Hi Mana, yes, i was there on saturday but i didn't see tour! How wierd! I was in Room F so you must have wheeled past me!
Thanks for all the congrats, he is gorgeous but I am extremely biased.
OK, here goes.....
Like lots of us, I have not been that great for weeks. Got through Chrimbo OK, took it very easy really. Went to my sister's on Sunday 30th and felt very rough, so bad we left early 'cos i jut wanted/needed to be at home. Went to bed and at about 3am woke up in a puddle. Stripped the bed and phoned hospital who obviously said come straight in. Had contractions on way to hospitl about every 5 mins, thought, 'phew, this is it!'. Was examined by a registrar who said that my cervix was closed so i must have wet myself. Midwife, however, said if normally you continent (apart from usual pregnancy stress incontinence) it wasn't likely I'd spontaneously wet myself. Anyway, they decided that contractions were just painful braxton hicks but just incase they developed i'd need steroids for baby's lungs because i was under 36 weeks. They also gave me something to stop the BHs. Everything stopped and I was reviewd by a consultant who decided that because I was nearly 36 weeks i didn't need the steroids and as they had messed up my blood sugar i didn't need the second injection. They decided to keep me in for another day to observe events!
New Year's Eve contractions started again and I went back to labour ward but they stopped after three hours. By this time I hadn't slept for 29 hours and felt like s**t. Midwife told me i must sleep and she stopped everyone from coming in, including doctors! God bless her! when I woke up at lunch time i had swollen up all over and was in a large amount of pain, strangely in my knees and jaw - the pressure from the fluid and itching all over. The registrar that saw me said that basically my body couldn't cope anymore (no shit sherlock!) and that as I had an appointment with my consultant the following day he would wait for the ok from him but that he felt i should be induced. Stayed in overnight and then went to clinic app wed.
Well, went to clinic, my consultant still on holiday, saw his accomplice (a 'clinical fellow' - what ever that is!). He was totally dismissive (I've seen him once before, he told me fibroid didn't hurt!). said my waters clearly hadn't gone (despite sonographer telling me that day that they had - she had trouble finding enough to measure) and that contractions were braxton hicks, swelling was nothing to worry about and that i was being discharged. Did a monitor session and despite all the boxes not being ticked that i could go. Midwife even said to him 'are you sure? The protocol hasn't been reached' - this means that certin criteria hadn't been met on the trace but he said he didn't care!!!! Told her to do some blood tests and that i was to go back on friday for a check up. Felt very upset and let down and as if no-one was listening (well, the doctors anyway, the midwives were amazing).
Went home, my mum came round, she could't believe how ill i looked. I felt really awful, still having twinges and very swollen. Next day (thursday) got a phone call from hosptial saying i had to go back in! The blood tests showed that either the baby or me or both had an infection. Back to hosp again and was put on a monior and blood tests repeated. Told to get a cuppa and consultant would see me in about an hour. After about 5 hours finaly got to see him. He was absolutely fab! Said levels of somthing had risen (can't remember what it was)and that clearly waters had gone earlier in week and consequntly we had picked up infection. He said that baby's head was so far down in the pelvis that it had stopped the leak like a cork! He wanted to induce either that night or following morning. Taken to labour ward which was pretty quiet so they decided to star me off at about 10pm. DD2 was with us so, as it was about 9pm (we'd been there since lunch time)dh took her home and I got dd1 to come home from uni so that they could 'look after each other'- both dds getting nervous and excited by this stage.
They gave me prostin (?) pessary to soften cervix with a view to starting labour proper, by drip, after about 5 hours. After about 10 minutes was in terrible pain, after about an hour they gave me morphine and i was contracting less than a minute apart but the cervix was still closed. Constant monitoring showed baby getting distressed. I asked them to do somethin as i was getting to the point where i couldn't carry on (having had two babies already i knew things weren't right). I had no pain relief at all with dd2 and handled it much bette than this labour. Midwife noticed sudden, critical drop in baby's heart rate and it was all systems go! Wheeled off for emergency c-sect. They wanted to do general anaesthetic but i asked them to try spinal, they said they couldn't as contractions were so close togther they wouldn't be able to get kneedle in. I had one chance, they would give me an injection that might slow the contractions but it had to be done immediately. They gave me the drug and there was about 30 seconds when pain stopped and they managed to get spinal in. OMG the relief, both physical and emotional! All the pain and discomfort I had felt for weeks and the pain I had been in at that point went. Toby was born about a minute later!
They thought all was Ok and while they stitched me up he was with us, it was fantastic. We both held him and the staff were great with us. It didn't matter that it had been so frantic, we felt so special.
We went back to delivery room and they were preparing to transfer us back to post natal ward and the mw realised LO was grunting a bit. They got docs and he was transferd to special care. Breahing was bit laboured and following checks they found his blood sugar was low and he had a slight murmur on his heart. Sounds awful but all fairly managable. We were both put on antibiotics anyway because of infection.
Toby stayed in SCBU for a couple of days until everything settled down and I was able to feed him myself after 24hours, which was amazing - i didn't think that after all that had happened i'd be able to. They let us home on monday. I have to say, apart from the usual stuff associated with a c-section feel pretty good. I think I had such a rough time at the end of the pregnancy and with birth that, despite discomfort and tiedness, this is the best I've felt for a vey long time! Fibroid didn't affect birth at all and is not causing pain now! They will review it at 6 week check.
Sorry... but you did ask!!!
I hope mini is OK, looks like she's next!
On baby clothes- did't wash them, did think about it but never got round to it! Hasn't been a problem. Hosp bag - dont bother with breast pads, did't use them until i came home. Take newborn size outfits, 0-3 are huge (Toby weighs 7lb 15ozs) and they're huge on him! Have tried not to use wipes but did last night and now he's got a sore bum so i would probably say avoid for a bit if you can (even sensitive ones, which is what i used).
Well, that's me for now. Hope everyone ok.XXX