Pregnancy

Going from being couple to a family, in 24 hours

February 11, 2019 by Penny Leave a Comment

This blogging lark is hard work when you have a newborn in the house. In fact, I’m not even sure I’m allowed to call her a newborn any more. At what age do they stop being a newborn and become just a “baby”?

The truth is that my little Tube Stop Baby (as she’s become known online) has been with us for a whole three months now. She’s gone from a curled up little scrap of a thing, to a little baby that is already showing us heaps of cheeky personality and an ability to wind up her big brother by laughing at him when he has a strop. Smart girl.

I’ve been a bad blogging mummy though as the story of my pregnancy with her kind of petered out after writing about the final stages of pregnancy. Her actual arrival though was a bit of a rush and it takes me a while to remember all of the things that happened in the 24 hours that we were away from home. 24 hours which took Bonn and I from being a couple to being a family.

As I’d mentioned before here, my bump was measuring big so at 40 + 3 I was booked in to hospital to be induced. It was a Wednesday and my other two kids stayed at my house the night before so that morning I was up early to take them both to school, giving them both a huge hug in the playground knowing that by the time I saw them next the would have a little half brother or sister to welcome into the family. It was a strange feeling.

The hospital had said that they would phone me by 10am to let me know what time to come in. All through the school run I had one eye on my phone waiting for it to ring. Nothing. Back home we had time for a cuppa and a chat with my mum before my phone finally sprung into life at one minute to ten. Talk about leaving it until the last moment.

As I’d suspected the call was to say that the unit was busy. I’d fears about them telling me that I’d have to be delayed until the following day, but instead they told me to get there for 6pm that evening, as by then there would be a bed empty for me.

Six o’clock came and B and I rocked up at the hospital where we went up to the allocated ward and were shown to a bay, before being left somewhat to our own devices for a bit. I knew I might be in for a long wait so we were armed with a huge array of books, snack, board games etc and I’d even brought my sewing kit with me so I could finally fix the pocket in B’s coat. A job that I had been putting off for ages for no real reason.

Needle threaded I’d taken about two stitches before someone finally turned up and attached me to a monitor so that they could monitor the baby’s heart beat before starting the induction process. Now, back when pregnant this baby used to go nuts every single evening about 7pm. It was a regular thing that I would spend the evening sat on the sofa being exhausted by this child inside of me going into full on party mode summersaulting around my stomach. The things is apparently this isn’t usual the student midwife was a little puzzled to see what was going on.

Unfortunately all these acrobatics meant that it was pretty much impossible to get a stable trace of the baby’s heart. At the time we assumed it was all down to how much they were moving about, but the midwives were convinced that it might be something more concerning. There was talk about not being able to induce until they had had a stable trace for at least 30 minutes. No chance of that happening with this baby. Talk then turned to needing a c-section in case the baby had a cord wrapped around his or her neck. I’d had this with Little Miss C, but in that case it hadn’t been spotted until she was delivered.

They finally agreed to take me down to the delivery suite so that someone could take a look and see if they could break my waters. There were a few regular tightenings so they hoped that breaking them might help to kick things off naturally. Down we moved to a sauna of a room in the delivery suite. We were literally stripping off as soon as we arrived as it was so hot in there. There was more coming and going of midwives as they assessed what was happening and trying to decide what to do. One consultant seemed to think that a natural birth might be possible, but she was unsure. Still it was impossible to get a perfectly stable trace of baby’s heart.

I forget exactly why or when, but they did finally move us to a room that felt a normal temperature rather than being tropical and just before midnight a midwife did manage to break my waters. A consultant had by this stage agreed that a natural birth should be possible, but he wanted a very close eye keeping on things just in case baby’s heartbeat trace got any stranger than it already was.

As the night went on they started me off on a drip to try to bring on labour, but instead it just made baby’s heartbeat drop more so they stopped again until it came back up. Again the consultant came in and stretched his head a few times about what was going on. There was further talk about c-sections and the cord possibly being either trapped or wrapped round the baby’s neck in some way. At this stage I was convinced that it was how this particular birth was going to pan out and my head was starting to fill with all the logistical challenges of performing a 30 mile round trip school run when you can’t drive for 6 weeks.

