About 00:30, 24th September 2013.
So I've just woken up with horrible, dull, aching pains in my lower back. Ouch. I don't think its related to labour though as like I previously said, I'd decided to let nature take its course, and I'd given up on trying all of the 'kick-starts'. 5 hours later I'm still tossing and turning trying to find a position comfortable enough to go back to sleep, which is failing miserably. I've also probably visited the toilet at least 4 times too. At about 05:30 I eventually fall asleep, only to be woken up at about 08:00 by Ole who is now getting ready for another hard days work. Ole leaves at about 08:45 and I think I manage to fall asleep for another 3 hours before waking up hungry haha.
Roughly midday, 24th September 2013.
I received a text message from my mum asking if I'd like to go on a walk with her just to see if it makes any difference or starts labour off! If I'm honest I was really up for a walk but since waking up, my lower belly began to hurt, sorta like Braxton's Hicks pains. I replied saying I'll see if the pain goes and if they do then I'll come on the walk. But they don't, they just keep coming and going, as well as my back having the constant dull pain. I let my mum know and she just tells me to keep her posted.
14:30, 24th September 2013.
The pains are still coming and going but getting more and more uncomfortable. And when they do come, I can't just keep still, I feel like I have to get up and move to try and ease the pain. This is when I decided to let Ole know of the situation, but I am still wary that it could be Braxton's Hicks again. He replied saying he could come home but I knew even if this was the real thing, it was still likely that there were a fair few hours to go anyway. Plus it was only 3.5 hours til he was due home. I look down and see that my toenails weren't painted (shallow I know) so I thought, 'before this gets any worse I should probably attempt to paint them.' I'm not joking when I say that painting your toenails, whilst pretty much 41 weeks pregnant and having contractions every 3 minutes isn't one of the easier tasks in life. Especially when every time you do have a contraction, you have to get up and try all positions possible in order to ease the pain. Looking back I must've looked like a complete nutter hahah.
17:50, 24th September 2013.
By this point I didn't know what time it was and I felt like I was in my own world. Ole arrived home and everything seemed like a blur. I remember saying I wanted to try getting into the bath to see if it helped the pain so Ole helped me upstairs, we lit some candles and put some bubble bath in. The warmth from the water helped my back pain a lot and I felt a lot calmer. I remember worrying that I was missing 'The Great British Bake Off', especially as it was nearing the final but Ole and Julia kept telling me not to worry and that I could catch up on it later haha. Funny what you worry and think about during huge amounts of pain.
20:45, 24th September 2013.
At this time my contractions were coming every 3 minutes roughly and lasting at least 50 seconds; that's an incredibly short amount of time in the real world, but when you're in labour it feels like forever. We rang the hospital and they told us to come in; thank god we had everything packed! (I'd only packed a few days before haha, I know most mummies-to-be have their bag packed at least a month before their due dates!) Julia decided the best idea would be to drop me and Ole to the hospital as the car parking charge was astronomical. When we arrived, Ole ran and got me a wheelchair and we headed up to the maternity ward. I was really hoping I'd almost near the pushing stage, but when she did examine me she told me I was only 3cm dilated. I felt really disheartened but the midwife told me I could stay in tri-age for the night in case I progressed (definitely about to be mine and Ole's longest night ever!)
I don't want to bore you to death so I'll save the rest for my next post...
J xxx
Pre-Labour Day!
So my due date came and passed (18.09.13) and there was still no sign of a baby! I had family and friends left, right and centre constantly texting and calling to see if I was having any contractions, where the baby was or if I had even had him. This drove me absolutely insane - did they really not think I'd tell them or get somebody to let them know if there was any labour signs? I had to turn my phone off in the end hahah. To say I was moody, snappy, short tempered and generally down in the dumps was a big understatement! Saying that though, throughout my whole pregnancy my mood was, for the most part, quite upbeat and positive. This shocked me because I thought I'd be an emotional wreck - Ole got lucky ;)
I had my 'sweep' (where the midwife internally sweeps over your cervix to help start labour off) and she told me I was already 3cm dilated and I contracted on her hand!! Obviously this got me very optimistic and excited so when me and Ole got home we went for a really long walk to try and get things going. Considering I was over 40 weeks pregnant at this point and waddling more than a duck would, walking for a long time was really uncomfortable but if it meant the baby came, I was up for anything. The end result? Nothing.
Next on the list was raspberry leaf tea, a hot curry, downing about 1/2 a bottle of lactulose (I couldn't get castor oil anywhere so this was the next best thing! Although all it did was mean I was constantly on the loo...), and yeah, even sex! The end result of these? Yep. Nothing.
