(This blog is a continuation from part 2)

Well the 9th December came and went, and no signs of labour! I tried all the usual remedies to bring on labour – Hot curry, raspberry leaf tea, bouncing on a ball but nothing worked. My over due appointment at the hospital was on 17th December I waddled to the appointment, by this point I was huge and felt ready to burst, I was told that going off my bump the baby was going to be a good size. The consultant examined me as I had many times before, although this time the doctor was a little quiet and looked puzzled. I quickly became worried and asked what was wrong, she said that the baby may be breached! We were speechless, but at that moment everything seemed to fall into place – Only ever feeling kicks very low down, never having felt that heavy bowling ball feeling! A scan confirmed that my baby was breached. Being 8 days over due it was too late to try to turn the baby around, I didn’t really want that either as it sounded painful. I expressed I wanted to have a Cesarin section (C-Section) I just wanted to get my baby out safely many known breached babies are delivered at 38 weeks by section, I was almost 42 weeks pregnant!

Because of the time of the year I could not have a section that day, all the c sections were booked in. I was kept in hospital and told that the next day they would try to fit me in for the section. My husband and I are nice people, we don’t like making a fuss or shouting. I expressed my concerns to get the baby out as soon as possible and was told the chances of having the operation the next day were very high. So I accepted that I would likely have the baby the next day, but in the back of my mind I had doubts that they would fit me in on the 18th December as they sounded very busy. Nathan went with me to the ward and stayed with me for a short while, but it was out of the visiting hours so he had to go. The moment he left the ward I remember watching him walk down the  corridor leaving me with such an empty feeling, I felt lonely and scared. I know Nathan hated leaving me, it was the thought of the unknown, we were both still in shock from finding out past my due date that our baby was breached! I was one of four girls on the ward, we were all waiting to have our babies. I looked out of the window there was a thin layer of snow on the ground, snow was falling, the hospital car park looked like a winter picture, it was lovely. I looked out of the window for some time to try to calm myself down and relax, I was in the best place.

(The Road To Parenthood Part 4 Continues Here)

(This blog is a continuation from part 1)

My 1st and 2nd trimesters of pregnancy were fantastic, I thrived – Although in hindsight I probably took advantage of being able to eat more as I’m sure many first time mums do, believe me I’m paying for it now. My only concern was that I didn’t feel the baby kick at the top of my stomach, it was always low down kicks I mentioned this to my midwife who said as long as the baby is kicking several times a day then there is nothing to worry about. I also didn’t experience the whole “bowling ball” feeling, where it feels like you have a bowling ball between your legs when you walk, which is what a lot of other women had mentioned. But I didn’t worry too much about this, I knew my baby was well and healthy.

My 3rd trimester was slightly more troublesome, my blood pressure started to rise, it seemed to have crept up each time I visited the midwife for a check – My midwife put me on weekly visits throughout my 3rd trimester so she could keep an eye on me. Apart from the blood pressure everything else was ok, I was told that the baby was head down getting into the engaged position, I was so excited counting down the weeks at this point. Around 4 weeks before my due date my blood pressure was extremely high and I had been seeing a few flashing lights behind my eyes, the midwife told me to go to the hospital for monitoring – Upon going to the hospital they also discovered I had a small amount of protein in my waters which together with my other symptoms was a sign of Pre-eclampsia. Pre-eclampsia can be extremely dangerous for both mother and baby and often if a woman has signs of this condition the doctors will induce a pregnancy or perform an emergency cesarean depending on the degree of  Pre-eclampsia, Luckily I only had the one episode of Pre-eclampsia symptoms, by this point I was in the hospital every 3 days for several hours of monitoring both me and the baby, my blood pressure was still slightly high but everything else was ok. At this point I was due in 2 weeks so I think the doctors wanted to hold on until my due date.

(The Road To Parenthood Part 3 Continues Here)