Getting Maxi - Part Two the birth

I hope you are sitting comfortably, I just want to preface this with a little word about the fact that yes, getting Maxi was a long hard journey, but it was pretty joyous too.  We got a wonderful son at the end of this all and it was so worth it in every sense and way.  So although it may all seem traumatic wrote down like this, it was a blessed time for us all.  I also wanted to say that all children are precious and Maxi is no more or less precious for the heartache it took to get him and also he has no idea what we went though and nor will he.

Right where were we?

I had been given the OK to be induced at 38 weeks after 10 days in hospital.  So Sunday I was given a suppository, which didn't do anything and I was then given a further 2 suppositories which failed to get me to progress beyond 3cm.  Monday came and went, as did most of Tuesday.

At this point the Consultant and the Midwife decided that they would break my waters and pop a monitor on Maxi's scalp.

Up until this point I was coping with the TENS machine and pethidine, although I hated the feeling it gave me, in fact I think that is why Monday and Tuesday passed me by.  I couldn't have gas and air as it was making me sicker.

So I asked, well I begged for an epidural and thankfully in less than 10 minutes I was given an epidural and it was fantastic, I went for a pain score of 8 to one of 3, which would have been zero apart from there was a spot on my right side that just refused to numb.  It was very early Wednesday morning by this point and my mum had gone back to our house.  MadDad had been with be for over 80 hours solid.

I seemed to be progressing quite well with the epidural and the drip getting to 8cms, when all of a sudden everything changed.  I had a bleed and I also had decelerations in Maxi's heartbeat which didn't recover.  This was 11.50am and by 12noon Maxi had been born by Crash section.

This was a very surreal experience and everything seemed to happen in super fast speed with MadDad running behind me putting on scrubs.  All the theatres were full so I used an emergency one which is actually at the end of a corridor on the delivery suite.

I was given more local anesthetic and warned that I would possibly feel some thing sue to the area which refused to numb.  We were also told that they didn't want to put me under a general anesthetic due to the vomiting and if I did have to have it that I would wake up with a tube down my throat.

It all happened oh so fast and within 5 minutes Maxi was born with an apgar of 10 and weighing 7lb 2 oz.  I have never cried so much in my life, tears that he was fine, then things get a little hazy.

MadDad filled me in on the details after, as I was still losing blood, he said it looked as though I was in a slaughter house behind the curtain, blood everywhere, so much so that they dropped my placenta!

They sorted me out, stitched me up, offered me a blood transfusion, which I declined and then took me to a private room and that is the last thing I remember for a full 24 hours!

My body was battered and bruised and my blood levels were all over the place.  The consultant had come in and they had started me on some medication to stabilise me and MadDad took over looking after Maxi, I woke up to see him sat on the seat next to me giving him a bottle and telling him how wonderful he was, it was a scene that melted my heart.

3 days post section we were allowed home.

Getting Maxi - Part One The Journey

MadDad and I had been married nearly 10 years before Maxi came along and how he came to be is a story in itself.  He will be 5 on 16 March 2008 and I want to tell you all a little more.

I used to suffer with painful periods from being quite young and had undergone laparoscopy before I was even 16 and diagnosed wit Endometriosis, so I always knew that falling pregnant might be harder for me.  With this in mind MadDad and I never really used contraception once we were married.

3 years in to our marriage I fell pregnant, I had terrible morning sickness and was told that this could be a sign of twins and when we had the first scan we were overjoyed at the news that I was carrying twins.  We didn't tell anyone in the family yet though, we wanted to do it in person and as we lived in Berkshire and they all lived in North Yorkshire, we needed to plan a weekend to visit.

I was still suffering with serve morning sickness and so it was decided that I needed to go into hospital to be re hydrated and put on a drip.  An additional scan was also ordered as my blood tests were not as they should be.  Unfortunately the scan showed that the baby's no longer had a heartbeat. MadDad and I were beside ourselves. MadDad had the really hard phone call to tell my parents that I had been expecting twins and now I wasn't an was seriously ill in hospital. I had to undergo emergency surgery due to issues with my liver and woke to fin MadDad and my parents by my side.

I fell pregnant again shortly after losing the twins and this time was even sicker than the last time, but we put this down to the fact that is might possibly be twins again.  I was in and out of hospital being re hydrated for the first 6 weeks of the pregnancy and then I had a scan.  Well the sonographer went deathly pale and stuttered that she needed to get a colleague.  Me an MadDad knew that something must be terribly wrong.

Th sonographer returned with her colleague and they went on to explain that the pregnancy was not viable and that the consultant would meet me back at the ward and explain why.  Good to her word she was sat on my bed and explained t MadDad and I that I had hydatidiform mole, also know as a molar pregnancy and again I need to be operated on to remove the "product".  She also went on to explain that I would have to have monthly blood and urine tests for up to 2 years to ensure that the product was not growing anywhere else within my body.

Again MadDad made the calls and I woke to find my parents at my bedside, but his time I felt terrible.  I was still vomiting and generally felt very under the weather.  I finally went home and had to have the full two years of testing as my levels did not stabilise early enough.

By this time MadDad and I resigned ourselves to remaining a couple, nine years had passed since our marriage and we decided to move to a new house.  We got a rather large mortgage and concentrated on our careers and on having fun.

One day I started to feel really sick, in fact I couldn't stop vomiting.  This went on for a week and in the end I made an appointment with my GP, who prescribed me some anti-nausea tablets, but also insisted I do a pregnancy test before taking them.  Well you could have knocked me an MadDad down with a feather when we realised I was actually pregnant, especially as I hadn't had any periods for 6 months due to the Endometriosis.

