~Mands~
27-11-2006, 15:18
I have never really written anything down about Cooper's birth, I am thinking it's about time I do!
I'll try and make it short and sweet.
I had a really good pregnancy, I mean, I had a bit of morning sickness until about 14 weeks- nothing out of the ordinary. I guess you get used to that hungover feeling!
I had an appointment with a midwife at the Birth Centre at 34 weeks. My blood pressure was on the high side (as it was since the 31 week appointment), and my feet/fingers etc had become increasngly swollen since then too. I was told to rest up and take it easy.
The next morning (a wednesday) I was feeling a lot more puffy and had a headache, I was concerned so off to the hospital hubby and I went (after phoning them). When we arrived at the birth centre the checked my bp and as we thought it was significantly higher than the previous day. I was sent to the labour ward for monitoring. I was also warned that if my bp didnt go down then I would be unable to birth in the birth centre.
In the labour ward I was hooked up to a CTG to monitor the baby, and he seemed to be doing just fine. My bp was still high, so they sent me to the ward to be admitted for close monitoring. I spent wednesday, thursday and friday having regular obs taken. My bp was going up and down, but never went low enough to be sent home. My hubby had been great the whole time, he stayed with me most of the time, and only went home to sleep and take care of the dogs. He had taken the time off work as we didnt know what was going on, no one was straight with us. Thursday I was put on medication.
Friday afternoon I spent being sent from ward 4A to the labour ward, as my bp was up and down.
They decided I had developed Pre- Eclampsia, and needed to put me on a Magnesium Sulfate drip. Everything after this is pretty much a blur to me :crying: so I had my hubby write everything down!
I had a catheter (yuck!) put in and the nurses explained that they have never come across a case where they put someone on a mag sulfate drip and then send them home. It generally means the baby is going to be delivered. The doctor came and spoke to us, and said that I would probably need a c/sec to deliver my baby as I was too unwell to give birth, but they would do an internal to see what my cervix was doing.
Saturday morning I had the internal, I wasnt dilated at all- I had only 'thinned', and was in posterior position. All of a sudden I had a surgeon come talk to me about a c/sec procedure, an anesthetist come talk to me about the epidural/spinal block, and a nurse from the Neo-Natal Unit explain what my baby will probably be like (size, health, care after birth etc). They prepped me and hubby up for the surgery and whisked us off to have our baby.
My son was born at 12:57pm Saturday 24th June 2006 weighing a healthy (for gestation) 4 pound 11. My husband and new baby were sent down to the neonatal unit, and I spent the next 10 hours recovering and being monitored (I didnt get to see Cooper at all in this time). I got to see Cooper a bit after 10pm, when we were both stable, he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, even though he was hooked up to machines.
That night my parents came for a brief visit, then went out to my nanna's birthday party!!
It was all very hectic and overwhelming, but I wouldnt say it was a traumatic experience having an emergency c/sec, that might have something to do with the fact I was on strong meds and cant remember a lot of it!!!
Cooper was kept in hospital for just over 3 weeks, and they were the hardest and longest 3 weeks of my life. He had Immature Lung Disease, which I am pretty sure they could have avoided had they picked up on the Pre-E earlier, as they could have given me steroids for his lungs.
Now Cooper is a BIG happy 5 month old, so we got there in the end :thumbsup: I would do it all over again too :yes:
Thanks for reading if you made it this far :laughing: So much for short and sweet!!
Mandy.
I'll try and make it short and sweet.
I had a really good pregnancy, I mean, I had a bit of morning sickness until about 14 weeks- nothing out of the ordinary. I guess you get used to that hungover feeling!
I had an appointment with a midwife at the Birth Centre at 34 weeks. My blood pressure was on the high side (as it was since the 31 week appointment), and my feet/fingers etc had become increasngly swollen since then too. I was told to rest up and take it easy.
The next morning (a wednesday) I was feeling a lot more puffy and had a headache, I was concerned so off to the hospital hubby and I went (after phoning them). When we arrived at the birth centre the checked my bp and as we thought it was significantly higher than the previous day. I was sent to the labour ward for monitoring. I was also warned that if my bp didnt go down then I would be unable to birth in the birth centre.
In the labour ward I was hooked up to a CTG to monitor the baby, and he seemed to be doing just fine. My bp was still high, so they sent me to the ward to be admitted for close monitoring. I spent wednesday, thursday and friday having regular obs taken. My bp was going up and down, but never went low enough to be sent home. My hubby had been great the whole time, he stayed with me most of the time, and only went home to sleep and take care of the dogs. He had taken the time off work as we didnt know what was going on, no one was straight with us. Thursday I was put on medication.
Friday afternoon I spent being sent from ward 4A to the labour ward, as my bp was up and down.
They decided I had developed Pre- Eclampsia, and needed to put me on a Magnesium Sulfate drip. Everything after this is pretty much a blur to me :crying: so I had my hubby write everything down!
I had a catheter (yuck!) put in and the nurses explained that they have never come across a case where they put someone on a mag sulfate drip and then send them home. It generally means the baby is going to be delivered. The doctor came and spoke to us, and said that I would probably need a c/sec to deliver my baby as I was too unwell to give birth, but they would do an internal to see what my cervix was doing.
Saturday morning I had the internal, I wasnt dilated at all- I had only 'thinned', and was in posterior position. All of a sudden I had a surgeon come talk to me about a c/sec procedure, an anesthetist come talk to me about the epidural/spinal block, and a nurse from the Neo-Natal Unit explain what my baby will probably be like (size, health, care after birth etc). They prepped me and hubby up for the surgery and whisked us off to have our baby.
My son was born at 12:57pm Saturday 24th June 2006 weighing a healthy (for gestation) 4 pound 11. My husband and new baby were sent down to the neonatal unit, and I spent the next 10 hours recovering and being monitored (I didnt get to see Cooper at all in this time). I got to see Cooper a bit after 10pm, when we were both stable, he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, even though he was hooked up to machines.
That night my parents came for a brief visit, then went out to my nanna's birthday party!!
It was all very hectic and overwhelming, but I wouldnt say it was a traumatic experience having an emergency c/sec, that might have something to do with the fact I was on strong meds and cant remember a lot of it!!!
Cooper was kept in hospital for just over 3 weeks, and they were the hardest and longest 3 weeks of my life. He had Immature Lung Disease, which I am pretty sure they could have avoided had they picked up on the Pre-E earlier, as they could have given me steroids for his lungs.
Now Cooper is a BIG happy 5 month old, so we got there in the end :thumbsup: I would do it all over again too :yes:
Thanks for reading if you made it this far :laughing: So much for short and sweet!!
Mandy.