It's mad how crazy reading all the different wives tales about how they started their labours' off can make you. You invest in all these different ideas and you actually believe they'll work for you. The truth is, every woman on the planet is different, and yes a hot curry may help one woman, and driving over speed bumps really fast may help another. But at the end of the day, nature is nature and you can't push it. The baby will come when the baby wants to; but as an overdue, fed up and incredibly emotional pregnant woman, accepting this is a massive thing to ask. For me also, about 2 weeks prior, I had had some really painful Braxton's Hicks which lasted about 8 hours regularly - so I thought that was gonna' be the real thing!
After about 4 days of doing anything and everything I could to try and make myself go into labour, I gave up. I finally accepted that you can't force something that doesn't want to be. You can't force love, you can't force a child to eat all their vegetables at dinner, you can't force your size 5/38 foot into a size 3/36 shoe just because you really want them, and you definitely cannot force a baby to come out when it doesn't want to.
In hindsight, completely relaxing and letting nature take it's own course was the best thing I did in the end (as 1.5 days later my contractions actually started and 2 days later I was holding my beautiful boy!) Labour post to follow...
J xxx
NCT
NCT is the UK's largest parental charity that offer information and support to new and existing parents. Me and Ole decided to book NCT as we were too late to have the NHS antenatal classes (my fault for not reading the pink book properly!) As we were under 21 and didn't have a high income at the time, we got almost 90% off the original price which we thought was amazing!
Our first class was on the 24th of August (I would've been about 36 weeks pregnant; all the other mummies to be were about 30 weeks!). The class was 09:30-16:00. Me and Ole originally thought this was quite a long time but once we had got going the time went really fast! In this session we covered 'pre-labour, labour and birth'. Ole and I both found this very interesting and it made Ole much more confident in knowing how to support me during labour and birth. We learned massage techniques, breathing techniques, signs of labour & different pain relief (the body's natural endorphin's are as strong as gas and air if you get your breathing right!!!).
We completed different tasks such as:
* Placing diagrams in the correct order which reflect labour.
* What we thought the pros and cons of each pain relief were; gas and air, pethidine, epidural and TENS machines.
* Labour relaxation
techniques and visualisations such as pretending you're blowing out a line of 5
candles one after the other (this is the breathing/panting you should be doing
when the midwives ask you not to push)
* And many more!!
As well as learning
about these different topics, Ole and I met some really great couples -
including ourselves there were 6 couples. All of whom were roughly 30 weeks
pregnant might I add so we were the first couple who would be giving birth! One
of the mummies - Jo - was expecting twin girls and it was really
interesting talking to her about the plans for her birth, as obviously it would
be very different to ours as she was classed as a high risk pregnancy. Compared
to everyone else I would say that me and Ole were the most relaxed about
everything - which was funny as we were the youngest couple by at least 8-10
years I'd say. The other mummies were very anxious and scared about labour
whereas I never felt that way.
Deciding to pay for our antenatal classes and for the experience of the NCT was something I would recommend to ANY parents/mummies to be (depending on your age and income there are massive discounts available which I don't think many people know about. - We got 90% off for our course). At first Ole and I didn't really feel like we learned that much; we felt like we knew most of what Anna was talking about. But actually, just being reassured that what you're thinking or doing is right, means a lot. Especially if it's your first baby/babies!
Once our boy was born we realised how much NCT had actually helped us. I think it helped Ole a lot as he felt very much like he 'wouldn't be able to do anything right or be a good dad' which I think most men must feel like as it's a whole new playing field for them. NCT gave Ole confidence and made most of his fears about birth, labour and becoming a new parent disappear! It also assured him that regarding post-labour, he knew when my milk would be coming in for example, and he knew ways in which he could help me with the baby and my own personal recovery. I honestly don't know what I would've done without Ole by my side that first week or so - I couldn't even walk up the stairs or get in the bath by myself! I felt like such an invalid and felt like I was about 80.
{ If you'd like to contact NCT for courses, advice, parenting tips, and so much more then visit their website: www.nct.org.uk (just click here) or you can call their helpline on: 0300 330 0700 }
You can even sign up to receive your FREE guide to pregnancy, your baby's development and life as a parent.
J xxx
More bump photos
So here I am 37 weeks pregnant!
I decided to take some more photos whilst pregnant before the baby arrived as I knew I'd treasure the photos forever and it would be interesting to see the difference from my last baby bump photos. As you can see I have grown quite a bit! Little man must be getting big!
Again I took the photos myself and I am pleased with how they have come out; I have even been asked to participate in a university interview for a student covering young pregnancy! Which I am thrilled about. I can't believe our gorgeous baby is due in just under three weeks time, the excitement I am feeling is indescribable! Definitely counting down the days til we meet our son.
As you can see also I managed to get Ole in on the action, and I'm so glad I did because I think these photos of us are amazing, and they're something I can treasure forever, and even get a couple blown up onto canvas when we finally move out :D
J xxx
Our Trip to Sidmouth
11th-16th August 2013
This was mine and Ole's little getaway before our son was due to enter the world.
