Being pregnant with Kayleigh

I was 18 when I fell pregnant with Kayleigh. I had only recently moved in with Terence and started university - but before you say anything, Kayleigh was planned - we wanted her from the start. My originally due date was the 9th of December (my birthday) which was revised to the 16th of December after the 4 week ultrasound. Kayleighs pregnancy was unremarkable. I only had one incident of morning sickness when I had a glass of milk one morning and then threw it up on the way to catch the bus to Uni. In the later half of the pregnancy I was working at Hungry Jacks in Tuggeranong as well as going to Uni. The worst thing about this was the way my feet would swell up by the end of the day and Terence would have to make me a bowl of ice water for me to put my feet in after work.

The day that Kayleigh was born I woke up at about 6am with a funny feeling - then my waters broke. Lucky for us, Terence had though ahead an put plastic under the sheet of my side of the bed - we had bought a new mattress only weeks earlier - so the bed didn't get any fluid on it. We quickly got my things and went to the hospital. I had not yet had any contractions. The midwife saw me an told us to go home and wait until the contractions were 5 minutes apart before we came back. So we went down to Tuggeranong and got some remaining baby things and went home. My dad turned up after midday to see how things were progressing and that's when the contracts started - first only every 20 minutes or so and getting more regular. By about 3pm the contractions were getting into the 'go to hospital' stage so Terence and I made the trek back to the hospital when we were admitted into Room 1 of the Birthing Suite. The birthing suite was lovely - a queen size bed, large bath and single room with lots of space.

Initially I spent time in the waiting area of the birthing unit with my knees on a chair, laying across a table on my elbows. The Midwife said it was a good position to allow the bay to adjust its position better. Eventually we went back into the room and put some music on - The soundtrack to 'Braveheart'. The contractions were started to get quite painful and I requested the Nitrous Oxide for pain relief. The midwife brought it in and gave me the breathing mask - funny enough though they are supposed to start the gas level at around 5% and then up it as they go. The midwife forgot to change from the last patient so I took a deep inhale and got all warm and fuzzy in the head and slumped almost asleep on the floor. The midwife then noticed that she had left it on 40% - not that I was complaining!!!!

Eventually, the midwifes though a warm bath would help the pain and I got into the lovely huge bath tub, nitrous oxide and all. The contractions were quite painful by this stage. . The NO2 was making me sleepy as well and Terence had trouble holding me up in the bath. The mid wives kept telling me not to push to let it come naturally and I told then I couldn't help it. They told me then to get out of the bath as second stage had kicked in.

I got out and they had me standing up holding onto a rail. They placed a mirror on the floor so I could see what was happening. I saw Kayleigh's head crowning and gave a really big push - and her head was born. The midwives all shouted to stop pushing (so they could check that the cord wasn't around her neck) and then the next contraction she was out! Terence cut the umbilical cord and the midwives cleaned her up and  she sneezed - the cutest little baby sneeze EVER! She never even cried. They weighed her and measured her and she was perfect. Kayleigh was born at 23:23 on the 14th of December after an 11 hour labour.