Thursday, July 31, 2008 Rosee is a mum!

Week 38

Well, I got my wish for an early labour!

My waters broke mid morning on the Sunday, when I was 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I’d spent three hours the previous day working in the garden and looking back I guess I was in nesting mode!

I called the delivery unit and they asked me to come in, as our baby was still breech and they wanted to make sure things were okay. After spending some time bouncing on my birthing ball and a quick pit stop at Tesco for snacks, Al and I arrived at the hospital at about 3.30pm.

Our midwife Vicky had been told about my wish for a natural birth and so we agreed a plan of minimum intervention, although I would have to put a heart rate monitor on towards the end of the first stage of labour to make sure the baby was okay.

Although Vicky warned me that first labours are often erratic and it was likely I could be at least a day away from giving birth things progressed surprisingly quickly.

Within a couple of hours I was having contractions every five minutes and had to get in the bath to ease the discomfort.

Al was a star, massaging my back and playing me Stephen Fry podcasts to take my mind off it, but it was a lot worse than I expected.

My natal hypnotherapy definitely helped me to relax, but by early evening I was starting to find the pain overwhelming and, after an hour or so using my TENS machine, I asked for some gas and air.

This meant Vicky had to examine me to see how far along I was so that she didn’t give it to me too early. I was dreading being told I’d hardly progressed, but the good news was I was 7cm dilated!

Unfortunately Vicky also discovered our daughter had decided to stick a foot out first. As earlier ultrasounds had shown she was sat cross legged inside me this meant she was at a real risk of getting stuck if her other leg didn’t come down as well. Not the best time to be doing the hokey cokey!

The senior registrar was called and he recommended I have a caesarean to remove any further danger to our little girl.

By the time I got into the operating theatre I could feel she was really on her way out and when they dropped the screen across my tummy so that I could see her being born she was pink and wriggly and clearly ready to make her entrance in the world!

Storm Josephine Frances Woodland was born at 10.58pm, weighing 6lb 7oz, just 12 hours after my waters broke.

My friend Jo was with me in the operating theatre as Al is so squeamish, but he did come in for a few minutes to have some skin to skin contact after Storm was born. He went a bit grey when he saw all the medical equipment, but he was very brave to come in at all and I was so proud of him.

After spending so long waiting to see her it was amazing to be able to hold her pressed tight my chest and look into her wide eyes and welcome her to the world.

Monday, July 28, 2008 Tamzin lets non-sleeping babies cry...

34 weeks

When I saw my midwife the other day she had a feel of my tummy and said that the reason I still look so small is because the baby’s head is right down where it should be at 38 weeks! She wasn’t worried but now I keep thinking she’s going to come early.

Tonight I’ve been having some really uncomfortable pains and it really feels like she’s trying to push her head even further down. I was actually gasping with the pain earlier and my Mum got quite worried but I’m sure it’s not anything, there’s too much other movement and they’re supposed to get quieter before you give birth....aren’t they?!!

The other thing my midwife said was that they do get the sex wrong sometimes which I knew but hadn’t really thought about much and now I keep thinking how weird it would be if I had a boy! I wouldn’t mind at all but it would be strange because – well, because it’s a girl! She’s very firmly in my mind, Isla’s little sister, my 2 little girls, I see us in the future with our two daughters etc. It would be a shock; I think I better have a few boys names on stand by.

A while ago I wrote about how badly Isla was sleeping and it continued on and off until four nights ago. I finally did what I never wanted to do and that was not go into her at all when she started crying. It was soooooooooo hard, I lay there listening to her and feeling like I had someone twisting my heart (dramatic, but that’s what it’s like isn’t it?) until she went back to sleep – 50 minutes the first night 40 the next and since then she’s slept through, is it going to continue? I’ll let you know! It was horrible but if it’s worked I shall do it much earlier with the next one! I did go in to check her as soon as she went back to sleep, just to make sure she was ok!

You feel so cruel but as someone said to me recently they don’t have any conception of time, they’re not like us checking the clock and saying ‘hmmm I’ve been crying now for 10 – 12 – 16 – 30 minutes’ and you can tell with the cry whether there’s anything really the matter. It was never a desperate cry, just a ‘I’m awake and I want my Mum to come and stroke my brow’ cry. I do feel bad but I tell you what , we are all loving our good night’s sleep now!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 Ria is thinking about cider...

Week 38

Unbelievable that I am writing this blog with still no baby! After all the worries about being engaged so early and baby being so small and being bound to come early and we are officially now considered full term! I really am starting to look it now too, although every time I think I’m massive we see someone who is much bigger or people will be in disbelief at how far gone we are.

It was Jon’s sister's 30th birthday this week so we had a hectic sprint down to Plymouth after my active birth class on Monday, and a swift clothes change in Sainsbury’s toilets (very classy) before meeting them for dinner. Just as we arrived at the pub, they were coming out, and I totally felt like an exhibit at the zoo because about 15 people all walked past, analysing my bump, feeling it and commenting on me / bump! It was awful! I’m not the best at having lots of attention, and my sister-in-law was giggling at the back seeing how uncomfortable I was! Anyway, dinner was lovely and it was great to see everyone, probably won't be down for a family dinner again until little madam arrives!

A week of birthdays! I also had one of my best friends from Uni come down for the evening on her birthday, her boyfriend is a fireman and was working nights so I was given the task of entertaining the birthday girl! We had a good catch up and a lovely meal out, then mooched around Exeter the next day before meeting Jon for lunch. She is an auntie of two and had just been to Disneyland with the little ones for a fun weekend, I can’t wait to do kiddie stuff like that without having a conscience!

