Kira Zen was born at 7:20 am, August 14th. More information from Dad's POV (and eventually photos) can be found here.

Kira's Birth Story (from her Mum's POV)

At about 7:30am on Friday the 13th August I woke up to a crampy feeling in my gut. I had been feeling these on and off for about a week and a half so wasn't too excited, but I was quietly hoping as I'd taken castor oil the day before (even though it seemed it had no effect). At 8am Jake left to go to see a client and I got up not long after. At 8:46am I started timing the cramps. They were coming 5 minutes apart and lasting 45 seconds. Jake got home and I told him things might be happening but to not get too excited in case they stopped. I went and had a shower about 9:30am and we decided to call our midwife after some more contractions. At 11am I called her and they were coming at intervals of 3-4 minutes and lasting between 50 seconds and 1 and a half minutes. She said it sounded good, and that she'd be seeing me that afternoon. Her shift started at 1pm so I decided to wait until at least 12:30 before heading in depending on the pain.

I was dealing with the pain by chatting on the computer (LOL), getting Jake to press down on my sacrum with a wheatpack while I held one to my tummy on all fours. There was a bit of pelvis rocking, some breathing, but all in all it was bearable. I had one contraction that had me in tears so just before 1pm we left the house, fully expecting to have a Friday the 13th baby (and I was stoked about that!).

On arrival at the Birth Centre we set some things up (music, essential oils, beanbag etc) and my midwife Marg timed some of my contractions. They had slackened off a bit during the trip to the hospital but that was normal (and I was glad as it made it a little easier to hide them in public!) She asked if I was okay with getting an internal, and I agreed, I was 3-4cms dilated and my waters were intact. Bubba was lying on the right side (anterior) which I wasn't too happy about. For the next few hours I breathed and Jake massaged me through contractions and I eventually moved into the shower as they became quite painful. I held a nozzle to my tummy and Jake held one to my lower back. I got out of the shower at around 5ish as the steam was a bit much, and had something to eat. At 6pm Marg examined me again to see how much progress I'd made, I was 5cms so she ruptured my membranes which made me dilate to 6cms straight away. She started filling up the birthing pool, and said to wait until the contractions were pretty much unbearable before getting in. I was determined to keep it until I really needed it, but I eventually hopped in and loved the feeling of weightlessness.

I am not sure how many hours I was in there, Jake sat on the side of the pool and with each contraction I hugged him around the waist and groaned through it while he rubbed my back. I was worried about his back and kept telling him he could get in if he wanted to. They were pouring water over my back during the contractions and I was rocking my hips. Was still feeling pretty good at that stage, even though it was painful. Then I started getting the urge to poo, which I told Jake as Marg wasn't in the room at the time. She came back in and of course they urge subsided! But then it came back, and Marg said to follow my body - if it needed to push then I should push. Something didn't feel right though so I didn't. We decided to check where I was and I was 8cms. So close! Time had no meaning, I don't know how much longer I laboured with the half needing to push urge and then suddenly my body took over and I had to push. Marg was pretty sure it would be over soon because I was in transition. My body had other ideas.

For about two hours I pushed, in the pool, in the shower, on the birthing stool, on my side lying down. I was scared, I kept saying "I can't do this". Marg was starting to get worried and examined me again, and discovered what was holding things up - bub was partially posterior, and I had a lip on my cervix. I almost cried at that. Marg tried to push it out of the way. I laboured for a bit longer but nothing was happening. Another examination found that the cervix had crept back and was now swollen. At this point I knew it wasn't happening. I was utterly devastated, I had laboured so long for nothing. I had tried the gas and hated it, it just made me feel out of control and I didn't need that feeling any more than I already had it! At midnight we talked pain relief. I knew pethidine would probably not be effective, but an epidural meant transferring out of the Birth Centre, which I didn't want to do. Finally after enduring another contraction I agreed to an epidural. Jake was utterly relieved that I'd asked for it as he was going a bit mental from seeing me like that. My contractions had started spacing themselves out a bit more so I was resting between them, then we walked down the the Birth Suites and got me ready for the epi. Which took two hours to come. Those two hours were probably the hardest two hours in my life to endure.

The contractions sped up again and I was getting the urge to push again, and had to pant through each one. I had gotten VERY vocal, but they were trying to get me to breathe through the contractions as the yelling was making me more distressed. The anaesthetist was in theatre and when she turned up at 3am I could have kissed her. She was lovely, although I wanted her to NOT explain things and just put it in! The first needle went into a blood vessel but the second one was fine. After 20 mins it started to kick in, and they put a Syntocinon drip in as well to give my contractions more oomph and hopefully dilate me the last couple of cms. I could still feel the contractions at the top of my uterus as the epi didn't go up far enough but I could breathe through that pain. I tried to get some sleep but didn't really. Jake got a few hours and bubs slept through the whole thing! She wasn't in distress at all. At 5am the midwife who was looking after me (Marg had had to go home, she was quite sick) told me that they would check me again at 6am to see if things had progressed, but said that if nothing had changed I might have to consider a caesar. I had been half expecting that ever since things had started to go wrong, so I just nodded and waited. At 6am the ob examined me and no change. Poor Jake had slept through the previous conversation and now was hearing "caesar" for the first time. The ob, Kirsten, told me I could continue labouring, but if I went on too much longer I would wear out and bubs might go into distress. There would be more chance of things going wrong. I just wanted it over and my bub safe, so I agreed to the caesar.

The anaesthetist came back and pumped my epi up to the max. I was prepped and transferred to a trolley, and wheeled off to theatre. Jake was told what would happen and carted off to get dressed. I was shaking heaps, apparently that is a side effect of the epi. I felt fine though, relieved that the end was nigh. Jake was taken out of theatre while they set up and got the screen up, then he came in and sat beside my head. I looked up at him and his eyes were full of tears, and for the first time I was scared, and almost started crying myself. I had never seen him cry before in the entire time we've been together. He was overwhelmed and tired and he explained later he just felt so useless.

At 7:20am Kira Zen was born, weighing 8lbs 7oz (3820g) and measuring 53cms long, with a 35.3cm head circumference. As they pulled her out the ob joked "where were you hiding her?" as my bump wasn't that big. They took Kira off the check her and I told Jake to go with her, and I just lay there and stared in that direction, wanting to be with my baby but unable to move. Jake had the digital camera and kept taking photos to come back and show me, which helped. It seemed like they took forever putting me back together, and I passed the time (and hid my apprehension) by joking with them about removing some fat while they were at it. Eventually I was all stitched up and told that everything had gone well. They wheeled me into recovery and put Kira in with me, and she had her first suck with the help of a midwife (I had no idea what I was doing, and not being able to move didn't help). After about half an hour they wheeled me up to the postnatal ward and I lost it. I didn't want to stay there, I wanted to go home, I was tired, I couldn't move, and I couldn't feed Kira. That first day is a bit of a blur. My hospital stay was pretty awful, and I begged to be discharged on day 4. I wasn't getting any sleep in hospital and overnight had to do everything myself. Luckily they let me go. The theatre staff were excellent, my midwife was wonderful, there were some great midwives in the postnatal ward (and some shockers) but the facilities were pretty bad for caesar patients. Seeing Kira was amazing, and I still can't believe she was inside me. I kept expecting someone to come and take her off me. I feel so lucky that after all that happened I have an extremely healthy bub who has stolen our hearts completely.