I remember dreaming about starting maternity leave while I was at work – enjoying those days at home, not getting up at ridiculous hours and not putting up with Melbourne’s public transport system. Looking back now, I honestly don’t know what I was thinking! Had I forgotten about that little being that I was responsible for looking after? The one that wakes me up, even earlier than I was getting up to go to work?
I had meant to start a record of my pregnancy – of how I was feeling, how I’d grown, and, before I knew it, bubs has now been here for 7 weeks! This is hopefully how I’ll keep a record of bubs development, of life in general, and how I will have spent my year away from work.
Firstly some background.
I managed to convince Hubby that this was the year (2014) to start trying for a family. I thought it’d take a fairly long time, but boy, was I wrong! Having finally timed the start date to coincide with my obstetrics cover, I fell pregnant that very first month of trying. Looking back at the journey, that first trimester, seemed to take forever until we were able to tell people! I even convinced myself that I could see my stomach getting huge! Comparing my first and third trimester photos, I can honestly laugh now.
I was relatively lucky throughout my whole pregnancy – I had a tiny bit of queasiness around lunchtime and again around 4:30 pm for the first trimester. It annoyed the hubby that he was most definitely not allowed near my boobs – even crossing my arms used to hurt! The second trimester passed by so fast – loved being able to see bubs at the regular ultrasounds, and we even found out that our little jellybean had boy bits! This all coincided with the husband and I being extremely busy flying around the country filming Ice Hockey.
The third trimester started to slow down once again. I hated the 5-point turn that was required to roll over in bed.I finished up at work at 35 weeks & 3 days It wasn’t until week 36 that I had to start getting up at night thanks to bubs sitting on my bladder! Unfortunately, I had started to swell towards the end of my pregnancy. By week 37, my blood pressure started to rise slightly, my swelling was getting worse, and my platelets were starting to drop. My lovely obstetrician decided to send me to the hospital for fetal monitoring. Little did I know, that all my plans were about to be upended.
I had an appointment with my OB on Wednesday morning and had plans to venture into Costco with my mother in law after the appointment. Once my Ob saw the changes, he rang the hospital and I went down for monitoring and blood tests instead. Everything seemed fine, and they asked me to return the following day to compare the tests. Thursday morning I traveled down to the hospital for blood tests, popped in to get coffee on the way home, and once home, i started prepping my bags so that, in the event of an emergency, all the things I needed would be in the one place. My pillow and hairbrush were put on the kitchen table. I still to this day, do not know why I thought to do this – i still had nearly 3 weeks of pregnancy left! I headed back down to the hospital for monitoring that afternoon. Hubby was busy at work, and said he’d meet me there. The waiting room was packed, and as i wasn’t considered an emergency, my spot kept getting pushed further and further back. After an hour or so of waiting, the hubby finally joined me. I went for a trip to the toilet, and noticed a pink tinge when i was wiping. I was a little scared as to what that meant and thought I’d ask the midwife while i was there. I also started to have a slight backache, but put that down to sitting for a few hours on a bench with no back support. Finally, close to 3:30 we got in for monitoring. The room we were put in was for day stay and had another pregnant lady already there, I remember looking at Hubby and wondering if that was what labour would be like – she was obviously in pain, writhing and breathing heavy. I rolled my eyes at him when I overheard the midwife tell her that she was only 3 cm dilated, and that the best thing for her would be to walk the hallways to get labour to progress.
Our monitoring passed by uneventfully – the midwife didn’t say anything when I asked about the pink tinge, and the hubby headed home towards the end as he needed to race home and pack equipment before heading to the baseball. I left the hospital and drove home. I remember changing the clock to daylight savings from 3:34 to 4:34. After saying goodbye to the hubby, I came inside and messaged my mother in law at 4:39. I mentioned to her that something felt different. I decided to ring her instead of writing backwards and forwards. She told me that the pink tinge could have been a show. She then mentioned to call the hospital and let them know what had happened once again. I rang the midwives at 5:04, and they informed me that it could be the start of pre-labour, and to ring them once contractions reach 2-3 minutes apart. The MIL rang hubby and told him to head home. By 5:10 the contractions had started, only at that time I wasn’t convinced that they were contractions! My timer had contractions at 5:11, 5:14, 5:17, 5:18, 5:20. I was convinced that I was doing it wrong. I also started thinking that if these pains are really Braxton hicks, that there was no way I would be able to survive labour! I was pacing around the kitchen and my poor dog was so confused. I was on the phone to the hubby when he said to ring the hospital – I had to hang up on him as I couldn’t get my mobile to work. He arrived home, in record time considering it was peak hour, and i had to pass the phone over to him during mid contraction. Hubby ran around the house getting my bags in the car, packing towels in case my waters broke and trying to rub my back, just like we were taught in antenatal class! As we were driving to the hospital (thankfully only 8 minutes down the road) my waters decided to break! Hubby dropped me at the maternity entrance while he parked the car. My waters broke once more at the receptionists window! No body seemed to be in any hurry, and as I started talking about needing to push, that was when they decided to escort me down to the delivery suites.
Once the midwives madly attempted to get a room ready (was a very busy night for births apparently) I jumped up on the bed as fast as I could, and everything happened very fast from then! I remember the midwife checking how far dilated I was, only to be told that bubs was right there. A few pushes later, my little boy arrived. He even managed to beat my medical records arriving! He was born at 6:37 pm on 20th November 2014, weighing 2.9 kg and 49 cm long.
I had immediate skin on skin contact, dad was allowed to cut the cord and we had our first feed – all the while I was in disbelief that our little man had arrived both early, and so fast! We weren’t quite prepared on names for our little guy, but only one had been on the maybe list for the both of us – Jack.
Welcome to the world little man!
