Waiting for Baby

Today I am 40 weeks and 6 days pregnant, that's theoretically 6 days overdue. This shouldn't surprise me as Aston was 9 days late but it is starting to get a bit tiresome.

I know the baby will come when he's ready and I know that technically full term is anywhere from 37 to 42 weeks. However I'm well and truly ready to have this baby!

This afternoon I have my "postdates" appointment at the hospital where we will probably be booked for an induction. I'm not terribly keen to be induced especially if it means being confined to a bed strapped to monitors. I'm also not terribly keen to have a 2 week overdue baby who weighs almost 5kg!

I've been praying for baby to come and praying for patience and I know that in 2 weeks time all this worry and stress will be irrelevant but I just want to get on with it and have a baby!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Aston's Birth (Part Two)

As mentioned in Part One I've tried not to include too much information but this is the nitty gritty bit so apologies if you're not into this kind of thing...

We were put into one of the birthing rooms and left to it, I’d decided beforehand to do as much as possible without pain relief and the midwife seemed pleased with that. In fact, the whole time I felt like she and I were on the “same page” which was really nice and I hope that happens again.

I don’t remember much about the next few hours, I felt bored but also couldn’t concentrate on reading or watching any of the movies we’d hired from iTunes. The contractions became stronger and more frequent. At one point I freaked out because I felt like I needed to go to the toilet and remembered my sister telling me that she had that same feeling but she didn’t need to go, she needed to push a baby out. The midwife told me that was a good sign but I wasn’t quite ready yet. After that I spent some time in the shower and moved onto the bath.

The bath was amazing, it was somehow relaxing even while being in intense pain, I was a bit out of it by then, I kept dozing off but was somehow still aware of what was going on around me. I’m not sure how we got there but soon it was time to push and I was back in the real world and thinking clearly again (well kind of clearly). At one point the midwife told me “3 more pushes and we’ll have a baby!”

Not quite…

I was pushing but Aston was being stubborn and kept creeping back up the birth canal. I got out of the bath in the hope that changing positions would help. After about an hour and a half of pushing, they decided to give me oxytocin to try and increase the intensity of the contractions. It worked! I felt like I needed to push non-stop but Aston was still happy to stay where he was. I was becoming more and more tired and frustrated. Everyone kept telling me what a good job I was doing and I remember thinking “If I’m doing such a good job, why isn’t it working!”

After 3 hours of pushing, it was decided Aston (and I) needed a bit more help and we would proceed with a ventouse delivery (aka vacuum extraction). At this point the whole mood of the room changed.

Up until now it had mostly been Stuart the midwife and I on our own with the lights dimmed, we’d been visited by a few other midwives at different points and the obstetrician on call as well but on the whole it had been pretty private and quiet.

Now there were about 10 people in the room, midwives, pediatricians, the obstetric registrar and her supervisor. The lights had all been turned on, equipment had been wheeled in, it was busy!

They gave me a local anesthetic as I’d had no other pain relief and before I knew it Aston was born, I didn’t even realize his head was out until someone told me. They put him on my chest but he was still unresponsive so they whisked him away to be examined by the pediatrician.

The next few minutes were the most emotionally taxing for me, lying naked and exposed while being stitched up and seeing my baby at the other end of the room surrounded by strangers. Having stitches was also quite traumatic, I’m not quite sure how to explain it but it took me a long time to come to terms with the physical damage.

Aston 1 day old

However, all was well with Aston, soon he was having his first breastfeed and we were trying to decide if we would actually name him after a car!

Aston's Birth (Part One)

Over the last few weeks I’ve spent a lot of time preparing for our new baby, however, I haven’t done much to prepare for the actual being in hospital and giving birth part of the process.  I feel as though no matter how much you prepare, you are never really going to know how it will all turn out, I’ve done it before, theoretically I should know how to do it again but it will probably be completely different anyway so I shouldn’t think too much about it… I’m not sure any of that makes sense to me either.

As part of getting ready to give birth again I thought it might be helpful to write Aston’s birth story, I don’t think I’ve included too much information but I know some of you might find it a bit awkward to read so feel free to skip these posts.

