Posts tagged pregnancy

Oscar’s Birth Story

3
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

Today Oscar is 5 weeks old and it’s taken me until now to be able to write this as I’ve been thinking long and hard what to say. I could go into graphic detail about blood loss, general anaesthetics, Oscar needing resucitation when he was born etc but I don’t need to because to me that’s not what Oscar’s birth was about.

I could let the trauma of the whole episode haunt me and let it ruin my relationship with Oscar, I could beat myself up for not being able to give birth properly this time etc etc but at the end of the day Oscar is now a healthy little baby who is fast approaching his due date, I’m feeling fit and healthy and we are home and settled so to keep looking back at the birth and going over the gorey details is not going to help either of us.

And so I will share the one moment of 14th Feb which to me is the special moment about Oscar’s birth. Just after I’d been told they were going to deliver and we were going to theatre, we were in the delivery room waiting to go up when a song came on the radio. Me and my husband looked at each other and smiled as we held hands as it’s a very special song to us anyway, the first time I heard it live it gave me goose bumps and we always said if it had been released when we got married we would have chosen it as one of our wedding songs. Instead it came on at the moment I was going off to have Oscar. As we looked at each other right then we had tears in our eyes as we knew it was all going to be ok and we were going to have our baby at last.

And so I share with you the song which to me will always be the part of Oscar’s birth that I will remember with a smile :)

Feeling generous? Give life?

2
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

This post is not sponsored or anything like that, it’s just a reminder of how doing something very little has such huge benefits.

The average human body has 5-6 litres of blood in it. I found out whilst chatting to the nurses here that on Monday alone they estimated I lost 3.5 litres of blood and this doesn’t take into account the bleeds on fri, sat or Sunday. During Monday I was given at least 9 units of blood that I’m aware of. It is probably without doubt that if the same thing had happened before blood transfusions were available then I wouldn’t be here right now.

As I’m not going to be allowed to go and donate some blood back for quite a while I thought I’d put my blog to some good use and appeal to those of you who are in a position to give blood to consider doing it. It really is a small thing that saves lives and I will always be grateful to the mystery donors behind all the blood I received.

You can find out more about how to donate blood at the following website Give blood

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Feel like I’m sitting on a time bomb

3
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

Well after another major bleed, ambulance ride and hospital visit it really feels like I’m sat here listening to the ticks of a time bomb, just waiting for the inevitable now.

For those that missed the latest drama here is a quick recap for you:

Friday, I was tweeting about BH contractions and saying how I hoped they were just that. These died down over night and so we decided to just carry on as normal.

Saturday, I had an awful tummy bug and after a hasty shopping trip to choose tiles for our new bathroom I ended up going back to bed for the rest of the day. I was getting the odd painful BH but nothing that had me overly worried.

Sunday am, about 3am I started getting more regular BH again coming about every 3-4 minutes and suddenly felt a gush again, a sprint to the bathroom revealed another major bleed and so it was another trip to the hospital. This time we really were close to having the baby delivered with an emergency c section but after dosing me up on diamorphone, codeine and what seemed like every other drug going, the contractions died down and the bleed stopped so it was a case of just wait and see. We must have been touch and go as the delivery suite sent for the SCBU staff to come in and have a chat with us about what was going to happen to baby if it was born, at this point I was high as a kite on diamorphine so things were a little bit hazy so it was pretty hard for me take in what they were saying. Daddy was holding trying to hold onto an unsettled Zara so it was pretty hard for him to focus on the seriousness of the situation aswell and any hand holding was out of the window as he had his hands full with Z.

Oh yes, did I mention through all this we had Zara with us, at 3am in the morning we tried ringing our usual emergency babysitters only to find out they were in the Lakes and with the ambulance at the door, the only option we had was for me to go in the ambulance alone and for hubby to sort out Zara (who by this time was crying in her cot) and follow on in the car. When he arrived at the hospital the receptionist kindly told him that “this wasn’t a place for babies and did we not have any family nearby?” well we’d kind of figured that out but what can you do in these situations, so Zara was sat with her daddy whilst we were trying to a) get our heads round whether we were about to have another baby and b) figure out what on earth we could do with Zara. Luckily we found another friend who came to our rescue and came and picked Zara up from the hospital at 5am and took her home, which reminds me I need to order a big bunch of flowers!

Anyway once everything had settled down I was eventually transferred to the ward for monitoring and on Tuesday I was released with a warning that if there is any more bleeding then either a) I’m in hospital until the baby is born (which could be 6 weeks away!) or b) this baby is being delivered! So here I am sitting on a time bomb just waiting to see what happens next. I feel like I daren’t leave the house anymore, daren’t lift Zara up, daren’t do anything and for someone who is normally active I’m finding it very hard to cope with :(

One little bit of good news was that the latest scan shows the placenta now reaches down to the cervix but doesn’t cover it so there is still some small hope that it will move up enough to clear the way for a natural birth and baby is now head down (with it’s head pressing on the cervix) and no longer lying transverse so if everything can stay put for now it may still be possible for that natural birth :) Fingers crossed.

34 week bump photo - hopefully not my last!

Excuse all the creases on my bump, they aren’t stretch marks, just where I’ve been lying in bed :)

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Robe Around Review

0
15 years ago
by dawniebrown in

As you are all no doubt aware I am now 32 weeks pregnant and starting to resemble a weeble. About the one activity I still manage to do and look forward to each week is taking Zara to waterbabies on a Friday.It is something Zara loves doing and I want to keep going as long as we can :)

When I was offered the chance to review a Robe-Around from Sporty Bump I jumped at the opportunity. The Robe-Around is a wrap-around pleated toweling robe which fastens with velcro and has a pleated section at the front which is ideal for covering growing bumps.

Now if anyone has ever experienced a waterbabies class where we go you will have noticed a few things:

1) Classes are full of mums and dads with their children, which is fine but when you are 8 months pregnant you don’t necessarily feel at your most comfortable wobbling around in a skin tight swim suit in front of other people. The Robe-Around is ideal for this as you just pop it on whilst waiting for your class and you get to keep warm and not feel like a beached whale :)

2) The logistics of getting changed afterwards are always a bit of an issue, I like to get Zara dried and dressed first so I can sit her down with a biscuit and drink whilst I can then get changed. This works well but it does mean that I end up standing in a wet swimsuit leaning over the changing tables dripping everywhere whilst trying to get Zara changed and not get her wet again from my swimsuit. The older she gets, the wrigglier she gets and the more difficult this task becomes, combined with me getting bigger, the logistics are becoming pretty impossible. The Robe-Around was an absolute godsend for this, I simply wrapped myself in it and was able to get Zara dry whilst not dripping everywhere, not getting cold and not flaunting my whale like body to everybody else in the room.

I absolutely loved this product and wish I’d found it earlier in my pregnancy but it will certainly make the rest of my waterbabies classes a lot easier to manage. Of course it doesn’t just have its uses for waterbabies classes, it will also be ideal for pregnant ladies who like to go swimming, aquanatal classes, on holiday or even if you go to the gym (well I’m sure some pregnant ladies do somewhere :) ) I imagine it would also come in very useful for those pregnant ladies who are planning a water birth and want a bit of coverage when they are getting in and out of the birthing pool :)

You can buy the Robe-Around for £20 from the Sporty Bump website HERE definitely a must have for any pregnant lady who loves swimming :) Big thumbs up from me for this one :)

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