Hello Maverick! Part I

I have been debating whether or not to post my labour story, just like with many other things it is a sensitive topic, and it took me 4 months to make up my mind and put ''pen to paper''.

First and foremost, I must say that this story is not meant to scare the future moms, because in fact I believe you should not have any fear before giving birth & that is what I worked on during pregnancy. I wasn't scared, I was excited & in pain, but excited. I trusted my body and I knew everything will be alright. But there are things I did not expect, things that no matter how much I wanted to I could not have done much to make it different. And in that exact situation, I should have (now looking back) changed my plan & let the medications help me... Okay, just so you understand where I was coming from, a little pre story.

I wanted my birth to be natural, no epidural, no any other crazy things (nothing against it just wanted to be natural), wrote my birth plan, which I am very happy I did because a few things on that plan got to come true, but not all and that is where I learned my lesson not to be so hardheaded. And maybe if you are a mom to be you can take it as a little advice, to let things go a bit. At least that would be an advice I would give myself if I could do it all again.

Photo: Sorry for my 2,5 month lockdown hair Mav

Here we go, my contractions started at least a week before any of the other labour signs kicked in. On my appointment on the 4th of May contractions were visible for the doctor and I could surely feel them already. Too bad it was not enough to properly get things started. Tuesday & Wednesday the same. While during these days the pain grew slightly but surely, night sleep was very poor, I was getting anxious & tired. Thursday morning at the doctors, contractions got measured again & she was able to do stretch and sweep (a gentle way to try start labour). Oh boy did it start!! Its weird though because she already gave me the induction date and I really didn't want to be induced either, so we went home and I tried to do everything in the book to get the labour going. By everything I mean, raspberry leaf tea (I drank that every day for the last 3 months), ate date (for the last month on and off), my friend told me to try pump some colostrum since pumping can induce labour too. You bet I have tried that too!! I tell you what.. one of these things worked, or my boy was just ready!

Side note** the crazy part of that day was that as a first time mom, you don't know if its actually labour labour until you waters break I guess, especially since the pain was present for a few days already.

This time it was a bit different though, it was growing stronger, but I kept second guessing whether that's it or not, I even did a phone interview with some magazine in Lithuania, while having contractions... anything to keep my mind away!

A few hours later I wasn't even trying to keep a straight face on, it was tough, painful and I was tired of it already. I bounced on the gym ball, reading everything possible online if these are the real contractions or not, is this it? Is it any closer to the end? I tell you what it wasn't, but my waters broke at home randomly. So I was happy and it meant all that pain before was the ''real'' deal. I guess it it difficult to describe pain, it's subjective and not all of us feel the same. I knew I have a high pain tolerance, so for me to say it hurts is something else.

Before we zipped up the bags I was sitting in the shower for a little bit and that felt nice, I think mentally I was so happy that it's real!!! We got ready to go to the hospital and I remember my husband was washing a few plates, so we come home to a clean place, haha!!

Ride to the hospital was whatever, I was just on my knees on the seat because, believe me sitting was not an option at this point. I remember being so excited in between contractions & sometimes even tearing up during the contraction as my husband checked us into the hospital.

**Side note: all this Covid-19 stuff was in full action when this was happening so me wearing a mask started a little before I entered the hospital, followed by the Covid test, because I was tested in the morning, but the results haven't come in yet..

As we got to the maternity ward, we were greeted by a mean looking lady who wheeled the wheelchair and told me ''SIT!!'', I refused, because.... sitting still wasn't an option. I can walk, and she didn't seem to understand. This whole Spanish - English miscommunication was following us like a shadow till the day we checked out. But lucky when the midwife came in to my room and started speaking perfect english (since she lives in London most of the time) I was happy. The relief of my midwife being awesome, the first wave of uncertainty came. After a check midwife told me my waters are not clear, meaning that the little man pooped inside (you couldn't wait could you:))). This meant that the baby might be distressed or might get distressed at any point, which is no good news. After checking the baby he was all great, but it still meant my birth plan is most likely not going to go ahead..

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