admin In today’s blog post am sharing my pregnancy and birth stories. I was pregnant for the first time at the age of 33 years old, whilst I had my son at the age of 40.
- FIRST PREGNANCY – MY DAUGHTER
During the first pregnancy, I was lucky enough not to suffer from morning sickness, however towards the last trimester I started having high blood pressure. My gyne recommended that I go to hospital for observation, and stayed there for a couple of days. Turned out I needed some rest. Other than that I can say it was a plain sailing pregnancy.
My due date was 27th January 2010, and had started my maternity leave a week before the due date. On the second day of my maternity leave, I had my check up. The gyne told me to get ready, as baby was on it’s way.
That same evening, I was feeling extremely tired, made a quick dinner and went to take a shower. As soon as I was done taking a shower, my water broke. So off we went to hospital and at 305am my daughter was born.
During labour there were no complications but being the first child, everything was knew. Everyone says that as soon as you hold your baby in your arms, you forget about the pain.
To be honest, when the put my daughter in my arms, it’s not that I forgot what I had just gone through. It is just that I was distracted by a bundle of love.
- SECOND PREGNANCY – MY SON
This actually was the third pregnancy, as the second one ended in a miscarriage. You can check my miscarriage story here: https://strugglingmum.com/2019/06/12/an-angel-in-heaven/
I knew I was pregnant even before I did the test. During the evening, for a few days had been feeling nauseous, which was not normal for me.
During the pregnancy, I craved junk food and always had the feeling that it was a boy. It is an old wives tale, that when you crave junk food you are expecting a boy, whilst if you crave healthier options it’s a girl.
This pregnancy was different from the first one, because I was older and had a miscarriage. The older you get, the more complications you might have during the pregnancy. In fact my blue card was full of asterisks and red marks.
At 28 weeks, I did the glucose test. The test in itself is nothing, because you need to drink a glucose mixture but it is awful. It resulted that I had gestational diabetes. It was a shock for me. I had to be hospitalized, to be under observation. It was hard, because all this happened a few weeks before Christmas.
I am not a doctor, so if you have gestational diabetes follow your doctor’s instructions. I like pasta, but it used to spike my sugar levels, until I found out that fresh pasta (using eggs) as opposed to store bought pasta and walk afterwards would not spike the sugar levels. During this period, I had to check the sugar levels approximately 7 times a day. However, sugar levels spiked, whilst on some days it was normal. There were days where I went to extremes and the sugar levels were too low and fainted.
Towards the end of January, I needed to be hospitalized urgently once again, as the blood pressure was constantly on the high side.
Although I knew what to expect, I was getting tired and was looking forward to give birth. Due to all these complications, my gyne decided and I agreed that at 38weeks I would be induced.
It worked out fine for me, because having another child I could coordinate that she sleeps at relatives whilst I was in hospital.
I was admitted to hospital, on Friday 12th February. However, nothing was changing and funnily enough I slept during the night. I was taken to the labour ward the following morning, so that they could break my water.
Once my water broke, the process was quite fast. Being in labour is not comfortable, but having the monitor wires and the blood pressure machine pumping every 30 mins were not a pleasant experience. All in all it did not take long as I was in the labour ward at around 0930hrs and at 1230hrs my son was born.
Each pregnancy and birth story is different and unique. Although it is good to hear about other people’s pregnancies and birth stories, don’t forget that not everyone is the same.
In both my kids, during labour, I tried taking the mask (what is known the laughing mask) but I just could not get the hang of it. I found nothing funny about it, I just could not breathe properly and it made me irritable. I was so conscious about the contractions, that it was actually bugging me. However, others found it very relieving.
If you are pregnant, take care of yourself and follow your doctor`s guidance. We are lucky to have competent and caring doctors and midwives. It is good to hear other people’s stories, but it does not mean that yours will be like theirs.
Love
Strugglingmum xxx