The midwife herself was getting a little annoyed at the lack of progress and seemed convinced that natural labour would be possible and after lots of studying baby;’s heart trace it was finally agreed that we could try the drop one last time. Only a half measure though and at the first sign of anything even slightly irregular with baby’s heart it was to be stopped immediately. The consultant finally agreed and when the overnight midwife went off shift at 8am she was literally just waiting for one signature before I could be started on it again.

Our new midwife was a breath of fresh air after a long night and hear lovely bubbly style when she introduced herself to both of us (midwives please do remember to say at least hello to a woman’s birthing partner or the baby’s Dad – it’s not only polite, but also helps everyone feel a bit more confident about things) she said that she was determined that we’d have a baby in our arms by lunchtime. After such a long night of nothing really happening I laughed this off and she agreed that it night be a bit of a stretch target. Instead we agreed that by the end of her shift might be more realistic. I figured that within 12 hours that would at least have taken me into theatre to make things happen with surgery if everything else failed.

Around 9am all the paperwork was in place and a new drip was started. We chatted away for a while with me just hoping that the 2cm dilation (that was possibly just a hangover from previous births!) would finally increase. 10 o’clock came and went and I noticed that the tightenings were becoming a little tighter, but still nothing to write home about. I’d been allowed the gas and air for a while, and it was definitely helping with things. In my exhausted state I knew that things weren’t going to get any easier though. The midwife and I talked about additional pain relief and I decided that I would indeed like an epidural. The midwife agreed, but noted that I would need to be examined again. Something that they wouldn’t normally do until 1pm, four hours after the drip was started.

There was no rush, but she agreed to examine me again. By this point it was about half past ten. A bit more faffing about various things and she then finally got round to examining me at about quarter to 11.

I then lost twenty minutes of my life in a complete blur.

Her examination revealed that I was about 6cm. Huge progress.

Then baby’s heartbeat did something worrying and the emergency button was pressed.

The next thing I knew the room was filled with additional voices and someone was, quite forcefully, telling me that that I needed to be examined again.

I remember someone saying that I was then 8cm. Then it suddenly became 10cm.

A voice asked if I was ready to push. I wasn’t. I was still hoping for an epidural at this point!

I realised that I’d shut my eyes at some point in the previous five minutes. I opened them to find four or five women that I’d never seen before peering between my legs.

One of those women became incredibly stroppy with me. Or maybe the technical term for it is forceful. Whatever it is I’m mighty glad she did!

By 11.06am my gorgeous second daughter came into the world and was placed up on my chest where I was in a complete state of shock, and totally in love.

Active labour lasted a grand total of 17 minutes. Those midwives the night before had been spot on. The cord was wrapped around her neck. Twice.

Our midwife gave me a huge smile, congratulated us and very smugly said “I told you we’d have a baby here before lunchtime”.

Tears running down my face I thanked the stroppy woman for being stroppy, and thanked our midwife and the rest of the team for being the amazing medical professionals that they were. Quite where they had all run from when the midwife pushed the emergency button I have no idea, but they sprang into action and brought our gorgeous daughter safely into the world. Something that I will forever be grateful for.

By 6pm that night, just 24 hours after arriving at the hospital we were back home. Discharged just 6 hours after birth with just a tiny scratch and no stitches. 24 hours which had taken us from being a couple to a new family. 24 of the most magical hours of my life.

I never did finish fixing the pocket in B’s coat though. I think he’s forgiven me for that…

The final stages of pregnancy

December 12, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since I wrote my last pregnancy update here on Penny Blogs. Whilst the regular readers may have noticed that a new addition to the family had indeed arrived, I feel that she (quite rightly!) deserves a bit more than just a passing comment in a review blog post. But before I talk about her arrival, I’d better finish off my pregnancy story.

