I’ve been meaning to write and share with you all Kora’s birth story for so long. Having already documented Kory’s birth story I figured it was finally time to get round to documenting hers too because if not now, then when? At this rate she’s going to be 18 years old before I even publish it.
So here goes…
On the week leading up to my labour with Kora, I was having irregular contractions, regularly. I wouldn’t experience any contractions throughout the day but every night for a week, when I would be lay in bed the contractions would start and they would always get closer together and stronger too but each night I would eventually fall asleep and when I’d wake, the contractions would have stopped. It was quite frustrating. Each night thinking ‘oh this is it!’ To then realising actually, no it’s not.
Little miss sass pants has been keeping us on our toes since before she was even born!
Anyways, back to the story.
On Kora’s due date I happened to already have an appointment with my midwife scheduled that day who I mentioned the contractions to and who in turn then offered me a sweep at my appointment. I accepted. As I lay down and waited for my midwife to do the sweep I kept thinking to myself ‘I wonder if she’s gonna be born on her due date, I wonder if she’s gonna look like her big brother…’ the midwife had a look around but the sweep wasn’t required. I can remember the words my midwife said to me as clear as day, she turned and she said ‘you don’t need a sweep sweetheart, you’re already 6cm dilated and your waters look like they’re about the burst. You need to get yourself to hospital as soon as you can.’
I don’t know how I wasn’t aware of this but from there it all starts to get very real, very fast.
In shock, I walked home from the clinic, well, waddled home, and as I waddled I phoned R and my mum to let them know that I didn’t need a sweep and that actually I was already in the early stages of labour and that I needed to get to the hospital. Me and R dropped the big-brother-to-be, Kory, at his nannies and then made our way to the hospital.
On the drive there I remember thinking, very soon I’m going to have our baby in my arms and the next time I see Kory he’s going to be a big brother. I was so excited, bricking it but excited.
Once we arrived at the hospital, I was taken straight to a delivery suite and from there monitored. My midwife (who get this! Was called Cora! Like what are the odds that my midwife who was going to be delivering my daughter would share the same name as her?!) started to get everything and myself prepared for Kora’s birth. As she did this I was pacing the room backwards and forwards, I was bouncing on the birthing ball but still nothing was happening. After a while, I was still just sat through all my contractions and it seemed things weren’t progressing any further. So my midwife checked me over and I was still just 6cm dilated. So she offered to break my waters for me as they still hadn’t broken in the hope that this would speed things along. I won’t go into too much detail but I had my waters broke (ouch!) My waters never broke like they do in the movies when I was having Kory, my waters just kept leaking but with Kora, there wasn’t a lot of water but what water there was all came gushing out at once and it felt like I’d p!ssed myself! Yay
Once my waters had finally gone, the midwife said to me ‘I’m going to leave you here for a short while now and I’ll come back to check on you later to see if you’ve dilated any further.’ And I kid you not, she had barely even closed the delivery suite door behind her when I started screaming at R to tell her to come back. R ran after her and when she came back in the room she asked me if I was okay and I said (well more like screamed) ‘NO I NEED TO PUSH!’ And she said in disbelief ‘you need to push? Are you sure? Let me check you over.’ She took one look at me and she said ‘yes you need to push I can see your baby’s head.’ And within half an hour Kora Robyn Lonsdale was born weighing 6lb 3oz of pure beautiful.
The final stage of her birth all happened so fast. There was no time for any pain relief and it still all feels like a crazy blur to me. Nothing at all like my labour with Kory that was much slower and more nerve wrecking with him being premature. As soon as Kora was born she was placed straight on my chest and I finally got to have those precious first skin to skin snuggles that I dreamt of having with Kory but never got to have. I am so grateful that I got to experience birth for a second time, although agonisingly painful, equally as amazing and I got to have the birth experience I’ve always wanted. No NICU, no complications, just us and our baby. I am so thankful that I got to experience a less terrifying birth with Kora.
The most beautiful part of all of this for me though was when I got to see both of my children together for the very first time. Kory took to being a big brother like a duck takes to water, instantly the protective, amazing big brother I always knew he would be.
On the 13th of September 2019 at 5:37pm, Kora Robyn was born and she completed our family.
Life as The Lonsdales 