Welcome Noah :)

So life has been fairly hectic the last two and a bit weeks. Our little man decided he was going to make the rules and he was going to arrive a fair bit early. On December 11th we welcomed Noah Phillip to the world! At 37 weeks I thought we would hit some hurdles as he was so early but he is perfectly fine although a little scrawny.

I never thought Motherhood would look like this, incredibly sleep deprived, covered in vomit and starving :) Sounds a lot less "amazing" than it is, but there is something about this little life sleeping on my chest that just makes me smile. It's that feeling you get when something truly amazing happens and you smile all the way from the inside out.

Our little man has always liked to keep us on our toes, from bleeding to high blood pressure, hyperemesis, breech presentation and FINALLY his arrival. At about 1am on the 10th of December I woke up with some pretty intense contractions, I passed it off as braxton hicks because it was "bearable" and also I was 37 weeks and Noah was frank breech so surely it would be nothing and would go away. I spent the next few hours in and out of the shower just leaning over the chair, telling my husband how much I hated him for everything he "did" to me. (Love him to bits but when you are in pain these things just come out!) The contractions felt just like my braxton hicks contractions only alot sharper and at the same time with pressure coming straight from the top of my uterus and pushing down. But again just passed everything off as practice contractions. 


Around 9ish/10ish on Sunday morning (11-12-11) I was laying in bed and all of a sudden I got a wave incredible pain . I felt like he was either going to break out or I was going to rip him out. I literally lay in bed flailing for about 2 minutes. Seriously can only describe it as a calf muscle cramp in my lady bits! The second it eased off I called the hospital for advice thinking they would say take a panadol and go to bed. But they asked me to come in because of the risk that if he is breech and I go into labour it will make things complicated. Hubby was at work in Mackay (an hour and a half away) with the car, so I gave him a call and he found a manager to take over. While I waited I grabbed my handbag and put it at the door and then I just bounced on the gym ball moaning my way through these horrible pains.  When he got home I grabbed him a shirt (superman!) and me a waterbottle and put a load of washing on (mostly all my maternity clothes and underwear that fit!!) and grabbed my blue book and we left for the hospital thinking i'd be home in an hour with some pain relief. 


When we got there, they popped me on the CTG machine, I breathed through some contractions and then the doctor walked in and said so your having regular contractions. I was a bit shocked as I had assumed they were BH and then she did a quick ultrasound to check Noah was still breech and indeed he was (cheeky man). Then she did an internal at my first check I was 1cm long fingertip dilated and very soft, she said she would keep me over night to just be monitored and all going well I can go home in the morning. Now I STILL didn't have any bags or anything, my mobile phone was dead, hubby was in his uniform (with a superman shirt on). Totally unorganised! 


About 2 hours later the doctor came in and did another internal. Sure enough I was 100% effaced, 2 cm dilated and feeling pressure from bubs bottom. All she said was "Okay that changes things" and said she would be back. She returned with consent forms and information about emergency csections and then I began to panic. Within the hour we were going to have our baby!!! At 7 we were wheeled into theatre, all dressed up. I got my spinal put in (Semi-painless. More just pressure and I was so stressed by this point!) and then I went completely numb from my chest down. It just felt like tingling. The doctors were all talking to each other about Christmas and Andrew was talking to me and the doctor said "okay your baby is going to be born in a minute" and I said ok let me know when you start cutting and she said " We are already in" I couldn't feel a thing! Next minute I hear a sneeze! Yep our little man didn't cry he sneezed his way into this world! Andrew got to watch him be born bottom first and then went over and cut the cord. I cried well whimpered (I was in so much shock at this point) They popped him on my chest while they sewed me up and then we were wheeled back to our room. Seriously seems like the biggest blur, 2 and a half weeks on and I am still amazed that he is here!!

Our lives are completely changed and I could not imagine a day without Noah here! 

waiting waiting waiting whoops

So I wrote this post on the 10th of December while in labour (and didn't realise) and forgot to post it :)

The past nine months have been all about patience. Whether it's exercising patience in the doctors waiting room, or with peoples attitudes or even with our cheeky little man. Patience has been key.
Now at almost 38 weeks pregnant and giving birth in 10 days I feel like every day, hour and minute is dragging on. I get excited when I sleep for 5 hours straight as it feels like someone has temporarily hit the fast forward button! Andrew has been doing a fair bit of over time and between that and the rain he has been taking my car to work everyday so I can't even go and shop to waste some time.
Instead I sit down, put my feet up and think about how crazy my life is about to become!
I cannot imagine in ten days from now officially being a mum, I cannot imagine having a tiny little baby to feed, to cuddle, to love.
I am totally overwhelmed with excitement and fear. I feel like I have an endless list of things I want to get done although majority of these are impossible (Imagine a 38 week pregnant me, trying to mow the lawn in this heat!)
There is this big buzz around the arrival of babies, a lot of the other mums in our December group have already given birth and it's truly incredible how we all support each other and how excited we all get at the hint of labour! Now although I really am not a fan of being pregnant this is really the most incredible time in my life. Such an incredible blessing and I am amazed at every little thing my body is doing and every little thing my baby is doing.

At our last appointment they did a scan to check presentation. Bub is still bottom down, head up with his legs in front (Frank breech) and spine against spine. Not the most comfortable position for either of us. The scan we had also took measurements of his head circumference, belly, legs and gives us an estimate on weight. At 36 weeks he was roughly weighing 2.8kg and his head was measuring 34 cms which is in the 94th percentile and his belly was tiny and only in the 34th percentile, legs were spot on.
Because our hospital and the two local (2 hours and 5 hours away) don't do breech deliveries our only option is to have a caesarian section. We are all booked in and will be having our little one in ten days!!!!