(This blog is a continuation from part 3)

That night I did not get a lot of sleep, I spent most of my time sat in the day room, speaking to Nathan on the phone, watching TV and talking to the other girls who also couldn’t sleep. The Christmas tree in the day room was really festive, all tinsel and bright lights. The general feeling from everyone I spoke to was to be home for Christmas, I shared the same concerns. I spoke to a girl who had just given birth to twins by section, she told me what to expect and explained how the anesthetist had a hard time putting her epidural in her spine…Not the best choice of conversation I know. I remember looking up at the clock, it was 2am! I thought I had best try to get some sleep, I need to be alert if I have the baby today. At that moment I stood up from the chair in the day room, and the flood gates opened! It was like someone had turned on a tap, water was leaking out of me at speed. I was embarrassed at first, I thought I needed to go to the toilet, the baby must have been pushing on my bladder – I quickly walked to the toilet to clean myself up. It wasn’t until I was in the toilet that I thought, this could be my waters! I went to the nurses station and explained what had just happened, the water seemed to keep coming. She tested my clothes and confirmed that my waters had broken. The midwife put me on the monitor to keep an eye on the babies heart beat. My concern was that there was some meconium (Baby poo) that came out with my waters, which is dangerous with a normal head engaged pregnancy as there is possible infection of the baby breathing this in. Although I was told because the babies head was no where near where the meconium was that everything was ok. I didn’t get a wink of sleep, I kept expecting to go into labour, I tried to lie very still on the bed so I wouldn’t trigger labour, I didn’t want to give birth naturally feet first! I was away from Nathan, he wasn’t allowed on the ward over night, it was horrible I felt alone and scared.

Later that morning I was told that I would be going down to theater for the first section of the day, I think my waters breaking escalated my situation. I was so relieved, my baby was going to born! Nathan came straight up to the hospital he was there when the anesthetist discussed the C-Section (Cesarean) procedure with me. I think everything went a little too quickly for him, I didn’t get  chance to talk about what had happened the night before when I was rushed into surgery. I was glad though I just wanted our baby out safe and sound, Nathan was allowed in the theater with me as I had an epidural, I was conscious when Thomas was born a healthy 10 Pound 1 Ounce baby boy – The best moment in our lives!

I remember our baby being passed to Nathan who was sat at my head side, a bundle of joy with a head of black hair, he was perfect. I was not able to hold Thomas at first because I was hooked up to all types of equipment, the blood pressure band was being inflated every few minutes on my arm I didn’t feel confident that I would be able to hold him securely. The nurse took loads of pictures for us, the cutting of his cord, him being cleaned up, almost every picture has a screaming face, its funny I don’t remember hearing him cry when they were sorting him out, it must have been all the excitement. I was a little upset that I couldn’t hold him in my arms at that first moment, and that Nathan didn’t get the chance to watch our baby being born or cut the cord. But I was just so happy that he had been born safely! In the theater we were told that Thomas may have a hydroceal which is fluid inside the testicles as they were inflamed – This often occurs in breached babies because of their position. I also remember his legs looking like a frog, they were up at his side, again this was likely to be because of the position he was in. I was told he would need to have a hip scan to make sure he was ok. All this worried me as I didn’t want anything to be wrong, but I was reassured he was healthy and these small “Issues” would easily be resolved.

All three of us were taken to the recovery room where I held Thomas for the first time, although I still couldn’t feel my legs at that point I didn’t care as I had my world in my arms for the first time. It was in the recovery room that we agreed on the name for our baby, we had always loved the name Thomas, it was the only boys name we had really, we had lots of girls names but only one boys – Thomas.

(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)