Hello baby!

After 41 hours of contractions and my water breaking whilst I was being prepped I was wiped out.  Thankfully I had my consultant to make important decisions for me and so the surgery went ahead.

I remember entering the operating theatre and hearing a song from Annie on the radio.  The anaesthetist asked me what was on the radio- I don't think he liked it, but I found it quite comforting as my hubby loves Annie!

Sections are weird experiences.  I was still having contractions and my waters had only just broken so I felt very uncomfortable, but the hospital staff took it all in their stride.  I did ask them to wait until my contraction finished before trying to inject my back. 

After being numbed waist down the anaesthetist ran ice up my abdomen until I could feel the cold.  It was very strange not being able to feel the cold but knowing that the ice was being dragged over my skin.  You can still feel that it's there.

I've heard that sections are like something rooting around in a handbag.  It is a very strange feeling.  I felt a lot of tugs and pushes.  It seemed like seconds between the curtain going up and the screams of my little girl. 

My hubby says that the consultant said "She's already crying and she's not even out yet."  He then realised what he'd said and was disappointed that he didn't get to announce "It's a girl".  Hubby was just disappointed we didn't have a redhead!  Baby was born with a full head of dark brown hair.

Meanwhile I was just waiting to see my little one.  I couldn't turn my head around to see her and my first view was a picture on hubby's phone.  I remember when she was placed in my arms and she stopped crying.  And then we posed for a first family photo!

All in all it wasn't the birth I was expecting.  I suppose I had watched too much One Born Every Minute!  I had a vision in my head of the horror of labour being over and being worth it because my little one would be in my arms.  Instead I have a blurred memory of a week of my life with lots of faces of different nurses, different questionable meals and a few moments of pain plus the strange sensation of not being able to feel my feet. 

Despite always being maternal it took a lot longer for the bonding process to happen than I thought- not helped by the fact that she's so beautiful I can't imagine how she's mine!

It's also surprising how easily you forget what it's like being pregnant.  I really don't feel like I was ever pregnant, but my body tells a different story.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter how it all happened.  I love my daughter with all my heart and would do anything for her- even if she did come out the sunroof.

Induction

After attending an appointment with ostetrics anaesthestist at week 38 of my pregnancy I was found to have high blood pressure (which I had had for months) and protein in my urine.  Both of these can be a sign for preeclampsia.  However, as I had no other symptoms the first step was to confirm if the protein was due to an infection.  As I said early in my blog this was not the case and my baby and I were at risk.

Two days later I had a check up but I did not see my consultant as he was not at the clinic.  The reg I saw simply told me that the results were not back yet.

A week later I attended my GP for a check up of my high blood pressure.  It was still higher than we would have liked despite taking a higher dose of blood pressure tablets.  Protein was once again present and although I mentioned to the GP that a culture had been sent the previous week he didn't call the hospital for results.  At this point I would have hoped more would have been done but it was only after I phoned the hospital for results that the GP made any enquiries and then finally sent me to the hospital.

More tests were carried out and the doctors came to the conclusion that the risk of a premature birth (one week) was outweighed by the risk of preeclampsia and I was admitted for induction.

If someone mentions induction my advice is to say 2 attempts only.  4 painful attempts,  41 hours of what seemed to be unproductive contractions and a lot of gas and air (which is not as fun as they make out) later and my waters broke.  Whilst I was being prepped for a caesarean.  Thankfully surgery went ahead.

Bartter's syndrome

"Bartter's syndrome is caused by a defect in the kidney's ability to reabsorb sodium. Persons with the condition lose too much sodium through the urine. This causes a rise in the level of the hormone aldosterone and makes the kidneys remove too much potassium from the body. This is known as potassium wasting."

Before pregnancy I took 3 tablets a day to manage my condition.  I had to stop taking one of these because it wasn't suitable to take whilst pregnant.  By the end of the pregnancy I was taking almost 30 tablets a day just to be normal.

The main symptoms I had from the condition was tiredness.  Because of this I couldn't tell if I needed to increase my tablets without blood tests because pregnancy also makes you pretty tired (as does having a baby!).  As a result I had to have blood taken every other week to make sure my potassium wasn't dropping.  Between this and all of the hospital visits, because there is little known about the condition and pregnancy,  I was pretty sick of doctors! 

