Introducing Valerie Mae Baxter...
Our Co-Founder, Melinda, has shared her birth story from start to finish.
I always knew I was never going to have a May baby, so I wasn’t shocked at all I went 6 days over, resulting in Miss Valerie Mae Baxter entering the world June 1st 🎀
The Beginning..
It all began with a stretch and sweep I thought hadn’t worked on May 31st where I was already 2cm dilated before the sweep and then after the sweep I was about 3-4cm dilated. That afternoon I felt like my body was fragile and felt like a baby was going to fall out but that’s about it. Later that night I woke up at 12:15am to cramping feelings I couldn’t really ignore and after Penelope’s FAST labour my biggest fear was missing my window to go to hospital so I was certain I wouldn’t let that happen again! I didn’t bother waking my husband up until about 2am just to make sure the cramps were getting stronger. They were lasting about 50 seconds and they were 3 minutes apart, I had lost my mucus plug (which I didn’t actually know had happened until I did a quick google search on what a mucus plug even was) so I thought I better tell my husband and get my parents over pronto.. My only confusion was that the contractions were close together and lasting long but the pain was still very manageable 🤯
I went into hospital and could feel as I arrived that the cramps shortening and becoming less frequent... the midwife said it could either be very early labour or that it was cramping from the stretch and sweep and might not even be real labour 😖 basically she said I was too calm and happy and the contractions weren’t strong enough.
This put me in the WORST mood. We stayed at the hospital for a few hours and she gave me two panadeine forte and said this will make the pains go away 🤨
The Middle...
We arrived back home at 7am and instantly (of course) my contractions amped up again... It was mentally challenging because I felt like I couldn’t trust myself to know if it was real pain or if I was being a sensitive sally 🤷🏼♀️ all I knew was those stupid panadeine forte's were NOT working. For the next two hours I sat in a room away from my kids, until my son Leo found me and asked me to make him a sandwich.. where I replied “get daddy to make you food” and he said “daddy’s sleeping” and during my next contraction I said “WAKE-HIM-UP” 🤬 🤬
Then I knew the contractions were getting stronger so I ordered my husband to get the kids to my parents house and then we both knew it was serious this time. He was back home 20 minutes later I was waiting at the door ready to jump in the car to go back to the hospital.
TAKE 2 👶🏼
We go to the hospital at midday, had to go through a Covid check point before you were allowed in where myself and another girl arrived at the same time, I think she was there for a midwife appointment. For some stupid reason I let her go before me 😣 - I know it sounds weird but I felt like I couldn’t cut someone off because it would jinx my labour or something, even though I was the one in a great deal of pain haha!!!
I got into birth suite and I was 7cm dilated. This time, all my pains were intense in my lower back, rather than across my tummy... It's so much worse when there is lower back pain; your whole body stiffens up!!!
The End...
I started feeling contractions where my body wanted to push out the baby but it was so incredibly frustrating because my water hadn’t broke and I felt clogged. I was angrily waiting for my waters to break because I knew that was the only thing standing in the way 😖 I didn’t know if this would happen soon or if it was still hours away 🤷🏼♀️ we had only been at the hospital for twenty minutes...
I remember saying between a contraction to my midwife “I am so sorry that I’m being so short with you, I’m usually a much nicer person” haha!!
... Seconds later, my waters broke... Onto the bed on all fours I went and within a couple of minutes she was out, the final pushes, I could hear my husband sniffing and wiping away tears and that is honestly what got me over the line for those burning final pushes!!!! I heard my husband say “It’s a girl” and I just couldn’t wait to see her 🥺 To my surprise she had a big head of dark hair and looked absolutely nothing like my other two babies 🥰
Mentally, this labour was much harder than my other two, being so deflated from the morning I really struggled to talk myself through every contraction because I still didn’t trust that it was real labour or my instincts! I am not the type of person to yell and scream or swear during labour, I’m very silent and this can probably throw off the people around me trying to decipher what is actually happening inside my body and how far along I am. If I had my time again I would have not left hospital, I would have stayed to labour because it became very stressful for me that the kids were home.
On top of that I was so tired, being awake from MIDNIGHT and having a large adrenaline rush to then becoming angry and annoyed at the unknown!
HAPPILY EVER AFTER...
It wasn’t until all the midwifes left the room and it was FINALLY just my husband myself and our newborn that I finally cried.
I had done it 🥳 I had grown and delivered my third and final baby!!
I didn’t have a birth plan but I said to my husband on the second car ride into the hospital that if I hadn’t progressed much further again I was 100% getting an epidural and having them break my waters because I was so drained by that point. I had also planned to film a lot of my labour for Missta but I physically couldn’t handle a camera in my face.
I went home a few hours later and on Demi’s great suggestion, I got Hungry Jacks, which was AMAZING 🤤
I couldn’t wait for the next day for my kids to meet their newest little sister! Both kids were instantly obsessed and every bit of pain from the day before was quickly forgotten. All in all, I still call it an amazing labour however I think the first words out of my mouth after I gave birth was:
“Aaron, you are getting the snip”.
Love Melinda xx
