Kota
Mum and Preg!
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- Nov 12, 2008
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I hope you have a coffee
or a baby thats gonna be attached to the boob for the next 30mins! 
Ahhh, okay.. where do we start? The last week has just been one big whirly wind of a blur. Lets go from the beginning...
The Lead Up.
Oompa was due 17th Jan going by the Drs dates, by my own charting dates, he was due the 13th of Jan. On the 12th I had my 39+2 MW appointment, decided as the paths were finally clear of snow /ice/slush that I would waddle the 15mins there, knowing the walking would help with getting him engaged and hoping to kick start something into happening.
On arrival at the MWs she took my blood pressure, with a cuff that was too small for my arm and over 2 long sleeved tops... It came back at 132/86, A tad high considering my normal BP. Also my urine was showing 2+ of protein, it had been showing the same at my 38wk appointment but further tests on it showed it clear.. I also mentioned to the MW that I had thrown up that morning. (which I attributed to shovelling down a Thai green curry at 11am as I was starving and running late, the fork had hardly got put back down after the last mouthful before I was running to the bathroom!!) and I also mentioned that Id been seeing a few little *flashy* things in my vision...
A combination of all these things were enough for her to send me up to the hospital Maternal Assessment Unit, (MAU) for a little bit more monitoring, on arrival they took my BP again and it was down to a much more acceptable 117/78. Knowing that Id not had BP problems through the whole of the pregnancy I mentioned to the MW there that it had previously been taken with a cuff that was too small for my arm, (even I the non medically trained one could see that!! ) and over 2 layers of clothes. :doh: both which can themselves cause a higher reading then what is actually the case.
Regardless they put me on the monitors for 1/2hr to trace Oompas heartbeat and movement, and took another urine sample. Fast forward 2hrs and it was decided that I was to be admitted for 24hrs for further monitoring and a 24hr urine collection to get a better idea of the protein levels in my urine which were now showing at 3+.
So a sleepless night spent in the antenatal ward followed, in a 4bed room that the 3 other beds were new mummies with babies that were only hours old. As one settled, the next woke up and so the cycle continued lets just say when theyre not your baby.. the cries and grizzles really arent that cute!! Collected all my urine for the next 24hrs and sat back and waited When the Drs did their rounds in the morning I was informed of 2 possibilities. If after the 24hr collection my urine showed 2or3+ then an induction would be scheduled for the next 2-3 days and if clear or only 1+ then I would be left to go into labour naturally and given until 41wks before they induced. That afternoon I spent trying to mentally get my head around the strong possibility of an induction, I knew this type of start could lead to further intervention being required, and even the higher risk of a c-section, something I was determined to avoid at all reasonable costs. By 5pm the 24hr timeframe had finished and I asked the MW about being able to go home to rest properly and that I would come back in the morning to see the Dr and discuss the results. About 8pm I went to see how this was all going and what time I could go home and was told that I wouldnt be going home as had been scheduled in for an induction the following morning!!!
Not having had any sleep the previous night and knowing I wouldnt get any that night if I stayed in the room with the babies/mums that I was currently in, I pretty much gave the MWs 2 options.. to find me a private room or a room with no babies so I had a chance of some sleep, or that I was discharging myself and would be back in the morning. They were unable to do the first so at about 10.30pm on the Wednesday night I was finally allowed to go home, being given instructions to call the labour ward the following morning to confirm the induction was still taking place and then to come in.
Went home, made sure all the last minute bits and pieces were put in my hospital bag ready to go, and then cuddled up with Monkey (my OH) for our last night together as just us.
The Induction/Labour & Birth.
Arrived at the hospital about 10am and was taken to the induction room part of the labour ward, and hooked up for monitoring for about 45 mins. During this time the Dr came around and explained to me the process, what would happen, how it would work and how long it could take. It was put across to me in a Well first insert the pessery cap, and allow this 24hrs to work, once the 24hrs is over well insert a second gel, and allow that 6hrs to work, following that youll be hooked up to a drip/IV and given hormones that way to bring on contractions. The hope is to get you to 4-5 cms so we can take you to the labour ward and break your waters for you. If were unable to do this then youll be taken for a c-section.