In the week or so before Aston’s official due date (11^th March 2009) I was pretty laid back and calm, I was enjoying being pregnant, I wasn’t too uncomfortable, I was happy for him to decide when he wanted to arrive. His due date came and went and my relaxed, laid back attitude started to disappear. I was still keen for Aston to choose his own birthday but I also wished he would hurry up and do it! 

At my 41 week appointment at the clinic (that’s one week after the due date), the obstetrician declared that if I ended up being 10 days overdue I would need to be induced. She booked me in for the induction and performed a “stretch and sweep” (stretching the cervix and sweeping the membranes with her fingers) without asking, something I was a bit cranky about. 

The stretch and sweep must have worked though as the next day I had a couple of signs that perhaps labour may be happening soon.  

The night before my induction appointment I woke up a few times with stomach cramps, they went away when I moved around and each time I was able to go back to sleep so I didn’t think much about them. At 5am I woke again and this time found it hard to go back to sleep, I thought the pains may be real contractions but they weren’t as painful or overwhelming as I thought they would be so I wasn’t sure. I decided to get up and have a shower as we were due to be at the hospital at 7am. It was 20^th March 2009.

While in the shower the contractions continued, they were occurring fairly frequently so when I got out I decided to time them, they were 4-5 minutes apart. 

At the hospital I told the midwife who was going to break my waters in order to induce me that I thought I might be in labour, however I didn’t think the contractions I was having were painful or strong enough to be real, they were just very frequent. She told me that I didn’t look like I was in labour. She hooked me up to a machine that monitored the baby’s heartbeat and my contractions, when she saw the readings she changed her mind and told me they were real contractions, I was also 3cm dilated so the induction was called off.

To be continued...

Pottering and Prayerletters

I've been tweaking a few bits and pieces on my blog, finished labeling all my posts and added a countdown widget for the new baby.

It's been fun looking back over the things I've written in the past - feel free to do some browsing yourself.

For those of you interested in current news here is my most recent prayerletter - I would love you to read it even if you are not a praying person.

A fun picture to make this post a bit more exciting!

The Latest

Today we are 8 days overdue! I didn't think we would last that long, obviously Jellybaby is not quite ready to enter the world of his own accord.

We had our 41 week "just-in-case" appointment yesterday at RPA and they are very keen to make sure babies are born before they hit 42 weeks, as a result we are booked in for an induction tomorrow morning at 7am.

I have mixed feelings about being induced, on one hand it's exciting to know that soon we will see our baby and the craziness and uncomfortableness of the last few weeks will be over. On the other hand, induction can be quite a shock to your body and the baby which can make labour a lot more intense and harder to deal with. Depending on what method of induction I end up needing, I may be strapped to a monitor for the whole time which means being unable to move around or use the shower or bath for pain relief - something I was really keen on doing.

I'm praying for calmness mostly, I know I can get very flustered when I'm in an unknown situation and would really like to feel a little bit in control and to be able to ask good questions and make good decisions.

Playing the waiting game

A week or so ago I was telling everyone that I wouldn't mind too much if the baby was a bit late... So it's now 4 days past due date and this waiting thing is getting a bit hard...

I have ups and downs, times when I'm patient and times when I'm not, I even have times when I forget I'm waiting...

Still waiting

but that's ok, he'll come when he's ready... Now I just need to find things to amuse myself so i don't get too bored with waiting!

In case you were wondering...

Yes, it is our official due date today... We are still waiting...

I have had a few prelabour-y things happen (I think) but nothing real yet... Stay tuned

38 weeks & 3 days

Here I am at 38 weeks & 3 days - only 11 days to go according to the countdown on the right... Assuming Jellybaby is born exactly on his due date which is not very likely...

So, what's been happening? I've survived 2 weeks of maternity leave, it's been both nice to be at home and not have to worry too much about work stuff and also hard because uni is starting and lots of exciting things have been happening. 250 people signed up to join small group bible studies - awesome!

I've also spent the last 2 weeks obsessing about and learning to drive - I had 2 driving tests and managed to pass the second one - yay, so now I have my red P's and theoretically can drive a car all by myself... I haven't actually been out by myself yet, I'm still a bit scared, but I will soon, I promise!