Due to my past history I was offered an early scan, which we took up and I found out I was 14 weeks pregnant.  We were overjoyed, but the sickness didn't stop.  It kept getting worse and it seemed as though I was permanently in the hospital.  In the end the consultant suggested that MadDad give me anti-emetic injections 3 times a day.  So he did.  it didn't stop the sickness, but it reduced it to a manageable 3 or 4 times a day.

But I then started to get serve pains in my tummy, which we put down to indigestion, soon the pain was so serve I was fainting from it and then I got a yellow tinge.  It was discovered that I was having issues with my gall bladder and I needed to have it removed for my safety and the safety of my unborn child.

It was at this point that we decided to tell my family and colleagues at work and at 20 weeks pregnant I was operated on and my gall bladder removed.  It really did ease the pain, but unfortunately it didn't stop the sickness.

I managed to keep maxi safe inside until I was 36 weeks pregnant when all my bloods went very squiffy, so it was decided that I was to be admitted to the hospital.  I was supposed to go on to an antenatal ward, but it was very quickly decided that I would be on the delivery ward, where I had round the clock care. MadDad and I were allocated a suit with a double bed and my mum came to Berkshire to stay and for the next two weeks, I walked round and round the delivery suite and had very little sleep, lots of vomit and tears and loads of hugs fro MadDad and my mum.

I was also given steroids to ensure Maxi's lungs would be OK and it was decided that I was to be induced at 38 weeks,  I have never been so excited to get the go ahead for the induction....

More to follow

Pregnancy Lows

A mothers secrets has asked for any experiences on pregnancy lows this month.  I have never posted about my pregnancies with the boys so thought I would participate.  Just a disclaimer before you read on, it doesnt seem all that bad or dramatic now.

What can I say about being pregnant, it was a hard road for us to get MaxiMad and MiniMad, Maxi particularly. I had suffered numerous miscarriages, including twins at 20 weeks and a molar pregnancy, which meant that I had to have blood tests monthly for two years. So MadDad and I put being and getting pregnant out of our minds and enjoyed our life as a couple visiting lots of lovely places, working hard and loving lots. We decided that after 9 years of marriage that we would move house and so committed ourselves to a whopper of a mortgage and bought our dream home in Berkshire. Well you know what they say new home, new baby, well in our case it seemed to prove right.

I started to be very very sick and thought I must have a vomiting bug, so went off to the GP, she insisted on a pregnancy test before prescribing me anything and lo and behold I was pregnant. To say we were shocked was an understatement. But at least I left the doctors knowing that the sickness was just morning sickness.

The thing was the morning sickness was really all day and night sickness and I became very dehydrated and unable to keep any fluids or food in and was diagnosed as having hyperemesis and admitted into hospital for IV fluids. This pattern of sickness and hospitalisation went on for 4 weeks before the doctors found an ant sickness drug that afforded me some relief, well it meant that I was only sick about 5 times a day instead of the constant vomiting. The only thing was for it to be effective for me I needed to have it injected 3 times a day into my bum. So my wonderful husband offered to do this for me so that I could come home. So home we came and we also tried every alternative therapy know to man to stop the nausea I was constantly suffering.

So we continued through things as best we could, no one at work knew I was pregnant, they must of thought I was seriously ill as instead of putting on weight I was losing it, but my boss was very supportive and understanding. I got to 20 weeks and then all of a sudden I turned yellow, not pale yellow, but a really vivid yellow. I also started suffering intense pain on my right hand side, which we put down to all the vomiting. Anyway to cut a long story short I had an issue with my gall blander and liver and a consultant obstetrician and surgeon decided that I needed to have an operation to ensure both my safety and that of the baby we were carrying. So after many tearful nights, I underwent surgery under a general anaesthetic to remove my diseased gall bladder and check out my liver. I was so scared, I was sure something bad would happen, but it didn’t and as soon as I came round from the GA I had a scan to show that the baby (who we found out was a boy that day) was fine.

Anyway I continued through the rest of my pregnancy with a permanent sick bag and vomiting became a normal part of everyday life. My colleagues at work were great about it and we even moved 600 people into a new office when I was 37 weeks pregnant.

I was booked in to see the obstetrician for one of my regular visit and scans on that Monday, I was 37 weeks pregnant and vomiting more frequently again, so the decision was to bring me into the day unit and do some readings, bloods and monitoring. I never managed to get out of the hospital. I spent 5 days on the labour ward in the birthing suite at the Royal Berkshire hospital on a drip waiting to be induced and it was a really good job I was there, as I have a placenta abruption and MaxiMad was born at 12 noon on 16 March 2005 by a crash c-section. Thankfully the staff re-acted super fast and both MaxiMad and I were fine, well as fine as you can be after a pregnancy like I had.

I was unable to breast feed, as I needed to be put on medication for the vomiting and liver function issues, but I had the most wonderful, perfect boy, who we names after my deceased father.

And when I got home I was overjoyed to find out that MadDad had managed to paint the nursery, put up the hesitantly bought cotbed and buy the pram we had looked at, all this whilst spending nearly every waking hour at the hospital with me.

I was left thinking I would never, ever have another baby and that MaxiMad was to be an only child. But fate stepped in and I started to feel dizzy and sick, but put it down to the stresses and sleepless nights of having a new baby, but no you guessed it I was pregnant again. I suffered with the sickness again all through my second pregnancy and had thrice daily injections in my bum, but I got through it and MiniMad was born by c section at 37 weeks on 24 June 2006.

I have been blessed with two wonderful children, who have no idea how hard having them was and who I have no intention of telling them this story until they are a lot older. They are a joy and bring so much light to our lives. Yes my pregnancies were horrendous, but we managed. I might have said some things I wouldn’t repeat about being pregnant, but I did it and they are here.