Now my plan for labour and birth was an active, natural labour with nothing stronger then G&A for pain relief and access to a birthing pool. A far cry from what he was talking about. I asked him if I could still have the birth I wanted if after the first pessery cap my body kicked in and took over and I needed no further intervention, he reluctantly said that I could have, but that it was extremely unlikely. Well I proved him wrong!!
Next the two MWs had the somewhat embarrassing and also rather hilarious job of removing one of my downstairs piercings that Monkey had been unable to remove that morning,
It was removed so that in the event of needing a catheter, it wouldnt be in the way of that. I was able to leave the other 2 in as the MWs didnt believe they would get in the way of the birth.
At 12pm they inserted the first pessery cap and left me to it..
I spent the afternoon, dozing, listening to music, playing on the internet and generally chilling out and being a bit bored! Monkey arrived at about 5pm and the MW told us to go for a walk for a hour or so and see if that helped get things moving. We decided that as it could be a long night ahead that a good dinner was in order, so cheekily slipped off hospital grounds and walked the 5mins down to Nandos for dinner! 
Back at the hospital by 6.30 I was still not feeling anything and hooked up for another 30mins monitoring. All was fine with Oompa so it was just a matter of waiting it out. About 8pm I started getting some uncomfortable tightenings and realised that they were getting more and more regular. Got Monkey to keep an eye on the time and they started coming at about 5mins apart. Things were on the move!
At 9pm I stood up from the chair and felt a slight gush into my knickers, went to the loo and then let one of the MWs know that I thought my waters had broken took her about ½ hr to come and have a look
and when she did she originally just told me that Id just wet myself and that my waters were unlikely to break for a long while yet. 
However when she actually did do an internal.. what do you know.. my waters had gone!! Back on to the machine I went for further monitoring and so they could see how reg/long my contractions were. An hour later she returned to tell me that I wasnt actually contracting as the machine wasnt picking them up!! Something was definitely happening though but on examination I was still only 2cms. 
I was already in a fair amount of pain and couldnt believe that it was still so early on in the game, I was told that I would be examined again in 4hrs (at which my face dropped at the prospect of being left until 3am) in the hope that I had reached 4-5cms and could go to the delivery rooms.
Over the next hour they progressively got more and more painful and at midnight the MW came and took me down to the bath to have a soak in there.
Between midnight and 1am was the only time I considered having anything stronger then the G&A, the warm bath bought my contractions on thick and fast and they started coming every 2-3 mins and lasting about 45-50secs each. The feeling of not being able to talk, or focus on anything but them while they were happening, and then going back to complete normal conversation with Monkey between them was just strange. During this time I fought mentally with myself over asking for an epidural to get rid of the pain, and having my heart set on doing this naturally and in water rather then confined to monitors and in a bed. At 1am the MW came in upon hearing my rather loud moaning and offered me some G&A. this became my new best friend and anyone daring to remove the suction pipe from my hands would have had to have a pretty big death wish! The next hour and a half absolutely flew by with me loving the effect of the G&A and happily joking away with Monkey in between the ever increasing contractions. At 2.30am I slowly got myself together, out of the bath and back down to the induction room ready for the 3am examination.
MW came in and discovered that not only had I reached 4cms but was infact 6cms! and well and truly ready to go to the delivery room. I asked for the pool to be set up in there as I was in dire need of the water again, it wasnt either the G&A or the water that was working, but the combination of the two. By about 4am I was back in the birthing pool and was starting to feel the urge to push.. Its so true what you read, your body really does just take over with an uncontrollable urge to bear down. There was absolutely nothing I could have done to control or stop it., I was made to get out of the pool again so they could do another examination where it was found that I was 10cms, fully dilated and ready to start pushing. Got back into the pool and just let my body take over with each contraction, after each one they checked Oompas heartbeat with the Doppler and at just before 5am had trouble finding it, no matter how I stood, knelt, sat they were unable to pick it up and so I had to get out of the water and back onto the bed. It was found straight away, he was just too far down in the birth canal to be able to pick it up in the water, but by this stage it was to late to move me again.
