It is 6am, my little sweetie has had me up since 2:30 am. She is now asleep on the couch and I have been thinking about our time in CHCH and a conversation I had with gareth (my brother) about Kaitlin's beginnings. He was asking me about why I went into early labour etc, and I have thought a bit of history on the blog would be good for those who have wondered but didn;t want to ask. So...
I had a threatened miscarriage (bleeding) with Kaitlin at 7weeks and again at 13weeks. The second time it really didn't look good so mum and dad met Wayne and I at the after hours emergency where the doctor said all I could do was go home and wait. Either the bleeding would get worse and we would lose the baby or it would stop. Thank god it stopped but our little girls tenacity had shown itself, and the drama that was to be the hallmark of KJ's first 12 months had begun.
At around 23 weeks, I began to feel like I was wetting my pants slightly all the time. I rang our midwife (she was on a cell and in a hurry, this was to be a common occurance) and she gave me the bums rush off the phone with some explanation of increased secretions during pregnancy. I was working at this time in two houses of 5 people in each with severe disabilities. There was a bit of lifting people and shackling wheelchairs into vans and physical work, but it felt manageable. A few days later I had really bad pains in my abdomen, but it felt no worse than bad constipation. I rang my midwife, Anne Corkin, and she told me to eat more fibre and get some kiwi crush. So I did. A week later the pain was so bad that I couldn't drive the work van and had to go home. I rang the midwife and told her I was worried and she said "I TOLD you to look after your bowel!"in an impatient, annoyed way. Hmmm, it just didn't feel right. I told my best friend Frith, Ï know it sounds crazy but I feel like my placenta is rotton or something, it feels like this baby is sick inside me. That Friday I was so worried because the pain was still there and Kaitlin (who used to do a funny dance inside me when Friends came on TV at night) hadn't moved for a few days. I kinew I wasn't going to get anywhere with our midwife and I didn't want to be a silly panicky first time mum (which is how she had made me feel) so I rang Healthline and asked what they thought. "Get straight to the doctor!"was the reply. So I went. They listened to Kaitlin's heartbeat, did my blood pressure and sent me off saying, you guessed it, ït's normal for a first time mum to worry. So the next day when I had to drive to mum and dad's house for mum's birthday in so much pain that I had to rest only on one butt cheek because the pressure in my abdomen was so bad, there was no way in hell I was going to ring someone and feel stupid again. Even though Wayne's mum said we should. At mum's the pain was intense but on and off every 20 minutes or so, so I decided it must be Braxton Hicks. "Heehee I think this baby is coming!" I joked with my cousin and her friends, in between doubling up with pain and panting. "Jeez Becks if you're this bad with practise contractions, imagine how you'll go with the real thing"said my my mum. I was so miserable I went home. There was green goo in my pants. Thats not right I thought so I swallowed my pride and rang the midwife, getting the it's normal speel again. I lay in bed with Wayne and the Pains were 10 minutes apart. Then some orange jelly came out. We rang the midwife and she said to get a wheat bag, disprin and stay in bed. She said if I didn't feel any better in the morning, she was inducing someone at the hospital at 9am and she would meet us there then. We rang Wayne's mum. "For gods sake, thats not normal, call the hospital!" she said. When we did they told us to come straight in but to tell our midwife. We did but she still wouldn't come to the party. So at about 1am we drove in and got taken to a birthing suite for observation and wouldnt you know it! The pain went away. Until they asked for a urine sample and as I stood up I gushed blood. Action stations. They lay me on a bed with my feet up, strapped me to a feotal heart monitor and at about 3am sent someone in to say that if we had the baby this early there could be complications, disability etc, but not always and that we may be able to hold it in if I stay in bed
. At that age, now 24weeks 5 days (at that stage of gest ev day counts!) the baby's lungs are not developed so it can't breathe on its own if it's born, so they pumped me with steroid injections to speed up the lung development. There I lay for two-three days, friends and family holding vigil.
Confused, scared and receiving conflicting info about whether she would be born or I would be on bed rest for weeks. Looking back now, neither Wayne or I were at all able to digest any of this or the enormity of what was happening, and when my midwife stuck her head in the door and said I'd probably be at home that afternoon on the couch drinking a cuppa and watching TV, I honestly thought that was a possibility until I asked the doc and got a very grave look. It turned out the "pants wetting" had been my waters leaking slowly, my cervix was dilated, the "green mucus"had been the plug that comes away when you go into labour (ha! so I wasn't being a wuss mum :-) and my white blood cell count was so high they didn't know how I had been walking around. This indicates infection so Kaitlin and I had to be treated for that also. The bug we had was all through my placenta and things. It is called Urea Plasma, lives in 80% of women and is only a problem if you are pregnant. As it is only detectable by blood test and there were three women in neonatal with prem babies because of it, I recommend that anyone who is pregnant request the blood test for it as it isn;t offered to you. True to form, Kaitlin was breech and waited for our mums (who had been camping out at the hospital all weekend) to go home for quick showers before she made her grand entrance (natural delivery) into the world on Monday morning 2nd October. To be honest I have had wind that was more difficult to pass! The room was full of nurses and doctors and Wayne (who was my rock). 
Kaitlin had obs done. She was 30cm, 800g. They put her in an oven bag thingee to keep her warm and whisked her away to neonatal. I don't remember much of that except not wanting to touch her or look at her because I was sure she was going to die. It was a feeling that would last only a few hours until I saw her, but reared it horrible head many times in the next six months as our little girl was quite literally tortured in my opinion and fought (and won) many battles for her life during that time. That's a whole other blog someday though.
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