It was the 20th of September 2020. I had just put our little boy Mason down to sleep in his bed. My hubby Jordan had recently been training for a half marathon run and asked if it would be okay to head to the gym for a bit. I replied, "sure, as long as you take the car. I'm worried I might go into labour." He promised he would take the car and keep his phone on him in case I needed him. He gave me a kiss and left. I settled myself into bed and decided to look into the hypnobreathing techniques and listen to some calming music. Soon enough, I fell asleep. 

At 1.04am on the 21st of September 2020, I was woken up by a really strong contraction and said to myself it's probably just Braxton hicks (I had never experienced a natural labour/contraction before) and tried to go back to sleep, but then another one came. I heard Jordan come through the front door and head towards the other bathroom to have a shower. I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, and said I'd had two big contractions, but we shouldn't be worried; we could still have hours to go. I walked to the spare bedroom and had another 2 big contractions. I was on all fours on the bed, swaying side to side. Hubby walked in and said we need to go to your parent's house to drop Mason off, I think you're in labour. I remained insistent that I could still have hours to go, but somehow, he knew something I clearly did not. So we fastened Mason into his car seat, grabbed the bags and off we headed to my parent's house which was about 25 minutes from home. As we were driving, I had another 3 contractions and called the midwife to let them know we were on our way. When we arrived at my parent's house, they asked if I needed to head straight to the hospital or if I wanted to come inside for a bit. Assuming I still had hours to go, I agreed to go inside and help settle Mason into my parent's care. The pain started to get more intense, so I went to the spare room to lie down as I felt like I was going to be sick. Hubby came to check on me, and I asked him to put the tens machine on, which seemed to make my contractions worse. I then went to step off the bed, and said "I can't do this anymore." My waters then broke, only narrowly missing the carpet. I headed down to the toilet because I had the urge to poo, and as I sat down on the toilet, I called out to hubby, "I can feel his head." 

Hubby called out to my mum for assistance, and she asked him to have a look, and he confirmed that he could see the baby's head. My mum gathered as many towels and pillows as she could and told my dad to call the ambulance. Meanwhile, I said to hubby, "I need you to help me onto the floor! He's coming!" Luckily, the toilet was attached to the laundry, so we had a bit more space. As hubby helped me to the floor, my tens machine got hooked around the toilet paper holder and ripped off my back. 

Once I was on the floor, my mum and hubby were down at the bottom monitoring bub's impending entrance into the world while my dad was speaking to paramedics on the phone. Both hubby and mum gently guided baby out and my body pushed him out without any assistance. He was born with the cord wrapped around his neck, which my mum unravelled on his way out. He needed a good rub on his back and tummy but then let out the most reassuring cry. 

A beautiful, healthy 8 pound 5 ounce baby boy called Elijah. Born at roughly 2.15am on my parent's laundry floor. The ambulance arrived about 5 minutes after he was born. I remember lying on the floor and the sigh of relief I felt once I saw the flashing lights through the glass sliding door. Elijah and I were loaded into the ambulance along with my hubby. I started to get intense contractions again, and I knew the placenta was coming. Delivering my placenta in the back of the ambulance was less than ideal, but when I got to the birth centre, I was about to learn that I still had a while to go. 

After 3 shots of syntocinon, I was still bleeding quite heavily. After a few hours, the final piece of placenta came away. Luckily I didn't need a blood transfusion, although they were considering it at the time. Elijah was healthy, and we both had no physical complications post-birth. I did really struggle with our breastfeeding journey and didn't get a pain-free latch until he was 11 weeks old. He also had a tongue and lip tie laser session. I ended up breastfeeding exclusively for almost 6 months but stopped for many reasons. Unfortunately, I was already dealing with anxiety and depression, which started to get worse due to the trauma from my birth and breastfeeding. Thankfully I reached out and got the help I needed, so please never hesitate in reaching out. You are so loved and needed in our world ❤️