33 Weeks 14/03/2008

Can hardly believe that I only have 4-7 weeks to my due date! Am getting more nervous and excited as the time is going on! Had a dream at the beginning of the week that I was in Labour and the birth was completely painless! I also looked at the baby and thought how Izzy was so much more beautiful than the 4d pictures! Think it was wishful thinking myself! Feeling like I am getting bigger and bigger, but when I had a pic taken of me from behined, I was quite surprised that I dnt look pregnant at all! Tomorrow I am going to pop into Romford and buy my going home outfit and some other items for my Hospital Bag! That will be it then, it will be packed from this weekend! Me and Mike are going to sort out the newly decorated nursey too, and then move in. I am so looking forward to putting the crib and the moses basket up and seeing all the bedding! Everywhere I look there is housework, and I am going to buy some cleaning products so I can have a proper go at getting the house sorted! Mum has her operation on Monday, this time they have confirmed that it hasn't been cancelled, and I also have the midwives appointment at 33 weeks instead of 34, due to Bank Holiday Monday! Izzy moved yesturday, and the movement was so strong, it felt like she was tring to 'stretch' herself out of me! She still feels obique too, so doubt she would of moved out of that position by Monday. Heartburn is nearly everyday too, and the Gaviscon Advance is steadily going down! Bad winds this week, and thats not just the weather in Essex if you know what I mean! Surpised Mike hasn't been 'blown away!' And am STARVING all the time! Anyways, until next week, Gems and Izzy Bump xx

34 Weeks 21/03/2008

Me and Mike finally finished the nursey on Sunday. It was exhausting for me, as I just didn't stop! I paid for it the next day though! Bedroom still smells of paint, I just hope that it dnt smell when Izzy arrives!
The crib and the moses are up! They look great! I had a whale of a time putting her little toys out!
On Monday I went to the midwives for my 33+3 week appt, and believe it or not, Izzy is in the 'head down' position, waiting to come out! Her heartbeat was fine, its just my blood pressure that has gone up sadly. Apparently I did need another blood test, thats what a group and save is, to see what your blood type is, (even though they have my blood type). I just think they didn't label up my sample properly and I had to have one again. I was going to wait at Fanshawe, but it was so busy due to the fact that there had been a flood inside the week before, I think due to someone leaving the tap on like an idiot!
I then walked to Mums as she was due to have her operation that day. Thankfully, third time lucky, her operation went ahead, and I left her at the hospital at just gone 1pm. I then had my blood test at Queens, only to be told that fanshawe had filled in the wrong form! I had to ponse around the hospital, only to be helped by a expectant father who's girlfriend was in labour, to show me where to go to get a new form to be filled in! Anyway, all done now!
I went to see a friend that lives quite local, Evie, on Wednesday. That will be the last time that I see her before the birth, and it brings it home that its not long at all before Izzy will be here! I must admit that I am quite nervous still! Evie gave us another gym for Izzy, so she has two now! Will defo treat her after the birth! Her Daughter Georgia is beautiful and is crawling everywhere now, you just cannot keep her in one place! They grow so quickly!
Ordered the last of the baby stuff today, and also ordered a bellie cast and some footprint wipes for Izzy's journal! I also want to have a footprint tattoo of Izzy's little feet!
Also, ordered some disney princess stuff, like a Disney Princess lampshade, rug(disney princess), more room stickers (disney princess of course!), a name plaque (disney princess) and a room tidy(again,disney princess!). We bought a new camera, as our other digital one has gone up the wall, a playpen, a bath, and a think pink baby bouncer. Now I just have to wait for it all to arrive.
Have to order some bits from Argos this week, as we need some fire alarms and baby gates!...there is light at the end of the tunnel that we will get everything done after all!
Me and Mike are off to His Mums tomorrow to wish her a nice easter, and then we are going to my Mums on Easter Sunday!

Little update! Went to Mikes Mums and stayed for a while, got a lift back home from one of my Brother-in Laws friends and his Son, (who was very attached to me actually, he is only 5 and a half!). He wants to help us with Troy and his dislike to Doggies! Troy barked at Sean, but did take some meat out of his hand. It's sad because people don't get to see his soft and soppy side!
Someone said that I didn't look any bigger than when she saw me last time, and that was at the end of January, and someone said that it looks like i'm all baby and not much else by the looks of it, and that upset me a little. I don't think people realise the effect that they have on you when they say comments about you when you are pregnant! It would be nice to have a positive comment, like 'you look great' would be nice!

Anyway, until next week,

Gems xoxo

28/03/2008- 35 Weeks

I keep on getting dreams that baby Izzy's hand/fist is coming out of my tummy and I can see it, kinda like Alien! My dreams are certainly becoming more vivid!

