Birth Story Series: My third birth - 2026, part 3
As time passed, with one contraction after another, I started to feel like I should be seeing more results for the amount of effort I was putting in! The pushing phase with my first labour had been under 1.5 hours, and less than 30 minutes with my second, so I had kind of expected not more than half an hour or so this time. After a while Haylie suggested I could try moving into a lunge position…
Birth Story Series: My first birth - 2022, part 2
Simo came to see if I was OK. He’d heard my waters break and thought I’d vomited! I told him my waters had broken and he messaged Marianna who said she was on her way. This was shortly followed by the most incredible sensation of my body just taking over with a “pushing” contraction. I wasn’t prepared for it and it was so out of my control! I made some kind of noise through it and Simo came back. I realised by this time that I was never going to get the “longer gaps between contractions” that I'd been waiting for, and that now I was actually through active labour and transition already and into the pushing phase! I told Simo I hoped Marianna would arrive soon because I thought our baby would be born pretty soon!
18 Weeks Pregnant - plan for your birth!
I’m planning my third birth after two uncomplicated, and frankly, fantastic birth experiences. But let me tell you, you never get to the point where you don’t need to plan for birth! And you can’t just “copy and paste” your birth plan either, since no two pregnancies and births are the same. Not to mention the fact that we never finish learning. You may have made an informed decision on something for your first birth that you now have more information on or think differently about, and so you make a different decision for a subsequent birth or postpartum…
15 Weeks Pregnant - I felt my baby move!
During the week I ran a poll on my Instagram stories asking for votes on when I might feel baby move for the first time. For reference, I said that I felt my first moving at 19-20 weeks with anterior placenta, and my second at 17-18 weeks with anterior placenta. This time I have a posterior placenta, and I asked if people thought I was likely to start feeling movements from 14-15 weeks, 15-16, 16-17, or 17+.
13 Weeks Pregnant - the blessing of health
This week we had a visit from our midwife, Haylie — the official booking-in visit. She was apparently shocked to see the results of my first trimester blood tests with all levels in the recommended ranges. Apparently I’m abnormal 😂 I have to say I do feel like a bit of a boring character at these booking-in appointments, not having any of the possible medical conditions they have to ask me about! Jokes aside, I am very thankful for good health!! It is such a blessing, and I don’t take it for granted…