Oompas head started to crown and with the next 4 or 5 contractions, slowly came out little by little until down to about his ears now, a little TMI, but I have 2 piercings, one on each inner labia, and as Oompa reached the point to having up to his ears out.. it (apparently) looked like he had his own pair of earrings!!
The MW told me that one more contraction and the head would be out completely she was wrong.. On the next contraction Oompa decided that he was done with the inside world and shot out like a bullet, rest of his head, shoulders, body, all in one fast moving shot, the MW almost didnt catch him as he took them both by so much surprise!
He was put straight to my chest and after a little bit of a rub with the towels, let out one almighty cry and cleared his lungs. He was left there while I was given the injection to deliver the placenta and while they cleaned up down there Discovering a 1st degree tear and some slight grazing around the piercing holes from where the already broken tissue was stretched.
1 minute Apgar score was 9/10 and 5min score was 10/10. He weighed in at 8lb11oz, (3.934kgs) and 21.5inches long.
For the next 3hours we remained in the delivery room just holding our new little boy. The breast feeding consultant came down and showed me how to hand express my colostrum as he was quite lazy at taking the breast and at about 11am we were taken down to the post natal ward as I would be staying in there overnight.
The Aftermath
Because of the grazings at my piercing sites I had to have a catheter put in for 24hrs so would be staying on the wards overnight. Monkey went home to get a couple of hours sleep himself and I was able to get a little bit up on the ward while Oompa slept soundly. I continued trying to put him to the breast but he remained extremely lazy about it and while he would attatch with no problems, hed stop suckling after about 5secs, leave his mouth there and just look at me as if I was supposed to do the rest of the work. At this stage I wasnt to concerned as was able to hand express into a cup and was cup feeding him the colostrum and had been told numerous times that babies often spent their first 24hrs mainly asleep due to the hard work theyd done as well.
About 10pm that night the MW came around and did my blood pressure and standarts OPs.. she started asking me about Oompas feeding and how he was going so I told her what Id been doing, she was concerned that he hadnt had enough and did his blood sugar levels., sure enough, they were dangerously low at 1.8 (should have been 2.6 at a min but over 3 to be normal) and he had to be given formula straight away to try and get them back up as fast as possible. He had 3hrs to get a level over 2.6 or would be taken up to the special care unit. :sad:
I was distraught, and feeling extremely guilty that Id not realised my boy wasnt getting enough food from me, hearing the MW say to another MW that if they hadnt of tested when they did, then he may not have woken up in the morning was the scariest thing Ive ever heard
Thankfully over the course of the next 12hours, being FF every 3hrs and having his blood sugars tested just as often they picked up to a normal level and by 12pm the next day, the paediatrician was happy for him to be discharged. Once the Dr gave me the go ahead to leave as well we packed up our (way to many) bags. Roped some mates into taking all them back to our place for us so we didnt have anything but the baby and one tiny shoulder bag on us, wrapped Oompa up in his (homemade) moby wrap and headed out to the big wide world of London to start our parenting lives .. Oompas trip home from the hospital was in true Londoner style, done courtesy of a big red double decker bus.
Weve now been home a week and Oompa is an absolute treasure, he very rarely cries, the occasional grizzle is all we hear, he is sleeping well at night, waking at feed times and generally settling easily afterwards. He loves cuddles regardless of who they are from and will happily be passed from person to person for hours as long as it means hes being paid some attention. At the same time however he will happily lie in his moses basket or on his elmo play mat and just look around contently.
The only troubles were still having is with him breast feeding. but thats a whole different novel
If youve got this far.. Well Bloody done!!! Im sorry its crazy long, but I wanted something detailed for my own records and this has taken me a week to write up as it is, no time to do an edited version for BnB!
So here he is my beautiful little boy.. Phoenix Declan Sutters.
Minutes old.
https://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3962/phoenix004.jpg
First Bath.
https://img651.imageshack.us/img651/176/phoenix034.jpg
https://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8396/phoenix007.jpg
https://img714.imageshack.us/img714/6864/phoenix0312.jpg
Ahhh, okay.. where do we start? The last week has just been one big whirly wind of a blur. Lets go from the beginning...
