The Pregnancy

On Friday BG turns one and I really can't believe how quickly this year has gone. She's growing up far too quickly for my liking, but I'm glad that I have managed to capture most of her first year on this blog.

I wish I had found blogging when I was pregnant, I have a feeling it would have made my pregnancy slightly less traumatic for me. I had a horrible pregnancy and pretty horrid birth and I've never really spoken about it so I've decided to tell the tale!

I've spilt it into 3 parts the pregnancy, the birth and the baby. I apologise now if I ramble on too much.

BG was a planned baby, now when I say planned this is how the discussion went:-

Christmas day 2008 (after a lot of wine)

Me "shall we have a baby?"

OH "OK"

We did have a sober conversation on the way home boxing day and we started trying straight away. I was really lucky and fell pregnant in the March of 2009, BG was born 27th November that same year 11 months and 2 days after we decided to have  a baby.

People have now started to ask us when we are having the next one and we reply "we're not" and they just laugh it off. They can laugh all they want I can't go through that again.

My pregnancy started the same as most others start. I had really bad nausea from about 6 weeks to 16 weeks pregnant, sore boobs and heartburn and that I could handle. Even when the heartburn got so bad that I woke up choking on acid, it was fine I just kept downing Gaviscon. These were normal pregnancy niggles, most pregnant women have them.

I then developed sciatica on both sides, that was really painful.

I then got carpel tunnel syndrom in my right hand, I had to give up my driving lessons and I had to wear a support at night.

Then the constipation started, I didn't poo properly until BG was born (sorry TMI)

Then restless legs at night.

One night I spent 15 hours in hospital with a suspected blood clot in my lung, I had to have chest extra and scan. It turned out I had pulled a muscle in my chest because of the weight gain.

I developed odema, I could only wear flip flops, which was great until winter hit.

Can you see the way this post is going?

Each time something else developed,  I thought to  my self its fine I surely can't get anything else!! How wrong I was.

As the pregnancy continued I got bigger and bigger and bigger. At 20 weeks pregnant people actually thought I was ready to drop. People kept asking "are you sure its only one in there?". We even asked at the 20 week scan from them to double check there was only one.

At that 20 week scan, my placenta was low so they booked me for a scan at 36 weeks!

So I keep getting bigger, I'm swollen, I'm in pain, I can barely use my right hand, I've got the most horrendous heartburn and constipation, my legs twitch at night and I'm now worried that I've got a low lying placenta! I thought pregnacy was supposed to be a wonderful experience, I kept waiting for the glow and all I got was sweaty!

BG was a very active baby which I loved and hated. I loved the fact she was moving as it reassured me that she was ok, but my god as she got bigger it hurt. I'm only short, 5 ft 3 in to be exact and she took up a lot of space, you could see you bottom sticking out and when she moved around you could see it all. Her favourite time to have a wriggle was at night, I don't think I've slept through the night since I was about 22 weeks pregnant, if she was kicking me then my super small bladder got me up.

When I went for my booking in session and 12 week scan I made a huge mistake! I had coco pops for breakfast, I didn't know they checked your glucose level, well of course mine was high. The doctor was worried so I had to go back for a glucose tolerance test, it was negative. however as I had one I had to have another one at 26 weeks. It was at this point I was diagosned with Gestantional Diabetes and this is were the fun really began.

By now I had really had enough, my pregnancy was getting harder and harder. I struggled to walk any real distance, I was constantly tired and now I had diabetes, I broke down completly and found the rest of my pregnancy really hard.

I hated being pregnant and it just kept getting worse. They first tried to control my diabetes with a change in diet, so I gave up all sugary foods ( I had now given up ciggerettes, alcohol, caffine and now chocolate!) took all their advice. That didn't work, so I then went on to tablets they didn't work either and so they put me on insulin injections.

They were worried that all they extra sugar in my system would make BG too big anday cause her problems. That really scared me and made me feel really guilty, like I was making her big. I had to visit the hospital every two weeks and see consutants and the diabetic nurse. They were concerned about her size, my size and the fact that my sugar levels wouldn't go down.

It all got to much for me and I was signed off work by the doctor at 30 weeks pregnant and then took early maternity leave.

I had a scan at 32 weeks and then again at 36 weeks by this time they estimated that she was already 9lbs and with babies putting on a 1lb a week in the last 4 weeks they were worried they she would get to big for me to give birth to.

So they booked me in to be induced 10 days before I was due and thats were I'm going to leave you...

I will post the next part The Birth on Tuesday

NM X