My baby girl is here!

Yep! I had my baby at 35 weeks! She just couldn't wait to be here :) If you follow me on instagram, you will know that I was admitted to the hospital on my 28th birthday (15.07), because I started bleeding all of a sudden. 

It was scary and I totally panicked. Thank god I had my hospital bag packed. I was just over 34 weeks pregnant at the time and still needed some bits and bobs for me and baby. Long story short... I was kept in the hospital for a couple of days and the night before I was meant to go home, my waters broke and I started getting contractions. Typical, eh? I couldn't believe it. There was no stopping my little girl and she was coming one way or another. 

I was supposed to have an elective section due to her size anyway, so I knew what was going to happen, I just imagined that I will know the date and it will be around 38 weeks, not totally unexpected and 5 weeks before my due date. 

On Friday, after my waters broke, I was up all night with contractions and strapped to a CTG machine to keep an eye on baby's heartbeat. After seeing lots of doctors etc, a decision was made that I need a section asap and it will happen on Saturday morning. My belly was on a a verge of bursting with veins popping out and new stretch marks appearing daily... Seriously... Turns out that I had severe polyhydramnios, which means that there was a ridiculous amount of water around the baby. They sucked upover 4 litres and there was even more on the floor, plus whatever I lost when my waters broke the night before. The midwives were shocked and apparently they have never seen polyhydramnios that severe! 

It was a totally different experience than my 1st emergency section, as I was fully aware of what was happening. With Zachary, I was in full -blown labour, in another world, high on gas & air etc and I thought I was dying. This time was much more relaxed, although... I was freaking out because I was aware of all the needles, drips etc... Oh... You should see my arms... covered in bruises :(

After all the prep, I was taken into the theatre and Mia Eve was born at 13.12, weighing... wait for it... 10lb 10oz (4.810kg)!!! I was in shock! I am not surprised that she decided to appear early. Can you imagine the size of her at 40 weeks? And I was planning to do it naturally... Thankfully, the doctors knew better and advised me against it. 

Considering the fact, that I was only diagnosed with gestational diabetes a week before Mia was born, I am pretty sure that my condition was simply undetected for a while. Well... we will never know. The good thing is - my sugar levels are back to normal and I don't need insulin or anything so it's a massive relief! I am going for a 6 week check-up at the clinic just to make sure obviously, but I have been eating normally for a week now, checking my glucose levels after meals etc and they are fine.

Unfortunately, due to the gestational diabetes, Mia's insulin levels were affected, so she had to be kept in Intensive Care for a while to stabilise things etc. It is heartbreaking not having her home with me yet (she is a week old today!), but I am sure she will be with us soon. Obviously, my exclusive breastfeeding plans were out the window due to her being pre-term etc, but I will keep expressing as much as I can and might introduce her to the breast soon. We will see. I will get advice from my midwives and doctors to help me decide what to do. At the moment, we visit her every day and I express my breast milk for her. Not much, but it's better than nothing. More about that in future blog posts.

My c-section recovery is going ok. There isn't much pain anymore and I am only taking paracetamol when I am going to the hospital (just in case I end up in agony), but it just feels like I have no core strength and I still waddle a bit. Also... my wound started to open up a bit... VOM! It's not as bad as it sounds though, just a 1cm gap and it's not sore or anything. It will heal.

Because they pump you full of fluids during the c-section, my left leg is all swollen and it looks like I have elephantitis, but hey... it will go down soon. I also experienced an allergic reaction to something they gave me during the c-section and I have two massive red, inflamed and super itchy circles of rash on both sides of my tummy. It looks disgusting, I am not gonna lie. The rash is spreading allover my body as well and I don't know what's causing it.

Not what I imagined and totally unexpected, but I am now a mum of 2! I can't believe it! Zachary and daddy are absolutely in love with out little girl as well and she is doing well, so it's all good. She will be with us in no time, I just have to stay strong, recover quickly and try not to cry too much.

On top of all that, my husband had a car accident the weekend before I was admitted to the hospital. A girl who just passed her test crashed into him. He's ok (except the whiplash and some scratches on his neck from the seat belt), but his car is his business so he's out of work and we were given a hire car by insurance etc and it's a bit of a pain. We will get through it though, I know we will.

Sandra x


  
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