So I haven’t updated the blog in a VERY long time.
Truth is, I’ve not been in a great place. I’ve broken down in my Drs Surgery, I’ve not felt baby move for the majority of the time and I’ve been so caught up in selling and buying a house that I just haven’t had the mentality to sit down and update!!
Our house was sold and we were well on the way to buying. In fact the day the buyers pulled out (a week before my due date like wtf?!) we were actually waiting on an offer we had made to be accepted. Turns out because our buyers pulled out that day, the vendor didn’t want to accept our offer and we were then in catch 22!
The selling side was horrendous. I was harassed by estate agents and everyone else from start to finish and my mental and physical health just slid. I was so ill and I just ended up crying most days wondering what I’d got myself into, how I could cope moving with a newborn and I honestly just didn’t enjoy any part of my pregnancy from then on. It made me feel so so guilty, because the way our little girls life had come about was so extraordinary and crazy that I had everything to be happy about, but inside I wasn’t enjoying any minute of it. It’s most likely now the end of the road for us children-wise, and that made me feel even worse. I desperately wanted my last pregnancy to be cherished!
So fast forward to now. Isla has arrived! We welcomed her on the 22nd December and I honestly can’t imagine what life was like before she arrived. My birth story is a little traumatic (for anyone currently pregnant) but so many people have asked how it was and if I managed a VBAC, that I think I just need blog it all so I don’t have to re live it all each time š
So I went in to be induced on the 21st. They examined me, I was 1cm but the midwife really struggled to break my waters. Took her a good 6 minutes but she managed it! I immediately got up and was walking around. We’d planned to go walk around the hospital, but my waters were literally leaking through pads and going onto my trousers ahhhh! So I had to walk around the room until they’d all pretty much gone. I began having a few tightenings that progressively got a bit more painful, but when they came to examine me further not much had happened!
They put me on a drip, probably around 2pm ish, but advised that because of my previous section with Evie and slight blood loss, they didn’t want to push me too far too quickly in fear of scar rupture.
They examined me at 8pm and said that I’d progressed a little! YAY!! My body was actually able to labour! It was dilating!! I was so so happy that I was having a chance at a possible natural birth.
They kept increasing my dosage (in fact the midwife increased it way earlier and much higher than the Drs advised, which I’m not happy about!) up until 12am when they examined and said nothing had changed in 4 hours. By this time I was in agony. Midwives and Drs were saying the noises I was making during contractions were that of ladies in the pushing stage of labour (bear in mind that I’m so quiet when I’m in pain, and have a high pain threshold!) I didn’t have gas and air until about 9pm even though I’d been in pain from the drip since 5pm. The midwife who broke my waters said I must be superwoman as she really had trouble doing my waters and that not having gas and air for that was crazy. Anyway, doctors were worried my scar wasn’t going to be able to take anymore contracting and my contractions felt directly behind it every single time even I was starting to say something wasn’t right. No no no!! I felt like this was Evie’s birth all over again!!! Drs advised of a c section again, Said they could carry on but they really didn’t want to as it was a huge risk, and I was desperate for them to just turn the bloody drip off I was honestly ready to just rip it out myself š
I completely agreed and when they left to go get my gown etc all I remember was being in absolute tears begging for the drip to come out. They were taking me straight down that moment so thankfully they took it off!
C section went really really well! Despite me having to bend over for the spinal whilst having a constant contraction because the bending triggered it š It was all a bit surreal and the staff were absolutely astounding. I honestly can’t thank them enough for everything they did! My BP dropped when I was in there but they sorted that quickly.
Recovery went fine too. Went up to the ward, Jon left as it was like 2am! And I was left alone.
My pad was changed, but after that only my obs were done by what I think was a trainee. TMI, but blood loss felt way too much, and when I looked the bed was like an absolute bloodbath! Clots, blood, even my top ‘quilt’ sheet was starting to soak. I range the bell and the nurse looked then ran to grab a dr, Drs were paged, I heard the emergency call over the tannoy š and my bedside was literally filled with Drs. One attempted a manual clot extraction, I got jabbed with a needle, an additional cannula inserted, then a dr was manual massaging my uterus to get it to contract again. That wasn’t working great so I got jabbed again and then I was wheeled down to theatre to be put under general anaesthetic and they could try to halt the bleeding. They didn’t have time to do written consent to hysterectomy etc so they had to do verbal consent eek!
I came round and they’d managed to halt bleeding. They’d inserted a balloon to help and that seemed to do the job. I had to have 2 units of blood (they were a little panicky as I have to have irradiated blood so it had to be ordered in before my section that was previously planned then cancelled!), and my BP and obs were still a bit all over the place so they had me on oxygen for a while afterwards.
Turns out I’d lost just under 3L of blood. The majority of that on the bed. Drs were baffled as they asked me how I felt and honestly I didn’t feel as ill as I apparently was. I should have been really light headed and sick! They came to see me after my op and said that even when I had a dr massaging my womb on one side, being wheeled to theatre for high emergency surgery, I was still chatting away and making them all laugh šš
It was all a little surreal and it felt like I was in a bit of a movie scene on the bed haha! But I’m so thankful that we’re all here, all safe and Isla is now 3 weeks old!!
The past 3 weeks have gone lightening quick and I’m not too sure how I feel about her growing so quickly. She’s almost long enough to fill the Moses basket now,too.
I feel like a stressful pregnancy was all preparation for what was to come after Isla arrived, it was like the tip of the iceberg type of thing. I’m slowly settling into life as a family of 4, but this no sleep lark is crazy!
It’s a very long post, but I felt with the messages I’ve had asking if I’m okay, if we’ve had baby and how it all went and then asking for details, I felt I had to do a big one as a major update!!
Here’s a pic of our girls together š Evie pulling a silly face as per!
Along Came a Baby 