I have also cleaned the house from top to toe again, (cleaning the fridge for the 2nd time this year!) and Mike now thinks that I am a clean freak! I am always finding dirt in places that I didn't even know existed and cannot just sit down. Every chore that I finish I cross it off the list, and then find something else that needs to be cleaned! I have 'cilit banged' stuff too, and it's great!Hope that I have the time to maintain it when the baby is born........!

I am getting fed up with waking up to go to the loo, and not being able to fall asleep again! My bellie feels like I have been beaten up from the inside when I wake up in the morning, and I am having to take a nap mid day to try and refresh myself! Though i'd better no get too used to it as i'm sure that Izzy wnt let me have an afternoon cat nap when she arrives!

Have spent all week waiting for deliveries and feel like im going mad in the house as haven't been out all week. Most of it has arrived, but am still waiting for the playpen and the fisher price bath. I know if I go out and take a walk it will be sods law and it will arrive! Have put up the Disney princess items that arrived, including the stickers and the lampshade, and it looks much more Girlie now! Strange, but when you become/are becoming a Mummy, you want to buy your baby and give your baby everything. I know there is nothing worse than a spoilt Child, but I guess I just want to give her all the things I would of wanted.

Have the breathing/relaxation classes starting at King georges Hospital next week. Mike is coming with me too, that should be interesting!

Anyway, until next week,

Gems xoxo

36 weeks and 4 days,-Admitted to Hospital with Pre-Ecampsia

08th April 2008

Our Baby is Born

25th April 2008, Isabella Juliet Jenna is 14 days old!

