My Birth Story

Manning Paul and Lincoln Anthony were born on 8th January 2009 at 8:34am and 8:36am respectively.

Their last few weeks on the inside were packed with activity and drama at the finish line.
I spent from 34 weeks in and out of Pregnancy Day Care with high blood pressure. It all came to a head on early in the morning of the 6th when I slowly made my way out of bed to go to the bathroom. I was waking down the hallway and realised I felt really queasy. By the time I made it to the bathroom door I was trying to decide whether I could pee before I was sick but the decision was taken out of hands when I started vomiting all over the floor. I couldn't move bar for the retching shaking my body. I felt lightheaded, had a drink of water and slowly made my way back to the bedroom.
"Adam," I said, "You need to call the hospital."
"What?" he said jumping up, "Why?"
"I was just sick everywhere."
He called the hospital and of cause they said to come in straight away. I cleaned up the vomit and thought about the boys. I realised I hadn't really felt Manning move in quite a while.
When we got there they took my blood pressure. It wasn't the worst it had been but it was up. They put a drip in and gave me some maxalon to help with the nausea and headache. Then they put me on the CTG.
They found both heartbeats initially, and then lost Manning's and were struggling to find it again. I wasn't too worried at that stage. Their heat beats dropped out quite often in the Pregnancy Day Care because they didn't like the noise it made.
They couldn't find it so decided to rush my upstairs to the birthing suite. They loaded my into a wheelchair and doctor was tell me they'd probably be delivered that day.

In the birthing suite they picked up Manning's and Lincoln's heartbeat fine. My blood pressure had gone down and everything was fine. I was then moved to the postnatal ward. I got a double bed and they told Adam and I to have a rest and the doctor would be around later to discuss were we go from here. Meanwhile they continued to take my blood pressure and monitor the boys’ heartbeats with a doppler.
They took more bloods and I had to do my 3rd 24-hour urine collection. I wasn't going home.

On the 7th I went down for my scheduled 36-week ultrasound. It was hard to get the measurements and there was really no room and I had a huge amount of fluid collecting behind my belly button.
She estimated Manning at 8lbs 3oz and Lincoln at 7lbs 13oz. Manning was still breech and now so was Lincoln.
Adam went to work for the first time since the 23rd of December. He'd had from the 23rd - 5th off and had taken the 6th off when they advised us hey thought the boys would be born when I was admitted.

After he'd left the doctor came in and told me since I was almost 37 weeks, I had a c/section booked for the 12th, the boys were good sizes, my blood pressure wouldn't stablise and there was a fair bit of protein in my urine, I would be having a c/section the following morning. I would be 3rd on the list so approximately 10 -11am. I was officially diagnosed with mild pre eclampsia. I rang Adam and announced, "By this time tomorrow you'll officially be a daddy!"
"Tomorrow? no I'm not ready" was his response.

During my days frequenting the Pregnancy Day Care I'd agreed to participate in a study of pre eclampsia and in the morning of the c/section the lady came to visit me to make sure I was all prepared. She casually mentioned that I was first up.
"No," I said, " I'm third"
"On my list your 1st," she said, " but I can double check"
"What time does the first c/section happen?"
"8am, I'll just go double check for you."
I looked at the clock. It was 7:10am and I knew Adam hadn't even left home yet.
I rang him, "They've moved me to first, I'm going in at 8"
"I'll be there in a minute," he said and hung up.

It was 7:35 and I was standing at the elevator in my scrubs, waiting to go to the operating theatre when Adam came bursting out of one. He had made it. The epidural took hold quickly and Adam was led in with the camera. He looked really nervous and kept making silly jokes.
When the anesthetist said to him, "You may recognise this lady."
He said " No that's not my girlfriend."

Adam saw Manning's feet first. While he was being born, I was vomiting into a kidney dish and could not summon the overjoyed emotion I should have been feeling.
He peed and pooed almost as soon as he was born. His APGAR score was 8 at 1 minute and 9 at 5 minutes.
Lincoln had managed to turn overnight and was actually head down. He did wee as soon as he was born, all over the doctor and my face. His APGAR was the same as Manning's, 8 and 9.
Manning weighed 8lbs, measured 49cm and had a head circumference of 34cm Lincoln weighed 6lbs 10oz, measured 48cm and had a head circumference of 34cm.

They took to breastfeeding really well and I couldn't wait to be on my feet again.
We were discharged (pushed out the door) on the 11th.

I'll be back soon with more updates.