Return of the blog

Well Hello there,

After reading so many inspiring stories recently i decided that i would continue to write this blog about our journey and now our little Miracle.

Charlotte May turns 6 months on Saturday so there is a little bit to catch up on.

The birth will be a good place to start.

My due date was 16th May but on the 12th i went for my weekly appointment and expressed a little concern that my bump was shrinking. I was checked as usual and was at 1cm dilated and then my doctor took it upon herself to scan me. Lucky she did because i had lost loads of fluid from around the baby. All the pockets were too low so there and then the decision was made to admit me and start and induction.

Not the way i had planned Wednesday lunchtime with my mum but hey ho. The doctor wanted to start me off with a balloon catheter and then the next morning i would be put on the pitocin drip.

having that catheter inserted was certainly not a nice experience, Comparing it to all the IVF procedures this was a rough one.

So im set up in my hospital room, my hubby comes in from work and we get through the day with lots of monitoring and poking about.

Next morning the pitocin started at 6am. They increased it every hour but it was having little affect on actually dilating me. I apparently have an insane pain tolerance because they were monitoring contractions which were off the scale but i wasn't suffering.

I was checked by my doctor and i had gotten to a 4 - still not good enough.

They decided because of the lack of fluid they wanted to float the baby, cue another undignified approach, on all fours with a catheter stuck up you swishing water around - Lovely.

Checked again at 2,30pm still at a 4. My doctor advised an epidural to help relax all my pelvic area.

This was administered around 3pm, immediate relaxation was felt all over but a bit too much, i was watching the monitor as my blood pressure dropped. I then apparently had 3 enormous contractions on top of one another and this put the baby into fetal distress.

Alarms blazing and scrubs thrown at Rich i was very quickly wheeled into theater. One general anesthetic and 5 minutes later Charlotte May was pulled out into the world.

Rich was pacing the corridor, longest 5 minutes of his life, he heard Charlotte cry and all was right in the world.

I of course have no recollection of the birth but I've seen video of Charlotte's first moments. It took a few weeks before i was able to watch it.

The Pediatrician reported that the umbilical chord was a little deformed, it didn't have the blue padding round the edge and was very thin. They think this is why the contraction caused distress.

Apgar scores came back as 9 and 9 so our little miracle really was perfect.

Once wheeled back to the room i came round to see my perfect baby with my perfect husband doing skin to skin sat in the chair, what an amazing sight to wake up to. She latched on perfectly and fed.

We stayed in hospital for the full 4 nights our insurance covered. Got ourselves fully rested and aquainted before entering the big wide world.