I'm very happy to announce the arrival of our little bundle of joy, on Tuesday 3rd April, weighing in at 7lb 10oz, one week early! I had been pretty convinced all along that I was going to be overdue, even going as far as to book an acupuncture induction session for the day after my due date.
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| Baby M in the special care ward |
So it came as quite a surprise when labour contractions started just after I had passed 39 weeks. We had been told in our classes to try and stay at home as long as possible during early labour as the first stage might last a long time and you were likely to get sent home from hospital if you tuned up too soon. For me, things seemed like they were moving much faster than I had anticipated, and just a couple of hours later my waters broke and we made a rather frantic drive to Whipps Cross to find that I was already 8cm dilated and ready to go! The next few hours are something of a blur, until 22:54 that evening, when little baby M made his way into the world. They put the baby onto my chest for just two seconds, when something seemed to be wrong and they whisked him up and ran out of the room, leaving me on the bed rather shellshocked and scared. We found out later that the cord had been wrapped around his neck and he was having difficulty breathing, so he was taken away to the special care baby unit to spend his first night in an incubator being monitored and given IV antibiotics.
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| My first meeting with little M |
Jon was able to go up and visit the special care ward, and brought me back the first glimpse of my little boy on his camera. It wasn't until the next morning at about 10 am that I was able to visit the ward myself and finally hold my baby. It was quite an emotional moment as you can imagine! My beautiful little boy was lying there wrapped in blankets covered in tubes and wires with a feeding tube going into his nose and a big IV cannula and splint taped to his arm. He was discharged from special care later that day, and we spent another two days together on the hospital ward before finally being allowed home on Friday evening. We had an amazing if tiring Easter weekend at home settling in, and look at him now!
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| M relaxing at home - day 5 |
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