The Lead Up.
Oompa was due 17th Jan going by the Drs dates, by my own charting dates, he was due the 13th of Jan. On the 12th I had my 39+2 MW appointment, decided as the paths were finally clear of snow /ice/slush that I would waddle the 15mins there, knowing the walking would help with getting him engaged and hoping to kick start something into happening.
On arrival at the MWs she took my blood pressure, with a cuff that was too small for my arm and over 2 long sleeved tops... It came back at 132/86, A tad high considering my normal BP. Also my urine was showing 2+ of protein, it had been showing the same at my 38wk appointment but further tests on it showed it clear.. I also mentioned to the MW that I had thrown up that morning. (which I attributed to shovelling down a Thai green curry at 11am as I was starving and running late, the fork had hardly got put back down after the last mouthful before I was running to the bathroom!!) and I also mentioned that Id been seeing a few little *flashy* things in my vision...
A combination of all these things were enough for her to send me up to the hospital Maternal Assessment Unit, (MAU) for a little bit more monitoring, on arrival they took my BP again and it was down to a much more acceptable 117/78. Knowing that Id not had BP problems through the whole of the pregnancy I mentioned to the MW there that it had previously been taken with a cuff that was too small for my arm, (even I the non medically trained one could see that!! ) and over 2 layers of clothes. :doh: both which can themselves cause a higher reading then what is actually the case.
Regardless they put me on the monitors for 1/2hr to trace Oompas heartbeat and movement, and took another urine sample. Fast forward 2hrs and it was decided that I was to be admitted for 24hrs for further monitoring and a 24hr urine collection to get a better idea of the protein levels in my urine which were now showing at 3+.
So a sleepless night spent in the antenatal ward followed, in a 4bed room that the 3 other beds were new mummies with babies that were only hours old. As one settled, the next woke up and so the cycle continued lets just say when theyre not your baby.. the cries and grizzles really arent that cute!! Collected all my urine for the next 24hrs and sat back and waited When the Drs did their rounds in the morning I was informed of 2 possibilities. If after the 24hr collection my urine showed 2or3+ then an induction would be scheduled for the next 2-3 days and if clear or only 1+ then I would be left to go into labour naturally and given until 41wks before they induced. That afternoon I spent trying to mentally get my head around the strong possibility of an induction, I knew this type of start could lead to further intervention being required, and even the higher risk of a c-section, something I was determined to avoid at all reasonable costs. By 5pm the 24hr timeframe had finished and I asked the MW about being able to go home to rest properly and that I would come back in the morning to see the Dr and discuss the results. About 8pm I went to see how this was all going and what time I could go home and was told that I wouldnt be going home as had been scheduled in for an induction the following morning!!!
Not having had any sleep the previous night and knowing I wouldnt get any that night if I stayed in the room with the babies/mums that I was currently in, I pretty much gave the MWs 2 options.. to find me a private room or a room with no babies so I had a chance of some sleep, or that I was discharging myself and would be back in the morning. They were unable to do the first so at about 10.30pm on the Wednesday night I was finally allowed to go home, being given instructions to call the labour ward the following morning to confirm the induction was still taking place and then to come in.
Went home, made sure all the last minute bits and pieces were put in my hospital bag ready to go, and then cuddled up with Monkey (my OH) for our last night together as just us.
The Induction/Labour & Birth.
Arrived at the hospital about 10am and was taken to the induction room part of the labour ward, and hooked up for monitoring for about 45 mins. During this time the Dr came around and explained to me the process, what would happen, how it would work and how long it could take. It was put across to me in a Well first insert the pessery cap, and allow this 24hrs to work, once the 24hrs is over well insert a second gel, and allow that 6hrs to work, following that youll be hooked up to a drip/IV and given hormones that way to bring on contractions. The hope is to get you to 4-5 cms so we can take you to the labour ward and break your waters for you. If were unable to do this then youll be taken for a c-section.
