I started having contractions on New Years Eve, they were 5 minutes but I decided to wait them out ? after last time I had decided unless it gets serious I go in the morning. I didn?t sleep much and they continued.
New Years Day
Had a call from TBD?s parents to say his Nan was very ill. She had been in hospital a few days after an asthma attack and now the hospital had lifted visiting restrictions and advised that family be called. Although I was still having contractions I decided to go to the hospital with him. Eventually I got to the point where we decided I should go home. TBD took me back and we dropped him at the hospital (he was borrowing my dad?s car).
I went on with Mum and my granddad to visit my grandma in hospital (she?d been in for a week with an asthma attack). My contractions were strengthening and getting more frequent, as we were on the same site as the maternity hospital I agreed to go in and get them checked out. There was a MW working on the ward and she checked me during a contraction and said I was definitely having contractions.
I was put straight on the monitor and immediately the line shot up to 97. I was left on the monitor and continued to have very strong contractions. I was examined and found to be 2cm. They called my consultant and she said to wait and see if I changed or stopped. I was taken to a delivery room; I stopped on the way to go to the toilet and had a show.
Whilst I was on the monitor the first time Mum called TBD and he left his Nan to be with me.
I was checked again early am and nothing had changed. I was given a dose of pethidine and they sent Mum home as they didn?t think much would happen. My contractions were now going off the chart ? it measures to 100, I was making 112 ? I slept between contractions and it was my cries that woke me each time. At 3 am the MW came back and said the doctor wanted me checked at half past. As she spoke I had another contraction, so she said she would do it now. I had thinned and dilated more, so they decided to move on. I called Mum back whilst the MW got the doctor. I asked if I could go to the toilet first and was told there wasn?t time but not to worry I?d have a catheter in in a few minutes! TBD was given a hospital gown, which he wasn?t happy about having to walk across the hospital in!
I got into theatre and was sat on the side of the bed so the anaesthetist could do the spinal. He pressed down my back and found his place, as he pressed on I nearly shot across the room! He had a further prod (I?m hoping to assess the area and not because I was funny!) and decided he wasn?t prepared to go ahead with a spinal so I was given a GA.
When I woke I was told the baby had been taken to the NNU as she was grunting (not sure what that means) and I would be taken to see her soon. Fortunately I wasn?t kept for five hours like last time! They couldn?t get my bed into her room so a nurse brought her out to me, she started crying and they gave her too me, she seemed to know who I was and stopped crying to look at me. Although I?d missed her birth having her crying when she was handed to me was amazing! It really changed how I saw her to how it had been with Tink.
Because of her weight she had to stay in the NNU, as she was too small to be on a normal ward, the only place she could have gone was Transition but there were no beds for us.
I wasn?t able to see her again that day because I was still stuck in bed, but the next day I was helped into a wheelchair and taken down to her. We tried her at the breast the first feed I was with her and she obviously knew what she was doing, although she hadn?t got it yet. I tried each time I was with her for a feed for that day and the next, although I wasn?t yet strong enough to manage to get there too often, but she was still only trying at it. On Sunday night she got on for awhile and had a good suck, the nurse wasn?t convinced she had taken as much as I thought she had so gave her 20ml of formula instead of 30ml. Straight away she brought some back up so they think she had taken most of the 30ml from me.
Monday morning, at 3 days old the NNU called for me at 4am as Sîan was rooting! As it was so early the nurse helped me to latch her on and we got her on properly for the first time ever. I asked her if we really needed to top her up this feed and she said she was happy to leave her. I went back for breakfast and had another call after to do another feed, she had managed to go between her two feeds without top up so they allowed me to continue the feeds, calling me each time they fed if I was on the ward. Later in the afternoon though a bed became free on Transition and we were moved up there together. Sîan removed her NG tube and it was decided she was doing so well they would leave her without it.
In the morning TBD was called to the hospital, but by the time he got there his Nan had already passed away. Part of me feels guilty that I left TBD feeling torn between which hospital to be in but part of me is glad that his Nan knew she had another great-granddaughter and that she had been named for her husband (Denis) and his mother (Anne).
On Tuesday they weighed her for the first time since doing her birth weight, she had only lost 30g! We were told that if her weight gain was OK on Thursday we could take her home.
Wednesday I mentioned to the nurse that Sîan was looking a little yellow, they tested her and her jaundice levels were too high so she was put on a Bili-Bed. It meant that I could only hold her for half an hour every 3 hours and I was devastated, it meant that when she cried I could do nothing to comfort her. The nurses took her to the nursery for the night and brought her back for feeds. The other thing it meant was I wouldn?t be able to take her home as she would need a day off the Bili-Bed before she could go home.
Thursday her levels came back down and she came off the bed. I spoke to the paediatrician and said that I could really do with being at home. My mobility isn?t good and I was having to ask the nurses to take her out of her cot for feeds or to help me sit up. I hated being so reliant on them and knew at home there would be plenty of people around to help me get around or to look after Sian. He agreed that as long as her jaundice was OK that I could go home, any weight issues could be dealt with in the community.
Friday Sîan?s jaundice levels were below the phototherapy levels and we were allowed home!
The day after Sîan was born I was visited by the anaesthetist for a follow up after the GA. We discussed my back and the problems they?d had doing the spinal, they think that I have a fracture on that vertebrae and I need to be seen by an Orthopaedic surgeon. I?ve been told that having physio without having been fully assessed first would mean they wouldn?t know how to treat me. I wonder whether my physios knew that there was a problem but weren?t qualified to tell me what they knew.
The important bit Sîan Anne Denise was born on 2nd January at 3:44am weighing 4lb 8oz at 35+5 weeks. As soon as I get the pictures off my mobile they will be uploaded.