Michelle Speaks!

(Note from Tom: M&B are in hospital tonight. M's mastitis has flared up so she needs to be on an IV antibiotic. Not the best thing to happen but not the worst either. Most drastic outcome: B switches to formula from now on - so no drama. Meanwhile, here's the first instalment from M's baby diary that she wrote earlier, and we'll keep adding photos at www.flickr.com/photos/tomgoodfellow).

We mainly want to write this blog so that our memories of Beth’s birth and growing up don’t fade too quickly. She’s 17 days old now and the past two weeks seem to have melded together into one very long day of feeding, settling and sleeping. Tom’s trying to settle her upstairs now while I write this.

So… from the beginning, my pregnancy with Beth was really, really good. No morning sickness, just a bit of tiredness in the first trimester. I felt her first kick at around the 17 week mark of the pregnancy. Started to show around 22 weeks or so and put on about 15 kilos total. I remember the midwife at Hornsby Hospital showing me how to work out where Beth’s head was by feeling for the hard skull at the 32-week check-up. Beth was in transverse position at that appointment – head diagonally down toward the pelvis. After that, I kept feeling her head at the top of my belly. Wasn’t too worried as there was still plenty of time for her to turn but by the 36-week check-up she still hadn’t and we began to prepare for her being a breech baby. One of the hospital consultants, Dr Keogh, told us her bum was engaged in the pelvic area and he didn’t recommend trying to externally turn the baby. We knew this meant she’d be born by caesarean section. The doctors scheduled us for weekly appointments at the hospital to check her position. Three weeks before her due date we were booked in for an elective caesarean on the 16^th June. By this stage Tom and I had emotionally accepted that I wouldn’t go into natural labour and we were only concerned about Beth’s well being. It felt good to have a date and the consultants were really supportive and answered all our questions about her birth by C-section. We were happy that we knew the C-section was planned rather than needing to be an emergency.

The night before Beth was to be born, Tom and I slept really well. We got up at 6am for me to have some brekkie and then went back to bed for a few more hours. We were both feeling pretty relaxed and prepared. We still weren’t fully aware of what to expect. We arrived at the hospital just after 11.30am and checked in to the day unit of the operating theatre wing. A nurse met with us first and got us dressed in the theatre gear. Then we waited till the staff were ready to take us through for prep. Tried to read our books but it all felt quite strange and surreal. We met a lovely anaesthetist nurse, Neville, who was from Manchester. He was brilliant at putting us at ease and did a lovely job of putting in my drip (my least anticipated favourite part). Then the anaesthetist chatted to us and decided on using a spinal blocker for numbing me from the waist down. Tom got to hold my hands as I leaned forward for this to be done. It took a while but didn’t hurt. From then on I could feel my legs gradually starting to numb. After about 10 minutes I couldn’t feel a thing. Now we were ready for Beth to be born. Dr Keogh and the registrar Tanya performed the operation. They talked us through what was happening. Our lovely Beth was born bum first at 2.27pm. Her head was quite big and put up a bit of struggle before being willing to emerge from my womb. She gave a big cry before Vicky, the midwife, took her over to the cot to clean her up and get her warm. Tom got some great photos of Beth being born. Then we were able to touch her and see her up close whilst they started to sew up the wound. She was just beautiful. It was just amazing that she’d been inside me for the previous nine months and now, finally, she was our baby to care for.