Back at 39 weeks I was pretty sure that it was just a waiting game as to when this baby was going to arrive. It seems that the size of my belly was to have other ideas though. My last midwife appointment saw me measuring large again for my dates, and as I was no longer following the growth curve in my maternity notes I was sent for a consultant appointment. Had this happened earlier in the pregnancy I would instead have been sent for a growth scan, but if this happens in the last week or so then apparently the sonographers say that it’s too difficult to scan and get a measurement, so off to the hospital for a consultant appointment I went.

Luckily they managed to fit me in just the next day, although when I actually turned up at the hospital there was no record of my appointment (a slight deja vu feeling with this particular hospital!) Luckily they seemed to notice just how heavily pregnant I was and an appointment was found. Even if I did have to sit there waiting for nearly an hour and a half for it!

The consultant decided that there was indeed a risk of a large baby so promptly said that my plan to give birth in the midwife led unit had to go and instead I would be booked into the consultant led unit to be induced. Bearing in mind that I still wasn’t convinced that my growing bump wasn’t due to a late pregnancy addiction to custard creams I did engage in a bit of discussion with her as to exactly when they were going to induce me. Taking into account when I would have LMC and Master C staying with me I wanted to try to plan it for a time when I wouldn’t have them with me. I also wanted to factor in when my mum could come to stay so that she could help out with school runs if I was in hospital for a while.

With a date agreed I was sent off, crossing my fingers that the two sweeps I had booked in before my induction date would do the trick. I also went a bit mad planning big walks for B and I to do in an attempt to. bring in labour naturally. I think the dawning realisation when we were furthest from the car park on a trek along the top of the Dunstable Downs frightened him a bit and I thought it wise not to point out that my due date five kilometre trek through Wendover Woods resulted in us being out of mobile phone reception for a while!

Despite the best attempts of the midwives performing sweeps (and their comments about my cervix being “favourable”) my due date came and went with me feeling incredibly well and not at all like I was about to give birth. Damn! I even got my mum down to stay with us should things kick off naturally.

Every FaceTime call to my kids when they were at their Dad’s had Master C asking if the baby had arrived or not yet and each time there was a look of disappointment on his face when I told him that I was still pregnant. It’s hard work explaining to a six year old that babies don’t arrive to a timetable.

And so the date of my induction arrived. I’d spent the day before wandering around antique and charity shops in Hitchin with B and my mum, and desperately hoping that things would happen naturally. As I set off on the school run that morning (still driving at this point!) I still felt no where near giving birth. I hugged the kids goodbye, not sure exactly when I’d be seeing them again, but knowing that I’d soon be getting a phone call telling me when to head into the hospital to start the induction process. It wasn’t how I was planning this pregnancy to end, but you don’t always get a choice about how things happen in life. Horror stories about other people’s induction experiences were going through my head and at this stage I couldn’t help but feel apprehensive about the whole thing and also annoyed that my body hadn’t made things happen naturally.

Pregnancy catch up – week 39!

November 7, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

Hmmmmmm – the weekly pregnancy diaries seem to have petered out with married life! I could say that it’s because I’ve been far too busy making sure that I’m the dutiful 1950s housewife with my husbands dinner on the table when he gets home from work and his slippers warmed by the fire. I’d be completely lying though. I have no idea where the last eight weeks have vanished to. None at all. Baby is still very firmly on the inside though and as I head towards my due date there’s no sign as yet of him or her making an appearance.

I was hoping for the last 10 weeks of pregnancy to be nice and calm, but I’m not sure I’ve managed that. Family life seems to continue at a pretty frantic pace. I don’t really seem to have much time to think about being pregnant, but then I’ve been quite lucky that this pregnancy hasn’t really had any issues or complications.

I wrote ages ago about how we were given the choice as to whether to have a C-Section or not and we’ve decided on a natural birth – hence the fact that I’m sat here writing this at 39 weeks rather than having a day old baby in my arms – as yesterday would have been C-section day had it happened. Fingers crossed that was the “right” decision. Only time will tell though.

