I'm currently still in hospital and have been here for 4 days! (I'm hopefully getting away today so I'm SO EXCITED). 

It's Saturday morning, and my little perfect girly was born on  Tuesday night weighing 5lb 5oz ( born on 11/10, due 17/10).

Only it wasn't as straightforward as that, if anyone has been looking at my previous threads, you will see I have had a bump that has measured small since around week 27 and she measured as much as 5 weeks behind at 38weeks.  I had been for a number of growth scans and been told she would be small but nothing that they are worried about. It then got to week 37 in my pregnancy and I started to suffer horrible trapped wind -like pains and to top it off my arm/shoulder was going numb and was told by my midwife that that was Carpel Tunnel syndrome and very common. 

Accompany this by diarrhoea and it doesn't sound all that uncommon at that stage of pregnancy right?

By week 38 the gastro pains would come in waves of 12 hours and eventually ease up for around only 4 hours of ease a day. The pain was so extreme that it made me throw up. It felt like the baby was sitting under my ribs. I paid the maternity unit a visit and they said it seems like I have a soft placenta and/or baby has been sleeping in an awkward position and explained that 

That would be the pressure I was feeling under my ribs.

I let another week go by in this pain because they made me feel as if I had went in with no issues and I felt I was making a fuss for no reason. I could barely eat or drink. It hurt when I breathed and was even worse when I took a deep breath in.

My boyfriend eventually convinced me to call back the midwife the following Tuesday morning as he was getting sick of leaving me in the house all day in tears and agony.

Arrived in the maternity assessment again, where they had a feel of my stomach, gave me an anti acid tablet and then the lovely woman doctor said that she was going to take some bloods 'just incase'...

About 20 minutes later my partner and I were surrounded by 4 different doctors and were being told they suspected I had something called "HELLP SYNDROME" and if that was the case then they would need deliver baby today and they had to be very cautious about how they went about getting me into labour because of this condition.

I'm not going to explain all the ins and outs of HELLP syndrome, but I knew absolutely nothing about it (only that I was link to preeclampsia ), it turns out my blood platelets were dangerously low at 33 and they wouldn't perform an operation on anyone with platelets lower then 48 so they had to get some into me before they would deliver baby or I would bleed out.

They decided it had to be a section as couldn't risk giving me a spinal with the awful condition my blood was in. Not only was it a section but it had to be done under general anithestic, and not only did that mean that I wasn't awake for my daughters birth, but it meant my partner also couldn't be in the room for it. 

It now transpires that I had very little 'typical' signs for having developed HELLP, I only had the severe gasto pain, but now that I look into it a bit more, it does say that a sign can be dead arms/shoulders and a baby that grows at a smaller rate....

Should this have been picked up by doctors when I first went up to see about my pains? Nobody knows if I even had it the previous week...but all i know is that they caught it just on time.

If you have any concerns or just feelings of unease then speak up and out! Don't shy away like I did because "I have heard people get sick towards the end of their pregnancy anyway" and "trapped wind is common at this stage"....no no no. 

Our little girl IVY is doing amazing, it was mummy who was unwell in high dependandy unit for 3 days while they steadied my blood platelets.

I've been told if I'm to get pregnant again I will be watched like a hawk because it would be likely to return again once pregnant. (I think this may have put me off though!!).....

Here the little trouble maker is!