Welcome to the World: My Birth Story

So as you will know if you have been following me for a while - I had a baby. 

Mark Henry, born 10th May 2017, 11.06am, 8lbs 13ozs

I wanted to share a little bit about Mark's birth story, as it did not happen as planned (as they so often do). Mainly as a reminder for myself in years to come but also in case anyone else is interested!

The end of my third trimester was tough, I struggled on/off for about 2 weeks with epigastric pain (super bad indigestion type pain that Gaviscon does not touch) and made several trips to the MAU (maternity assessment unit) at the hospital. Finally in the early hours of the 10th May after struggling for almost 6 hours at home, I made my last visit to the MAU where I proceeded to throw up (more than I have ever have in 31 years), was admitted and given IV fluids and an anti-sickness injection. Got myself all settled for the remainder of the night, hooked up to the baby heart rate monitor and sent hubby home to sleep, expecting to be discharged again in the morning.

After a few hours I was moved to the labour ward for monitoring - the midwife team were nervous as vomiting teamed with a raised BP and levels of protein in my urine, were not a good combination. By 10.30am the consultant announced the team still weren't happy with how baby was dealing with my raised BP (his heart rate kept dipping) and that I was going to be prepped for an emergency c-section. This would not have thrown me so much if A) hubby had been in the hospital, not at home and B) baby wasn't due for another 5 weeks!!! The anesthetist came and discussed the plan, which was to have a spinal and before I knew it, I was on my way to theatre, physically shaking from shock and in floods of tears by this point as still no hubby - he was on route and although all the nurses etc were very calming nothing was gonna help me in this situation. Sadly after 5 attempts the spinal didn't take so I had to go under a general anesthetic - not how I wanted him to arrive into the world but necessary.....and that is the last thing I remember!! 

When I came round, I was in a recovery room with hubby sporting a fetching pair of burgundy scrubs with a pair of hideous looking crocs and was told all was had gone well - baby was fine although in the ICU as he was premature and needed some assistance, but nothing serious. We both spent some time in the hospital recovering, which was tough as he had to stay in the ICU whilst I was on the maternity ward and even though I spent most of time with him, it wasn't the same as having him with me on the ward. Although over quickly, I did find this whole experience fairly traumatic - having never been in hospital before (except to be born) I wasn't fully prepared for things like cannulas (of which I had 3), the delight of a cathetur or the general pain and discomfort that follows a c-section, but we are now both home, going from strength to strength and I cannot believe he is now 2 months old - where has the time gone?? Looking at him now, you wouldn't know he arrived 5 weeks early - he is a beautiful little boy and I am the luckiest mummy in the world. 

More to come from this little man over the next few months whilst I am on maternity leave... I will be sharing some baby/new mum posts including my newborn daily essentials, along with more of the usual fashion and wishlist posts. If there are any specific baby related posts you would like to see, be sure to leave me a comment below.

In the meantime be sure to follow us on Instagram, for more newborn adventures....

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