long story with a few twists!

**mooray** · 30-12-2011 19:43

My little one is now 5 months but I really wanted to share my birth story. I started writing it a while ago and some bits are detailed and some i have just skimmed over!

My second pregnancy had gone very well, much like my first. Like everything in life I learnt from mistakes with the first one and there were things I was very firm about. The first was the dating scan with my 1^st we didn’t have a scan at 12 weeks and so my date was quite different and we ended up with an induction that may have not been necessary so this time I wanted a dating scan at 12 weeks. With my 1^st we declined antenatal tests, this decision was based on; that we wouldn’t want to terminate and that the results don’t give you a yes or no, they give you a percentage you then have to make a decision if you want another test which has a % risk of problems. This time I had given these tests more thought, one of the mums in my mothers group has a boy with down syndrome. This certainly got me thinking, and at the last minute I asked the doctor to get them to check the neucal fold at the 12 week scan. I didn’t want to have the blood tests done. There was never any concern with the scans. Because I am larger in size they made me have 3 extra scans after 20 weeks. This annoyed me as I knew my baby was fine!

I was determined to go into labour naturally, for my first and second I never had any Braxton hicks or niggles. This time it was Thu 28^th (the first due date I was given- this was change to 30^th after scans) i woke to find some discoloured mucus and thought it may be some of my plug. I didn’t say anything to dh as I really wasn’t sure. As the day progressed I did have a few niggles, nothing too bad but I was determined to be busy and keep moving so that if this was the start of labour it wouldn’t fizzle out. I took my ds1 for a walk and we went to our mothers group, where I told the girls that I had a few niggles, then I took ds1 to tumble tots (a bit like a fun play gym for kids), by this stage I had had a few shaper pains. My midwife left me a message as at our check up the day before she was a bit funny about bubs heart rate, she thought it was a bit lower. I text her back just to say I was fine but that maybe things may have been happening. During all of this time it never occurred to me to ring my dh, he was at work and i wasn’t sure if much was happening and there was no point him being home.

Around 5pm, these tightening were happening a little more frequently, ds1 was watching telly I decided to stay moving and would cook dinner for my boys. By 5:45 when dh came home I told him that things were happening and maybe we should call his mum as she was going to have ds1, I still wasn’t certain and knew it could all die down. She decided she would come and stay the night and dh told her that I wanted to labour at home for as long as I could. I had hired a tens and got dh to put this on and it was fantastic. Because my near 2 year old was at home I would go into the hallway and walk/stomp with each contraction and be a normal mum in between, we rang the hospital as I still wasn’t sure and said I would just carry on at home and ring when ready. I was timing them and writing them down and they were getting more regular, by 7:45ish they were really starting to bite I told dh to give ds1 a bath with his mum thinking we may go to the hospital after that. I went to the loo but couldn’t pee. When I stood up my waters broke, oh my goodness I stood in the shower and let them drip away. Off to the hospital we headed, towel in between legs!

**mooray** · 30-12-2011 19:43

Got to hospital and told them I was gbh positive so they could hurry up with the anti’s as I wanted to get back to being active. My contractions had pretty much stopped when my midwife came and did an internal we were 7cm, but she got doc in as she wasn’t happy with bubs position. Doc confirmed that bub was foot first and we would need an emergency cesar (bub had been head dow most of preg including the day before). I begged to let them give me a spinal so dh could be there they agreed, when they moved me to the trolley contractions started again, was very difficult getting spinal as contractions ramped up and were one after the other. At one point I told the my “bits” were coming out, no one really listened. When they got me onto the table they prepped my belly then my lovely midwife told me bubs feet were out and so we could try a vaginal delivery, 3 pushes and he was out!! I couldn’t believe my luck, there was a real buz in the room with alot of people saying they had never seen a footling breech be delivered this way. No stichers not even a graze.

As I held my son for the first time I noticed he looked so different to my son, maybe a little asian. When I got back to a room with dh he was in tears I tried to calm him down and thought he was just overwhelmed with everything. Then I commented how he doesn’t look at all like his brother, my dh said “you know why that is” but I didn’t there was no question who dad is. My dh then told me thought our son had down syndrome. At that moment it all clicked. We were told they couldn’t be sure they would have to do tests. But looking at him, we didn’t need tests we knew. Our nurse for the night told us that the following day people would say all kinds of things about waiting for results but she felt he had ds also. I was so glad for that frankness. We shed alot of tears for the first 2 days, but then our son had to be transferred to nicu as he had not pooped and so his poor belly was horribly distended. He spent nearly a month in hospital had to undergo surgery to have a stoma put in as he had a bowel problem. While this was horrible it put things into perspective for us. Yes we would prefer our baby didn’t have ds, but it is just part of who he is and we are just so happy to have our beautiful boy home. He is now 5 months old and waiting for more surgery on his bowel.

To be honest I am still glad we didn’t know during the pregnancy as I was healthy and happy and not at all worried. But the flip side is that if we decide to try for number 3 we will probably go straight for an amnio (but you never know until it happens). For all of the horrible things that happened during birth/afterwards there was something positive..I now consider myself and my family so very lucky as I know my boy will teach us all so much.

**MummaOJ** · 30-12-2011 19:50

Beautiful story, thanks for sharing, and congratulations

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**Mummypants** · 30-12-2011 20:08

An inspirational family! Thanks for sharing congrats on your wonderful son! 😃

**proud-mum** · 30-12-2011 20:15

Awww congratulations on the birth of your precious baby boy!!!

And WOW, a breech vaginal birth, now that is awesome, and very inspirational

I wish you all the best for your sons future.

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**AppleIsleSMum** · 30-12-2011 21:08

Congratulations on your new bubba boy!

Trust me, as a younger sibling of someone with down syndrome, they change your life for the better.

Good luck with the future!

**LibranTwin** · 30-12-2011 21:37

Originally Posted by AppleIsleSMum

Congratulations on your new bubba boy!

Trust me, as a younger sibling of someone with down syndrome, they change your life for the better.

Good luck with the future!

Beautifully said