“Tadhg is my second baby, my daughter Aoibhe is nine years old, so there is quite a gap. It really did feel like my first all over again.”
Mum, Ciara shares her incredible birth story:
I was very calm with my delivery of Aoibhe, she went the ten days overdue, so I was brought in for inducement, and she arrived weighing an average eight pounds nine. I had thought she might have been heavier because I was also 12 and half a pounds at birth – though my mum ended up having a c-section because they didn’t realise how big I was!
I went through labour with Aoibhe calm and ready for it, pain and all. A couple of minutes after Aoibhe was born I turned to my mum who was my support and said “that wasn’t so bad, I’d definitely do it again,” to which my mum replied I wasn’t allowed! Aoibhe was the first grandchild, so I think she was actually more nervous than I was!
With Aoibhe’s birth having gone so smoothly I wasn’t nervous with Tadhg’s even though he was showing up as quite a large baby. My first scan at 14 weeks showed Tadhg measuring just 1 day smaller than average. However at my 4D scan at 20 weeks when the average size of a baby should be just 2 pounds, Tadhg measured three pounds six ounces. I had my second hospital scan just six days later, and he had grown to three pounds twelve when the average would have been two pounds five at that stage.
My pregnancy went very smoothly and apart from the usual tiredness and back ache in the later stage of pregnancy; I had no complaints. I didn’t even suffer from morning sickness which was great. I was even chief bridesmaid for my sister, Erin at six months pregnant and went to one of my best friends hen weekend at seven and a half months pregnant as I was also chief bridesmaid for her.
I had a last scan at 36 weeks to see the size of Tadhg, and he was showing as 10 pounds 9 then so due to his size I was brought in three days before my due date for inducement.
I went in on a Thursday and received two inductions. Myself and Michael walked the corridors and stairs of Castlebar hospital, and I had the exercise ball to bounce on and also a chair to straddle. The midwives recommended the chair as the best way to try and move things along. However, although I was having contractions, they were due to the gel rather than labour. On Friday morning one of the doctors said I could have my waters broken. Myself and Michael were high-fiving walking over to the delivery ward, so excited to get actual labour started. However, a senior doctor examined me and refused to break my waters as he said I wasn’t ready, and it would only make my labour more difficult and increase the chances of an emergency section.
We were so disappointed to go back to the maternity ward, and they said they wouldn’t try inducement again until the following morning. So Michael and I walked down to Castlebar town so I could buy more comfortable runners. We walked the loop of the town and a couple of laps of a running track that was behind the hospital, but Tadhg still wouldn’t budge!
On Saturday, I had another two inducements, and getting was more contractions and harder pain but again it was from the inducement, and I still wasn’t really in full labour. Again we walked the corridors, and the track outside repeatedly but no joy. They wouldn’t break my waters because I still hadn’t progressed but promised to do so the next day as it was my actual due date.
On Sunday morning the doctors visited me on three separate occasions to offer the choice of a section, but as I had spent the previous three days trying to get into labour, I definitely wanted to try for a natural delivery.
After my waters were broken, I again had to be induced through the drip method as I still wasn’t moving along. When I did eventually start labour Tadhg was born less than two hours from the start of it, so it did happen fairly quickly in the end.
Tadhg in the hospital beside a baby who weighed 7 lbs 4 oz:
I did and up having the epidural an hour before I gave birth due to the severity of the contractions from the drip. I had really wanted not to use it as I didn’t have one during Aoibhe’s birth but I was glad afterward when I saw the size of his head!
During the days of the inducements, I mainly walked off the pain or just kept bouncing on the exercise ball. When I was trying to get to sleep, the midwives gave me the tens machine, and I really found that a great help, I was even using it up until I got the drip induction.
Tadhg was born weighing 12 pounds 6 ounces and one of the midwives told me that she had previously held the record for delivering the largest baby naturally in Castlebar until myself and Tadhg came along. All the doctors and nurses came in to see the size of him, the 0-3 months babygros were tiny on him, the hat wouldn’t even go over his head! I was joking with the midwives that I’d see them again with a 13 pounder.
I felt great after the birth, although a little pain. I didn’t need painkillers, and we got out of the hospital as soon as Tadhg was 24 hours old (the earliest they would let us leave). I even stopped at Dunnes on the way home to do the shopping for tea and biscuits for the visitors. Tadhg and I were walking to school with Aoibhe since he was two days old. I even fit into my bridesmaid dress at my friend’s wedding three weeks after Tadhg’s birth!
Tadhg is an absolutely perfect baby so content and happy. Aoibhe absolutely adores him. She’s constantly holding him, playing with him or just showing him off to her friends at school. Tadhg is still quite large; he’s constantly mistaken for a seven-month-old, he wears 6-9months clothes and 9-12month shoes. He weighs 17 pounds 8 ounces today.
It did take Tadhg quite a while to make his arrival, but it was totally worth the wait. I’m relieved that the doctors didn’t let me go over my due date as Tadhg surely would have been hitting 13 pounds by then!
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