I have always envied moms who get told an actual date that they’ll be having their baby and yet at the same time, I prayed desperately for a natural birth. With Sarah I went into labour naturally but both H and I (and he’s not the impatient type), had prayed about it and this time around we felt at peace to agree to an induction, when our gynae offered us one. {You can read how we ended up at this point HERE}…

After committing to my induction the following day, I sobbed the whole way home from the gynea’s rooms (8:30am on 23^rd August) as I was filled with a mixture of emotions around having an actual date now, after such a long, hard trimester 3. On arriving home, I realized that knowing now that Noah was coming the following day, this meant that I could give Sarah the BEST last day of being my only child.

And the BEST day together, we did have! We played for hours, we laughed, ate yummy foods, visited her bestie (and mine) and not once did I get irritable. And nor did she. While she had no idea what it meant to be getting a brother the following day, she ate up every bit of attention that I gave her on that final day. And when at 6pm, she had a bath, I sat and wrote her the most heartfelt email as I approached the 12 hour mark until we’d welcome our new addition and she’d become my oldest, not my only any longer. I sobbed and sobbed while writing to her and forever will be grateful for being given ‘an official last day’ with her!!

After dinner at my parents’ house, H and I left Se in their capable hands as we headed home for a good nights sleep before Noah’s birth. We woke at 4:15am (after a restless night), had quick showers and then headed to Westville hospital; where we were due to arrive at 5am. We went straight to the labour ward and the lovely midwife on duty walked us through what our next few hours would look like. At 5:30am, an IV drip was put up and an antibiotic was given to me, for my virus, through the drip.

At 6am sharp, my induction was set up and gradually admistered to me through a drip. The monitor measuring contractions showed that they begun at around 6:30am (labour started) however although they looked intense, I couldn’t feel any pain as of yet, apart from a tightening which felt much like Braxton hicks. Our midwife attempted to then break my waters, however due to my cervis having retracted to a posterior position, I screamed in pain and she opted to rather wait on my gynae to attempt this. Soon after this, the midwife ended her duty and a new midwife then took over. It happened to be our new midwife (Dawn’s) birthday that same day J Special!!

On booking my induction the day before, I had asked for an epidural (this is seriously advised for an induction as contractions are believed to be significantly more intense than natural contractions). The anesthetist arrived at 7am, however at this stage I was yet to feel an actual contraction, and I thus turned them away.

At 7:30am my gynae arrived (quite possibly the loveliest gynae on earth) and managed to break my waters and confirmed that I was still 2-3cm dilated. The hour and a half that followed this is a complete blur for me. I went from zero pain to pain at an intensity that I didn’t know was possible without causing death. (Note that I only had an epidural at 5cm dilated with Sarah, so I had felt labour pain before however these induced contractions were on a whole nother level). Between 8am and 9am, my contractions were 15 seconds apart and with the combination of unbearable pain and the amount of gas I was inhaling, I couldn’t even open my eyes let alone attempt to speak. At 8:50am, my husband begged the midwife to arrange an epidural for me and on her own accord, Dawn also turned off my induction medication to try to lower the pain I was experiencing. There are no words to describe the intensity of pain that my body was going through at that stage.

The new anesthetist arrived at 9am, and just took control. I couldn’t move at that stage so was being shoved around to get into a position where we could put in the epi. He was remarkable!!! My epidural started to take effect almost immediately and he got it SO right, that I was able to move my feet and even lift my legs during delivery, despite not feeling any contractions. {It was a dream to not have that ugly numbness of a normal epidural, for hours after birth}

Dawn did another internal at 10:30am after I had reported to her that I was starting to feel mild contractions again and heavy pressure down below. I was 8cm dilated at that point and when my gynae popped in 10 minutes later, I was ready to push. My actual delivery was just incredible. Dr Czarnocki kept it so relaxed (no stirrups or the likes); he merely held up my one leg, the midwife the other and within 5 minutes our son, Noah, was birthed. We could immediately tell that his predicted 3.8kg’s was in no way true, and the scale confirmed it with a 3.29kg babe.

There are no words to describe how perfect our experience of inducing was. From my perfect day spent with Sarah, our remarkable gynae, Dawn, our anesthetist, a QUICK 4 hour labour in total and then to the nurses in the ward – I am eternally grateful.