my mother's day gift

frankie mae {14 days new}

it started at 11.30pm on a saturday night when i was tucked up in bed trying to get to sleep. i was 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant. i had been struggling with my sleep for quite a few weeks by this stage, i just could not get comfortable, i couldn't fall asleep, and if i did i would wake up after an hour with a massive pain right up under my ribs. yes, little feet were tucked up in there, stretching as long and straight as they possibly could! i was up and down for the past hour going back and forth to the toilet, more than a normal night, and each time i wondered if this is when my waters were going break. laying back in bed, i heard a pop and within a split second they had broken. finally, it was game on!

i didn't have any pains, no contractions yet. i rang the hospital. i rang my mum. my mum lives an hour away and the plan was for mum to come to our house and stay there with our 3 year old while i was in labour. so by the time i had made the phone calls and started getting organised, the pains and contractions had come to say hello. big hurty hello's! there wasn't going to be any time to wait for my mum to arrive and watch our daughter! "scott... pack the car and get summer up... we need to go to the hospital now!"

so off we go. it was about midnight by this stage, the 3 of us are in the car. contractions in the car don't make for a nice car trip do they?! my daughter was saying to me "don't worry mummy, we'll be at hopstable soon". god love her little soul. a contraction starts, i look at the clock and it's 12.18am. i breathe big and slow. i work through the pain and the contraction stops. next contraction starts, i look at the clock and it's 12.21am. farout, they're only 3 minutes apart and we are still driving to the hopstable. we finally pull up out the front and work our way through the emergency section to get into the hospital. i stop for another contraction and as i look around i see some pretty rare sights sitting in the outpatients room. considering the fact that i look like i have just wet myself and am holding on to the wall for support, i look rather normal in comparison to what's around me {don't forget, it's a saturday night}!

we make our way to the lift and up to the delivery suite. the ladies show me my room and i tell them i desparately need to go to the toilet. except it was no toilet visit i needed. it was my baby, ready to rock and roll it's way into this world. i struggle to make it to the bed, but i get there. the midwife gives me a check over and officially announces that the baby is almost here. seems we made it to the hospital in the knick of time! my mum was still on the road, the change of plans ment she would need to meet us at the hospital. one of the student nurses takes our daughter up to the tea room for a cup of milk and a biscuit while they wait for my mum to arrive. back in the delivery room, it was push time! i had only 2 midwives and my partner in the room with me. the midwives were amazing. so calm, so helpful. within the next half an hour they helped me deliver my baby with no drugs and no tears. dare i say it, i had a wonderful and almost enjoyable birth. don't get me wrong, it bloody hurt, and scott had a few pinch marks on him afterwards, but i was focused and somewhat in control of what was happening. it was all in the breathing.

at 1.04am we were blessed with a 7 pound 10 beautiful baby girl who we named frankie mae. a little sister for summer leonie. a daughter for scott and i. it was now mother's day and my mum comes in with summer and we all look at and admire our newest family member. summer is absolutely smitten with the new baby. she just watches the baby's every breath and move. i take a few minutes to look around me. scott was smiling at me. my mum and summer were smiling at the new baby. and i lay there and let a few tears of happiness roll down my face. i feel like the luckiest woman there is.

and just like that, my pregnancy is over and within an hour and a half after laying in bed on that saturday night, i give birth to my precious frankie mae. i am now a mum of 2 beautiful little girls!