The next instalment of my recent adventures - the birth of Cara Grace.
Early Sunday morning 27/3/11 at 3am I woke up feeling awful and my heartbeat was irregular- went back to sleep eventually after stressing myself out for an hour or so- woke again at a more reasonable hour and still felt the same. We packs the three kids up and shipped them off to Mother-in-law for the day to see if I could rest and be stress free- but that didn't happen- took myself to hospital to be checked by the midwives as I had high blood pressure for the last few weeks and they were a little worried about it - I wasn't, because it was typical of all my other pregnancies and overall the outcome of each was ok. Note I said that I wasn't worried, until the dodgy heartrate started. They took bloods and other fluids and ran an ECG to rule out sinister causes for the heart thing- turns out it was an 'electrical' problem that was exacerbated by high blood pressure. At 38 weeks pregnant they thought it a good idea to stay in for observation and see if the blood pressure settled down by morning- which I was sure it would. Nope- it didn't. Now the doctors said it was probably best to induce labour to prevent full blown Eclampsia setting in. I was not impressed about that at all- I hate intervention! But, I reluctantly agreed to go with using hormone gels to ripen the cervix on Monday evening- looked like I wasn't going to see out the last week of work after all :-/
Eventually the doctor came back and thank God, she decided to do an ultrasound before starting the whole process... baby was breech!! That was baffling because at previous antenatal appointments and the day before, the midwives palpated and confirmed that baby was head-down with their back facing my spine. Bubs could have turned overnight, she was very active, so much so I was rather uncomfortable and had to get out of bed a few times to get some relief..
Being breech changed the game plan in a big way. There were a number of options, and without going into any futher detail, we chose to go with a Caesarean and also have my tubes tied to make sure that was it for our family. They couldn’t schedule the c section until the next morning, Tuesday 29th March 2011.
Well, to say I was ‘packing it’ was an understatement, I didn't want to be induced let alone have the c section! That night was one filled with prayer that all would go well and that my nerves would be calmed, maybe even that baby would turn?? Baby was really active again through the night and I actually wondered if she had turned again..
Next morning the team of doctors came to visit before I was set to get ready for surgery, they did another ultrasound and you would'nt read about it, baby was head down again! I could have chosen to be induced now, although it may still result in emergency c section anyways because bubs was sitting very high and could still turn during labour.. or the cord may deliver first etc.. We decided to stick with the plan anyways.
So, after I was prepped I was wheeled into theatre at around 12.30pm and waited a little longer - I finally went in at about 1pm. I was really nervous now - especially about the spinal block because I had a nightmare time with an epidural during labour with Thomas... Thankfully the anaesthetist did a fantastic job, I only felt the local needle and that was it... That was the least of my worries - once the surgeons started to make the incisions and start prodding around inside - that was really freaky. For some reason I didn't expect those sensations. I didn't feel any pain - it was just a lot of tugging and pulling.
At approx. 1.30pm Miss C G was born- covered in that creamy stuff called vernix and weighing 3430g.. She was absolutely beautiful and was at last in our arms, safe and sound. Her name is a mix of the names of my late Mum, my late father -in -law.
The rest of the surgery took a while to get finished but it went well. I wasn't ready for the pain after though.. it caned! Thankfully pain relief was readily available. It was also really frustrating that I was so weak and sore afterwards. I was told about the issues involved but you don't realise until you go through it yourself.
This whole experience was a huge learning curve for ALL of us. One bonus- she had a beautifully round head, not funny shaped like a normal delivery does. Poor Cara was gagging alot too, apparently Caesar babies do that to clear out the fluid still in their system from the amniotic fluid? It normally gets ‘squashed’ out during labour as they pass through the birth canal.
Little Miss C seemed to be very placid, Hubby and I were waiting for the screaming to start somewhere.. it didn’t set in until the second night - she wasn't attaching very well and she wanted to feed constantly. I had to get the midwives help me to hand express colostrum and syringe it into her mouth while she sucked on their latex gloved finger. I was rather stressed... and exhausted too.
Thankfully the next afternoon my milk had come in and from there she didn't have any problems attaching and feeding from that point on, it was flowing into her mouth! That was a relief cos she started to look jaundiced (yellow)... apparently it can be flushed away by frequent feeds.
I was still sore and weak and wasn’t able to walk much further than around the room. I wasn’t going to make the mistake of going home too early like I did with Miss H, our third child. I started to venture out of the ward on Sunday, a week after I was admitted. I wanted to get home, but it was agreed that Monday would be the safest option.
Monday rolled around and baby was weighed, after dropping down to 3130g she was back upto nearly 3300g. Sweet!
We took her home at last and she slept for ages.. I had to wake her every two hours to make sure the milk supply would establish properly. I was determined that this time, success would be mine.. breastfeeding is no walk in the park!
That’s pretty much it for the story of Cara’s arrival and the associated exciting events...
TGBTG
Anje
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