Time off has also meant time for organising Jellybaby's room, I've washed all the clothes, sheets etc and put them away - he has so many clothes already! They're so tiny, it's hard to imagine anyone would actually fit into them... I can't wait to try them all on him.


I made the cot up today, we've decided he will sleep in his cot from the beginning as the room is very close to ours - you have to walk through it to get to us. I know I've made the cot up all wrong for a newborn but the blanket and sheets are so cute I couldn't resist putting them on.

I've also started reading through Barneys prepared readings for lent I've never done anything for lent before. It's always been one of those weird Anglican/Catholic things that seemed old fashioned and unnecessary. But I decided that as I have time (at the moment anyway) and I havne't done anything structured in the way of spending time with God lately, that it would be a good thing to start.

It's been fun so far, we're reading Matthew and it's been good to read some of the things Jesus said and see them as part of the bigger picture of His life and ministry. It's also fun to know that there are a bunch of other people reading the same thing, hopefully we'll get a chance to talk about it together.

Well, this is very long post to make up for my lack of posting over the past couple of months - hope you enjoyed it!

Brain in a whirl!

So much to do, so little time...

Only 7.5 weeks until JellyBaby's estimated due date 11th March! I'm staring to feel a bit overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done, work stuff, organising baby room/clothes etc, catching up with friends, much other stuff and learning to drive!!!!

I still have about 18hours to go before I can do my P's test... Anyone for a roadtrip?

To make matters worse, I don't seem to have started nesting yet which means if I'm tired and overwhelmed I'm more likely to sit and mope than get anything done. Although Stu seems to have picked up the nesting bug and has been having fun painting walls, making bookshelves etc. At the moment he's sanding an old bookshelf/cupboard thing we inherited when we moved in so it's ready to paint.

Oh well, at least I have a very organised to do list...

PS My friend Gail and I went to the aquarium on Thursday and saw the dugongs - they are really cool!

Latest News

It has been so long since I've blogged, I'm really getting quite lazy... To add to my laziness instead of actually writing what's been happening I'm going to redirect you to my latest prayerletter for news. For some of you this may be the first time you've seen what I do at work from "the inside" - enjoy :-)

And just to make this post look a bit more interesting here is a new ultrasound picture of the Jellybaby at 28 weeks. I think it's amazing how much detail you can see! (in case you can't see it, there's an eye, a nose and two little fists)

Questions People Ask

Now the news is out there, I've noticed that we often get asked the same questions by curious people so I thought I'd list them and the answers here in case you are curious too.

When are you due? 11th March 2009 but apparently only 1 in 20 babies are born on their due date so anytime in the weeks before and after then.

How many weeks along are you? Today Wed 17/9/08 I'm 15 weeks.

Do you know the baby's sex yet? No, apparently you can tell now but ultrasounds are usually done at around 18-20 weeks

Do you want to know the baby's sex? Yes, no, maybe, probably... Not 100% decided but I think we will find out.

Have you been very sick? Thankfully no. Only 50% of pregnant women get morning sickness and I seem to be in the 50% that don't - yay! I have however been really really tired and occasionally get bad indigestion/heartburn/reflux - whatever you want to call it.

Can you feel the baby move? Not yet, s/he is still too small for that but this morning at our midwife appointment we did hear the baby's heartbeat and heard it as it kicked :-)

Do you have a baby bump? Kind of, it's more like a "I've eaten too much chocolate" bump but there are some pants that are too small already and I can definitely tell I'm changing shape.

Are you excited? Yes and also quite scared...

If you have any more questions you think I should add let me know :-)

I think almost everyone knows my news now - do you?

I've managed to surprise myself over the last 13 weeks, generally I'm hopeless at keeping secrets but I guess when they're mine it's easier...

So it's out there, in person, in cyberspace, in gossip-land. We're having a baby, officially on 11th March 2009 but you know these little critters, they are often quite unpredictable and can arrive anytime.

It's been a lot harder to tell people than I imagined, by email, on facebook and here has been quite easy but in person... It's like I'm embarrassed for people to know, which is quite silly. As one of my friends said "you have been married for 5 years Bec, it's ok..."

Now I can finally use the cute pregnancy countdown script thingy I made when I was about 5 weeks along. I'll put it on the page somewhere on the right :-)

Stay tuned for more news.