Originally, we were meant to have a weekend away at a spa hotel which Ole had surprised me with, but when he went to book the treatments, the hotel said there were no more spaces - so we cancelled. Although it was a shame, I was soon to be going away with my family to Turkey for 10 days, and Ole was soon to be going away with his friends to Magaluf for 7 days. We knew that we both really wanted to get away together, just us before the baby arrived so we kept our options open. I even suggested camping to Ole's dismay haha. After searching through lots of options, Ole's mum recommended Sidmouth.
One of their family friends owns a house there right on the seafront, and Ole and his family had been and stayed numerous amounts of times during the summer so Ole knew the location fairly well. This seemed like a brilliant idea - and Debs didn't want any money either so this was even more appealing! We decided to drive down on the Sunday evening after Ole and I finished work at Vauxhall. The drive only took 3 hours without stopping but it was a gorgeous drive, especially with the summer sun setting around us. We drove past Stone Henge and a vast amount of gorgeous fields and farms, singing along to songs the whole way.
When we arrived it was dark but you could still see the waves lapping on the shore in the moonlight and I remember thinking that nature is beautiful. We unloaded all of our things after having a look in every single room of the house (it's 3 floors) - as you do! I think it must've been about 21:30 and we were peckish so we decided to go for a walk into the town which was only about 10 minutes away. After meandering through the cobbled streets, past the cute little shops we found a Tesco Express! Which was good because it was the only place open! We bought shepherds pie and some basics and decided we'd come back tomorrow for more supplies. After getting in and eating dinner at about 22:30, we snuggled up and watched a film.
For the whole duration we'd wake early - around 9ish, have some breakfast and watch some tv. Then fall asleep again til about 2pm, have some lunch and then go for a wander around Sidmouth. Although the beach was pebbled, it was gorgeous and so relaxing watching the children play in the sea, build sandcastle and watching people in boats. Of course we bought some seaside chips and donuts to share and we sat on deck chairs sharing them in the gorgeous sun.
It was the best week ever with Ole, totally relaxing enjoying each others company, doing what we wanted, when we wanted. We also both love to cook so making dinner every night was something we could share and have fun doing together. We even got some fudge and rock to take back with us - I grew quite a sweet tooth in my final few weeks of pregnancy. Walking around everywhere whilst 35 weeks pregnant had its advantages and disadvantages. Obviously the disadvantages were that by this point my bump was getting really heavy and this was putting a strain on my lower back and nerves. Plus I was waddling like you wouldn't believe - funny image to think about I know haha! The advantages though were that it made me feel good to be walking everywhere and at my own pace, knowing that with every step the baby was getting lower and lower into my pelvis!
It was sad to be leaving Sidmouth and back to reality but we were also excited as it was one week closer to meeting our baby boy!
Saying that, the journey home was horrendous. We left Sidmouth at about midday, and it took over 6 hours to get home (without stopping) due to a crash on the motorway, and as a result the motorway had to be shut, so we were crawling the whole way home!!
J xxx
Baby Bump Photos
At this stage in my pregnancy, I was roughly 24 weeks pregnant. According to my very informative app 'BabyCentre', our little sprog was about 30cm at this point - the same length as a corn on the cob! What's also interesting is that at this point, my uterus was the size of a football! I think it's truly amazing to look back and see how much my bump has grown, and how quickly too. It's funny looking back and thinking "wow, I'm huge" - and then seeing how big I am now. Compared to how big my bump is now, this is a tiny bump!
I'm so happy with how these photos came out, especially as I captured and edited them myself. (Using my Canon 500D). I knew early on in my pregnancy I wanted to have some photos taken of my bump as I'm sure I won't be looking like this for a long while! Unfortunately Ole wasn't around for these photos but we've agreed we'll take some more nearer the end of my pregnancy so we can compare the differences!
I set up my tripod, pulled down my white blackout blind - which also works brilliantly as a photography screen, and after a while of trial and error, finally found the perfect position for my camera and the best position for me to stand/sit. At first I didn't really have an idea of what sort of poses to recreate, but the more photos I took, the more comfortable I became.
After taking these shots it made me realise that I could take photographs for other women in the future, as well as photos of newborns, babies and children. I got a really good response from the people I shared my photos with, and this has given me the confidence to make specialising in this sort of photography a possibility. It would also work around having a newborn myself, and it's fun, rewarding and wouldn't ever seem like a chore.
In other news, I am due to go abroad to Turkey in 4 weeks time so I am very excited about that! I'm going with my mum, her boyfriend and my three brothers. It's great timing as Ole will be going away to Magaluf with his friends at the same time. I can't wait to properly relax in the sunshine for 10 days, whilst getting a tan! I shall write a new post all about it once I'm home!
J xxx
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