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Eva Lydon 🌺's avatar

Thank you so much for featuring my story Charlotte 🥰 It was a real joy to write it and hope it makes people laugh 😳🤣 Loved reading yours too Jo and Lindsey ❤️

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

You’re welcome! Thank you for writing it! x

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Lindsey Smith's avatar

Loved reading your story, Eva. Though I can't believe the nurses said you were "clogged"- how rude! There's a baby in there!

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Eva Lydon 🌺's avatar

I know right... so rude! 🤣

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Jo Usmar's avatar

Thanks so much for asking me to contribute, Charlotte. It was a real pleasure to write this, despite the madness of the situation – and I loved reading the other tales xx

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Lindsey Smith's avatar

Loved reading your story Jo. You tell it with such humor but it must have been so terrifying at the time. Was Billy your first? I have two kids and the second was born six weeks after Covid--a time when the rules in the hospital were changing daily and everything was bizarre and scary. I still am so grateful that I was a second-time mom going through that and not a first, as at least I kind of knew what was up. I can only imagine not having given birth before and not speaking the same language as the medical staff would have been extra challenging!

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Jo Usmar's avatar

Thanks so much, Lindsey! Loved your story too. I will never look at an Egg McMuffin in the same way! And yep, Billy is my first (and my only – post-chemo, I can't have any more, but he's a bloody dream and more than a little lucky to have arrived considering the sitch, so I'm delighted and grateful for what I have). I can't imagine having to give birth during Covid. I can remember that time of ever-changing rules well – what a shitshow (literally?). Thank God we're able to look back at the madness now and write about it with fondness, eh?

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

No, thank you for agreeing xo

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Lindsey Smith's avatar

Thank you so much for including me! I hadn't thought about my daughter's birth story in awhile and it was so fun and lovely to do so. And also, I love your poem. My little ones love cinnamon and sugar toast (we call it fairy toast)--and I totally agree, it does taste like love and stardust.

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

Ah, a little Australian girl near me made fairy bread for all of her friends at school the other day, I hear it went down a storm. Thank you for sharing your story x

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Eva Lydon 🌺's avatar

Aw... Fairy toast! I love that! 🧚💕

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Sara's avatar
May 8Edited

Jo, Eva, Lindsey, your stories have got it all! Love, pain, snacks, poop and flaps! And honestly, I wouldn’t expect anything less from birthing stories. Loved this. Well done, Charlotte ♥️

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

All credit goes to these guys for agreeing to take part :)

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Ofifoto's avatar

Thank you for sharing your stories, ladies. Funny, scary, confusing, exhausting, overwhelming, and amazing are the words I would use to describe childbirth. My baby boy is 22 years old today and the memories of his arrival are still fresh.

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

I hope he had a lovely birthday xx

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Ofifoto's avatar

He did, thank you. x

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Daniel Puzzo's avatar

What a whirl of emotions going on here, and what incredible stories. Jo's was so touching and harrowing, but with a levity in the way it was told and Eva's was just so funny and I was chuckling, I love the language and turns of phrase.

Lindsey, I almost lost it over the Egg McMuffin, it was hysterical and I couldn't stop laughing. Bad call going with McDonald's, good call going for the biscuit on the second go. Reading this, I was craving a biscuit smothered in gravy.

These features are so much fun, Charlotte 😊

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Lindsey Smith's avatar

I know- that egg McMuffin is one of my top 5 regrets. I still dream of the biscuit that could have been!

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

Thank you, Daniel! They’re great stories, aren’t they?

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Brooke C.'s avatar

Oh i love these stories so much. I would read this as a regular series!

And i will never forget the first meal postpartum, too. It certainly tasted like love!

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

Every time I have dippy eggs I remember it, I’m not sure why – maybe I don’t toast the bread so much when I’m having it. Either way, it makes me happy!

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Alexis Mera Damen's avatar

Very nice idea. I enjoyed reading these stories!

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

Thanks for reading, Alexis :)

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Barb Cashmere's avatar

I have adult children now... but whenever I hear a birth story, my own memories bubble up. Quite the stories and a mix of emotions under the best circumstances. Oh my!

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

I love this. Were all of your births quite different?

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Barb Cashmere's avatar

Yes - all three very different. I relaxed more with each one!

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

Me too! I quite enjoyed giving birth by the end of it, though that may be the passage of time speaking, haha

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Nancy's avatar

I actually rather like your rubbish haiku ❤️

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

Thank you! I quite like it too

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Ren's avatar

Loved this. I want to write down my birth stories before they become a distant memory x

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

You should! It's amazing what you forget. If I'd read my first birth story before I went into labour with my third, it would have saved me a lot of drama 😂 (I had a bleed and they didn't know why so I was put on a high risk ward - turns out the same thing happened in my first labour and noone even batted an eyelid)

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Ren's avatar

Oh no! Why so little drama the first time?

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

I think because I had such good continuity of care the first time, my midwife knew me and had been on top of everything happening up until that point. With my third, I was passed from pillar to post, no-one knew what was going on or who I was, and I think they were just being risk averse. Not risk averse enough to not leave the room just as the baby was crowning, leaving me to deliver her myself, though 😂

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Eva Lydon 🌺's avatar

Oh my god - How did that happen?! 🤣

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

OMG my midwife was so awful 🤣 she was chewing gum throughout my entire birth which made me absolutely furious, and then I literally told her I needed to push and she just wandered out of the room? I then had the baby, started feeding her, and this midwife came back what must have been ten minutes later like “how we getting on? Any closer?” She looked horrified when she realised she’d left me on a high risk unit to deliver my own baby, haha

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Lindsey Smith's avatar

Oh my goodness- what?!! That is one of the wildest stories I’ve ever heard. I can’t believe how careless the midwife was? Thank god it was your third and not your first (though still, what a horrific experience). Glad it turned out ok. Did she show any contrition when she realized what happened?

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Eva Lydon 🌺's avatar

Oh my god! This is unbelievable! 😨 I mean.. thank goodness it all worked out ok and that you can laugh about it now.. but fuck me, that could have been a whole different story!! 😥 Well done you! You deserve some kind of award or a medal at the very least! 🏅🤣

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Ren's avatar

Oh my! Continuity of care makes such a difference. x

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Charlotte (has) Baby Brain's avatar

Doesn’t it just!

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