Sol's Entrance To The World

Its been four years since I had my youngest baby, who could believe time would fly so fast. Her birthday is on Tuesday and we have planned a little 'hot dog' party. I am child minding this coming week so we have ready made guests thrown in too.

More on the party and the birthday as it happens, but I have to share a little story as I haven't shared it on my blog before. (stop reading here if you are squeamish)

I will spare you all the gory details but Sol was an 'accidental' birth, she arrived 5 weeks early and in a hurry too!

I have complications with all my pregnancies. I get a condition called Obstetric Cholestasis which is treated with a drug called Ursodeoxycholic acid. I also have blood clotting issues including Factor V Leiden, Protein C deficiency and Antiphospholipid syndrome. Due to these complications amongst a few other issues my bloods have to be monitored closely and I give myself daily injections of heparin especially while pregnant.
These conditions gave me cause for concern when I got to around 35 weeks with Sol. I had experienced some spurious contractions and during a routine ob appointment my consultant examined me then announced birth was imminent, she scanned me to check Sol was a healthy size.
With a history of rapid childbirth, I felt a strong urge to get myself up to the hospital the following afternoon. On arrival nothing much was happening but they booked me in anyway due to all the blood stuff going on. Within 20 minutes of arriving at hospital I accepted an examination where the announced that I was 3cm dilated but my waters were bulging.

(THIS IS THE SHORT STORY LOL)I felt tearful, sore, and wasn't sure what to do, I knew Sol was on her way. Roy decided at this stage to go to the shop and phone the family to let them all know where we were. While he was gone the midwife broke my waters, and although Sol was weeks early you have to understand the implications of being pregnant have for me. Once a baby is fit enough to be born for me and for her it is safer so please don't judge me for agreeing to have an early birth, I have suffered too many losses and near misses to take any chances at all. Within seconds of my waters being broken I started to be sick in a big way, at this stage Roy arrived back from the shop. He was shocked to see me in this condition considering a few minute previous I was perfectly compos mentos. I got Roy to help me to the bathroom, on the way there the midwife joked with me "now don't you be having the baby in the bathroom" I turned back to her and laughed!
Well you guessed it, I got Roy and I squeezed into a tiny little bathroom while I was chucking up and then I decided to announce that baby was on its way. I am sure I could spare you the further details but lets just say he had to call for help. Once it was all over (with three of us in the little bathroom - standing room only) my midwife had to go change after I was through LOL! Sol made her way into the world in less than two minutes, no one was more shocked than me. It was funny because he rang my mum again saying "baby and mother doing well", my mum had only spoken to him a few minutes previous and could not figure out what was going on.

Sol had apgars of 9 & 9 to start but she did have a few breathing issues afterwards for a little while. Apparently if the fluid does not get squeezed out of a baby's lungs properly this can happen, in the case of a sudden birth like this then it is no surprise. Summer also took a couple of days before she could nurse properly, I fed her with my milk in a little syringe just a few mls at a time until her sucking reflex was nice and strong. These issues are common with babies born early like Sol, although there were issues, we did much better once Sol was born. As much as it would be nice to have a full term baby the risks to my health and babies health are too great. Sol weighed in at 6lbs 11 1/2 ounces and came home after 3 days which isn't bad going.