Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Birth story...

I've put together Patrick's birth story on the day he was supposed to be born, 18th March via elective c-section. A bit of background. After having James by c-section (due to placenta previa) I had the option to go through another c-section or try for a VBAC. After a lot of research, discussing it with Dr J and BJ and speaking with people who had attempted and been unsuccessful and successful with their VBAC, I decided to have an elective c-section.

My decision came down to two things, the short turn around between babies (16 months) and would I be disappointed if I tried for a virginal birth only to need a c-section due to complications? I would be very disappointed, so my decision was take all the uncertainty out of it and book in the c-section for the 18th March. On with Patrick's birth!

Contractions began at 6:30am Friday, while I was having breakfast. Since I never went into natural labour with James, and I never had braxton hicks with either pregnancy, I just assumed they were painful braxton hicks. They were painful enough to stop me from what I was doing (eating, walking, talking) but not so much that I though it was labour. I still went into work at 7:30am but noticed the contractions were coming more often and were lasting about thirty seconds.

The same day we had kept James from daycare because he had a slightly high temperature and there had been a flu going around. So James had gone into work with BJ in the morning. I picked James up at 10am and went home. James and I had some lunch and he went for a nap. At this stage I still didn't know they were contractions but because they were around twenty mins apart I thought I would just check with the hospital. The midwife asked me to come in to check it out, this was at 12:30pm. After asking BJ to come home and look after James, I headed into the hospital at 1pm.

I was hooked up to the monitors and the midwifes confirmed that I was having contractions. By 2:30pm the contractions were ten mins apart and the baby's heartbeat was good. Dr J asked the midwifes to give me an internal to check how things were going downstairs and my cervix was soft, baby's head was low and engaged and I was 2cm! I was in labour at thirty-five weeks, two days. At 3:00pm Dr J thought he would pay me a visit and perform another internal to confirm the midwives measurements. He also confirmed I was in labour and considering how the contractions had stepped up in intensity and frequency, I would be having this baby by 2am Saturday morning. Did I still want a c-section?

Something I had put so much thought into was being asked again and I still felt uncertain. I decided to go ahead with the c-section. Dr J said we'll head into theatre at 4:30pm! Shit, panic stations! Cue meltdown. It was too early for the baby, BJ wasn't here and what are we going to do with James? My Mum had originally booked flights to come up and look after James when I was going in to have the baby, so BJ and I could spend as much time at the hospital, as we don't have any family in town that could look after him. So those plans were thrown out the window.

I ran BJ in tears and told him we were having the baby in the next two hours. He pretty much took control and said he would take care of everything. James could go to a good friends house for the night and he would be at the hospital in the next half an hour. After speaking with BJ, the nurse came in with all the consent forms and reassured me that everything was going to be okay. The baby's heart beat was really good and at thirty-five weeks they wouldn't spend too much time in the Special Care nursery. I got a couple of phone calls from Mum (who was packing her bag and driving the fours hours that night to be here) and a good friend who's son had arrived at thirty-four weeks, which was reassuring.

I was told to take a shower and start putting my hospital gown and stockings on, when BJ turned up. It was great to see him, like a calm port in a storm. By that stage I was still having contractions but they were manageable. At 4:30pm, I was wheeled into theatre by Dr J and at 16:45 on Friday 22nd February, Patrick John was born. Unlike his brother, Patrick cried while being born. And like his brother, BJ was the one to announce to the world, "we have another son". Tears flowed once more and Patrick was taken with his Dad, out of theatre. Once a quick look over was done, they were both brought back in and I could look at and kiss my new baby boy.

Since Patrick needed oxygen, he was taken straight away into the Special Care nursery and BJ kept him company while I was stitched up and waited in recovery. Dr J told me, I was already 4cm when Patrick was born, so he may have come even sooner than he predicated. Once I was wheeled out into the ward I could see our little boy through the window of the Special Care Nursery for a few minutes and then was taken into my room.

In the end it all turned out well and our little guy is here safe and healthy.





Monday, February 25, 2013

The Monday Snapshot...

This was Patrick's and Mum's "work" stations for the beginning of the week at Monday 4am. Patrick's station is for sleeping and growing and Mum's station is pumping and attempted breast feeding.

Patrick is doing really well, I'll update with more details later in the week.

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Friday, February 22, 2013

Trout is here.!.

Trout is here! The past twenty-four hours have been a roller coaster of emotions and will continue to be for the next couple of weeks but our little boy made his arrival on Friday 22nd February. Patrick (we don't have a middle name because someone decided to come five weeks early) is in the NICU for now. His breathing has really improved over night and they are hoping to try and feed him some of my expressed breast milk today.

I'll make sure to keep you updated on his progress but here is a photo of our little man. I now have two sons and my family is complete! And we still don't have carpet yet!

Monday, February 18, 2013

The Monday Snapshot...

For the month of February, Reef HQ (our local Aquarium) was offering half price tickets. So we thought we would take James and see if he enjoyed it. If he didn't we would only waste a couple of hours and a couple half price tickets. But he loved it!

I wasn't sure if it was the large bright aquariums with all the fish and sharks (and divers), all the other kids running around or the freedom to walk and run as much as he wanted but James had a blast. We are now thinking of buying an annual membership so we can take both kids all year round as much as we want.

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Monday, February 11, 2013

Call the police, there is a bassinet in my laundry...

With less than five weeks to go until Trout makes his/her arrival there is literally a bassinet in my laundry, a change table in my bedroom and no carpet in the baby's room. We are so unorganised!

This time in my pregnancy with James everything was prepared, washed and packed. Pregnancy number two has its own list of challenges that I didn't have the first time around. A fifteen month old is one huge challenge! I don't think I've cleaned so much in my whole life than I have in the past couple of months. Now that James has started walking full time, mess just seems to follow him. Bending over to pick up food, toys and clothes have become near impossible for me and that's with a month still to go!

The main reason for the delay in setting up the baby's room is because last week we realised our bathtub was leaking under the tub and through to the baby's floor! We've had the bathtub fixed but the carpet in the baby's room is now ruined. The smell of the carpet was the thing that tipped us off about the leak so you can imagine how bad it was. Especially since the heat here has been reaching 37C (98F) during the day. So the new carpet has been ordered and once it's laid we can get started on making it a nice environment for Trout! Hopefully that will happen before I reach 37 weeks! I'm so glad we moved James into his new room before the water disaster!

James has done really well with the transition into the new, larger room and big boy bed. I'm so proud of him. Day and night sleeps have been great, I can't believe how anxious I was when we started. Hopefully he keeps it up and it's one less thing for me to worry about when the baby arrives.

I start fortnightly visits with Dr J this week. Last fortnight I was measuring two weeks behind but Trout has grown in the past two weeks and is only a week behind now. Everything else looked good, my blood pressure is excellent and Trout is head down, bum up.

Here are a couple of photos of James' new room and the 'before' photo of Trout's room. With the smelly carpet removed.