Guest blogger Lisa R shared her pregnancy story on her blog, Wynter Dayz, in 2011 and has kindly agreed for Tiny Sparks WA to share it. This is part one of three parts to her journey. Parts two and three will be released soon.
Greg and I will have been married for 5 years this coming March. We have been together for over 12 years and this has been about as long as I have wanted children. Being a stay-at-home-mum has been my career goal for as long as I can remember.
We have experienced a few problems in conceiving a baby so we filled our lives with work and amazing holidays to all corners of the globe. Both my sisters were pregnant and so I decided to get help and really become serious in trying for a baby. While I was at the doctors office in April the doctor told me I was ovulating and bang...5 weeks later we were pregnant. I took the pregnancy test as a kind of joke and cried when I saw those 2 magical lines. I didn't sleep a wink the whole night wondering if it was really finally happening! After confirmation from the doctor Greg and I celebrated and decided to wait to tell the family till my 30th birthday just so we could have everyone together at once to see their faces.
I had a near perfect pregnancy. Not one day of morning sickness. All I had was a little sciatic pain and carpel tunnel for a few weeks. All my tests and scans were great. At the 20 week scan everything looked good and all we were told was that the bubba was a little over the average weight.
I loved being pregnant, granted it was an easy pregnancy but it felt so right and I was excited to see how my belly was growing. Greg surprised me with a Baby moon to New Zealand and we had a fabulous time sightseeing and taking photos of me sticking out my belly.
So on September 10th 2011 I was at work. I felt some crampy pains and thought it must be a growing day. I sat for a second to recover from a pain surge and worked through the rest of the day. By the time Greg picked me up at 5:30pm I didn't feel 100% and went to bed as soon as we walked in the door. While lying there I started to concentrate on the pain and realised it was coming and going in intervals. Greg called the midwife at the Family Birth Centre where I was booked in to deliver the baby and she said to go to the emergency department at King Edward Memorial Hospital and pack a bag. I thought by then it was Braxton Hick's and I would be home that night so refused to pack a bag.
I was examined by a nurse and by then the pain was becoming worse and I started to bleed. After doing an internal examination the nurse whispered to the other nurse "she is 4-6 cms dilated".....Is this woman kidding!?!? I am 23 weeks pregnant, how can I be dilated? Soon the room was filled with doctors and medical students and an ultrasound machine. The ultrasound told us I was 2.5cms dilated and the amniotic sack had bulged through my cervix and I was having contractions.
I was in labour.
I was told that the birth was inevitable but whether or not we could drag it out was to be seen as some women have lasted another 2 weeks at most in this condition.
I just said do whatever you can to stop this as I cannot have my precious baby this early. I was given morphine for pain and to slow contractions. I took pills to slow labour and I was given a steroid injection to help speed up the development of the babies lungs. The doctor proceeded to tell us that at 23 weeks gestation our baby had a 25% survival rate and the decision had to be made whether we wanted to hold our baby after the birth (which would mean we would watch it die on my chest) or did we want the doctors to take the baby straight away and do everything they could. For me that was an easy decision. Although my dream of bonding with my baby after birth was shot out the window I could not face the thought of letting it die if there was a chance they could revive it. I had carried this baby for just over 5 months and my love for my unborn child had grown everyday and I did not want to give up. We were told if I needed a C-section it would be a "classic" which meant I could never have a natural birth and this scared the hell out of me as I am terrified of C-sections.
So I was in labour all Saturday night with Greg and my Mum and Dad by my bedside rubbing my back while I groaned though every contraction. By Sunday morning the contractions had slowed. I resisted any more drugs and a catheter. The contractions started up again that night and by Monday morning I was wheeled down a level to have an ultrasound. Our worst nightmare came true as they told us bubba had moved down in the birth canal. This shot any chance of trying to postpone the labor any longer as the bacteria in the vagina could harm the baby as it was not protected by the uterus anymore.
After trying to slow the labour for 2 days I then needed to get it started again to push this baby out! The plus side of bubba moving down meant I could have a natural birth but I did not want to be induced with synthetic hormones my body could produce itself so I started dancing and walking in the birth suite and bouncing on a fit ball to the tunes Mayer Hawthorne and Alicia Keys. I didn't feel much but after going to the toilet I felt something a bit different and the midwife checked it out and it was the baby. It was all go then so at the smallest contraction I pushed with Greg holding one leg and my mum holding the other. Bubba was breech so after the first push Greg and Mum were excited to see a tiny foot still in the amniotic sack. As I kept pushing my waters broke with a huge explosion. The baby's head was stuck and the doctor was about to cut me to get it out when I gave one mighty push and bubba was free and clear.
"It's a boy!"
He was rushed over to 4 waiting doctors who were ready to intubate him. This is a tube pushed through the mouth or nose down to the lungs and then attached to a ventilator machine to help with every breath. As I watched the doctors working on my little boy I pushed out the placenta. Then they were about to wheel him out which is good news as this means they have got him breathing and ready to be hooked up to the machines in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).
