Finally Alexas Arrival Saga... Grab a cuppa VERY LONG
Sorry in advance for any typos & if I go on too long...
13 months later but better than never!!!!!
Enjoy :D
After 4 months of trying to concieve we finally got out BFP using a lucky HPT from Becky !
I had a totally text book precnancy with little morning sickness & tiredness & a nice wee bump that didn't get in the way, that was until Thursday 9th Feb 2006, I was almost 30 weeks pregnant & had called in to see my friend Annetje & her baby boy Harrison on the way home from work, I was playing with Harry while Annetje was preparing dinner, once she had finished I passed Harrison back to his mum for a feed & as I stood up I had a horrible wet sensation & felt like I had wet myself (how embarrasing!), when I checked it was infact blood (Oh my god!!!). i rushed to the toilet & there was quite a bit of blood, when I sat on the toilet i felt something come out, I was too scared to look, but I had too, it was a clot that was about 5cm in diamater.
Annetje helped me clean up & gave me a pair of her pants to wear, she rung my midwife Vicki & put ne on her bed with my legs elevated,( I was paranoid I was going to bleed on her white sheets!!!), Annetje then rung the ambulance it arrived withing 20 minutes (we both live out of town), Vicki had already arrived & was checking me & bubd heartbeats, my blood presure was slightly raised (probably because of stress!) & Alexa was doing fine, I had no contractions & was feeling fine considering the situation. The Ambulance guys put an IV needle in my hand & loaded me into the ambulance along with Vicki. Then we were on our way to Dunedin hospital.
In the meantime Jeff was unaware of what was going on as he was heading home from working out of towm for the week, I didnt want him told straight away incase he stressed out & had an accident on the what.
Annetje had called my parents & they were waiting at hospital for me, I was taken to a birthing suite straight away. When I arrived they were asking where the placenta was, so I pointed to me belly & said "in here!", I had an anterior placenta but somehow the message had gotten through that I had placenta previa, little did I know at the time that they not only had a helicopter on standby to come & pick me up, but the had the main theatre prepped for me too!!!
I had numerous people coming in and checking me & how Alexa was doing. I had no contractions & felt fine apart from leaking a little still, but thank goodness it had slowed down. Then entered Dr Gumboots (I still cant remember his real name), he got this name because when he came in her was all prepped for surgery & was wearing white gumboots, so I said to him "bloody hell I'm not bleeding that much you didn't need gumboots", to which her replied " sorry they just called me in from my second job, I also work at the meat works", everyone got a chuckle at that, I still had my sense of humour.
I was then given my first of 3 steroid injections (Ouch!) to help Alexas lungs & organs develop a bit quicker. I had been holding it together until then, but once they gave me the injection things started to dawn on me that Oh my god my baby might be bornsoon. This is not something that I had planned on at all & Jeff was still not there!!!.
Jeff arrived about 2 hours after I was taken in & of course I lost the plot again, there was no holding me back now I had started!.
We stayed in the birthing room for a few hours with regular checking of me & Alexa, we were both doing well. They decided to move me from the delivery room to the Antenatal ward as things were settling down & it looked less likely that I was going to need an emergency caeserean. Mum & dad went home since things were ok & Jeff stayed for a few more hours before he needed to go & sleep.
I was kept in hospital for the next week as I was not allowed out until the bleeding had totally stopped. So on the 16th of Feb I was allowed out but I was not allowed out of Dunedin so I spent the next 2 weeks living at my parents house!.
On the 28th of Feb I had my antenatal checkup (besides my midwife checking on me every couple of days), when they did the ultrasound the sonogrepher noted that I had had a placental edge tear, also it was noted that the blood flow through teh cord was poor, enough for Alexa to survive but not enough for her to grow aswell, she had hardly grown at all in 2 weeks. Maree & I waited in the antenatal ward (Maree came to keep me company) for the Obstetrician to come & see me, but I had already figured things wern't looking too flash. The Ob arrived & my suspicions were confirmed, she said that Alexa would have to be born the next day!!!. So once again I had a meltdown & had to ring my poor husband & tell him to come home now!, he didn't believe me & even rung an hour later before he left to make sure I wasn't having him on!!
I tried to convince the Ob that she could be born on Sunday instead ( I was supposed to be matron of Honour at my friends weedding, sorry Mike & Karen!), but there was no way they were going to allow that (worth a try at least I thought).
