Ava Maree Hickey Birth story -Posted for Serenitylee

[Summer24]

It was Friday the 22nd May and I was 33weeks pregnant and 3 days. I was due to finish work in 3 weeks.
That night I had my family up for tea and we watched a movie and they left at about 9.30 and I was in bed at 10pm. At 10.30 I woke up from a little trickle which I thought was just cervial mucus but I thought I would go to the bathroom and inspect it just to be safe On the way there, there was this HUGE gush and all this water came whoosing out and flooded our bathroom floor :O I looked at my partner in shock who was just as shocked as I was I called the hospital to tell them what had happened and then called my Mum who came down to help me pack some stuff and take my Partner and I to the hospital.
We knew there would be some issues as just the day before at our 33week appt we were told bub was breech and there was almost no luck of him/her turning (we didn't know the sex).
I had to walk into the hospital with a towel stuffed down my trousers because of all the fluid that kept coming out!
It was about 12am now and we were at the hospital. They just checked the baby and checked how far dialted I was and I was only 1cm so they were happy with that and they gave me a steriod injection in the thigh to mature the babies lungs and some tablets to stop the contractions. They checked bub to see what position he/she was in and bub had gone to transverse which they were not happy about but later that morning bub moved back to breech
They told me they would be doing a C-Section Sunday afternoon or Monday morning and they had to wait for the full affect of the steriod injections to work. Because my waters had broken I was put on bed rest so that the cord could not come out.
At 2am they put me in my own room with all the monitors attached. I started getting little contractions about 3mins apart but they went away after they gave me more tablets to stop the contractions.
Saturday day my family visited and I was still being monitored. By lunch time I was getting some painful contraction and using heat packs and I was still only 1cm dialted. By Saturday night the contractions were really painful but I just dealt with them and tried to get some sleep. By 4am they were so painful i told my partner to come in from home and also asked for some more painkillers but I was not due for some so they got the doctors to check on me. They done an internal and to their shock they could feel a little bum! They wondered why I had not been complaining when the baby was so far down and I just didn't think she would be so close as last time they checked I was only 1cm
They got me prepped straight away for an emergency C-Section and by 5am my partner arrived with my Mum on her way as well.
at 6.08am my beautiful baby girl was delivered and screamed straight away. She did not need any help with her breathing but was taken straight into Intensive Care. She was moved the next day to the Special Care Unit where she stayed for 3 weeks. She was being breastfed after a week and a half of being born and by 3 weeks was feeding great so they allowed her to come home! We were lucky to have her come home at 36 weeks gestation as she was supposed to be in there for another 4 weeks.
To this day she still is doing very well and at 13 weeks and 3 days she is about 8.6 pounds.
Some photos
Ava Maree born 24/05/09 at 6.08 am weighing 4.3pounds
In her incubator at 3days old wearing her first peice of clothing - http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...6_2018974_.jpg
In the SPU after her first bath - http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...6_2057140_.jpg
and her now - http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...66_2367956.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k1...5809_30378.jpg

[Tiff+2]

Wow, you did a great job Serenitylee!!! You did most of that without so much as a paim complaint!!! Congratulations!!! Whata fantastic story and your little girl is just beautiful!!! She's looks strong and I can I say, I think she will be a strong willed little one when she gets older, as she was strong willed enough to let them allow you to leave hossy so soon!!! Enjoy your babymoon!!!

Thank you for sharing your story, and thank you Summer for posting on your friend's behalf!