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.

Charlotte May is here

Just a really quick update to let you know Charlotte came screaming into the world on May 13th at 4.03pm.

It was a bumpy ride for a while which i will update about when i have more time.

37 weeks = Full Term in Doctor language

So still another 3 weeks left until the due date but they tell me that now i have passed 37 weeks the baby is fully baked and it wouldn't matter if she came at any time - yey.

Not feeling too bad at the moment, i had another skin flare up but this time in the form of cold sores so i have some medication for that. I'm so looking forward to having my immune system back and strong.

We had some maternity photos done to celebrate me having a big belly (hmmm) The photographer we found was excellent and she will do the babies first pictures as well.

Doctors appointments are now every week which is fun as we get to hear the heart beat all the time.

Mum arrives on Saturday and then we are ready.

18 days to go ...........

34 weeks

Well how rubbish am i !! I suppose things are just too plain sailing these days to have anything to write about.

Whats happened in the last 10 weeks - Well, firstly i have grown a big belly, kind of useful now that they estimate the baby is 4 1/2 pounds in weight. So it looks like we will have a 7 - 8 pounder ;)

I had my baby shower which was so much fun. Everyone made it a really special afternoon and we got very spoilt. We are now pretty much ready for her arrival now with all the little things bought. We need to fit the car seat in the car and pack the hospital bag and we are ready.

I've had a few ailments, nothing drastic but frustrating. My left buttock decided to tighten up really badly into a spasm so I've been seeing a therapist to have it massaged and stimulated to loosen it. It seems to have done the trick which i am relieved about. I didn't fancy it slipping into sciatica.

My acid reflux is my main issue. I've had it since the middle of January and have had to manage it with drugs and Tums, I'll be very glad to see the back of it to be honest. Just yesterday i could tell that the acid was creeping up again and affecting my vocal chords. Today i have no voice and the annoying cough again - grrrrrr.

People keep telling me it's all going to go away as soon as she is born, there will be a celebration just for that.

The only other thing we have done is some Maternity photos :-) Rich really loved these (he he he ) We can't wait to see the proofs and i'll post them up in my next post if you are lucky.

39 days to go and counting

24 weeks

Well firstly i apologise for not updating this for ages i have been totally slack with it.

So where to start - well before Christmas we had our big scan to check everything was going well with Frosty. We could see the spine really clearly and the heart chambers and little feet and hands. We were also told that Frosty was in fact Frostina - Yes we are having a girl :-)

We are over the moon that she is a little girl and now the buying of pink stuff has begun. I'm trying to inject some other colors into her wardrobe but at the moment the poor girl is going to be very pink.

I have been feeling really great and growing well. This took a little bit of getting used to seeing the numbers creep up on the scales but i'm happy in the knowledge that i know how to get it off again so it won't be a problem.

The Nursery furniture has been bought and is currently in the garage ready for installation once we know what we are doing about the carpet. I want to change it but i'm not sure whether it will be for new carpet or a wood floor.

At my 20 week scan my OB saw that my placenta was laying a little low and close to the cervix so i have to have another scan at 30 weeks to see if it has moved up. Hopefully it has or this involves seeing a high risk doctor and a potential C- Section (yikes)

This week i have to do my one hour glucose test and hopefully pass that. I'll be back with the results.

Here is the latest belly pic

18 weeks

Hello,
Well i haven't updated this for ages, probably because nothing exciting has happened for a while. I haven't fallen down any stairs or broken any bones so life is dull now!.
All is going well, All my ailements seem to be leaving me now. My leg is feeling better every day and i even managed a little bit of exercise this week. That was quite hard going seeing as i am a lot heftier these days :-)
My eyes hopefully have calmed right down now, I haven't had any problems for 2 weeks so hopefully my checkup on Monday will be good news. As for my skin, it comes and goes but it's very manageable.

We have the big scan on the 22nd December to check everything with Frosty including the gender hopefully. I'm really looking forward to this as mum and dad will be here as well.
Once Christmas arrives i will be half way there to cooking this baby. Time flies when you are having fun.

I have started to feel the odd fluttery movement now which is kind of odd but reassuring. It's also the reason that i have been awake since 4am on a Saturday morning!

I will update again soon probably after the scan so i have more news to tell you.

14 week appoinment

Today i had an appointment with my OB. Just a regular monthly check up. We listened to Frostys heart beat using a doppler machine. It was pretty faint but regular and my doctor assured me this is normal and will get louder once the baby grows more. She also did a tape measurement of the height of my uterus, i think it was fine as she didn't say anything.
In two weeks i have to get my final screening bloods done. Then they will give me the break down of the Downs and Trisomy ratios. Currently we are at 1:780 for Downs which is really low risk and 1:42000 for Trisomy which is incredibly low risk.
Unfortunatly my Cystic Fybrosis test came back that i am a carrier so Richard has to go and have a test now. If one parent carries it there is a 1% chance the baby will be a carrier, if both parents carry it then there is a 25% chance of the baby having CF 50% of being a carrier and 25% of having either.
My doctor also referred me to a dermatologist to see if we can get on top of my eczema problems and help my immune system recover a bit. I have this appointment in the morning.

My next baby appointment is on the 22nd December. This is an ultrasound appointment as well so we can see how everything looks and whether frosty is a boy or a girl. I have chosen this date also so my mum and dad can come if they would like also.

So just for me i just need to stay positive with all my immune ailments and keep soldiering on, like i keep being reminded, it will be worth it in the end!