I was asked if we wanted to have a look at the NICU ward as Alexa would be born at 32 weeks 4 days & would have to go to NICU almost straight away, Maree & I went & had a look & I think this was the best thing I did. There was a wee girl up there about the same gestation as Alexa & roughly the same as her estimated weight, her mother allowed me to see her & it was good because although she was small she wasnt as tiny as I had imagined.
Jeff arrived home around dinner time, I was allowed home to my parents for the night, but had to be back in hospital by 7am the next morning as they were planning on enducing me. I had next to no sleep as my mind was going a million miles an hour, so online I went & posted messages for my Bellybelly friends to let them know what was happening.
March 1 2007,
We were up bright & early (not hard since I didn't sleep), got organised & made sure we had everything we thought we needed. When we arrived at hospital I was once again taken to a birthing suite, we just hung around in the room & waited for someone to come & see us, Vicki arrived about 8am & we started discussing options for induction & what would happen etc ( I was not looking forward to being induced!). We asked we could go & have another look at Nicu as Jeff hadnt been there yet.
Around 10am the surgeon came in to discuss the option of a C-section, they had been looking iover my records & notes & with the damage to the placenta & the poor cord blood flow it was looking high risk for having a vaginal birth, (the risk to Alexa & of me heamoraging), we discussed the options with the surgeon & then our midwife & we decided that a C-sect was the safest way to go & that Jeff would go up to NICU with Alexa straight away.
Then began the waiting game once again. About 1pm the anethetist came in & we looked at pain relief options, I decided on a spinal block (I have a huge fear of needles at the best of times), she then told me that I would be going in around 2pm.
We went into theatre just after 2pm & boy was there a huge team in there, about 14 people in total, I had my spinal block (which worked quickly!). Jeff watched the whole operation, with the occasional pat on the head for me telling me I was doing well ( Like I could actually do alot anyway! I couldn't feel anything from the chest down!). At 2.34pm our beautiful Alexa Paige was born weighing 1660 grams (3lb 11oz) & boy did her lungs work well (Grandma & Grandad heard her screaming in the hallway!!!). She was taken & checked over by the Paediatrician & Jeff cut the cord (for the second time), She was then shown to me & I gave her a kiss & then they put her in the incubator & took her up to NICU, Jeff went with her while I was put back together!! I stayed in recovery for an hour after the op , while they checked me & my wound, Jeff brought me a photo down of my beautiful wee girl.
When I was allowed out of recovery I was taken up to NICU in me bed to see my wee girl, I couldn't feel my toes for 6 hours!!!, She was so tiny in this big incubator with a IV in her arm & feeding tube down her mouth, but there she was with ten fingers & ten toes & a head of thick hair (More than her daddy!!!) & she looked so cute.
March 4 2007
Well if I wasnt Matron of honour I was sure as hell going to at least BE at the wedding, so we did indeed go & boy was I in pain, (thank god for codine), I had a nice time, but we went back to hospital about 9pm so Jeff could have cuddles with his wee princess.
Alexa was in the incubator for 10 days & then went into a normal cot once she could regulate her own body temperature (fnally she could wear clothes, 00000 were still too big!). On our 1st wedding anniversary Alexa weighed back above her birth weight for the first tim & had her first bath ever, she loved it & still loves the bath!!!.
At 22 days old Alexa finally joined the 2kg club & had a certificate made by one of the NICU Nurses.
The first few days & weeks consisted of me being wheeled up to & then walking to NICU at all hours of the day & night to take my tiny (& I mean tiny!) amounts of expressed colostrum up for Aexa to be fed. She was tube fed for 5 weeks & mostly had a mix of EBM & formula (I never had enough milk for her), I tried drinking horrid herbal liquids & teas to help my milk come in, but to no avail, but it was not ment to be, after 4 weeks of trying to express milk from a stone every 3 hours I decided that I would bite the bullet & stop expressing & get some of my sanity (& sleep) back, Alexa has been on formula ever since & is thriving.
After me living in hospital for 45 days & Jeff running around like a chicken with its head cut off we were finally allowed to take our wee possum home, a week before her due date.
We made an amazing amount of friends during our stay in NICU & without their support I would have had a totally different experience, the staff were totally amazing, & even though this was a bit of a saga we still have out beautiful we girl, she may always be small but she has a huge personality & I would go though this whole story again in a heartbeat.
All my Love always
Mummy
XXX