For the most part it was easy enough managed because I am pretty used to taking tablets and having blood drawn for tests.  However, it was quite stressful not knowing what was going to happen- for me and my baby.  No one could say what would happen as the pregnancy progressed, what would happen to me after and they were guessing a lot about my baby.

It seems that the classic form of the syndrome that I have is unlikely to have been inherited by my daughter as my husband does not have the condition and is unlikely to be a carrier as it is such a rare condition.  She also seems to have been absorbing enough potassium from me during pregnancy so there has been no problem that way.

As for after birth my levels shot up as soon as she was born.  And just like the crazy hair and nail growth I've been experiencing after birth my levels do not seem to be dropping just yet even though I've limited my tablets.  I will need to keep an eye on it until I have recovered from the birth completely.

I will also be keeping a close eye on my daughter's health as I have been told so often that I am the expert in my condition.  Any signs of fatigue, muscle weakness, nerve problems or "growing pains" and I will be having her levels checked!!

It's swell!

The worst part of my pregnancy was definitely preeclampsia.

By the end (39 weeks) I was a whale.  I'm not kidding!  My hands, feet, face, legs, arms and tummy were all swelling up.  My darling hubby even dubbed my feet "granny feet".  I only had one pair of shoes that fit by the end as they grew with me!  And those slippers I packed for the hospital were completely useless!

On a serious note it is important to keep control of your own healthcare especially in pregnancy.  Had I not called for results regarding a urine culture I would not have been taken in for induction.  As the culture results had been negative for a UTI the hospital did not contact me.  However, the fact that the protein present was not an infection, and I had a lot of swelling and high blood pressure, was a bad sign and should have sent alarm bells ringing. 

The actual birth weekend (yes, weekend) I'll leave for another post!

Itchy feet

I think that itchy feet was one of the worst parts of my pregnancy.  Worst of all was that no one could say why they were itchy as it wasn't obstetric cholestasis.  Maybe it was my body temperature as cooling my feet down really helped with the itch.

As keeping my feet cool calmed the itch socks were a no-no.  Even in the middle of winter.  I got a few strange looks wearing pumps when it was freezing out!  I often found it necessary to soak my feet in cold water to cool them down.

Every evening I started a ritual of soaking my feet in cold water that had dead sea salt minerals dissolved in it and I infused porridge oats through a tea strainer.  It was anything but a nice relaxing foot soak! 

Now I have lovely baby feet to kiss and tickle.

Good morning!

Morning sickness. Oh how I do not miss you! I was unlucky enough to have 16 weeks of it so I have come across a few methods to cope with it.
1. Do not panic about your baby getting enough nutrients. If you can only stomach mashed potatoes then just eat mashed potatoes. This was my first "craving". I moved onto toasted sandwiches, pickled onion monster munch, gherkins, ice lollies...
2. Eat small and often. Find something that you can stomach and eat it little and often throughout the day. I found eating a little bit of something bland like crackers whenever I felt sick managed to stop, if not delay, actually being sick. Unfortunately, I was subject to a lot of ridicule when my drawer in work was opened to reveal my stock of snacks.
3. Ginger. I never want to eat ginger again but it did help me survive the journey to work. Ginger preserve on toast was the only thing I could face for breakfast that would actually stay down. I once made the mistake of having cereal and I made it to the garden gate before having to run back into the house. 

Thankfully for me I found that morning sickness wasn't like normal sickness- I had a few minutes to get to a bathroom! However, I did find that morning sickness was not confined to the morning but I suppose "all day sickness" doesn't have the same ring to it.

You may find you lose weight at the beginning but don't worry.  Baba is still growing.  In fact my GP told me that being sick is a good sign and she would be more concerned if I wasn't.

A smile makes it all worth while

Welcome to my latest and hopefully better updated blog about my experiences of becoming a mum. It hasn't been the smoothest ride and now that my baby is here and is 8 weeks old I'm still making things up as I go along, relying on books, family and google to get me through! It's all worth it though- even just for one big smile.