New Chapter - Pregnancy & Birthing

I had originally started writing this post up about 2 weeks off from our due date… and then it was saved in our draft and I went into labour about a week later. So this is being posted about 2.5 months after giving birth!

We had so many ideas for this website/blog - but I think we both have some sort of fear with getting started. SO I thought this would be a good as time as any to just start writing things up and maybe slowly making progressions on this while I’m on maternity leave.

A few of my (not-yet-pregnant) friends have been asking for “pregnancy advice” - but from what I’ve discussed with my other friends and family that have been pregnant, we’ve all had vastly different experiences.

The only real advice I can possibly provide would be item recommendations for First Time Mothers (FTM). I did compile a spreadsheet of some items and comments I’ve made alongside it - might be something I’ll actually gradually post up as separate blog posts.

How was my pregnancy experience?

I gotta say…. I don’t think i’ve had a tough pregnancy, nor an easy one. My mum had HG when she was pregnant with me, and I’m not entirely sure if it’s genetic - but I also had a bad case of morning (ahem - all-day) sickness and nausea. Even into my third trimester, I was occassionally “sick”, and would gag every now and then - reasoning I can’t quite pinpoint, but sometimes it’s motion or smell related.

I had no cravings during my pregnancy, or at least nothing left of field from what I would consider as part of my “normal” diet prior to pregnancy. Perhaps the only thing is having more of a sweet tooth than I use to - I particularly have been wanting the Blackstar Watermelon cake, milk tea, and Coca-Cola - things that Leon was not very pleased about LOL.

Labour experience

Oh man, I have to say that after the whole experience I’ve grown so much respect for women and mothers in general. I think I had a particularly dragged-out labour.
I had lost my mucus plug at first, and then started feel contractions that came in every 20 minutes. They weren’t bad, felt like stomach aches that made you feel like you really needed to use the toilet (to put it politely).

Eventually they did start coming in harder and more frequently - and I did make calls to our birthing team, to which they advised to go in so they could do some checks.

Unfortunately these contractions were what they called “early labour / pre-labour” and “fake contractions” - whereby they’re contractions, but does not result in the cervix dialating. So it seemed more like my body was trying to prepare me for what was to come?

The problem is I had these darn “fake contractions” for bloody 3 and a half days. I would feel them while I was sleeping, and they’d go away in the morning after I took a warm shower. I think after the first 1-2 days of feeling this, it left me feeling very confused and questioning “what’s wrong with my body?”, “when is this baby actually going to come?” I would cry from the disappointment, and the guilt I felt as Leon had taken his leave early to care for me. I also felt stressed because my friends kept asking for updates, when nothing was happening and I wasn’t even sure what was going on myself.

In my head I felt like I just needed to wait until my water broke, and then I would know that I was actually “going into labour”. However, the midwives had mentioned to me that your water isn’t always guaranteed to break at the start of labour.

I was so tired and disappointed I kept taking naps during the day to keep my mind off things. At some point, I woke up with some intense cramps, and as I got up out of bed, I felt my water break (quite literally like a water balloon breaking), and the water gushing out.

Leon and I went to the hospital, and I was admitted in for the birth!

Birthing experience

Things started off quite slowly, and honestly I think my mind was in another dimension - I was feeling veeerrry relaxed from the gas, and I had my TENS machine to help alleviate the contraction pains.

I had originally planned for a water birth, and had ordered a TENS machine for “just in-case”, I’m SO glad I did, because it turned out that our little baby had pooped inside me (possibly from being distressed from the 3.5 day pre-labour). Not sure how I would’ve survived the labour without it.

I also had to get a cannula for an antibiotics drip as I was found to have Group Strep B at around 36 weeks pregnant.

I think reading up on the dangers of having merconium + group strep b really added to the stress and concerns that I had for the baby’s wellbeing.

Long story short, the baby ended up being in a sunny-side up position, and I wasn’t able to dialate further than 9cms. Eventually, I had to get wheeled off to the emergency room to get the epidural, and instruments (forceps, and vacuum) were used on the baby to assist her out.

I won’t lie, I think I was a little traumatised from the birthing experience - there was alot that was happening and that could have went wrong. Thankfully both the baby and I were safe.