I'm loving all your updates and pictures. Glad to hear everyone is doing well and things are settling down.
Amelie is doing so much better on the formula. I ended up having to feed her from the breast once over the weekend because I had some blocked ducts which caused red and sore patches on my breast. I expressed as much milk off as I could before putting her on, but a couple of hours later she went back to how she was before, so my DH and I have decided no more breastmilk, so I've stopped expressing now and I'm letting my supply dry up. I'm a little sad about it, but having a happy baby is the main thing.
We were discharged from the midwife on Saturday who brought my hospital noted with her, so before I return them I thought I would have a go at writing my birth story.
I went into labour naturally in the early hours of Sunday 9th September. I was woken up during the night with intermittent mild contractions. I woke up at 06:30 and was aware that they were pretty frequent so decided to start timing them with an app on my phone from about 7am. They were 5 minutes apart lasting for a minute. I stayed in bed until 8am when I decided to go and get some breakfast. Contractions were then 4 minutes apart lasting a minute. I rang the midwife unit after breakfast as I per the instructions in my notes (to ring when contractions were between 3-5 minutes apart, last a minute and had been for a least an hour.) But I was quite happy to stay at home, I could still talk through the contractions. The midwife and I agreed I would ring back in 1 - 1 1/2 hours and we would make a decision from there. I rang back at 10am when contractions were 3 minutes apart lasting 1 1/2 minutes. They were still pretty mild, but the unit was quiet so we agreed that I would go in to be checked. I got to the hospital at 10:20 and saw the midwife. I remember the first thing she said to me was that she wouldn't be there to deliver my baby because she was only working until 14:30. She hooked me up to the CTG to monitor the contractions and her heartbeat. just after this she asked me whether the baby was moving at all which she wasn't. They then took my temperature which was high. They gave me some paracetamol for my temperature, but after 30 minutes on the CTG they decided I needed to be move to the consultant led unit for continued monitoring. I didn't know at the time but Amelie's heartbeat was 170bpm with no variations. I was transferred at 11am. The Dr's started another CTG and an IV with for antibiotics suspecting I may have some kind of infection. The abnormal CTG continued but her heart rate had started to drop after every contraction so at 11:30 it was decided that I needed an internal examination and to have my waters broken so a monitoring cap could be placed on her skull. I was fully effaced and 2-3cm dilated (quite disappointing since I'd been having painless tightenings and was fully effaced and 2cm dilated the previous Monday.) They then broke my waters which had grade 3 meconium (the worst grade) and was followed by dark red blood. I didn't know until I saw my notes that there was blood, and they started to suspect placental abruption at this point. The first attempt at placing the cap failed, but the 2nd succeeded. The plan was to continue to monitor for 30 minutes to see if her trace became normal, and to see how I progressed and if her heartbeat normalised then I would be given drugs to speed up my labour. I started using gas and air at this point because the contraction pain ramped up after they broke my waters. By 11:55 her heartbeat was 160-170bpm but had started taking a large dip after each contraction which was taking a long time to recover, so they moved me onto my left side, before switching to my right when it didn't help. At 12:10 her trace was described as pathological and the decision was made that I needed an urgent c-section. The first I knew of this was when my room was swarmed with Dr's, midwives and the anaesthetist. My consent was gained whilst I was being stripped by two people and the anaesthetist was explaining what would happen. I was transferred to theatre at 12:16. I was lucky that I got to have a spinal anaesthetic and she was born at 12:39. She was given oxygen at birth and considering what happened her APGAR was a good 7. Swabs were taken of my womb and the placenta was sent to histology because my placenta was "offensive" but appeared complete. Amelie was taken to NICU to have a bloods taken and a cannula fitted for IV antibiotics before being returned to us. Immediately after surgery my temperature returned to normal. 12 hours after surgery the on call Dr was called because my obs were showing hypotension and tachycardia. An ECG was performed which was normal, but I continued to be monitored for suspected sepsis and hypovolemia. Thankfully a few hours later my blood pressure and heart rate returned to normal. Both Amelie and I had IV antibiotics for 60 hours post delivery. Happily both her and my bloods were clear of infection as was my placenta and we were discharged on the Wednesday. The Dr's were surprised at this because all the signs pointed to some infection going on. This means that her delivery has gone down as fetal distress and we will never know the reasons why. This leaves me with lots of questions, but no one can answer them. I saw the same midwife who transferred me to the consults at my 1 day visit, who was very relieved to see us safe and well. She also confided that she was so thankful she told us to come in when she did (had the unit been busy that morning I probably would have been told to wait a few more hours before coming in.) Because if that had happened the outcome would have been very different, and potentially catastrophic for both of us.
7 Weeks on, I think I'm pretty reconciled about how she came into the world. It wasn't how I thought it would be and was way more stressful (although a lot of the stress was because it all happened so quickly), but it was the safest way for both me and her.
Right I feel quite a lot better for having got all that out, I'm sorry for the essay though. Thank you for reading if you got all the way to the end!
xxxxx
That's everyone now, right?
Sounds like you are having a really hard time. I hope you and your MW can get to the bottom of what's wrong.
hope things are going well for your and your little boy.
He's definitely a big boy at 12lbs! Sounds like things are settling down, I am finding the same thing now and enjoying my baby more now too. 
. SC - Luca is wearing the same outfit today as your little one is in the picture. All of your babies are too cute! I'll try to post a picture of Luca here...never done that before.
