Pregnancy with my first child was a dream! No morning sickness, no pain, I was very rarely uncomfortable, and with each doctor appointment and ultrasound, we heard everything we wanted to hear.
Around week 30, I began to feel bub move around less and less, so we had another scan at 32 weeks to help ease my mind. We were told our baby was fine but measuring smaller than expected at 32 weeks. They called it Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR), so from here, we had to be monitored weekly.
Friday the 20th of March (34 weeks) I had a check-up with my doctor to do some cardiotocography (CTG) monitoring and sure enough bub was still happy. I was spotting a little bit, so I made sure my doctor checked me out before I left and she said it was fine as long as it didn’t get heavier. I packed my hospital bag that night as I had a funny feeling this baby wanted to meet us soon.
My partner and I attended a wedding that weekend; no way was I going to dance and go into labour at this wedding, so I sat at the table with my legs crossed the entire time!
Tuesday the 24th came around, and it was time for our growth scan and CTG monitoring again. I woke up feeling a little dizzy, tired, still spotting, and my back was a little sore. I thought I was just exhausted from attending the wedding over the weekend and felt a bit better after a hot shower.
I drove myself to the hospital (50 minutes away) my back was quite sore the whole time, and I was cursing myself for wearing a little heel over the weekend. Whilst I was driving my brother called, and he asked how I was doing, and all I really remember of that conversation was me telling him that this baby is going to come soon.
I went in for my growth scan, and the sonographer was happy with how things were going and asked if I could feel the Braxton Hicks contractions, but I couldn’t feel them. I then went in to visit my doctor to do some more CTG monitoring. I was still spotting and was still a little bit concerned about it, so I got her to check me out before we started the monitoring. She used a speculum and confirmed my membranes had ruptured.
I was so upset because I didn’t realise this had happened and she told me I had a very slow leak, and I must have thought it was just the spotting.
I was immediately admitted into the maternity ward and was told I would be induced the following day at 8 am on the 25th of March. Because the baby still measured a bit small, I was told we would have a couple of midwives, a couple of doctors and a paediatrician in the room to make sure everything would go as smoothly as possible.
I was quite shocked and immediately rang my partner; he was 2 hours away and got to the hospital at about 6 pm.
We sat around for a few hours wondering if it will be a boy or girl, discussing our baby names and looking up who’s birthday bub will share. We then decided to get some rest for the next day, I got my midwife to get me a heat pack for my back pain, and I started to fall asleep for the night. I woke up about 11:30 pm still with some back pain and asked my midwife for some Pandeine forte so I could be more comfortable and more rested for the next day.
Soon after I had the Pandeine forte, I had the urge to go to the toilet. I sat down, and the rest of my waters just rushed out as I tried to go. My partner ran in thinking I had the baby on the toilet and was relieved when he got into me, he called out for the midwife, and I told her what had happened and she gave me the news I was having this baby now. I was so confused; I didn’t realise I had been in labour! When did I have contractions? My partner and my midwife carried me to the bed.
After six quick minutes, our baby boy was born at 11:51 pm on the 24th of March 2020 at 35+4 weeks weighing 2.2kg.
Our baby boy was taken straight off me and put on the CPAP machine for a few minutes he was then moved to the special care nursery for some more monitoring. After I was assured he was okay, I got fixed up and had a shower. I then got to go and see my baby boy and have some skin-on-skin we then decided on the name Harvey James.
We spent two and a half weeks in the nursery, making sure our boy was strong and healthy enough before coming home on Easter Saturday.
