[Lightning McStitch]

Congratulations. She looks very sweet.

[Masha Richart]

Congratulations Tamara! She is just precious.

[Greenpip]

Congratulations Tamara! Lovely name for a gorgeous girl.

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Greenpip.

[Nicole]

Congratulations @justsewit. Rest up!

42d here today and high temps expected again tomorrow. We have not been threatened with bush fires but we remain vigilant.
My heart goes out to all those who have been.

[Justine J]

Stay safe Nicole – I have been thinking of you – such terrible fires

[Nicole]

@JustineJ, thank you.

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Nicole.

[Tamara]

Thankyou everyone. I am hesitant to share my birth story like so many others have already. Why? Well put it this way I wouldn’t be one of those lucky ladies on one born every minute, I would be one of those people on a medical emergency program instead.

There were complications sewing me up! It was seriously touch and go there and the spinal was actually wearing off when they were trying to sort me out. Fortunately I had a fabulous doctor who, despite being obviously surprised at what she found, worked brilliantly. But my poor husband…. He was there and I saw the look on his face. It wasn’t looking good and I realise that I have been extremely lucky because I could have lost my life! It was that serious and I know it sounds dramatic but I am still coming to terms with the whole thing.

There were very good aspects though that I will treasure. They lowered the curtain as they pulled her out and placed her on my chest after the cord was clamped. This I didn’t have any experience of with the two other births. I also got to nurse her during recovery.

I spent the last week counting my blessings and being so very thankful that things didn’t come out in the worst case scenario. I also have to work on coming to terms over the strong advice from both doctors to not have another child. This I am having some difficulty with at the moment. It is most likely because of what I was told and because of course my hormones are all over the place.

This is what happens, or what can happen when someone births their babies by caesarean. It isn’t recommended to have more than three and the risks are heightened with each and everyone. One day medicine will pick up thin uteruses so people can make very informed decisions regarding theirs and their baby’s health and safety. Had I gone into labour I would have become a statitstic and so would my sweet baby girl.

I am just so incredibly thankful I get to have the opportunity to raise this little girl.

I am mending and resting but it isn’t easy to. It will take the full six weeks this time I think. Fortunately it is school holidays and so darned hot we just stay put anyway.

Watching the news and fires are everywhere. My mum is driving back to Perth with Imogen tomorrow and (as always) I have parental panic. There are four fires north of Perth on the path they will be travelling. I just hope the storm today assisted in extinguishing them.

Stay safe Nicole, will be thinking of you tomorrow. It got to 47 again today. I hear there is a cool change on the way so soon it will get to your end of the country and hoping it will relieve the fire situations over there.

[beachmom]

Congrats @justsewit! Enjoy all your newborn snuggles.:)

[KarenK]

Nothing dramatic at all about feeling as though your child is a gift. Congrats, glad all is well now.

[cybele727]

@justsewit while my C-sections were not quite dramatic, I do know that I would not have survived my first without it, nor would he have.

I remember my complications with my second, hearing the doctor swear as she was ripping my scar tissue from bad healing with the first. Eventually I had a hysterectomy about 2 years after the last due to healing complications.

So I fully understand they save our lives and our babies, but woo they can be scary.

Glad you are doing well as is your sweet new addition.

[Tamara]

Thanks @beachmom.

@KarenK I had to be grateful also due to the realisation of my own mortality and fertility. No one wants to leave their babies behind and no one wants the decision to be made for them.

@cybele727 how did you work through it all? I mean I know that this nearly happened to me even though the doctor didn’t actually say but you can obviously sense the enormity and seriousness of the situation.

I think dh and I will trot off to have counselling over this in order to really help us work through it all.

We have already been up against insensitive family members (and the unwanted family member aka step mil). People just relish in the opportunity to tell us what we “should have done years ago”. But then she is “so shocked” that I would “have another baby at my age”! She is stuck in her bubble and I need headphones and blinkers! Oh hand me a walking stick!

Anyway, mending is slow and I refuse to rush it this time. We have told next door to put their shearing back a week because then I can drive etc. we have had to put boundaries up big time and people just have to understand.

