After four months of trying to conceive and eagerly taking pregnancy tests, I thought we had just missed the window again. My husband left to work away, and I had gotten a positive ovulation test three days after he'd left.
I hadn't thought about it because I thought we had missed the opportunity and I had absolutely no pregnancy symptoms at all. Still, when my period was late, I thought "ah whatever, here goes another pregnancy test". To my surprise, it said 'pregnant - one to two weeks'! I paced around the house thinking holy moly who do I tell? What do I do now? Do I call Ty? Book a doctors appointment? Can I still go to my acupuncture appointment today? I messaged my acupuncturist a picture of the pregnancy test to see if it was okay and yes I could still go. I decided to drive out to where Ty was working to tell him in person on the weekend, I booked a doctors appointment for the next day, and all was good.
Fast forward to 30 weeks pregnant, and up until this point, everything had been an absolute breeze, I barely felt any different! No morning sickness, no pregnancy symptoms, and still working on my feet all day and exercising, I felt amazing. Then boom, it all hit me like a tonne of bricks. I all of a sudden, started to feel huge, heavy in the pelvis area, sore and exhausted. My midwife noticed I had lots of fluid, as I was measuring very big, which later was diagnosed as polyhydramnios (extra amniotic fluid). I had a scan at 33 weeks which confirmed bub was head down very low, sitting in the 50th percentile - so average size but it showed all of the extra amniotic fluid which made perfect sense to why I was feeling how I was.
That night I noticed what I thought was discharge, but decided to go to bed and see how I was in the morning. I woke up at 4 am to go to work, and within a couple of hours, I felt what I thought was more discharge or wee running down my legs. Because it was a slow leak, I wasn't too concerned. Without wanting to be dramatic or a pain in the arse, I thought I'd go to sleep that night, and if it's still there, I'll call my midwife in the morning. Sure enough by the next morning, I'd gone through about four pairs of underwear overnight. I called my midwife and said "I think my waters have broken" she said she didn't think they had but to go into the hospital to check. It turns out it was my waters, and after a few tests, they confirmed I tested high risk for preterm labour in the next seven days. Holy shit we were NOT prepared for this! I spent the next four days in hospital monitoring bub and myself while my husband ran around and got the car seat installed and did a few other things to get us organised. I was then discharged from hospital to have weekly appointments and CTG scans at the hospital as well as regular appointments with my midwife. They explained it was really just a waiting game as bub could come in four days or four weeks, whenever!
That night our friends came over to cook us dinner and watch a movie. Halfway through the movie, I started getting those slight period-like cramps again, but I didn't say anything as they were very mild and I felt okay. I think because we were up so early that morning I then started to feel really tired and just a bit off. Our friends got the hint and left at about 9 pm. We were into bed at about 9:20 pm, I laid down for about 2 minutes and jumped up to run to the toilet with the feeling of needing to poo. I felt sooo much pressure! My husband got up and said "You okay babe?", I replied with "Yep all good hun, just feel like I need to do a big poo" (haha how glamorous).
I sat on the toilet for a couple of minutes and then it was like someone had flicked a switch and all of a sudden I was in an intense amount of pain out of nowhere. I yelled at my husband "You need to call someone right now!!!"
He called our midwife who said, "Yep sounds like something is definitely happening, get in the car and go to the hospital right now". He hung up and said, "Come on babe, we've got to get in the car and go to the hospital now." I looked at him and said, "There is no way I'm getting in the fucking car I cannot move". At this point I was making noises resembling wild animals, Ty called our midwife back, and she heard me in the background and said: "Call an ambulance right now, I'm on my way". Ty called 000, and the operator said to "Get her off the toilet and put her on your bed and go and find all the towels and blankets you can".
At this point, I felt like my body was pushing the baby out; I was almost squeezing my bum to hold it in; that's the best way how I can describe how it felt. I moved to the bed, and the operator then said: "When she is contracting can you see the head?" Ty looked, and I remember him yelling out "She's crowning, she's crowning!".
It's the most bizarre feeling being in that much pain so quickly and having no clue what was going on. I feel like if someone were to have said: "Kristy you are having this baby right now" I would have calmed down a little, but since I had no idea what was happening other than the fact I felt like I needed to poo, it was so confusing and overwhelming. But as soon as I heard Ty yell "yep she's crowning" that's when it all kicked in, and I thought to myself holy shit I'm having this baby right now! The operator explained to Ty how to deliver a baby and said to firmly press under the baby's head in case she came quickly. The operator said "Tell her to push!" and in my head, I was like oh yeah I forgot I have to do that.
The paramedics had just put their bags down next to the bed and were putting gloves on, and my husband said "Do you want to deliver the baby?" they replied with "Nah mate go for it!" With one slight push, Oakley Belle Keeling was born at 9:44 pm right into her dad's arms on our bed weighing 6.1 pounds.
From the time of Ty making the first call to our midwife to the moment she was born was 16 minutes! We didn't find out the sex so as Ty pulled her through my legs so I could see her he said "BABE IT'S A GIRL IT'S A GIRL!!!" and I sat there in pure shock processing what just happened and the fact we now had a daughter! I didn't get the overwhelming feeling of crying with happiness that people talk about and that I thought I would have, but it just took a good 10 minutes even to realise what had just happened.
We heard her scream a couple of times when she came out, which we knew was a good sign. Two minutes after she was born, two midwives arrived at the house, and they sprung straight into action checking bubs signs of breathing (so grateful for them, they were amazing!). We had a bit of skin to skin and then when the placenta stopped pulsating, Ty cut her cord while we were still sitting on the bed. The midwives noticed she was a little bit purple/blue, so decided to give her some oxygen via a face mask. The midwife grabbed my dressing gown from my wardrobe put it on me, and we walked down the stairs and into the ambulance while I was carrying Oakley in my arms.
While in the ambulance I realised we had none of our stuff and we needed to call my parents. So we faced timed them, and they could not believe what had happened! They raced down to our house and cleaned everything up, to which they laugh now saying it was like they had walked into a crime scene and then met us in the hospital. We got more skin to skin when we arrived, and then bub was taken to the special care nursery while I was being stitched as I had 2nd-degree tearing (which I think was worse than the birth!).
We then spent the next three weeks in special care working on feeding, which was a challenge with her having jaundice and being so little, but we got there in the end. I recovered well and quickly, and after about 4/5 days, I felt completely normal again. When we were in the hospital, we had loads of midwives and nurses say to Ty "are you the one who delivered your baby?" safe to say he was pretty chuffed with his efforts and to give him credit, he was absolutely amazing, I will forever be proud of him. After what felt like a lifetime in hospital, we were finally able to go home and finally enjoy life as a family.
