Following on from My miscarriage…
The Husband and I made the decision to foget about ovulation tests and ‘windows of opportunity’. Perhaps we just didn’t have the capacity for more disappointment. So when I didn’t get a period a month after the miscarriage we were very surprised!
You can understand why we were wary, feeling a little fragile and anxious. I was relieved to experience nausea pretty much from the onset of the pregnancy – something that was absent from the last pregnancy that wasn’t meant to be. We met Janet Grundy, possibly the best midwife in the history of the world. She understood our fears and made us feel like we had a right to feel that way. She organised an early scan so met got to see the baby for the first time when she was I was only eight weeks pregnant.
Morning sickness sucks. I mean, it just doesn’t let up. But I now had a new respect for it, not taking for granted those pregnancy harmones flying around my body, keeping the baby safe.
The main difference in this pregnancy was the little toddler running around at home.
Over Christmas we had a massive family get together in a gorgeous hotel – and I although I got to be there, I missed out big style. I was sick through the day and exausted before Chloe was even in bed. But hey, those experiences make you really appreciate opportunities that don’t come round that often.
Once the nausea passed at around 4 months the prenancy was pretty normal. If I’m honest I don’t remember that much of it, don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing! At the 20 week scan we really wanted to know if we were having a boy or a girl. We asked. The sonographer looked. And looked. Pulled a reluctant face and told us she wasn’t 100% sure so she didn’t want to say. She then said she was 60% sure it was a girl. What on earth does that mean?! 60%?! I was gutted. There was a leaning towards another girl but really we couldn’t be sure. After a tearful tantrum I calmed down and accepted the unknown. Though people didn’t believe us when we said we didn’t know if we having a boy or a girl!
I was due on the 14th August. A couple of days before, mid evening, I started having contractions; painful enough to put on the tens machine and regular enough to take it seriously! we called family and, because chloe’s birth was soooooo long and drawn out we settled down and tried to get some rest. Well, we woke up the next morning so guessed things had things had slowed right down through the night!
We got on with everyday life, approached and seemingly passed b y my due date. I didn’t hold much expectation of the baby being born on its’ due date with Chloe going over four days over. We settled down to bed around 10.30pm but ten minutes later a strong contraction stuck and lasted what seemed like forever. When the next one came around I accidently clung onto The husband, waking him up. Once I had my tens machine on I truly did try to rest but they were just coming thick and strong. It didn’t feel like this labour would go the same way as it did first time round.
Looking back I was so much more confident. I focused through each contraction, trying so hard relax my body. It didn’t look like things would slow down again so we made phone calls to parents in the north east,the parents around the corner and my brother and sister-in-law (My sister in Laws’ birthday was the 15th – the following day so she was excited to be potentially sharing it with her niece/nephew). My mum downed like five cups of coffee and set off down the A1 to hopefully get to us before baby arrived. Arrangements had been made for The Husband’s parents to come and sleep here if things started through the night, so they’d be here to look after Chloe. After a couple of hours I called the Maternity Ward and when I dropped the phone through a contraction they told me to come in as quick as I could. Charles and Mary came over and went straight upstairs while I was cuddling my gym ball in the living room…
To be continued.
All Things Momma Bear 