welcome to the world!
Our sweet baby boy Henry was born at 2.14am on Thursday, 3 September, 5 days after his due date. I’m only getting to writing this story 3 months later, because wow, what a whirlwind the last few months have been. I definitely wasn’t in a space to write this down right after his birth, mainly because the sleep deprivation was so real at that time and we were all just getting to know each other for those first few weeks. I’ve decided that I need to write our story, mainly because the memories are fading so quickly already! It’s really true what they say about ‘forgetting’ newborn life and birth! Emile has certainly had to help fill in some of these details.
Tuesday, 1 September – going into labour
On Tuesday 2 September, I remember just waking up so sad and emotional. I’d already spent 3 weeks on the couch watching endless seasons of Downton Abbey, waiting for baby to arrive. It was a bad idea getting my hopes up that he’d come early (why did I do that to myself?!). I remember talking to my mum on the phone being all teary saying that this baby was never going to come. I was just so bored and miserable at that stage of the pregnancy, feeling too heavy (and sore) to go out much and also extremely tired (hello 2 naps a day!). I was ready for this baby to get here! Mum ended up joining me for coffee around midday to cheer me up which was really nice. While we were having coffee, I felt a little niggle, a bit like period pain. This is after a ‘false alarm’ water breaking on Sunday, so I wasn’t getting my hopes up! I just took it easy in the afternoon, spent lots of time on my bouncy ball and even took a nap. I knew something was happening, because this wasn’t normal pain. I was surprised at how much it was hurting in my back (he was posterior, so that explains it). Emile cooked us dinner and we started timing the contractions. On average, my contractions were 5-10 minutes apart, and later throughout the night, they just got closer and closer together (1-5 minutes). The app was telling me to go to hospital! But the pain was still bearable, so I wasn’t too concerned yet. We went to bed that night, but I knew I wouldn’t get much sleep. I ended up spending most of the night in the living room with a heat pack trying to breath and get some rest and let Emile get some sleep.
Wednesday 2 September – hospital and the epidural
I called our hospital (Westmead Public) around 2am, and they said that if I can still talk through the pain, then it’s not time to come in yet, and to think about having a bath and some Panadol (lol). So I thought “fine” and just coped until about 4am when I rang the hospital again to say the pain was severe, contractions were close together and that I’d feel more comfortable coming in. I woke Emile, had a shower and we quickly packed our bags. The pain was pretty bad at this point, so we paused a lot. Lucky Emile had our Google list handy!
Once we got to hospital around 5am, we were seen by a midwife where they monitored the baby. Turns out, the baby had just done a poo inside, but they weren’t too concerned yet. At this point, the pain was pretty bad. I spent a lot of time on all fours, just gritting my teeth and getting through. They offered me gas, initially just for the internal examinations (they totally freak me out), which worked well, so I kept on the gas the whole way through. In the end it got cranked up enough to make me totally light-headed and out of it. It didn’t ease the pain that much, but what I found was it just helped me breath through the contractions. Last thing I remember is the midwife suggesting we get in the shower to help the pain, which really did work. At some stage, I was asked to get back on the bed, and all I remember is that walk from the shower to the bed being excruciating. I think that’s the time that I finally asked for the epidural.
I think it took the anaesthetist an hour to finally get around to us, but boy was I happy to see him. He was just such a friendly, upbeat person, which made us think this guy must be the most popular person on the ward! We talked about his wife having just had a baby too, and yes, she also had an epidural. We were laughing about our best intentions of having the ‘natural’ birth.
After the epidural was in at 11am, I was on cloud nine! I could finally just sit and relax and enjoy the experience, feel excited and eat snacks! But then, the waiting game really began. By this stage I was already super tired, so I’d catch a snooze every now and then. Honestly, we didn’t do much! It’s like we were just waiting for time to pass. I was examined every few hours, and things just weren’t progressing. Before Henry was born, we were already in hospital for just shy of 24 hours! It got to the evening, which is when we knew things were getting serious. His heart rate was fluctuating, and they ended up doing a stress test (small prick on his head) with a warning that if the results didn’t come back normal, it would be an emergency caesarean. Luckily everything looked ok, but I think this is when we knew deep down it would end up in caesarean anyway. We’d already been there 3 midwife shift changes and seen multiple doctors! I wasn’t progressing past 4-5cm dilation. By midnight, they called it, we’d be going into theatre within a couple of hours. At this stage, we’d come full circle back to the midwife that had seen us initially when we came into hospital 24 hours earlier, which was kind of nice for her to see it through to the end.
We were excited to meet our baby! I was a little bit disappointed at this stage, because before my last examination, I was expecting to be fully dilated (as were they) or close to, and looking forward to push time! It wasn’t meant to be and were pretty ok with that in the end. We were both just so wrecked and tired by that stage and just so ready to meet our baby!
Thursday 3 September - Henry’s birthday!
As they were cutting me open (yes, it really does feel as weird as everyone describes), I remember having a little bit of a teary in the moments before he arrived, just in anticipation and excitement. I was nervous! A few moments later, there he was, born at 2.14am at 3.4kg and perfectly healthy! He cried almost instantly and it was incredible. I immediately thought he looked like Emile! As I was laying on the operating table, I remember looking over and asking Emile if his feet were ok. I was born with a club foot, so it was just something I had in the back of my mind the whole pregnancy (even though we could tell from the scans his feet were fine). They are the two most perfect little feet and we couldn’t be more blessed.
The rest was a blur from this point (I mean, the whole thing was a blur), but I was so drowsy from the drugs, feeling sick and just kept falling asleep the whole time. I remember them putting him on me to breastfeed in the theatre, but I just wanted to sleep! We spent a while in recovery, because my blood pressure was high, which ended up being the reason for a long (4 days) hospital stay, but honestly, it was bliss. With covid, it meant little to no visitors (only one visitor at a time), so we made a blanket rule that we weren’t having any visitors, which I’m actually glad was the case because we spent a couple of days just all getting to know each other. Luckily, we had our own room and Emile could sleep over. It was just a bubble of us 3 for a few days which was super special. I’m glad Emile was around, because recovery post c-section is a little rough. I’m not sure what it would have been like if he wasn’t there, but it helped a lot, especially looking after Henry, nappy changes, making sure I had water, snacks etc etc. By the end of the week, Emile said his feet were SO sore, which we laughed about because he felt bad saying it, especially after everything I had just been through, but honestly, it was tough on both of us.
We’re lucky to say that our hospital experience at Westmead was so positive. I honestly look back at that time with such fondness. The midwives, doctors and theatre crew were all so attentive, positive and kind – but most importantly, amazing at their jobs – even the student nurses blew me away with their passion for the job. We came away feeling so well looked after!
Sunday 6 September - going home
On Sunday, we finally got to go home. They checked everything was ok with Henry and I, and when they said I was going home, I packed my bags so fast. I was so ready to be home! We called my family to say we were on our way and my parents got to our house not long after we arrived. It was such a special day for everyone in my family to meet him. A few little teary eyes all around. I will always cherish those moments. Then the fun of newborn life began! More on that later.
Welcome to the world little Henry Hofsink! We are so happy you’re here!