I wasn’t relaxed at all for half of this week because my mother was here – I was pulling my hair out! Unfortunately she is returning! So our downtime as the five of us hasn’t happened yet! I just hope that when my girls have babies i don’t develop selective hearing and actually respect their wishes (and not rearrange the kitchen so they can’t find anything).

I am thinking we need to go on holiday in order to have our lockdown week.

[cybele727]

@justsewit…
When I was pregnant with #1, I was almost 36 at his birth. I had unchecked, undiagnosed gestational diabetes, and was on the edge of preeclampsia. Extreme pelvic pain. So I was high risk for being “old” and for everything else. I am only 5 ft tall and ballooned to 180 lbs. I literally couldn’t move. I begged my doctor NOT to pull me from work.

We compromised with work from home. I was allowed to come down the stairs once and up once more per day for the two weeks prior to due date. At my last appointment, the doc was like, well, you haven’t dropped and you aren’t dilated. And… we need to induce you before this baby kills you- he’s got to be 9 lbs, and he’s not even late yet. The nurse/midwife asked me about my birth plan. I am a pragmatic girl. I was like… here is the deal… I want a healthy mom and healthy baby, the decisions are up to the experts which are the doc and God. The end result is all that matters here.

They induced me the day before the due date and it was rough. Pretty much everything that could go wrong did. Allergic reactions to drugs, active labor/water breaks with no dilation, 3 water breaks, epidurals that wore off too soon, missing my veins completely for my IVs, when C time came after we decided natural wasn’t getting us anywhere, getting “cut in line” by other doctors, until the nurse called mine and told her what was happening. I saw my doc go nuclear on other doctors. Thankfully I had a wonderful anthes. who used accupressure to assist with the pain so he could properly deliver the spinal block. My full blown contractions were like 10 seconds apart and no dilation… which could have ended in a ruptured uterus. And you can’t give spinals during contractions due to patient movement due to pain. That guy was a miracle worker.

So, in the end what was on the edge of a very bad situation was well in hand once I was on the table. Once she started cutting, I was good, but until that moment, both of us were very much at risk. You could see it in every person’s face in that room. That grim determination.

For me, I was grateful for the doc and the excellent intervention. I also unfortunately confronted mortality a long time ago. My father was killed in an accident when I was 8, so the idea that we don’t live forever has been with me for, well, forever. Oddly enough that helped me emotionally recover from the risks.

With #2, I knew I was going straight to a C. After the first one, when the doc was in there, she said… only C for you. The pelvic pain was a result of the ligaments not stretching and loosening- the pelvic cradle couldn’t widen to hold the baby. The baby was sitting right on top of my pelvic bones instead of nestled between, so there is no way a baby could pass through.

But I had developed serious internal scarring. My new doc (we had moved) was shocked that I could conceive with that much scarring. I could feel her ripping and tugging and *hear* it. I felt a wee bit woozy from that. It didn’t hurt, but it is rather scary.

After I “healed” with #2 I had serious bleeding issues and pain that were uncontrolled by hormone therapy. So my surgical GYN doc suggested the hysterectomy. At 42, I was closed for business, anyway!

When he got in, he said I was literally the 2d most difficult surgery he had ever had. My uterus at the bottom had fused to my bladder. At the top, it had attached itself to the abdomen muscle wall right at my sternum. So that thing was about a foot long tube with a 3 inch diameter. He said how I could remain upright during any cramping was amazing.

Sorry if that is too much or a TMI for anyone.

Lke I said, though, for me the mortality issue has always been front and center. There are quiet moments where I literally can’t breathe for a moment at the thought though.

[Nicole]

Wow, Jenny. I was in tears reading that.

[Sarvi]

You always feel such a sense of marvel when you realize that just a few generations ago, your husband might’ve come home from the hospital alone. Very, very grateful for what we have and for modern medicine.

[Nicole]

So true Sarvi. I have very easy pregnancies but PE at the end. Many woman and babies died from that. I am so grateful to be born in this era.

I am so grateful for my brood, my SIL has been on IVF for 17 years, she would give anything for a child.