Pregnancy: Third Trimester + Birth

Naomi has arrived! 😀

Even though this post is super late, I thought I might just do it for the sake of completeness.

The third trimester continued to run smoothly, besides walking heaps slower and being way more tired and feeling really stretched in my belly. I developed stretch marks too. But this is pretty nothing compared to most people. I didn’t get any swelling or anything. Continued to sleep relatively well.

We continued to receive heaps of love from our church family in bringing me soup to have every week 🙂

The Birth

Don’t keep reading if you don’t want to know the birth story, though I’ve tried to keep it relatively brief.

Basically:

• Naomi was born at 38+5 weeks, 27/3/2014, weighing in at 2.74 kg (6.2 pounds)
• I started getting contractions at 5am in the morning, Naomi was born 00:34 the next day.
• The ‘so-called’ milder contractions hung around till 5pm until it got a lot closer together, close enough to get to hospital. During this time I wasn’t able to sleep so I tried to distract myself with DVD’s, breathing exercises, rest/conserve energy etc.
• Got into hospital by the next hour (we live 10-15min drive away)
• Was about 6cm dilated, within the next hour, went to 9cm (ARGH).
• Got some gas
• Got epidural anyway (although its considered rather late). 3 hospital staff tried to convince me maybe I don’t need it since the baby would be born pretty soon. They didn’t refuse though – ultimately my decision, so I insisted with my plan.
• After she was born, apparently I lost a lot of blood and I needed two sets of stitches. Local anesthetic applied, and gas was good at this point.

All in all, it was relatively straight forward, and as pleasant and you could get I suppose. The pain is definitely not fun at all but almost can’t remember it now (or is it just being suppressed to the back of my mind?)

Stayed in Logan hospital for 3 days:

• Each ward has 4 beds
• I also have private health cover, so I was moved to a private room on the final day when one became available (usually reserved for people needing more care). That’s all private cover is good for anyway – the room. That’s it. Private rooms are kinda nice, with your own bathroom and all
• It’s alright, lots of people around during the day, but you do seem to get enough rest in between everyone’s visitors and the cycle of medical staff checking you/baby and the paperwork that needs to get done and also feeding the baby (who doesn’t need much milk in the beginning).
• The food – not bad, hospital food what do you expect
• The midwives/nurses were generally really good – except one who was extremely rude.

Will update on how being a new mum is later, it’s a crazy life right now.

Thanks for reading and sharing the journey 🙂