Bonjour! Yesterday was Sophia's first birthday. I know I can't believe it either, my little girl is one year old! In celebration of my little bundle of joy, i thought i'd finally get around to telling part two of her story. Of course you can read the pregnancy side of the story here ; My Insanely Emotional Journey - Part One. Lets get right into part two!
I was finally back in Béziers hospital and near my family again. The routine followed ; blood tests, testing my blood pressure, checking my protein and monitoring Sophia. My blood results were worrying the doctors so they decided on Friday 7th August at 9 o'clock to induce me. They inserted a tampon-like tube with a special gel that would make my uterus contract, therefore starting contractions and eventually birth. The midwife that was taking care of me told me that I would be back in my room by 10 o'clock because I wasn't dilated so they would most likely have to reapply the gel the next morning.
While I was waiting for the gel to take action, I had to have my blood pressure and Sophia's heartbeat monitored. My boyfriend left for work and my mum came and took over. We sat talking until 10, when the midwife came back. I thought I would be sent to my room but she had other ideas, because Sophia was moving so much they didn't have a clear chart of her heartbeat - it had been the story of my life for the last month so I was used to it. The idea was to keep me in an hour longer in the hope of getting a clearer reading.
Within the next half an hour, I started to feel nauseous, had crippling back pain and was slowly adopting a fetal position. Having gone through child birth twice, my mum recognized the signs of contractions and called the midwife. They told me to call my boyfriend as Sophia would be on her way anytime soon. Since the beginning of my hospitalization, i had be warned i may have to have a cesarean. The midwifes decided to try a natural birth which i agreed with. As the contractions got stronger, Sophia's heartbeat began to disappear. Slowly a began to gain a high fever, my heartbeat was that same as Sophia's so the nurses could differentiate our heartbeats, and my blood pressure went dangerously high.
The decision was made to give me an emergency cesarean. At this point I was shivering, crying and being sick. Basically, exactly how I imagined giving birth would be! I was given an epidural and then a mask was placed over my nose and mouth and it was full of a sweet sickly scent. After what felt like an eternity I finally heard my sweet baby cry... So as you can guess, I cried too. The reason Sophia's heartbeat kept disappearing was she had the cord wrapped around her neck twice. Which means every time I had a contraction the cord would strangle Sophia.
Sophia was born on the 7th August 2015 at 2:23pm. She weighed 1800g and was around 30cm. She was a tiny dot of a baby. They wanted to put her on assisted breathing but after taking a couple of huge gulps of air she was breathing perfectly. They placed her in an incubator because she was so small, she had trouble keeping her body at a correct temperature. For the first couple of days she had tubes in her nose to feed her, but the cheeky monkey that she is, she kept ripping them out. Eventually the nurses gave in and attempted other ways to feed her as she was too weak to fully breast feed. But each day she got stronger until one day she latched perfectly and was able to breast feed. This also meant she would be leaving the neonatal ward and she would be moving into a room with me. We stayed a week in the mother and baby unit, where I was taught how to bath and look after her. Just like any new mum at the maternity.
Most babies lose weight once they leave the womb as they are no longer receiving 24h feeding. The worry with Sophia was she was already so little. At 1800g she couldn't aford to loose any weight, but naturally she did. At her lowest she weighed a scary 1600g. But like I said, once she was breastfeeding correctly, she gained her weight back and some more. On the 29 of August, she weighed 1900g and I was able to leave the hospital and move back home. Also I just want to explain that even as a new born Sophia drank my breast milk. She was too small and weak to latch on at the beginning, so instead I expressed the milk and she drank it through a tube or syringe. So that is our amazing story of child birth, a follow up to the amazing one about pregnancy. Yes it was a crazy, scary time but I would relive it in a heartbeat for my daughter. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions or even share your pregnancy/childbirth stories.
The decision was made to give me an emergency cesarean. At this point I was shivering, crying and being sick. Basically, exactly how I imagined giving birth would be! I was given an epidural and then a mask was placed over my nose and mouth and it was full of a sweet sickly scent. After what felt like an eternity I finally heard my sweet baby cry... So as you can guess, I cried too. The reason Sophia's heartbeat kept disappearing was she had the cord wrapped around her neck twice. Which means every time I had a contraction the cord would strangle Sophia.
Sophia was born on the 7th August 2015 at 2:23pm. She weighed 1800g and was around 30cm. She was a tiny dot of a baby. They wanted to put her on assisted breathing but after taking a couple of huge gulps of air she was breathing perfectly. They placed her in an incubator because she was so small, she had trouble keeping her body at a correct temperature. For the first couple of days she had tubes in her nose to feed her, but the cheeky monkey that she is, she kept ripping them out. Eventually the nurses gave in and attempted other ways to feed her as she was too weak to fully breast feed. But each day she got stronger until one day she latched perfectly and was able to breast feed. This also meant she would be leaving the neonatal ward and she would be moving into a room with me. We stayed a week in the mother and baby unit, where I was taught how to bath and look after her. Just like any new mum at the maternity.
Most babies lose weight once they leave the womb as they are no longer receiving 24h feeding. The worry with Sophia was she was already so little. At 1800g she couldn't aford to loose any weight, but naturally she did. At her lowest she weighed a scary 1600g. But like I said, once she was breastfeeding correctly, she gained her weight back and some more. On the 29 of August, she weighed 1900g and I was able to leave the hospital and move back home. Also I just want to explain that even as a new born Sophia drank my breast milk. She was too small and weak to latch on at the beginning, so instead I expressed the milk and she drank it through a tube or syringe. So that is our amazing story of child birth, a follow up to the amazing one about pregnancy. Yes it was a crazy, scary time but I would relive it in a heartbeat for my daughter. Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions or even share your pregnancy/childbirth stories.
Until then bisous!
