The Moment Your Life Changes Forever...

We found out we were pregnant on 6th October 2008. I first took a test at 7am… only to be disappointed at not seeing a line. It was one of those very cheap, “pee in a cup and then dip” type tests. I was about to throw it in the bin only to catch the slightest glimpse of very faint pink, so faint I had to squint to see it… confused as to whether this was something to be excited about, I rushed to show Daddysaur to see what he thought but he was none the wiser. Feeling in a tizzy about things I went to my drawer and took out a digital test I had been saving. The word pregnant flashed up after about 2 minutes of sitting with my fingers crossed tighter than ever. No more confusion over very faint, hardly there pink lines… there it was in plain daylight… no mistaking the one word “Pregnant”.

Me pregnancy went very smoothly apart from a couple of very small bleeds. I didn't even have any sickness!

I went to hospital midday on the 5th June 2008 (after having a disturbed night and a trip to the Maternity Hospital).

First of all I was examined and immediately marked on the chart as being in labour and at 2cm dilated. I had a lovely midwife come in, check all my stats, inform me of my choices of pain relief and she then told me that she was ready to break my waters. WHAT A WEIRD FEELING! It felt like I had wet myself.

I went for as long as I could without pain relief. My contractions were very bad and every 2 minutes. I was moved to one of the delivery rooms and a student midwife introduced herself. She was lovely and made me feel so relaxed. I requested an epidural.

Once the epidural started to take effect I felt fantastic. It was so weird having the strong pressure of the contractions but not the pain I had been feeling the night before and all morning.

At 8.00pm I was ready to push and things all happened very quickly. Before I knew it there were 5 people around the bed and I can't remember why. There was the student midwife, a couple of normal midwives, Daddysaur and a student Dr. (who I might add was a bit strange. He was there a while earlier and for a training Dr. he was very easily embarrassed. He blushed every time I was being examined!).

Pushing was hell! I won’t lie. I was so scared. More than I have ever been in my life, but time passed so fast. The main midwife was yelling at me like she was the commentator at a horse race… “aaaand we see the head, we see the head, just one more push and we will have a baby… come on come on one more push”. Bizarre. I went into shock during the pushing because I really believed at one point I couldn’t do it and I hyperventilated. I don’t remember much more after that. The Dr. was then called for and before I knew it the end was off the bed and I was in the stirrup things instead. The baby’s heartbeat was dropping rather fast and they were worried about him so the Dr. told me she would have to use suction on him. The suction didn’t work so she had to use forceps and also episiotomy. I got very dizzy at this point and with one great big pull from the Dr and a lot of blood, there was my baby on my tummy.

Olliesaur was born at 8.49pm weighing 8lbs 1oz after 10 hours of established labour.

Olliesaur and I spent the first night apart. I can’t remember why but I think I must have looked distressed and exhausted. It really made me miss him and I think this probably helped with us bonding given that labour was a bit traumatic… I missed him and had to pull out my camera to see photos I had taken a while earlier. He was brought back in his little crib at about 5am. I felt so much love the minute I saw him and the love has only increased each day.

Olliesaur is now a 16 month old, walking, talking, SHOUTING, cuddling darling boy who makes me laugh all the time. It is truly amazing how fast the time goes!!

I'm about to do it all again. I am currently 6 weeks and 4 days pregnant. We always said we would like a 2 year age gap between our children so you can't get more precise than being due a baby 5 days after your first born's 2nd birthday!

I am looking forward to sharing everything with you about my stay-at-home, work-at-home (I do blog design, invites and announcements) life with my energetic toddler and the growing baby in my tum.