Oscar’s Story

Getting pregnant again was far easier than we imagined, and again, an easy pregnancy, no morning sickness or anything dramatic. After the easy birth of Corban and seeing what a great little guy he was, I was in a good head space and intended to stay that way! This time around my midwife was Kerry Martin from The Midwives in Green Bay, who was lovely, and we got along great. The only difference between this pregnancy and the last was caring for a toddler made me exhausted! Not to mention I was bigger than last time around.

We had a scan at 20 weeks, curiosity more than anything, and found out we were having another boy. This was great, John is from a family where boys are well outnumbered by the girls, and it would also be a first grandson for his parents (having 2 granddaughters already!) By 6 months I was napping whenever Corban did, and by 7 months I hardly left the couch! I had no fear that this baby would be a gigantic monster, I knew he would be bigger than Corban though, who was 3.6kg. My only worry throughout the pregnancy was tearing and needing stitches, only because I might have to go to hospital to have them.

Since this was Johns first child, and my second, we watched the pregnancies of family with great interest – me hoping that it would make him less nervous. However, when the two women due to give birth before me (my sister-in-law, and Johns sister) both had caesareans, I did not want John to pre-order an ambulance, as he had been joking about doing. Luckily for me he trusts my instincts and was fine with it.

At 8 months, precisely a month and a day before my due date of 15th March, John had a minor stroke at work. He was in hospital for 4 days and told he would be unable to drive a car for a few months, and never drive heavy machinery again. Rather annoying considering that is what he does for a job! I was a bit stressed for a while there, but we had fantastic family support, and it ended up being a complete god send as John was home in my final month to look after Corban, something I was now too tired to do!

Corban was born on his due date, which didn’t help for trying to predict when the new baby would arrive. On Wednesday the 12th of March I went to the midwife, being 39 weeks and 4 days. I was confident, if a bit impatient, she was happy, but warned me she was not working from Thursday night to Monday morning – so if I went into labour, I would be having either Abbey or Carly at the birth. I had met Abbey once, but never even met Carly, though knew she was into acupuncture and had less on her plate than Abbey. We spoke on the phone just in case, and she seemed lovely. To be perfectly honest, the midwife was not important, I knew what I had to do, and the baby was going to arrive regardless of who was there. Thursday night we went for dinner at my parents’ house, I was a lot more relaxed and ambivalent about when the baby was going to arrive – I was just sick of waddling!

Friday morning – I had a great night’s sleep and woke up at 6.15 with a bit of a twinge in my tummy and the feeling something might happen today. Now here is where things get fast and crazy: I had light spotting when I went to the toilet, and woke John up in a relaxed manner, and told him I thought our baby would come today. He was a bit freaked out, and called his Mum, Lesley, who was coming over to help out. It was 6:30am. I spoke to Lesley, calm, relaxed and then hopped in the shower and had a cup of tea. The contractions had started already, very light and easy to breathe through. I did not want to wake up the midwife before 7, so I called my Dad to get him to come over and babysit Corban for the day.

By the time we called Carly, just past 7am, I could not talk during contractions. By quarter past 7, I was kneeling over the couch, with my stomach resting against the seat and John pressing my lower back. I have no idea how fast the contractions were coming, but there was not enough of a gap to count too high. The phone rang at 7.30, about the same time the pressure moved from my front to my back, and I knew from Corban’s birth that things were happening really fast, and the little guy was on his way! I felt him start to crown by about 7.35, and started to lean forwards further, sticking my bum back towards John who was pushing against my lower back to help with the pain. Bear in mind, we are in the lounge with nothing around us – no clean towels, nothing even underneath me. I did not want to freak John out, so didn’t tell him how close the baby was, hoping like hell the midwife would arrive before he did.

We managed to slip the babies changing mat under my knees as I felt the head come out. John used all his years of TV birth experience, and told me to push, but I waited for the next contraction and let him come out on his own – I pushed only once the whole labour. And then we went into shock. John ran off to get some towels, and I looked at this gigantic baby on the floor who wasn’t breathing and thought ‘What the hell do I do now?’ Within two minutes Carly arrived, who gave him mouth to mouth, and got John to get the oxygen from her car. When she asked him to call the ambulance, we both must have had a mini heart attack, but she explained it was simply a precaution. He started breathing within a few minutes then Lesley arrived, my Dad arrived, an ambulance arrived. It was quite a full lounge within a short space of time.

And so, Oscar Chey Longdon was born, 7.40am, March 14th. 90 minutes of labour, no tearing! Oscar was not a small baby, he weighed 4kg, and continues to feed like it’s going out of fashion, already hitting 5kgs at 5 weeks old. I knew his birth would be faster than Corban’s, but I had imagined 4 hours at the least! It was a crazy but great experience, John was traumatised for a few weeks after the event, but how many kids can say their Dads delivered them? It will be a great story when they are older, but it might have put John off having any more kids!