I’ve had a few general aches and pains, but nothing more that I’m expecting at this late stage of pregnancy. A lot of my back and hip pain seems to have reduced by having got back to my regular aquanatal classes. It’s amazing how much they have helped. The Braxton Hicks have been ramping up all the way through pregnancy and I’m just hoping they’re all good practice for the real thing.

This baby seems to love a morning snooze before going completely hyper in the evening. Sitting on the sofa and watching my stomach lurch all over the place as become a regular form of entertainment in our house. I honestly sometimes think they’re making a bid for freedom straight out through my bump! I’m intrigued to see if they’re a real squirmer when they arrive or not.

I think I’m ready for baby’s arrival. Practically I’ve got things sorted. The cot is ready next to my bed. The car seat is already in the car and my hospital bag is packed. I have nappies, clothes, a little coat and lots of blankets ready. We’ve even decided on names. Logistics are in place for my kids should they be staying with me when baby arrives too and I have lists on my phone for what needs to be done in various different circumstances. Mentally I’m not sure I’m ready for the sleepless nights again, but will I ever be? There are certainly things I wanted to get done before baby arrived that haven’t happened (taking more photos of this pregnancy being one of them!) but in that way I don’t think everything will ever be done. I just need baby to be ready to make an appearance.

My last midwife appointment was nearly two weeks ago and at that I was offered a sweep – to fit in with local policy of trying to reduce the induction rate. I would have happily had one had baby actually been engaged. But it seems he or she wasn’t ready. Both Little Miss C and Master C were late so I feel a bit resigned to this baby being too. Then again I’ve got three different due dates (the first of which has already past) so you never know. I’m back at the midwife later this week so let’s see how baby is positioned then. Assuming they’re still in there by then.

Until then though I’m trying out lots of walking and every old wives tale for shifting babies. It’s definitely hit that stage where I’m over being pregnant. I’m just not sure how many evenings I’ll get away with serving up curry for dinner!

On my feet throughout pregnancy with Hotter Shoes

September 14, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

If you’ve been reading my week by week pregnancy diary you’ll be aware of the fact that I’m a busy person. I don’t really like having nothing to do. As much as the idea of spending a day with my feet up sounds appealing the reality is that I’d probably be bored after a couple of hours. That’s probably why I craft as much as I do. This third pregnancy has been no different.

Since becoming pregnant earlier in the year I’ve managed to move house, get married and also juggle day to day family life with two kids and a step-daughter. I’m also self-employed, a school governor and on my local WI committee. I’m always on the go and therefore always on my feet.

I’ve only discovered Hotter shoes since my youngest was born six years ago, and how I wish I’d known about them sooner. The thing that people don’t tell you about pregnancy is how it doesn’t just mean you grow a bump. The whole of your body ends up changing – including your feet!

When I had Little Miss C eight years ago my feet went up a whole shoe size during pregnancy. It was completely unexpected and I remember spending the latter part of my pregnancy (which was luckily in summer) shuffling around in a pair of flip-flops as they were the only thing that fitted. My ankles also became HUGE.

I assumed that my feet would return to their usual size and shape post-pregnancy, but I was wrong. The fluid retention did vanish, but my feet remained a size larger and I hence ended up having to buy a whole new array of shoes to take account of their increased size.

The size of your feet isn’t the only thing that can catch you unaware in pregnancy. After roughly the 6 month point it also becomes impossible to actually see your feet when standing. Unless you try and stand on one leg somehow. Not advisable with an offset centre of gravity. Trust me. I’m speaking from experience.

Putting shoes on also becomes something of a challenge. Or at least it has done for me. You know that your bump has grown when you realise that putting socks and shoes on can leave you out of breath as you try to bend down and position your arms and legs in such a way so that you can actually reach your feet. It’s like a hardcore yoga class.

An accommodating partner who doesn’t mind helping is useful, but it’s pretty much impossible to have someone on call 24/7 just to help you put your shoes on. With all the hot weather we’ve had this summer I was therefore incredibly grateful when those lovely people at Hotter sent me a pair of sandals to see me through the summer of this pregnancy. When you consider how many pairs of sandals Hotter sell it’s a bit mad to realise that this was actually the first pair that I’ve owned and it’s definitely making me wonder what I’ve have on my feet in previous summers.

