2010 in Pictures

31 December 2010, 20:14

New Years Eve and Day in Lake Eildon (December/January)

Scout’s “Under the Sea” 4th Birthday Party (January)

Discovering I was pregnant (February)

Trip to Adelaide (February)

Trip to Cairns - 19 weeks pregnant (May)

Sage is born! The Highlight of 2010 (October)

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Fast and Furious

24 October 2010, 10:31

The Labour

I woke at 12.30 a.m for a routine loo stop (the first of many for the night, or so I thought). Felt a weird “pop” but saw nothing peculiar. Went back to bed. A couple of minutes later I had 2 contractions 5 minutes apart then a gush of me waters. I assumed it was me waters as I didn’t have spontaneous breaking of them with Scout - they had to break them manually just as she was ready to come out… Hard to miss though - just ask my sheets.

I wake Husband up - “Me waters just broke. It’s OK though, nothing else is happening, go back to bed.” Husband scoffed at the suggestion and just as well as a few minutes later another contraction hit - very mild, barely even a twinge. I called the hospital to check whether I needed to come in once me waters broke as I was GBS positive. They told me yes, so we checked Scout in at the Hotel Neighbour and prepared to go in.

I honestly didn’t think I was even in labour (can someone scream DENIAL!) as the contractions, whilst fairly frequent and consistent right off the bat were pretty mild. Until the contraction that hit as we were turning into emergency. And the need to push. Surely not, thinks I, me waters only broke less than an hour ago.

In the Birthing Suite, I politely requested my afore-promised epidural. The pain wasn’t unbearable, but the epidural had been the plan given the burst aneurysm I had endured the year before (the need to keep my blood pressure way down during the labour). The midwife confirmed they were aware of the situation and had called the anaesthetist but I knew she was lying her arse off. They’re not very good liars.

Realising the epidural wasn’t coming, I politely requested some pethidine, thanks very much (really, I was very polite, I promise). The midwife asked me if I felt the need to push and I responded with ahem, yes, I do rather, so I had stymied yet another form of pain relief for myself. I asked her how dilated I was and she said “You are fully dilated”...

I had a few more contractions before I remembered that holy mask of relief - gas. So I sucked that down whilst the OB and midwife tried to get me up on the bed as dammit, that baby was ready to come out NOW. NOW? I was asleep less than 2 hours ago, how is she ready to come out now?

10 minutes later, little Sage was born with the help of the ventouse (so I didn’t have to push too much). The labour totalled 2 hours and 7 minutes. If I hadn’t been GBS positive, she could very well have been born in the car.

The Aftermath

They whisked her away almost immediately without putting her on me as they had done with Scout when she was first born. I was still contracting so everything is a bit of a blur so I wondered “Why isn’t she crying?” The paed was working on her across the room, trying to resuscitate her as she had shat her little self as she was coming out and inhaled meconium (oh, and the cord was wrapped around her neck, which could have explained her distress).

It took a couple of minutes for Sage to cry and I almost wept with relief. They popped her on my chest for maybe 30 seconds before they took her away to NICU to get that pesky poo off her lungs. I was assured that she would be OK, but worse case scenario she could be in NICU for up to 2 weeks, depending on how serious the condition was.

V. stressful this news. So suddenly I was left without my baby (Husband went to the NICU with her), having massive afterpains which were more excruciating than the actual contractions with a midwife coming in every 5-10 minutes to crunch my uterus. Happy Days. She took my gas away at first but seeing how much pain I was in, promptly gave it back.

Felt very very empty and couldn’t sleep due to uterus crunching and anxiety about Sage. Happily, her lungs were deemed clear from the mec 5 hours later, so she wasn’t in NICU all that long and I got to take her to the maternity ward 6 hours after she was born.

Babies born with MAS (meconium aspiration syndrome - they really do have a name for everything) generally have an extra hearing test due to possible neurological damage from not being able to breathe on their own at first, but Sage passed her first one with flying colours. By the sound of it, whilst everything seemed dire in the first few minutes after her birth, she had a mild case. Her APGAR was 3 at 1 minute (critical) but improved to 7 (normal) at 5 minutes so these are all good signs that she will be OK in the long-term.

And there certainly seems nothing bloody well wrong with her lungs - this kid has a set on her!

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Welcome to Little Sage!

21 October 2010, 11:41

Little Sage born on 18 October coming in at a whopping 4.12 kilograms. JEEZUS. Happily, she was long, not wide so not too painful coming out. We had a bit of drama at the hospital after the birth (with an intense labour a little over 2 hours) but we both seem to be doing well now. Only in the hospital for 2 nights (very long, long nights…) so am confident we are both in the clear. Full story to follow!

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The Entity

30 September 2010, 10:59

My friend N assured me that her taking a photo of my belly from her bannister would show it off to be the horrendously enormous entity that it is.

She was quite right.

Personally, I prefer a more side-on view. Far more flattering (but no less revealing…) although wall shadow makes my belly look much, much bigger than it is.

No, really, it does.

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Woof Woof

27 September 2010, 11:31

Niggles in Pregnancy #4561: PUPPS! No, I have not discovered I’m giving birth to a German Shepard, although that would certainly account for my current size. PUPPS is the acronym for the very unpronounceable “Pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy” - the long way of saying itchy-as-fuck-weals-on-baby-bump. They are frighteningly angry red Mofos, appearing in my very attractive stretch marks.

I’ve tried a bunch of products to relieve the itch but no love yet. I guess I’m going to have to suck it up for the next few weeks.

Interestingly, around 70% of women who have PUPPS give birth to boys, which backs up my current feel that I’m having a boy (a very recent revelation - unlike with Scout, where I strongly felt I was having a girl from around 20 weeks). Apparently, they’ve done anecdotal studies around it and have found that male DNA often appears in the papules themselves. So either I’m having a boy, or McG is gonna have to stop rubbing up against me (down boy!).

My OB agrees with me about the boy thing as she is the Anti-Guesser by her own admission. At my last checkup she did a quick ultrasound and said “I wonder if it’s another little girl. Which means that it’s probably a boy as I always get it wrong…”

One thing is for sure, I won’t have to wait too long to find out.

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