Birth story - Claire and baby Samuel

It all started on Thursday 21st June with my 2nd sweep, the midwife had to stretch me to 1cm and advised me to see the consultant regarding starting induction with a pessary. I agreed I would talk to the consultant but was reluctant for induction just because of "dates" and would be asking for additional monitoring.
From the moment she left my house I started to get cramps and was bleeding, not giving this too much attention, I walked the dog, did the house work and picked my toddler up from school and got on with the rest of the day.

Fast Forward to 9pm, I started to get surges, quite intense, every 6-10 mins, I got excited. I then fell asleep 12-2am... 2am the surges were still every 10 mins, it's now 0530, very aware my daughter will be awake soon, my body stops surging. My husband took my daughter downstairs at 6am and I fell asleep until 8am. Wake up, surges..every 10 mins.

My mum is going to be our childcare, she lives in Cornwall, a good 5 hours away, on a good run.
I'm on my birthing ball, turn FaceTime on...I call her, "Mum I think you should come now, vigorously bouncing, willing the surges to increase" explaining they'd been off and on all night. She agreed and in a flash, was in the car, on a Friday.. it took 6hr30 to get here.

She arrives at 6pm and at 610 the surges have immediately intensified, and I mean, within minutes of her arriving. They're now every 5 minutes, 3 of those and they're now every 2 minutes, me and my husband both said...Wow they're coming thick and fast let's call triage, who will contact the homebirth team. At this point, my waters hadn't gone but my plug was slowly going. Maybe about 20 mins later, I call again, from the bathroom, waters all over the floor, I'm back on the phone to the Homebirth team within minutes... "Claire, I need you to remain calm...we don't have the homebirth car (will skip the details as to why) and also, we are very short staffed, there isn't any one to come out to you". I breathed, remained calm, and said I would come to MLU as long as I was assured a water birth room, Midwife advised she would call back as soon as she had made a plan. At this point we're packing up, assuring we have all of our things. Midwife calls, "there's 2 midwives on their way, they'll be 25 minutes, fill your pool but don't get in".

The pool is still in the box, we thought we were going to the MLU. S**t this is going to take ages.
Husband rushes around like a mad man, pool inflated and it's filling (slowly).
Up Breathing to the rescue. I'm standing up against the wall, mat under me and waters coming. I'm doing this! This is manageable, but I'm tired, I get on all fours over my birthing ball, did a few surges like this, I wasn't that comfy. Switched to all fours leaning over the sofa, fan in my face. I've got this! Still breathing through the surges.

One Midwife turns up, the other still on her way (unbeknown to me, they had started work early to get to me and were coming from their homes)
I ask if I can get in the pool yet, she asks how tall I am, my reply, 5ft11. No Claire, not yet, it's not full enough. 15 mins later, Claire if you can sit on your bum you can get in. I waited a bit longer and then got in, it wasn't full enough, but the surges were coming thick and fast and on top of each other and I knew the water would help. The 2nd midwife turns up, she gets pots and pans and helps my husband fill them up with hot water, filling the kettle, doing everything in their power to fill the pool.

I started "I can't do this" as I said the words, I knew I was in transition, but did not want to presume anything, the midwife then said, Claire you know you're in transition, you're doing really well. With her words, I started Moo'ing... I was so happy, I knew what was coming. I could feel a real shift in my surges and my "down breathing" took over. With every Moo I could feel my little man make his way, 23 minutes of this... and he was here. He came out head and hand at the same time, he sleeps like this even now.
Delayed cord clamp, lots of cuddles in the water (had a short umbilical cord, so was a little bit uncomfortable) I delivered the placenta naturally 25 minutes later.

My 3 yr old daughter came downstairs and met her little brother, her first words... I'm tired, I want to go to bed, ok sweetheart, please give me a night night kiss. Her reply, ok but don’t put me in the water🤣. The midwives stayed for an hour or so and then they were off. We sat having cuddles on the sofa until 2am whilst hubby cleaned up the pool and got the room in some sort of shape.

My beautiful boy Samuel Thomas Hale weighed 9lb6 born at 2050 on Friday 22nd June at home in the water. From waters going to birth was 2hr20.

I will highly recommend Hypnobirthing to anyone who will listen. The breathing techniques are invaluable and made my birth a truly wonderful, magical experience. Listening to the positive affirmations through out the birth and in the hours before really helped, I watched some of the videos in the hours before too, I literally submerged myself in positivity.