I was just reading over my birth story for Jack, and getting a little teary, thinking that I really need to get my act together and write Alexis’s story down, before I conveniently forget what had happened. I will clarify that my story will most likely be completely different to hubby’s.
At times during this pregnancy, time would fly, and then completely crawl. How is that possible? After accidentally finding out that we were going to welcome a little girl into our family, I asked at every scan if that was indeed true! I was convinced that the blood test had got it wrong, and every scan until 34 weeks. This pregnancy, was different to when I carried Jack. Although not physically ill, I was a lot more queasy and the mere mention of food made my stomach flip during that first trimester.
We had to have a few more scans with Alexis – the placenta was a little too close and had to be made sure it moved up before delivery (placenta previa). Then at 32 weeks they discovered that she was measuring quite large (98th percentile). Further growth scans at 34 weeks and 36 weeks indicated that she was still growing quite large (97th and 95th percentile). Thus our obstetrician raised the idea of having an induction. We booked in Sunday night 6th Jan, however, we were then told that that night was fully booked. So we booked in the previous night, Saturday 5th January to start the induction process. Hubby had an extremely busy week ahead, as he had work at the Kooyong Classic.
Saturday arrived, and we fare-welled Jack, knowing that I may not see him for a few days. In the lead up to all of this, Jack was diagnosed with a case of chickenpox, despite being immunised. Thankfully it was extremely mild, and only affected one arm. However, we were told to minimise the contact between Jack and the baby, until all the scabs had healed. Hubby and I rocked up to the hospital in the late afternoon, and we were eventually taken through to a delivery suite. I was checked for dilation, and administered a dosage of gel at 630pm. In the meantime, we kept ourselves busy and attempted to rest up overnight. James had enough of the fold out lounge, and left to go home after 1am. The nurse came in to check the dilation again, at 230am. She attempted to break my water, and then decided to administer another dosage of gel.
James arrived back at the hospital, around 8ish, and bought a coffee for me. The nurse came in around 930am and broke my waters. She left me for an hour to see if labour would start by itself. Around 10:30 she came back in to start prepping for the drip to start contractions. I was experiencing small contractions, but could not see anything on the monitor. She left the room, to grab all the bits and pieces, and within that time, I had started pacing, and feeling like I needed to use the bathroom.
The time between that, and baby’s arrival, is now a blur, but with lots of noise and possibly swear words. James told me I was making up swear words, I choose not to believe him. He was doing a great job, making sure my water bottle was full of water, and icy cold water at that. I clung to the bathroom door, as it had a nice cold frame, When they asked me to hop on the bed to check how far dilated I was, that was when they suggested that I start to use the gas. I’m still not sure if the gas actually helped, but it was nice to be able to bite down on the plastic to ride through the contractions.
Bubs arrived around 12:47pm, with the help of forceps. She was looking the wrong way and needed assistance to turn to get down the last little bit. This ‘help’ left me a little bit sore and sorry for a few weeks after. The doctor wanted to get her out as fast as possible as her heart rate was dipping, which I think they said was caused by the cord being wrapped around her stomach. Unfortunately for me, I lost a bit of blood along the way, which meant that when I went to sit up, my whole world was spinning and I felt like I was going to pass out. Eventually, with a blood transfusion, I felt a lot better and was able to get out of bed on Tuesday. We headed home on Tuesday night, This was the first time that both Jack and my mother in law, got to meet little Alexis.
We were still deciding on names, after Alexis had arrived. I think we had narrowed the names down to 3 the night before. I had always wanted to use Margaret as her middle name since finding out bubs was a little girl. Margaret was my mum’s name, and also my mother in laws middle name.
Alexis Margaret Morgan
6 Jan 2019
3.69kgs
56cm long
34cm head circumference
