The Birth Of Our Precious Daughter.... Sienna Peyton ♥

[Hayles]

It's been no secret how much I've wanted a girl and although we had always planned to have 5 children, I never expected to have 4 boys in a row!! So when it was time to start TTC our final baby in December 2010, I wanted to do everything I could to sway the odds of having a girl. I know a lot of people think gender swaying is a bunch of nonsense (and that's fine), but the more I read about it, the more it made sense in what you had to do and why I had so far only conceived boys. I completely changed my diet - a very healthy and bland diet (lost 9kg in the process!), planned the timing (not as straight forward as the shettles method suggests!) and many other weird and strange things were done…. As the months went on and it got harder and harder to maintain the diet etc, I had to keep reminding myself why I was doing these crazy things and this was our last chance. By now it was April 2011 and after I ovulated (early!) I just knew I would be pregnant. When I did the HPT at 13 dpo and that second line came up, I knew instantly, that it was my baby girl. Despite having ovulated early, I felt strangely calm.

As the weeks went by, I was surprised that I was not getting nervous about finding out if it was a boy or a girl…. my intuition had been right with every pregnancy so far and I think deep down I knew that I was having a girl, although I was terrified to say the words out loud. 19 weeks finally arrived and as we were driving to the ultrasound, the nerves finally took over and I started getting upset and even contemplated not finding out the gender, I figured if I didn't know, I could at least spend the next 20 weeks still with the possibility of it being a girl. But I really did want to know, so if it was another boy, I could deal with those feelings before bubs arrived. The scan started and within the first couple of minutes, there was a very clear toilet bowl shot between the legs and both my husband and I looked at each with the same thoughts - we couldn't see any dangly bits - and we'd seen a lot of those shots over the years!!! I nervously asked the technician and she said the baby was female…. I burst into tears!!! The scan continued on and everything was just perfect. At the end I said to the sonographer that I was waiting for her to tell me she'd made a mistake and it was in fact a boy, so she had another look for me and said it was definitely a girl, pointed out the labia etc… I hoped she wouldn't be so specific with the genital parts if she wasn't pretty sure (and I reminded myself of this every time I got nervous about it being a boy throughout the rest of my pregnancy!)

My due date was the 3rd January and I was more than happy to wait until then, as I really didn't want a December baby, but as the weeks went on and I had really bad sciatica, that would constantly bring me to tears, I just wanted her out. But as I made it past Xmas and New Year, as hard as it was, I was glad.

My previous two pregnancies were high risk, but as my birth with DS#4 was complication free, I was classed as low risk now and was allowed to go through the one on one midwife programme, which I'd always hoped to do. A year previously, during a D&C the doctor perforated my uterus, so throughout my pregnancy, this was a hot topic and my plan for labour was changed again and again. In the beginning, they said I would have to have a caesarian, which I was devastated about. They then decided a VB was fine, but I could not be induced, apart from waters broken…. So I was basically being treated the same as a VBAC patient. Then at 40 weeks they went back to saying I'd have to have a c-section again… I was completely over being pregnant by that stage and was on the verge of agreeing to one, when my midwife reminded me of how much I didn't want one - thank goodness!! I had a stretch & sweep at 40.1 weeks, I was 2-3cm. It caused a little bleeding and cramping, but nothing after that. After a meeting with the OB's the next day, (no c-section required once again!) we discussed that I'd have my waters broken at 10 days over, but if labour didn't get going within a few hours, then it would be off for a c/s, which I was okay with, as this is what the initial plan was from early on and what I'd always had in the back of my mind. My midwife kept saying she didn't think I'd make it to my next appointment, but I don't like believing that stuff. A week later at 41.1 weeks (Wednesday) I was back for my next appointment, another stretch and sweep, 3cm still…. They rang to book me in on Friday (10 days over) for my induction and they were booked out. I was utterly devastated!!! I fought hard to keep the tears away in front of the doctor and midwife. They couldn't get me in till 13 days over, which felt like an eternity away!! And now, after all this time talking about only breaking my waters, they had decided that I could go on the syntocin drip if things didn't start after a couple of hours of breaking my waters, but only a low dose and they would turn it off once things got going…. it was getting ridiculous how many times the plan had changed, but I was happy with this decision. Once again, my midwife said she didn't think I'd make it to my induction, yeah right!! I rang my husband to tell him what was going on and burst into tears, how was I supposed to wait another 5 days, I'd had enough, I couldn't function anymore…. I'd had pretty much no pre-labour this pregnancy, so when I started getting contractions Saturday night, I got hopeful that it might be it, but was not too upset the next morning when nothing eventuated, as I only had one more day to get through. Some more contractions that night, but woke on Monday 16th January, ready to meet my baby girl. I couldn't believe I was 13 days overdue!! Unfortunately my midwife Karen, that I'd seen throughout the pregnancy, was not on that day, so I had her buddy Ricki-Lee, which I'd met at one of my appointments and was just lovely as well, but was sad I could not finish my journey with Karen.

