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It all started on Monday night (21st June) I was laid in bed, trying to go to sleep and bubs started wriggling loads, he was kicking harder than any of the other 2 ever have or he ever had for that matter. It was hurting me he was kicking that hard. After a word with H we decided a moving and kicking baby was probably a good thing, and that he was probably seriously short of room and complaining about it.
So I woke on Tuesday morning (22nd)and got ready for playgroup with Aurora (it’s a playgroup just for under 1 year olds) Bubs was being a bit quiet, still kicking but not his usual self, I just took this as a good sign for labour starting. We left playgroup at 12 to lots of chorus’ of good luck and come back to see us! (It was about to be Rora’s first birthday on the 24th so it was our last session)
I had only got around the corner (walking with the pushchair) when I got a sharp pain in my bump on the right at about belly button height. I could hardly walk, I was just glad to have the pushchair to lean on. I sat on a bench for a bit but it didn’t improve. I knew that I wouldn’t make it home it hurt too much, so I decided to go straight to the hospital which was on the way home. It took what felt like ages to get there at a snails pace. (In reality the hospital was only around the corner)
I got there told them what was happening and they stuck me on the monitor, and went to ring H for me. So there I was sat on the bed in the tiny delivery room with my pushchair next to me, and Aurora sat on the bed at one side of me, astounded as to what the noise was in the background (baby’s heartbeat.) The pain slowly went away, and I just thought ‘how embarrassing it must have just been a stitch, I’ll be home soon, what shall I make for dinner?’
The more I sat there and thought about it the less I was happy, the mad movements last night, the lack of movements this morning, the pain, I knew myself something was wrong. I started watching the monitor and listening to the heartbeat. His heart rate was going really really low (30-40bpm) staying there for a wee bit then coming back up to a regular rate. I could actually hear his heart rate dipping like that, I knew it wasn’t a fault on the monitor. At that point H arrived with Kieran, I was just about to buzz the mw, and she came in (apparently the monitor feeds back through to the main desk so she can keep an eye on it) saying she wanted to look at the monitor. She checked it all and said not to panic but she needed to get a doctor to look at the monitor.
H went off with Kieran and Aurora to ring my Mum and ask her to come and pick them up, from the hospital.
The doctor came in (must have taken about 3 minutes for her to get there) and said there was a problem and they needed to get the baby out, and now. She said with the pain I had, and the decelerations shown on the monitor in his heartbeat that it was obvious he wasn’t happy, and something needed to be done. Obviously a section, and obviously right now.
H went off to ring my Mum and say erm…now…quickly please!!!
So anaesthetist came in, doctor came in, 2 midwives, all started poking and prodding and getting me to sign various things. They were ready to wheel me in and my mum still hadn’t arrived, so H had to stay in the delivery room with the children, and I was taken down the corridor to the theatre. It was pretty awful, Rora just looked baffled and Kieran wanted to know what was happening to his mummy. He wanted to go with me and started crying, I dread to think what he thought was going on. So of course when I was out of his sight I cried my eyes out, poor things coming in to see mummy, and see her carted off all of a sudden.
I was sat on the edge of the bed trying to curl my spine up while they did the spinal, trying to keep calm seen as I didn’t do a very good job of that when I was having Rora-Lou. It seemed to take ages, all the time the mw is stood in front of me trying to keep the trace of the baby’s heart rate going. Just as H walked in, the mw said I’ve lost it, it’s probably the positioning, but can we hurry things up please. Cue bit of hysteria from me, which no doubt wasn’t helping much! The anaesthetist was having major problems getting the spinal in, I remember him saying to me I’m sorry but this is going to be my last try at getting it in, if this one doesn’t work, we’ll have to give you a general, the baby needs to come soon.
So thankfully he got the spinal in at the last attempt, I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleased to feel my legs go numb! Checked it was all working, and took me into the theatre.
It took a while to get in to get the baby out (I found out later that this was because I had an awful lot of scar tissue from my previous 2 sections) but eventually we heard a little squeak and saw a purple thing being flashed at us and then ran away with.
He was returned to us all wrapped up and still purple from head to toe, H held him while I tried to crane my neck to see him, they stitched me up, put a drain in because of the excessive scar tissue, and sent me back to delivery.
I got a nice long hold and he had a super long breast feed in delivery, while we ‘discussed’ (read as ‘argued about’) names. Of course I had no bag, so after my sister had taken all my clothes home, I had literally nothing with me. We had to pinch one of the hospitals nappys and he was wearing just a nappy and cuddling his mummy and daddy for hours! I had to ring my sister at 9pm that night to bring me in a pair of socks! (The foot phobia couldn’t stand all night being out in the open!)
Wee-Man was born at 2:10pm on 22nd June (my brother and sisters birthday) weighing 9lbs, he scored 8 and 9 on his apgar. Apparently with most people there’s no way of telling why the decelerations happened, unless it’s obvious like the cord being wrapped round the baby. So we will probably never know why he wasn’t happy in there! Of course I was in hospital for Aurora's first birthday (24th June), which was so sad, there were many tears that day .
Now he’s still feeding like a pro, and sleeping really well (I know that wont last!!) Kieran thinks his baby brother is fab and wants to call him Lilly or Action Man. Aurora was scared to death of him at first, cried whenever he did. Now she just thinks he’s part of the furniture, something else to try and climb on! She keeps kissing him (mouth wide open like 12 month olds do!) and cuddling him. It’s very sweet. I’m recovering well, this section for some odd reason didn’t seem to hurt nearly as much afterwards as the other 2. The wound in the middle hasn’t closed together properly which has been causing a few problems, but still didn’t hurt! So we’re all healthy and happy (and he’s smelly and noisy.)
As for the names thing for the last week of my pregnancy he was Otis, on the Tuesday he was born and the Wednesday he was Murphy, Thursday he was Ryan, Friday, Saturday and Sunday he was Gabriel, Monday he was Evan and Tuesday and Wednesday he was Lennon, today he's Cody but that won't last. H really really wants to call him Ryan or Liam, I really really want to call him Murphy or Otis, neither of us is giving in, and none of the names we both think are ok and try last for very long! Middle names amongst a squillion other possibilities are Christopher, Brian, J, Murray, Kyle, Tyler oh there’s loads . Now he’s 9 days old and still hasn’t got any names at all, apart from wee-man, Stinky, and Kieran calls him Lilly a lot...