Hello!

My computer died in the worst kinda way, but I'm back! Back, with an extra
babby! And, would you believe, me, the hater of mess, had a home birth!

Short story is Kieran David Joseph was born at 04.16 on Dec 10th at 41 weeks
gestation, weighing 8lb 15 1/2oz. He's blue eyed and beautiful!! Jessica
absolutely adores him. She slept through the whole thing, and came in at
07.00, said "Hello Mummy, oh, baby boy!"

http://s176.photobucket.com/albums/w176/so-lucy/Kieran/

The long story is, we're both lucky to be here, the last month was quite an
ordeal.

At 36 weeks, I went to the Race Circuit where my husband works, for a day
out. I was finishing work that night, and looking forward to maternity
leave. We had lovely day, but just before we went to leave, I developed
severe chest and arm pains. I was quite convinced I was having a heart
attack, and my husband drove me to the hospital. After an ECG and
painkillers, they decided it was the baby lying on a nerve ( ! You wait for
the rest of the story, and see why I had a home birth!!). Obviously, that
was the end of work for me! Two days later, I went grocery shopping while my
husband was at work and my daughter was at the childminders. I'd felt faint
all morning, but when I got to the checkout, I collapsed. They called an
ambulance and I went back to hospital. After radioactive stuff being jabbed
in me, inhaled, bits xrayed, blood drained and drugs put in, they decided
I'd had a pulmary emblolisim, caused by a DVT. That was no fun! I was in for
about 10 days while it dispersed, and was on blood thinning drigs. Jessica
missed me dreadfully and it was heartbreaking as I could only see her every
few days.

Eventually, I was discharged, and the same afternoon, I went to my
consultant appt (I was under a consultant as the baby was spinning round
between breech and normal at least once a day!!), but he decided I was still
breathless and kept me in... At this point I think I began to lose the plot
as I'd only been discharged that morning. They sent me up to the maternity
unit, and after being messed around, and the same tests being ordered, I
discharged myself - I knew I still wasn't well, but the obstetrics and
medical teams were bouncing me round between them and not wanting to accept
responsibilty, and that was keeping me in for even longer, without actually
treating me. Even the midwives said I was doing the right thing by going
home.

I came home at 38 weeks, and asked if I could have a homebirth. The midwive
agreed that I could if I stayed well. I just couldn't face going back into
hospital, and it was doing my family no good whatsoever.

At 39 weeks, I started to get contractions every 2 minutes, and we called
the midwife out - bloody false alarm!!

At 40w5d, I developed a severe migraine that left me blind. The doctor
called an ambulance and I went back in... despite the ambulance, I was left
in a brightly lit waiting room for 5 hours with no help, until i mananged to
find a doctor and cried and begged them to let me lie down, even if they
wouldn't treat me.I hoped that while I was in there they'd consider
induction as I just felt so ill, and they were giving me painkillers that I
worried me were going to harm the baby - they were giving me injections of
pethadine and codeine, and wanted to give me morphine, but I refused it.
This was the Sunday, and by the Monday night I discharged myself as I just
wanted to lie in a dark room and get some sleep - something that would never
happen in the hospital!! BTW, I did ask about induction, and they said it
was too early?!?! I was 5 days overdue already. Bloody jobsworths!

Anyway! The Monday night, DH took me to my best friend's house, so that I
wouldn't have to look after Jessica alone while he was at work. I managed a
really good night's sleep, which helped enormously. The Tuesday morning, it
was down to a headache, and I started to feel better. I noticed I had a
watery discharge, but didn't thing much of it. I took Jessica to the corner
shop, and I just wanted to spend some time with her, and she loves shops
We had a bit of lunch, then both had a nap as she was ired and I was still
sufferering with my head. We got up when my DH returned that evening and I
felt a lot better. The watery dishcarge was still there and there was not a
slight blood tinge to it, but it was nothing heavy. By 9pm, I was getting
mild BH's, and .we thought we'd better go home, just in case - that said,
they were really irregular, like 2 mins and 15 mins apart lol. We got home
about 11pm, and put Jessica to bed as she'd fallen asleep in the car, and by
midnight, all BH's had stopped!

But at about 01.00, they started again with avengance!!! However, having had
one false alarm, I held on for ages before calling anyone, and in the end,
the first midwife arrived at 02.45. When she arrived, I was 7 cm dilated,
and the waters were bulging - there was panic though when she thought the
baby was breech again. The other midwife was still about 30 mins away so
they propped my bum up on pillows to defy gravity and prevent the waters
breaking - not comfy!! Anyway, the second midwife arrived at about 03.30 and
said he was the right way up, just had a bony bum!! My waters broke about
03.55 and I had him there in the bed - no time even for gas & air!!! He was
a compound presentation, so came out with his arm across his face, so that
was sore, but all else was ok.

It was amazing! You might remember that I was having doubts and fears in the
second half of the pregnancy. Well, that worsened severely to the point
where I really didn't want him, and the complications didn't help. Well, the
minute, no, the second I had him, I wanted him. I held him instantly, and it
was me that checked his sex etc. I got that fabled mother's rush of love,
and all doubts vanished. I fed him instantly, before the cord was even cut.
The midwives helped me into the bath, and we were all done and tidied away
by 6am, leaving us to settle as a new family, and it was beautiful.

I am amazed by the whole homebirth thing! I didn't want a homebirth til the
last minute, but I think it really helped us to bond. I also changed his
name, right up to the time I was overdue, he was to be Matthew, but I'd had
enough of the whole pregnancy and my feelings, and wated to start afresh,
and liked the name Kieran - fortunately DH did too!!

It's not been easy, he had what has to have been the world's worst colic!!!!
Argh, I thought we'd all go mad!! But we've been to a cranial osteopath, and
he's worked wonders. Plus, I was supplementing with formula, but I've cut
that out, and his degestive tract has sped up again, and he's now 12 weeks,
so time's helped too.

So yeah, been busy since I was last in! Hope you're all ok - will try and
catch up on some posts

Lucy x