I know that most of you know that I have been in Hospital, but then came back home. Well, the first blood pressure check that I had on the Monday after I was discharged was ok, as was my protein in my waters which went down to plus 1. Well, when I went back on the Wednesday the protein went upto plus 2 and I had a high blood pressure again. I was sadly admitted back into Hospital at Queens-romford, and had to undergo further blood tests and monitoring on the CTG machine. They also tried to change my medication and that didn't work to control my blood pressure at all. I was virtually sick and tired by the end of it! I was also put into a shared ward too with four other people, and what with the burping patients, the snoring patients and the ones that are in early labour right next to you, I could never get any rest!
On the Thursday they decided in the evening that my blood pressure was getting too bad and that I would be induced. My protein was also upto +3.At 10pm I was told to call Mike and get him down so that he could be with me. I was examined, which weren't too comfy, and apparently (I didn't find out until the next day) I weren't favourable for induction.They took me down to the labour ward but there was no beds, but Mike came down, only to be sent home again by a miserable midwife. I had the hump so badly! I started to feel that they were mucking me around and that I wouldn't be induced after all.They gave me a tablet, that I just took, that I later found out was tamazipan for sleeping. The next day I was sent down to the Labour Ward at 7 am and put into my own room. I had a nice shower, as I thought that I wouldn't know how long it would take to have one. I overheard a nurse asking me to be sent back AGAIN to the observation ward as someone arrived that needed to give birth, and I ONLY had high blood pressure! They put a drip in, which didn't hurt but bled alot (and I hate blood!)Mike arrived and then I was examined and apparently I was 1 and a half cms dilated just by having an examination the night before! So, I must have been ready to give birth anyway. They had to induce me with a pessary, and I was told that it could of taken 24 hours to work!Mum arrived at about 12pm, as she said that she couldn't keep away, and that was a surprise! I was still 1 and a half cms dilated by 4pm,even though I was having very strong contractions, but by 7pm I was 7cms and by just gone 9pm, fully dilated! ONE THING,- no one tells you how painful it is to be examined when you are contracting!
I was given an epidural sometime in the evening, but was using Gas and Air before, which I think is useless and only helps to let you concentrate on your breathing,I didn't want to have pethidine cos it affects the baby, but Mum was getting impatient and kept on saying, 'that epidural anaesthetist is taking his time aint he!?', but apprently I was number 3 in the queue! When he put the epidural in it didn't hurt at all, but it had to be topped up to level 2 pain relief as it wasn't helping! The dosage that he gave me allowed me to move and feel my legs though!
Mike was great, offering me anything from water to a wet face cloth, I just felt spaced out and distanced from it all, some of it is a blur!
There were various medical professionals in and out, I think worried that my blood pressure was going so high that they may of had to rush me in for an emergency c-section. Now, looking back, even though it would of been very painful, I wish that they would of done it, cos my body went through some during the labour! My bottom bp went upto over 150, I had to have a syntocinon drip to help make my contractions stronger towards the end as they seem to of weakened, and also other various drips, including magnesium sulphate to stop me from fitting. I wasn't very aware of how serious the situation was, thank goodness, until after.
One of the Doctors that re-admitted me on the Wednesday came in to see me, and they decided to get the baby out asap and did a ventouse. Apparently, I just weren't pushing in the right direction, but as I couldn't feel a thing it wasn't very easy!As soon as they put the ventouse on, she was literally out. Her little head swollen from the suction cup. She was perfect in every way, and an over-whelming feeling of emotions came over me. I started crying, of course, Mum cried, and Mike said that if he did I would never know,.......
Isabella Juliet-Jenna was born at 11.05pm on 11/04/2008 weighing 5lbs and 10oz!
Mum and Mike left in the early hours of the morning, about 1am, and I was left waiting for the Woman that was going to give me a bed bath,....
She was horrible,announcing 'I am here to give you a bed bath' as soon as she came in. Rough, and demanding me to move in this and that direction, she really was not made to work in a caring profession! She pushed me up the bed roughly when I said that I couldn't move. And when I asked her to put my stockings on she said that 'someone would so it in the morning',....great, thanks for the DVT the NHS. She weren't a midwife, she was a healthcare worker, but I complained about her that night, I just had to! They said it was a disciplinary!
I didn't get much sleep and Izzy weren't taking much of her feed in. Already, Nurses were taking over from feeding her and I hated it! Being bed-bound is not good. I was transfered to the 'high dependancy' unit the following moring and was put on a whole day of a magnesium sulphate drip,to stop me from fitting again, which stung and hurt like hell! I also was given fluids through a drip. I looked and felt like crap that morning, but steadily felt better through the day, and my blood pressure was getting better too. I had a catheter in, which was grose, talk about losing your dignity, and 2 drips, so looking after the bubs was quite hard as i couldn't get out of bed. Later, the Nurses reported in my notes that I was being 'highly vigilent'. Well, no shit sherlock, I mean, ive just gone through the labour from hell, now I cannot look after my baby, I think it would be natural,-arseholes!
Mike came down at 10am and changed a few of Izzy's meconium nappies! It was really strange, cos he really took to being a Daddy-just like that. I developed an alergic rash to some of the bed pads they had that day, and that hurt like hell! When the epidural wore off I felt a bad pain in my back and bum,-i think where I was pushing in the wrong direction! I made myself get up and walk a bit though!
I was transfered to the postnatal ward in the evening,-Izzy screaming the place down to let everyone know that we were there! i woke up the 2 patients and babies already there and felt bad! They had left my catheter and drips in and left me to care for the baby. When I woke up in the night, exuse me, but I had bled everwhere, so I had to call them. I was fuming that they left me in that state as it was so hard to get out of bed for the baby and I asked several times for them to take it out. So they had to change the sheets for me and take it out,-at last!Freedom!
The next day they took out the drips which was great!
I was treated ok on the postnatal ward, apart from one midwife having a go about me rocking the baby when she was stirning in the night. 'Is she crying?No, well then don't rock her'. Oooh, it made me so mad!
Izzy had to be given formula until 8pm the next day when I could try breastfeeding. It was so hard cos she was 'asking me' with little llucks of her lips! She did latch on straight away the next day, and was very slow to feed with formula.
I met quite alot of characters in Hospital. A 'Vicky Pollard' alike, that when the Nurses asked her how she was she would say,'Me Mi*ge is hurting,', or when her Mum called and asked her how she was she would say,'it feels like I have been g*ng-b*nged up the a**ehole!' Also, people making comments that I have held her too much, and may have a high-need baby when I get home. WHATEVER!
The third day Izzy went a bit Jandice, which is apparently normal. She also had her first portrait done in Hospital!
Michael was great, coming to see me and Isabella every day, and it was lovely seeing him with his Daughter. I just so wanted to go home, and was quite depressed about it! I ccried quite a few times!
My boobs were like rocks when my milk 'came in' and were quite painful and hot! They didn't have an express machine there, which was cr*p, so I had to suffer, and Izzy couldn't latch on they were that hard! When I got home I expressed, and the relief was tremendous!
One Nurse asked to examine my stitches (as i had a episiotomy), and I thought that she meant 'down below!' well, I obliged, and she was going 'a bit lower,a bit lower, a bit lower', and 'where is it then'?! She thought I had had a c-section, and was so red after! She said so many people had a c-section there that it was unusual to not have one!
They experimented with my medication, telling me I was going home every day, and then me ending up staying there, until Wednesday. I was discharged at 10am, but didn't go home until half 8 at night! Isabella HATED her car seat!
Motherhood is great, sleepless nights a pleasure with my Baby! She is breastfeeding great, but is still a bit Janudice! I am feeding her every couple of hours! Nappies are an explosion, cos she sometimes gets greedy and feeds for over an hour!
Anyway, this is my last note, as bubs is here, and I just want to thank Mike for being the best Husband a Wife could have, and being my rock,ahhhhhhh!

Lol Gems THE MUMMY!

xoxoxo