Summer 2018 has seem my feet in a pair of Hotter’s Tourist sandals and they have been an absolute life saver. As is the way with all Hotter shoes that I own, they feel as comfortable as slippers and therefore I had absolutely no qualms at all about taking them away to Tea and Tents with me the day I got them. WI ladies love Hotter shoes and at Tea and Tents I played a little game of spot the Hotter shoes as I went around the camp site. Not only were there loads of different sandals and their classic Shake shoes in a variety of colours, but I also spotted a couple of ladies wearing the limited edition daffodil Mabel shoes that they sold to raise funds for Marie Curie.

With the hot weather my Tourist sandals have been perfect for keeping my feet cool as well as being incredibly comfortable. With just one buckle to do up they’ve been easy enough to manage on my own (and obviously I don’t need to put on socks with them!) and they’ve looked stylish with either summer dresses or jeans.

The traditional English weather does mean there have been a couple of occasions where I could have done with reading the weather forecast before leaving the house, but let’s gloss over those shall we!

With the weather now turning it’s time to look at the rest of my Hotter collection to work out what to wear. I’m excited about autumn and the opportunity to pull out my gorgeous purple Belle boots again. But until then I need to find something else that doesn’t involve me having to bend down and tie laces.

What I’m in absolutely no doubt about though is just how comfortable Hotter shoes are. No matter how much the rest of my body has ached this pregnancy I can hand on heart tell you that my feet have not hurt once. Even when I got married last week I pulled out my old pair of their Lauren shoes in Teal (which first made an appearance on Being Mrs C back here) and they were absolutely perfect for my wedding day. Despite being 7 months pregnant, and on my feet for most of the day, they felt like wearing slippers. That’s how shoes should feel. Especially when pregnant!

Disclaimer: Hotter sent me a pair of Tourist Sandals for the purposes of this review. I am however, very proud to be a paying customer of Hotter as well. All opinions remain my own.

Pregnancy Diary – Week 30

September 14, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

Hmmmm. I’m thinking that week 30 of this pregnancy might be the one where I took on rather a lot. But it was also the best week of the pregnancy, as it ended with me getting married!

Yep – there I was at 30 weeks pregnant waddling down the aisle in a maternity dress. It wasn’t quite what I expected at the start of this pregnancy, but it was perfect in every way that I wanted it to be.

The week actually started off slightly calmer, with B’s birthday and the thrills of my car needing (and then failing!) an MOT. By midweek we were at the back to school stress point with the kids, and then by Friday night all our families had descended on us ready for Saturday’s nuptials.

By Saturday afternoon we were married and enjoying a perfect afternoon tea as husband and wife! It felt like a million miles away from the last minute finding of PE kit and sewing on name tapes of Tuesday evening.

The thing I’ve realised through all this pregnancy is that organisation is key. The only way I think I survived the week is by having lists. Lots and lots of lists. Lists of what the kids needed for school. Lists showing exactly where they needed to be when and with what. Lists of what needed organising for the wedding. Lists of what I needed to tell various family members about when to be where. And finally lists of what we needed to take to the registry office with us on the day.

There may have been some curved balls thrown in mid week to keep us on our toes – an evening dash to Norfolk to collect a relative, a failed MOT and an AWOL registrar! – but our wedding day itself was just perfect. Everything we wanted it to be.

We planned and organised the whole thing in less than two months and actually I think that was the best way to do things. The jobs that need doing will just expand to fill the time that you have available, so by time-boxing it you still get everything done, you just have less time to stress about it all.

We only went for a modest affair and that kept the organisation down a lot, but the midwife had noticed a slight rise in my blood pressure the week before. Not really that surprising when you think about everything I was juggling.

Just ten weeks to go now before baby hopefully makes an on schedule appearance. Let’s hope they’re all nice and calm!