We arrived at the hospital at 7am. My waters were broken at 8am and the waiting began!! I was told I'd have two hours for things to get going, before they would start the drip. I thought beyond a doubt, that being my 5th baby, having my waters broken would be all that was needed (and I thought I'd be holding my baby by lunchtime, LOL!) Well, only a few contractions here and there and it was already two hours later. At 10.30am the drip was started. Despite them saying I would only have a low dose, things just would not get going, so every half hour, the drip was turned up! Finally about 1pm, things decided to happen and my contractions started becoming regular and strong and I really had to start concentrating on my breathing and squeezing my husband's hand tighter and tighter with each one. About 2.25pm, I needed to go to the toilet and when I got back, I decided I'd stand up for a while to see if that got things going a bit faster. The very next contraction, I felt the need to push!! It scared the hell out of me because surely I couldn't be ready to push yet, I could still easily breath through the contractions and the thought of pain relief hadn't even crossed my mind yet… I was having a momentary freak out and decided I didn't want to stand up anymore, so hopped back on the bed. Next contraction, everything was okay again, next contraction, needed to push again! Started getting scared…. midwife asked if I wanted to have an internal and see where I was at, I agreed and she checked me and I was only 5cm!!!! I was absolutely devastated and asked for an epidural, which I didn't really want. But the thought of having to deal with the overwhelming need to push for another 5cm was too much to bear. She tried to talk me out of it and said why don't I try the gas, so I had two sucks on the gas before tossing it away and she went to write down in her notes that I was 5cm and wanted an epidural when my next contraction hit and I started screaming that I needed to push and I just had to!! Midwife raced over and lifted the sheet to see that the head was out! She asked my husband to press the call button for assistance, whilst she quickly tried to get her gloves on and he accidentally pressed the emergency button and before I knew it, there were about 10 people staring at me! So as I lay there touching my baby's head, knowing the worst was over, I was excited for that final push. The contraction started and I reached down, grabbed my baby and pulled her onto my chest. First words out of my mouth were 'is it a girl?' They said I don't know, you need to have a look…. I lifted the sheet and had a look and it really was a girl, I just cried and cried….. I couldn't believe I finally had a daughter!!

She really was a stubborn little thing, firstly making us wait till 13 days overdue, and then the labour would just not get going. But once she finally decided she was ready to enter the world, she wasted no more time! Established labour was only 1 hour and 40 minutes and I went from 5cm to holding her in 5 minutes!! I still had to deliver the placenta, which due to my history of a severe PPH, I was very nervous about, but it all went well. I had a second degree tear, which took forever to stitch up as I'm sure the midwife hadn't done it many times before as she was being instructed as she went! My husband watched the whole thing and commented on what a great job she did, LOL!

The first two hours were spent having skin to skin time and breastfeeding… She was then weighed and measured - 9 pound, 51cm long and 37cm head. We then finally shared the news that our baby girl had arrived, she kept us waiting a very long time, but Sienna Peyton was finally here.

She is now 10 days old and we are all completely in love with her, she was well worth the wait and our family is now complete!!!

[Turbo]

Wow, what an awesome birthing experience. Congrats on your baby girl

[MonkeyBoo]

That is such an awesome story Hayles, I had tears reading it, I am so so so happy for you that you finally have your precious baby girl!

Welcome to the world Sienna Peyton (You have the most beautiful name!!) You are such a beautiful baby, and you are going to be very well protected with those big brothers of yours! xo

[frenchieM]

Awww congrats Hayles! Enjoy your beautiful little princess. My little DD takes her time with everything, maybe its a girl thing LOL.
Your birth story was amazing, well done on getting the birth you wanted.

[Jessant85]

What beautiful story and the perfect conclusion to your family! Congrats and welcome to your beautiful little Sienna! x

[Z'sMum]

Awww congrats Hayles!
Welcome to the world Sienna!

My goodness - are you gonna know what to do with a girl?!

[Hayles]

Thanks everyone!! Sienna is 3 weeks old already and every time I change her nappy, I'm still in awe that she really is a girl!!