Now my plan for labour and birth was an active, natural labour with nothing stronger then G&A for pain relief and access to a birthing pool. A far cry from what he was talking about. I asked him if I could still have the birth I wanted if after the first pessery cap my body kicked in and took over and I needed no further intervention, he reluctantly said that I could have, but that it was extremely unlikely. Well I proved him wrong!!
Next the two MWs had the somewhat embarrassing and also rather hilarious job of removing one of my downstairs piercings that Monkey had been unable to remove that morning,
It was removed so that in the event of needing a catheter, it wouldnt be in the way of that. I was able to leave the other 2 in as the MWs didnt believe they would get in the way of the birth. At 12pm they inserted the first pessery cap and left me to it..
I spent the afternoon, dozing, listening to music, playing on the internet and generally chilling out and being a bit bored!
Monkey arrived at about 5pm and the MW told us to go for a walk for a hour or so and see if that helped get things moving. We decided that as it could be a long night ahead that a good dinner was in order, so cheekily slipped off hospital grounds and walked the 5mins down to Nandos for dinner! Back at the hospital by 6.30 I was still not feeling anything and hooked up for another 30mins monitoring. All was fine with Oompa so it was just a matter of waiting it out. About 8pm I started getting some uncomfortable tightenings and realised that they were getting more and more regular. Got Monkey to keep an eye on the time and they started coming at about 5mins apart. Things were on the move!
At 9pm I stood up from the chair and felt a slight gush into my knickers, went to the loo and then let one of the MWs know that I thought my waters had broken took her about ½ hr to come and have a look
and when she did she originally just told me that Id just wet myself and that my waters were unlikely to break for a long while yet. However when she actually did do an internal.. what do you know.. my waters had gone!! Back on to the machine I went for further monitoring and so they could see how reg/long my contractions were. An hour later she returned to tell me that I wasnt actually contracting as the machine wasnt picking them up!! Something was definitely happening though but on examination I was still only 2cms. I was already in a fair amount of pain and couldnt believe that it was still so early on in the game, I was told that I would be examined again in 4hrs (at which my face dropped at the prospect of being left until 3am) in the hope that I had reached 4-5cms and could go to the delivery rooms.
Over the next hour they progressively got more and more painful and at midnight the MW came and took me down to the bath to have a soak in there. Between midnight and 1am was the only time I considered having anything stronger then the G&A, the warm bath bought my contractions on thick and fast and they started coming every 2-3 mins and lasting about 45-50secs each. The feeling of not being able to talk, or focus on anything but them while they were happening, and then going back to complete normal conversation with Monkey between them was just strange. During this time I fought mentally with myself over asking for an epidural to get rid of the pain, and having my heart set on doing this naturally and in water rather then confined to monitors and in a bed. At 1am the MW came in upon hearing my rather loud moaning and offered me some G&A. this became my new best friend and anyone daring to remove the suction pipe from my hands would have had to have a pretty big death wish!
The next hour and a half absolutely flew by with me loving the effect of the G&A and happily joking away with Monkey in between the ever increasing contractions. At 2.30am I slowly got myself together, out of the bath and back down to the induction room ready for the 3am examination. MW came in and discovered that not only had I reached 4cms but was infact 6cms!
and well and truly ready to go to the delivery room. I asked for the pool to be set up in there as I was in dire need of the water again, it wasnt either the G&A or the water that was working, but the combination of the two. By about 4am I was back in the birthing pool and was starting to feel the urge to push.. Its so true what you read, your body really does just take over with an uncontrollable urge to bear down. There was absolutely nothing I could have done to control or stop it., I was made to get out of the pool again so they could do another examination where it was found that I was 10cms, fully dilated and ready to start pushing. Got back into the pool and just let my body take over with each contraction, after each one they checked Oompas heartbeat with the Doppler and at just before 5am had trouble finding it, no matter how I stood, knelt, sat they were unable to pick it up and so I had to get out of the water and back onto the bed. It was found straight away, he was just too far down in the birth canal to be able to pick it up in the water, but by this stage it was to late to move me again.Oompas head started to crown and with the next 4 or 5 contractions, slowly came out little by little until down to about his ears now, a little TMI, but I have 2 piercings, one on each inner labia, and as Oompa reached the point to having up to his ears out.. it (apparently) looked like he had his own pair of earrings!!
