Scheduled due date for caesarian - 8th Feb 2012. It all started on friday the 3 February. Woke up early that morning with loads of excitement - my mommy was arriving from Dubai - a few days before our baby girl is born! I am so excited to see her and share with her the excitement we both feel for the arrival of Summer-Grayce. I fetch her at the airport and we rush for my last check up at my gynie...he requests I do a stress test in the maternity ward before I go up to his rooms...the test takes longer then before - for some reason Summer-Grayce was jumping around and they have to redo the test! By now my mom has not slept for 24 hours as she flew through the night and she catches a few winks on the chair next to me as I watch the machine beeping at every movement she makes. We rush up to the doc's rooms as we are now nearly an hour late for our appointment, when I arrive I go straight through and do all the usual urine checks, weight and blood pressure - all looks great! Then doc scans me and does all the necessary measurements - baby girl is doing well - all on schedule. My mom starts asking doc all these questions about what she sees on the screen - mom says, "oh cute doc is that her hand" doc replies "no thats her stomach :) hehehe
Eventually doc scans over her abdomen and mom asks again - "doc what is that" and he is quiet... he replies I'm not sure - never seen this before.....now that is not something you want to hear! My heart sinks and my mom and I stare at each other...thoughts start rushing through my head oh no how can this be - I have been blessed with the most amazing pregnancy - healthy all the way, now 5 days before my due date and there seems to be something wrong! I start shaking....
...doc calls in his assistant and says "Nikki get Dr Nicoli on the phone..." its late on a friday afternoon and no reply from Prof...so we start hunting for another doctor for a second opinion as to what this could be in babies tummy. Eventually I get an appointment with another gynie (lets call him Dr H) in the hospital and they are waiting for me in their rooms....I am tearful and concerned as my doc suspects there is a block in babies colon and a block in the colon could perferate at anytime. Dr H asks me my history ....how far am I, "37 weeks 3 days", etc etc...eventually he scans me does a few measurements and says baby girl looks healthy - then he gets to her tummy and sees the same thing (it looked like honeycomb on the scan). I had never seen this before on any of her scans. Dr H says the same thing - I've never seen this before! He manages to get Prof Nicoli on the phone and they all make the decision to take her out immediately as she was estimated to weigh 3.1kg's and over 37 weeks. Within 30 mins I was in the theatre being prepped for surgery. Called my husband immediately who was at a lunch with his Directors on their 3rd bottle of vino :) he got there in 15 mins! (broken side mirror later - thats another story for another time)
I had the spinal block (ouch) I am so tall that they battled to get the needle in - they kept telling me to bend more into the fetal position (a bit hard when you have a big bump in the way). Eventually all went numb and operation could start! I was still feeling quite emotional but also excited to meet our little angel. They had prepared me that baby would have to go to the NICU for tests and maybe have to have surgery. So all the top surgeons were called in and all was arranged ahead of the birth - my doc did not want to take any chances - it had been a long road getting here and we were hoping everything would be ok. In my heart I felt a sense of peace, and just had a feeling all would be ok....
At 5:54pm Summer-Grayce Bloom was born, weighing a very healthy 3.54kg's and 52cm long - my Paed was absolutely amazing, she held my hand the entire time and kept telling me what was happening. She lifted my head and I watched them pull our princess out - wow amazing! Just after they cut her cord she started to cry - that was just mind blowing - hearing her for the first time! Tears began to flow... my Paed placed her on my chest immediately and told me as far as she could see she looked perfectly healthy! I held her for a few minutes but all of a sudden felt very nauseous and felt like I was going to faint... apparently I lost alot of blood due to low lying placenta (doc managed to get the bleeding stopped thank goodness) but I had to be placed on oxygen till I felt human again. They then brought baby back once she had been checked and weighed and all wrapped up. I was then stitched up and my husband went with them to take baby to the NICU for further tests. The caesar was really quick, a little overwhelming having them cut you open and pull and tug at you but you cant feel a thing. In recovery I started to regain movement in my feet already - I was amazed - but just wanted to feel like normal as soon as possible. With the feeling of my legs came the burning pain in my tummy - pain was manageable. All I could think about was holding my baby and getting her to latch. By now I was not too worried I just have this great sense that all was going to be fine. I was then taken to my private room and immediately they brought my baby to latch.
Back in the NICU they put a pipe down her throat and took an xray to see what was going on - fortunately the block (merconim illious) had come loose when she was born and all looked 100% fine! Thank the Lord! Prof Biel was called in to look at her and he gave her the all clear!\
I was so blessed with the breast feeding - she latched first time - I had lots of colostrum. Day 3 my milk came in and the nurses showed me how to massage the knots out and helped me over the next few days how to latch. They were amazing. By the time I went home we had the breast feeding thing under control. Fortunately for me no cracked nipples, not engorgement! All went so very well. 6 weeks later and we still going strong!
The worst part of the emergency birth was I had nothing with me, all our cameras and video cameras where fully charged lying ready for the day of action. My bags were packed but were 60 km's away - at home! My mom who had not slept in nearly 48 hours by now had to drive all the way home to fetch all our stuff as the nurses needed clothes for baby - my stuff arrived at 12pm!
The next few days were amazing - we were all on cloud 9 - the happiest time of our lives! The pain was managed with omnipon injections (1 after the op and another the next day) after that it was suppositories and painkillers. I must say I did not battle at all from the caesar - I was up the next day and felt no pain at all! I recovered about 1 week after the op.
The best thing of all was brining Summer home to her bedroom - eventually I got to use all her stuff in her room - all those days of preparations and the little one was here!
The next few days were difficult adjusting to the lack of sleep, and the constant changing of nappies and learning to care for this new little life! After 2 weeks I finally felt human again and that I was getting a grip on things. At 6 weeks things are starting to feel alot more normal. We take her out quite alot and keep busy where and when I can. I am so grateful to finally have our little miracle with us! She is here! We are so blessed. I am forever grateful!
Thank you Lord for this blessing!
I can't believe how one little girl can keep a mommy so busy :) (no time to blog:) Life sure is full having this little bundle of joy in my life! This year has just flown by.... with a jam packed social schedule of swimming twice a week, moms & babes, play dates & parties! ...already!
Highlight of the year - our trip to Dubai - In her first year of her life she has been 3 times to the UAE (first in utro:) the second time she was 3 months and now she was 11 months. She had an absolute ball and got spoilt rotten by her Nana & Papa. Having them live so far away is the hardest thing - thank goodness for Skype else we would not manage the distance! She was an absolute angel on the flight, she got alot of attention from the air hostess as they kept wanting to take photos with her :) She was so friendly to them that they couldnt help but love her! Shes a real little social bunny like her dad - loves people and adventure! The world is her oyster!