No new pregnancy complaints this week, just my back is agony at night, and I so desperately want to lie on my back because it’s the only way I can still move when I wake up! But mountains of pillows and careful positioning I must endure for a little bit longer! Oh and I really can’t wait for my first pint of Magners!

Kelly's social life is booming!

Libby at 11 weeks

We went to the local library for “Rhymetimes” this week and it was great fun. It was just as good for me to learn all the nursery rhymes that I had long forgotten as it was for Libby to bop along. I think Libby was getting a bit bored of Old Macdonald, The Grand Old Duke of York and Ince Wincey Spider so I now know a few more to add to my nursery rhyme collection. She is such a sociable and alert baby, she loves music and looking around at all that is going on around her. I think she is going to be nosey!!! Not sure where she gets that from??

I thought that I was pretty busy and sociable before I had Libby but I think that we are even busier now. If it’s not baby group, baby massage, coffee with fellow mums, swimming or baby clinic then we are generally out walking about. We have made lots of friends from walking about and everyone always loves to stop and look at Libby whether it is at a supermarket or in town. It’s quite funny how everyone goes crazy for babies and they love her great big blue eyes. I must admit, although I loved babies before, I just adore them even more now and think I will soon be a “aah how old is she, what is her name…etc” interested onlooker too!!

Everyone said to me before I had Libby to cherish every second and it’s true, I can’t believe that she is no longer that totally dependant newborn. She is nearly 3 months and can push herself up on her front and has already developed a personality. She is also happy to play by herself for about 20 minutes which is great when I need to do something. I think that it will not be long before she will no longer fit into her moses basket which means that she will have to move into her own room.I am not quite prepared for this yet. The milestones pass so quickly before I know it she is going to be crawling and then walking. I have made a mental note to bring the camera and camcorder out more often as she is changing all the time. I do use them quite a lot but I don’t want to miss any phase.

Libby is now in a pretty good routine. She is in bed by 7:30pm and sleeps through until 7am, waking up only once at around 4am. I feel so much more rejuvenated and really don’t mind getting up once. I don’t think that she will sleep through until she is on solids but I don’t mind, she is a pretty good sleeper and otherwise good baby. It is great as I get to spend the evening with Tim and have even decided to join the gym next week and to go once she is down to sleep.



Her daytime naps have become more structured now as well. I haven’t imposed a strict routine as I am pretty flexible but it has just evolved. She tends to wake up about 7am and then fall to sleep about 2 hours later for about 40-60 minutes. She then has another nap at lunchtime for 1.5-2 hours and then one in the afternoon about 3pm for about 40-60 minutes. Her naps fit in well with our social events and she sometimes takes them in her car seat or in the pram but if we are at home then they are in her cot. She is so much like Tim in that she can pretty much sleep anywhere. I wish I could!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008 Rosee is going through the mill...

Week 37

After the shock of discovering last week that our little lady is breech we’ve been through the mill a bit.

On Sunday, 48 hours after a scan showed she was the ‘wrong’ way up, I started to feel ill and have mild contractions.

Because I hadn’t seen anyone since, I called the hospital and they asked me to come in for a check up.

This meant a panicked call to one of my friends to ask her to be my birth partner if I ended up needing a caesarean that day as Al thought he wouldn’t be able to cope with being in the same room as me having an operation – he is extremely squeamish.

The hospital staff were lovely and, when it became clear my contractions weren’t really going anywhere, they offered to try to turn bambino as I was already there.

It seemed the obvious thing to do, so the consultant gave me a drug to help my womb relax and then tried to move the baby. This involved him grabbing her from the outside of my stomach and forcing her to try to do a forward roll into the right position. Al said the consultant was using so much pressure he could see the outline of the actual baby through my skin! It really was one of the most painful things I’ve ever experienced.

About three quarters of the way through the ‘roll’ the baby’s heart rate literally halved and, even though the consultant immediately stopped the attempt, it took her several minutes to recover to normal, which really scared me.

I stayed in hospital a bit longer, and the midwives wanted to keep me in overnight but I insisted on going home, reasoning that I was only a few minutes away if labour started again.

The next day we went for our appointment with the acupuncturist, who used a technique called moxibustion to try to get our little one to move in a gentler way. She lit an insence stick the size of a cigar and held it near a pressure point on my little toe to heat it up. The scientific theory behind this ancient Chinese technique is that it stimulates the circulation in the pelvis and uterus, causing the baby to move. Amazingly, she started to turn straight away. But at three quarters of the way through a turn she stopped again. The moxibustion brought on very strong contractions and over the next couple of hours she moved back to her normal position.

Al and I tried the moxibustion half a dozen times more over the next few days but each time the same thing happened , and after a while it seemed to have less effect.

So on Friday, a week after the breech diagnosis, we went back to the hospital for another turn attempt. This time I saw a woman consultant, who was a lot more gentle with me. After a couple of gos at moving the baby she stopped, and said she thought our daughter simply didn’t have enough room to get the whole way around. This is what I had thought all along, so I wasn’t surprised, although it was disappointing news.

What was surprising, however, was when I told her I wanted to try for a natural birth she agreed! She said that because I’m tall and have had a trouble free pregnancy (well, up to this point), and the baby seems not to be huge I’m a good candidate for attempting a normal delivery.

It’s not considered good practice to induce breech babies, or use interventions like epidural and forceps, so we agreed I would move straight to having a caesarean if I go into labour and it doesn’t seem to be progressing or the baby is in distress. Although I felt really low for 24 hours after the second failed turn attempt, I now feel much happier. At last someone has taken my wishes seriously and accepted a compromise which means our daughter at least gets the benefits of the first stage of labour, when the contractions help the baby to prepare to breathe.

I’m now just hoping I’ll go into labour fairly soon. I’m so excited about meeting our little girl and giving her the best start in life I possibly can.