“I promise I won’t scream!”

Well I tossed up whether to write this blog…. But then I thought f$&k it. So many people want to know and I figured I’ll try my best to explain my experience…… About LABOUR…

And yep labour it is… That means hours and hours of on going work. So did my fitness and strength help? Bloody oath it did.

August 22nd about 4am, I felt the 1st contractions, I rolled over tapped cal on the shoulder and said I think I’m having contractions… His response “oh ok just time them” then rolled back over to sleep. But they weren’t painful, so I wasn’t sure. My sister and mum came over to hang with me through out the day, I felt bad cause I just wasn’t sure whether I was in labour or not. In my mind contractions were meant to be painful…. I remember calling mikey (my best friend) telling him they aren’t even painful, I can totally handle this and talk through them, mikey I have this easy ! …. Yeah right….famous last words …

After three walks through the day, lunch in Burleigh and making dinner for everyone, the pains got a little worse by 10pm, so we headed to the hospital, only to be told nope head home your only 2cm dilated 😦 …. What ! Come on I thought this shit happens quicker than this ? Once we got home everyone went to bed apart from me…..I went from ok this pain is ok to HOLY F$&k what the hell is this! I managed to chill at home for a while and I wanted everyone to get some sleep. So I went from the shower to the bed room floor for the next 4hours. Finally my mum couldn’t handle seeing me in pain, so we packed up again and headed back to the hospital hoping to god I’ll stay there. Let’s just say that ride back to the hospital was a long ride.

Once we arrived I was checked by my amazing and I mean amazing mid wife… Good news 5 cm dilated ( what ever that bloody meant… But by the look at my midwife she was happy). So I stripped off and went into the shower and this is where I stayed for hours, now you are probably wondering… was I just butt naked and standing there for hours like this? The answer – hell yes I was, I couldn’t care less who the hell was in the room because from about 4am Saturday morning till about 730am I said one word only and that was “RUB!” which was directed at Cal to rub my back, and boy did he do a good job. Finally 730 came along… And the pain was pretty bad, so I said to my sister I need a Panadol or something anything to make the pain just go away, so in came the gas… Wohooo, but little to my knowledge they had it on low because apparently I could handle the pain…. Apparently.
Not sure what the time was but I moved from the shower to the bed this is where I went thru the “next stage” according to the midwives. Now these stages are pretty amusing for everyone else in the room apart from myself. But they are the following :
Stage one : whisping.. I can’t do this anymore !
Stage two : Saying under my breath I think I’ll have a c section
Stage three: crying non stop…more whimpering..
Stage four : losing your mind, some how I thought everyone was against me
Stage five : complete slience, this was amazing I remember curling up hugging my sister and listening to music thinking I just wanted to sleep.
Stage six: now this … This scared the crap out of me, i felt a contraction come on…… Nope no contraction it was a push, and with that push I let out the biggest deepest yell …. Now let me take you back a few hours to where I was lying on the couch at home, and I turned to my sister and said “don’t worry Danni I wont be a screamer”….. Clearly that went out the window.
So 9am shit got real…. And 10 am FLETCHER Paul Hannay was here, weighing a healthy 7.7pounds a massive 55cm long, and some nice ginger locks. He is perfect and could never imagine life without him now.

So what did I learn in labour that no one ever told me before…

1. 1st stage of labour is easy… Don’t be fooled by it
2. Get to know your body, apparently I was telling the midwife everything I felt towards the end which made it easier for them to do their job
3. Get fit ! Now I’m not saying fall pregnant oh and now get fit, I’m saying try and have some sort of fitness before you fall pregnant and continue that through out the pregnancy. And if your not fit before just start walking everyday…. Believe me it makes a difference, this will take me to point number 4
4. Training throughout the pregnancy did not and I repeat did not harm myself or Fletcher. I trained twice a day 6 days a week right up to D day, yes the that’s right the day before I had a boxing session in the morning followed by stair walking then kettlebell class that night. Do what you have done before you were pregnant and your body will be fine
5. Pushing takes a long time….. Yes that’s right I had no idea about this, I honestly thought the pushing would happen and would take 10 mins max…… Well wasn’t I wrong about that!
6. Have a good support team, my team was amazing, mum, my sister and cal, they were all so amazing and kept my smiling even when times were tough.
7. The gas is amazing! I want this shit for home.
8. The final and most important thing I learnt was…. It’s not that bad, ….. Yes it’s painful, but us women are built for it. Go in with an open mind, sometimes things don’t go to plan, so just go with it, and at the end, look down at your gorgeous little human and high five yourself because you have achieved an amazing feat, creating an amazing little person!