in the morning. But they escalated quite quickly.
Speaker 4: I think the midwife said that by the time she
Speaker 4: came over at two am, he was already around beautiful centimated,
Speaker 4: so the contractions were already pretty intense after about an hour.
Speaker 4: There's all a bit of a shit show on my end.
Speaker 4: The first couple of hours. I hadn't set the pool up.
Speaker 4: I hadn't cooked any food or you know, packed a
Speaker 4: hospital bag because I thought i'd have a bit of
Speaker 4: time in the early stages. I was able to do that,
Speaker 4: but it was a bit of a scramble at first,
Speaker 4: you know, I get any electric pump out to pump
Speaker 4: up the inflatable pool, and when I am I'm sure
Speaker 4: the neighbors went too keen on that, but didn't get
Speaker 4: any complaints by then. The dueler and a lovely midwife
Speaker 4: thinking and Emma over and helping out quite a bit.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know what I would have done
Speaker 4: about them, to be honest, Row work up and was
Speaker 4: with us for the entire time. Between trying to set
Speaker 4: things up and controlling Brew, I didn't really have much
Speaker 4: capacity to help. Can you get through the contractions in
Speaker 4: the early stages there, but things kind of normalized after
Speaker 4: a few hours. We're all set up and he was
Speaker 4: just got throwing through the motions pretty intense pain. To
Speaker 4: think that she went twelve hours in total adding pain
Speaker 4: really his bloody impressive And you know, I don't have
Speaker 4: any any profanities or anything, which I was sort of
Speaker 4: expecting she changed it to custing out people around her
Speaker 4: when she's under duress, But no, she did. She did
Speaker 4: it all with a lot of a lot of grace,
Speaker 4: and unfortunately we didn't get to finish it at home.
Speaker 4: But I was very confident that that key had one
Speaker 4: hundred percent put everything she could into doing things naturally,
Speaker 4: And the great thing about having the private midwife with
Speaker 4: us is that we felt safe to continue to over
Speaker 4: at home even though things have kind of slowed down
Speaker 4: a bit, and they really did everything they could to
Speaker 4: make sure that Key was comfortable where she was at
Speaker 4: and that she was comfortable she had done everything she
Speaker 4: could before we finally made that call to go to hospital.
Speaker 4: From there was it was quite a seamless experience. We
Speaker 4: had a great, great team around at the hospital who
Speaker 4: were really supportive of Key, you know, even tried to
Speaker 4: encourage it to continue for a feedback, but made the
Speaker 4: call to do the see that but didn't ever put
Speaker 4: any pressure on us to jump straight into surgery or
Speaker 4: anything like that. And we're very accommodating to me. And
Speaker 4: you know, let's let me play my mum's playlist, which
Speaker 4: was really special and important to me speaking ended up
Speaker 4: coming out one of her favorite songs, which is really
Speaker 4: really nice. Much let's I'm plaud mind.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much for joining me, Key reseals
Speaker 2: you can you can go back to your cozy chair
Speaker 2: on Matt leave. And we've really loved hearing the tale
Speaker 2: of how sweet Little Silky came earthside.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and thank you the shit is
Speaker 1: for all the lovely messages. It's meant so much getting
Speaker 1: them all, and I can't wait to well, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to get back, but I'll be back soon.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that. You were like originally I said
Speaker 2: to you, didn't I. I was like, don't you promise anything,
Speaker 2: because you're not going to want to come back as
Speaker 2: soon as you think you do. But you know, don't
Speaker 2: mind me. I'll mind the fort. I'll go find more
Speaker 2: people to farm for content from my pumpkin.
Speaker 1: But what do we agree on?
Speaker 2: No ghosts, I'm not promising anything.
Speaker 1: Huge thanks to our audio producer Maddie Joanna and if
Speaker 1: you like the pod, please rate and review us. It
Speaker 1: means a lot.
Speaker 2: Bye.
Speaker 6: Shit is ye