Baby Seamus Born 18/1/18

Ok so this has taken me a little while, but we are finally Home and settled☺️.

So background is I have a 13 month old, I was induced with him at 36+4 due to preeclampsia.

So this time round I planned for my water birth I had wanted first time round. Although in was induced with my first I still managed just on the gas and air. Bounced on my birthing ball and had a 6.5 hour labour from the time they induced me.

Boy was this one different! The doctors placed me on aspirin, to apparently help my blood pressure levels during this pregnancy. So I went for my routine midwife appointment on 18/1/18. We’d agreed I’d see her weekly from week 34 because of my previous history. I was actually going to cancel the appointment as i felt perfectly fine. However the baby had been really quiet from 16/1/18 and in had been seeing flashy lights in my eyes, so I thought best to go just in case. Wee sample showed a +2 for protein, and blood pressure was 160/96. This meant a straight trip to the hospital. (So we thought). So we had to arrange childcare for my little boy last minute and get him in bed, which meant we were 3.5 hours late arriving.

Finally got into triage, linked up to the heart monitor for baby and me. Blood pressure was getting higher. During this time inwas already having contractions that were 5 minutes apart and from the monitoring they could see the baby wasn’t happy. They asked me to swap sides I was lying on to see if this helped. It did for all of 5 minutes. We waited 30mins for a doctor. Contractions were getting worse then all

Of a sudden the baby’s heart rate plummeted. She immediately yanked my jeans off and broke my waters and decided I was already at risk and needed a C-section. During this time they lost the baby 3 times on the monitor. I had 3 people trying to get Cannulas in my hands/wrist/elbow...they had to call an anaesthetist to come and do it in the end. Meanwhile my husband was being given scrubs.... I was taken into theatre for them to start preparing me for an epidural. I sat on the table and my contractions just started getting worse and worse. This meant I couldn’t sit still enough at this point, even with gas and air, for them to give me the anaesthetic to give me the epidural. I had 3 needles places in my back all of which were no help. By now I was in full blown labour, the doctor decided to check what was going on. The baby was now fine and much better I was in labour so they decided to let me have the baby naturally. This meant another bed hop (not easy) and a trip back down to the labour ward!

Within 1.5 hours of me being prepped for a C-Section my baby boy arrived on just gas and air!

I’ve never been so scared in all my life, more for my baby than anything. And I admit this time the pain was a lot worse than my first. All the hopes I’d had for the calm water birth had went out the window 😝. But I am so happy I have my little boy in my arms and that’s all that matters. If there is any advice I could give anyone is don’t wait if you don’t feel right, you know you and your baby best. It’s what makes you a mum from the minute you know your pregnant ☺️. And always be prepared to go with the unexpected! You might not have the birth you planned, but you have the strength to birth a beautiful baby no matter what. X

Seamus Born 18/1/18 6lb 1oz