A very important update… Part 2: the details

Some people have asked for the back-story behind the arrival of LiberryBaby – with a minimum of gory details, here goes.

Visited the doctor on April 5th. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know I’ve got high blood pressure and it’s been on the watch-list for the last few months, and it was a little elevated so some tests were requested which came back negative. I was told off for not monitoring my blood pressure regularly, and told to repeat the tests in 3 days time.

The next day, Wednesday 6th, I guiltily checked my blood pressure when I woke up – 151/105. Not fantastic – checked again at about 10am – 153/108. Also not fantastic. About 1pm a third check revealed the same elevated readings, so I phoned my doctor’s practice. 3.30pm she came on duty, returned my call and suggested I go to hospital for observation.

I phoned my husband to suggest he come home, and phoned my mother, who revealed same thing happened to her and that she was kept in hospital on bedrest for a few days. I grumbled at the thought of this, packed an overnight bag, stuck my maternity hospital bag in the car just in case, and waited for hubby to return.

Once he got home, we drove leisurely in and headed down to the pregnancy assessment unit, with me moaning the whole way about how boring bedrest was going to be. We arrived, waited an hour as my doctor’s receptionist had not, as promised, phoned to let them know we were coming, then got to see the doctor who luckily was on call for the evening. She took my blood pressure, felt my stomach. Then dropped a bombshell on us.

“It’s a good night to have a baby. Let’s not risk anything, let’s take you down to theatre now.”

Then in a blur I put on my anti-clot stockings and theatre gown, nodded dumbly at the anaesthetist’s explanations of what was going to happen, waddled down to the operating theatre and watched my husband go off to change into scrubs.  And promptly burst into tears. What the hell? Three hours previous I was watching the X-Files, eating macaroni and telling my cousins that I’d only go to my grandfather’s birthday party if they went. Why was I having a caesarean? I didn’t want a caesarean. I wanted blood pressure drugs and a ride home!

Hubby came back, I finished my cry, we went into theatre. I had my spinal, lay down, and about 30 minutes later I had a baby brought over to me. All of a sudden, with very little effort on my part, and pretty much zero mental preparation on my part, I had a son.

Holy crap…

Anyway, from there it was a hour of recovery and then five days in the post-natal ward, which were kind of crap for a variety of reasons and I don’t feel like whining about now. We’ve been home for just over a week, and it’s still a big adjustment, every day feels like a step forward and a step back at the same time.. Nothing is like it is in pop culture. Nothing is much like it is in the specialist baby books, pregnancy books, breastfeeding guides or mother and baby magazines either. But I love the hell out of my son and we’re making it work so far, so we’re going to be okay.

I am not doing any of this again for a very, very long time…

Let’s finish with another baby shot. Because he’s cute as, and he’s already starting to change his features and the faces he pulls, and I’m taking any opportunity I can to share these early pictures.

If you think he perhaps looks a little goblinoid here, it's okay. We think so too... it's the ears...