Pregnancy Diary – Weeks 27, 28 and 29

September 5, 2018 by Penny Leave a Comment

Ok. Who stole the summer holidays? As I sit here writing this my kids are back at school for the first day of term and I’m finally coming to terms with the to do lists that have been growing and growing over the summer. Some days pregnancy almost hasn’t had a look in on things. There’s just so much going on in life at the moment that I’ve found myself getting really annoyed with myself for not being able to do everything that I’ve wanted to.

Busy

Busy is the main word that I’d use to sum up the last three weeks. My step-daughter has been staying with us for most of it, and whilst she’s pretty self-sufficient at 14 it has still meant a bit more to do around the house, and also her Dad being off work too. It’s always the case that trying to get work etc done when kids are around is trickier than during term time. Add into the mix getting everything read for going camping and a sudden deluge of data entry work and sleep went out of the window for a while.

Camping during pregnancy

We did manage to make time for a family holiday though and all five of us headed off to Nottinghamshire for five days of camping together. Luckily, we chose somewhere not that far from my Mum, so it was possible to take shelter at her house when the weather really turned, but the trip did teach me a bit about how different camping is when pregnant.

As well as the obvious frustration about not being able to fully do everything like get the tent up and carry stuff, sleeping on an air mattress is tough going. Even more so when the air mattress decides to empty itself on the first night. Thank goodness for a local branch of Argos and the ability to reserve things online! Even with a new fully inflated air mattress though I still found that I needed to walk B up at 1.15am to help me actually get up so I could accompany the five year old on a trip across the field to the toilet block. Still I survived.

Board and card game obsession kicks in

The kids also had an amazing time which is what matters most. It seems that this was the holiday in which they embraced board games like never before. I’ve written over on Penny Plays about how much Master C loves Snakes and Ladders and Ludo, but that’s now turned into more of an obsession. Amazingly none of them asked for TV at all whilst we were away, even when we visited my mum. Instead though the board and card games had to go with us and they insisted on playing them as soon as we arrived anywhere. I can’t complain though as we’re rather big fans too.

All this does mean that the board game buying level seems to have gone up another notch. Not something I thought possible before, but definitely preferable to them just spending all their time in front of a screen.

Top Trumps has also become a firm family favourite too. I’d forgotten how much I used to play at primary school and with all the new versions that are now out my two are trying to collect as many as possible. Long may it continue!

Popping our Geocaching Cherry

The time with all three kids also saw me finally giving geocaching a go. It’s something that I’ve been meaning to do for ages, but just never got round to. I’ll pop something up about it over on Penny Travels very soon, but it’s been a brilliant way of all five of us getting out and discovering new places.

It’s even meant the kid being excited about going on walks. Something I’ve been trying to do for years! They’ve always been fine once we’re out, but actually getting them out of the house with their shoes on hasn’t always been easy.

Pop goes my tummy!

Halfway through our camping trip also seemed to co-incide with me suddenly “popping out” around the week 28 / 29 mark. My midwife tells me it’s common, but it was literally the case that I woke one morning realising that my sleeping bag was somewhat tighter than it had been when I went to bed.

Then, that night, I realised that I couldn’t actually zip the sleeping bag up any more! Fair to say that there was absolutely no chance of disguising this pregnancy after that and also the realisation that I really do need to try to take things a bit easier now.

Back at the midwife

Our return from holiday saw the kids go back to their Dad’s for a bit and an opportunity for me to catch up on work and wedding preparations. We’re keeping things very simple on the latter, but it still feels like my to do list is just growing and growing. It also gave me the opportunity to slot in what I think was officially my week 28 midwife appointment.

With the baby moving about so much more now it’s all feeling much more real than it has done before. There’s a little person going to be joining us in just over a couple of months and I think my head is finally catching up with that concept. This midwife appointment also felt much more like the ones I had with the other kids. Practical things like measuring my bump and listening to the baby’s heartbeat along with also having more blood tests and my Anti-D jab. There really isn’t that long to go now I guess.

Looking forward I’m hoping that the return to school will mean things calming down a bit and a return to a routine for the kids. We’ve had a blast this summer, but I think they too are ready for that regular pattern of doing things in the week as much as I am.