The MW told me that one more contraction and the head would be out completely she was wrong.. On the next contraction Oompa decided that he was done with the inside world and shot out like a bullet, rest of his head, shoulders, body, all in one fast moving shot, the MW almost didnt catch him as he took them both by so much surprise!
He was put straight to my chest and after a little bit of a rub with the towels, let out one almighty cry and cleared his lungs. He was left there while I was given the injection to deliver the placenta and while they cleaned up down there Discovering a 1st degree tear and some slight grazing around the piercing holes from where the already broken tissue was stretched.
1 minute Apgar score was 9/10 and 5min score was 10/10.
He weighed in at 8lb11oz, (3.934kgs) and 21.5inches long. For the next 3hours we remained in the delivery room just holding our new little boy. The breast feeding consultant came down and showed me how to hand express my colostrum as he was quite lazy at taking the breast and at about 11am we were taken down to the post natal ward as I would be staying in there overnight.
The Aftermath
Because of the grazings at my piercing sites I had to have a catheter put in for 24hrs so would be staying on the wards overnight. Monkey went home to get a couple of hours sleep himself and I was able to get a little bit up on the ward while Oompa slept soundly. I continued trying to put him to the breast but he remained extremely lazy about it and while he would attatch with no problems, hed stop suckling after about 5secs, leave his mouth there and just look at me as if I was supposed to do the rest of the work. At this stage I wasnt to concerned as was able to hand express into a cup and was cup feeding him the colostrum and had been told numerous times that babies often spent their first 24hrs mainly asleep due to the hard work theyd done as well.
About 10pm that night the MW came around and did my blood pressure and standarts OPs.. she started asking me about Oompas feeding and how he was going so I told her what Id been doing, she was concerned that he hadnt had enough and did his blood sugar levels., sure enough, they were dangerously low at 1.8 (should have been 2.6 at a min but over 3 to be normal) and he had to be given formula straight away to try and get them back up as fast as possible. He had 3hrs to get a level over 2.6 or would be taken up to the special care unit.
:sad: I was distraught, and feeling extremely guilty that Id not realised my boy wasnt getting enough food from me, hearing the MW say to another MW that if they hadnt of tested when they did, then he may not have woken up in the morning was the scariest thing Ive ever heard
Thankfully over the course of the next 12hours, being FF every 3hrs and having his blood sugars tested just as often they picked up to a normal level and by 12pm the next day, the paediatrician was happy for him to be discharged. Once the Dr gave me the go ahead to leave as well we packed up our (way to many) bags. Roped some mates into taking all them back to our place for us so we didnt have anything but the baby and one tiny shoulder bag on us, wrapped Oompa up in his (homemade) moby wrap and headed out to the big wide world of London to start our parenting lives .. Oompas trip home from the hospital was in true Londoner style, done courtesy of a big red double decker bus.
Weve now been home a week and Oompa is an absolute treasure, he very rarely cries, the occasional grizzle is all we hear, he is sleeping well at night, waking at feed times and generally settling easily afterwards. He loves cuddles regardless of who they are from and will happily be passed from person to person for hours as long as it means hes being paid some attention.
At the same time however he will happily lie in his moses basket or on his elmo play mat and just look around contently. The only troubles were still having is with him breast feeding. but thats a whole different novel
If youve got this far.. Well Bloody done!!! Im sorry its crazy long, but I wanted something detailed for my own records and this has taken me a week to write up as it is, no time to do an edited version for BnB!
So here he is my beautiful little boy.. Phoenix Declan Sutters.
Minutes old.
https://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3962/phoenix004.jpg
First Bath.
https://img651.imageshack.us/img651/176/phoenix034.jpg
https://img714.imageshack.us/img714/8396/phoenix007.jpg
https://img714.imageshack.us/img714/6864/phoenix0312.jpg
awesome storryyy! omg your both so beautiful!!! xxx
enjoy!
