Mommy Monday: Meet My Baby! Labour & Delivery Story

He's finally here! Our beautiful little prince, Eduardo Jonathan Saccone Joly was born April 9th 2014 at 13:12 weighing 7lbs 7oz. We are so in love with him!

I was scheduled to be induced on Tuesday evening at 9pm. By that stage I was 8 days overdue and so ready to meet this baby! I didn't get up to my room until around 10pm, so it was quite late by the time my doctor came to check me. By that stage I had been hooked up to a non-stress test where they monitor baby's heartbeat and any contractions. I started to feel a sort of dull cramping around my lower back & abdomen, similar to what I had been feeling over the past few days (mostly at nighttime). Suddenly the little line on the machine that was monitoring contractions peaked a bit, right when I felt a cramp. When my doctor arrived I asked him whether I was having mini contractions. It turned out that yes, I was in the very early stages of labour! At that stage my OB decided not to begin the induction (which would have consisted of giving me prostaglandin gel). He wanted to see how far I would progress on my own before breaking my water the next morning.

So Jonathan left the hospital shortly after and I spent the night there...my contractions continued but they were very small and didn't get much stronger or more frequent! The next morning at 9am I was brought down to the labour ward where my doctor broke my water. I then waited about half an hour before being hooked up to an oxytocin drip where I was given a tiny amount. Because I had already gone into early labour myself and being a second time mom, my doctor & midwife were very aware that things could progress very quickly...and they were right! My contractions started to get a little bit stronger and after another half hour they increased the dosage (again by a tiny amount!) and I went into full-blown labour pretty quickly. I dilated very fast and the contractions got way stronger. Thankfully I had made everyone very aware that I wanted the epidural so my midwife called the anaesthesiologist very early on. By the time I got it, the contractions were pretty bad but I was using gas & air to manage the pain so at least I was quite out of it! 

Considering I was brought to the labour ward at 9am and Eduardo was born shortly after 1pm, this was a very short labour! With Emilia my water was broken at 6 or 7am and she didn't make an appearance till half past four! I also feel like there was a lot less pushing this time around. Of course, one of the downsides of the epidural is that your feeling is almost all gone from down there so when the doctor tells you to push it's hard to even know if you're doing it properly! But pushing both babies out was such an amazing & beautiful experience...I can't even begin to explain it. With Emilia I think I was more shocked and overwhelmed when they handed her to me...I couldn't believe she was mine! This time I was a bit more prepared but also more emotional! The moment when you hold your baby for the first time is one of the happiest & incredible times of life. Little Eduardo was worth every pain, every stretch mark, every haemorrhoid & all the awful heartburn & constipation I ever got this pregnancy! If I had to do it all again for him I definitely would. 

Something that I forgot to mention in my labour & delivery story video, was how grateful and appreciative I am of my doctor and all the midwives that looked after me in the hospital. I had an amazing experience and felt so well taken care of. I had the same OB deliver both my babies (Prof. John Higgins) and although I am fairly certain that I'm done having babies...if I ever got pregnant again I would move back to Cork just so that he could be the one to do it again! I would definitely recommend my OB and Cork University Maternity Hospital to anyone - the care they provided me, Emilia, Eduardo (and even Jonathan!) with was really of the highest standards.

You can watch my Labour & Delivery Story video below! 

And here is the actual video of me giving birth to Eduardo!



I will be making postpartum updates in the next coming weeks/months so keep an eye out for those too!

xoxo

Anna