Welcome the Bubby

The Bubby was born today, Friday 12 April.

I came in to hospital last night to be induced - the pregnancy was not an easy one, with split abs, SPD, insulin dependent gestational diabetes and a bump that was consistently measuring 4-6 weeks ahead. The SPD meant I had to wear a stomach band, which went well with the stocking I had to wear on my right leg for blood clots, and the daily blood thinning needles. I'd had a visit to emergency with what I thought was a blood clot but is just an ugly inflamed vein in my leg. I'd spent a lot of time in appointments learning about my blood sugar and my insulin, lost 5kg in the last month and had to go in for twice weekly movement monitoring from 36 weeks to check Bubby was okay.

Two weeks ago the doctor told me that my strep swab was positive, then monitoring shortly after showed I had protein in my urine and higher blood pressure than usual (indicators of pre eclampsia). I went in to meet with the obstetrician and nearly burst in to tears when he asked how I was - I was so over feeling like my body was failing at every turn. On the positive side, the swab was actually negative and it wasn't pre eclampsia, but the doctor agreed that he would induce me at 38 weeks and 5 days.

I'd came in for 6 hours on the Monday because I'd had constant, non painful, contractions since early in the morning - it was nothing. Wednesday morning I woke up at 3am with the shakes, then the vomits at 5am and 7am. It took until 12 until I realised I had a headache and fever and that it was probably linked to the vomit that The Baby had done on Sunday rather than labour. Thursday I had an upset stomach, as did The Husband (who had to spend the day in bed).

The Husband and I came in to hospital on Thursday night after leaving The Baby (now The Toddler) with his parents, Nanny and Bumpa. We had takeaway dinner and he headed home to rest for the next day, while I had gels inserted at 10pm and 4am. I slept fairly well considering I knew what was coming and the monitoring showed the baby was quieter than usual so it took longer than it should have.

The obstetrician woke me just before 8am by waltzing in asking me to come down to the labour ward.  I brushed my hair and wandered down and called The Husband. After some breakfast and some time, the obstetrician announced I was 2cm dilated. He was able to break my waters, and once the contractions started to come, albeit irregularly, we were able to get the epidural put in at about 1030. As contractions weren't really coming regularly, they started the synto drip at 6, then eventually 12 and 20. As The Baby's labour was so short, we had all presumed it would happen quickly. At around 130, I had only progressed to 3cm. However, the monitors started to show that The Bubby's heart rate was dipping with each contraction. They called the obstetrician over to have a look and he declared I was 6cm, saying I would have a baby in 30-60 minutes. After that they would have to consider a c-section as she was dipping more.

Slowly, I was starting to feel pain in my left hip. It was ramping up quickly with each contraction and no matter how they changed my position, The Bubby's heart rate wasn't fixing and the pain was getting worse and spreading. One try of the gas confirmed that I really didn't like it and would instead breathe through them. The modwives confirmed at this point that I was ready to push but that we should wait for the obstetrician, he was over in a few minutes, and The Bubby was out after three pushes. The cord was wrapped twice around her neck (hence her heart dipping) and she had turned from posterior (the compression and turning likely blocked part of the epidural, hence the pain). Sizing in at 3.180kg and 49.5cm at 3.12pm, our beautiful baby girl was born with a head or short dark hair.

And so a new (and final!) chapter of baby days begins.