After some inspiration I’m back… Starting with ‘the birth’

After giving birth to Maya now 6 months… I haven’t posted once and had decided with my new sleep deprived life I didn’t have the time to carry on. Since giving up I have received several requests to carry on with the blog and this has given me the inspiration to carry on writing! (Watch this space for the new reviews)

Rather than just miss out on the first six months of Maya’s life I thought I would start at the beginning THE BIRTH!

Like most pregnant women I was filled with hope that I was going to have a pain free, tranquil water birth with no complications even though I had experienced a rather traumatic one first time round with Isabella. To help me this time round I did all that I could including Pregnancy massage with Sue Nicolson in Winchester and Yoga for Pregnancy with Marion Symes.

You may have read in a previous post that already my pregnancy wasn’t as straight forward as I had liked as my waters were leaking but with monitoring each day I managed to make it to full term and go into labour naturally. My waters broke and I was dancing round the house with excitement that I had gone into labour naturally and wasn’t going to have to be induced. Pacing the house to try and get my contractions stronger 24 hours later nothing was happening so the hospital requested that I went in for a quick trace.

When I arrived at the Day Assessment unit they decided that Maya’s heart rate was dipping and I needed to be induced so was moved to labour ward. I wasn’t prepared for this as I didn’t want to go down the same route as Isabella on the hormone drip and I started to panic. I felt as if this instantly meant my labour was going to be horrific and I would need an epidural. James (my husband) was brilliant and reminded me of all that I had learnt in yoga and forced me to get up off the bed.

After an assessment I was told that it would be at least another 6 hours even with the hormone drip as I was only 3cms. I was devastated and as Maya’s heart rate was playing up I was sure it was all about to go wrong so started asking for a c-section as I was too tired.

A shift changed happened whist I was having this melt down a brilliant new midwife arrived. She walked in and said ‘when you got pregnant you knew labour was going to be tiring and hard work so get on with it, this was only the start of tiredness’. I was so shocked this kicked me into shape and I got up and sat on the gym ball focusing on my contractions.

Every contraction determined that I wasn’t going to have pain relief this early as I still had a long way to go I was focusing on my golden thread breathing (an incredible technique that you can learn with Marion Symes). I felt calm, composed and not in pain then all of a sudden I started to panic and say I needed pain relief the current midwife called someone into the room and she told me I was in transition and to get up off the ball as I was having my baby. Eleven minutes later Maya arrived with absolutely no pain relief, this was only an hour and half after my assessment. I was in total shock as I had no idea I was that close to giving birth!

Still to this day I can’t believe I managed to get as close to the birth I planned as possible, this felt so far away when I was being hooked up to the hormone drip. I learnt a lot from this labour and really feel your mindset and focus can help you through a labour, without going to Marion’s yoga lessons I believe that I wouldn’t have learnt how to manage my pain through breathing and truely recommend her to anyone. Before this labour I believed it was impossible to have a pain free birth with the hormone drip but this isn’t true, if you can keep active, calm and focus on your breathing you’ll be surprised how this can help your labour progress and I can honestly say my contractions were pain free whilst focusing on my breathing.

For all those pregnant ladies out there keep calm and remember to breath.

Maya is now six months old and in this time we have faced many challenges that I will be writing about including sleep deprivation, allergies, bedroom sharing and the start of weaning. Over the next few weeks I will be writing as much as possible sharing the trials and tribulations of the Tapp household 🙂

Sophie x

The final preparations

I haven’t posted for a while as my life recently turned into a whirl wind of medical appointments with the scare of my waters rupturing early! After several consultations and monitoring, we found ourselves having to make the decision to leave her inside or have a c-section. Something neither of us had planned for or felt qualified to do so. The consultants tests to check her well being all came back ok, so we are currently seeing how it goes (the backing of my midwife, making me slightly less anxious) and now hoping to make it to full term and have a natural birth.

Tonight we have been moving our bedroom furniture around (ok, James has) to make way for a cot and changing table, its all starting to feel real now and my midwife is on to me to pack my hospital bag, so that will be my next chore.. I’ve ordered a few toiletries online and asked for a bath soak and cream for my birthday tomorrow so maybe I will get them 🙂

The re-arranging of the house for baby furniture is definitely making it all start to feel real and makes you think about having a newborn around the house again. James and I are struggling to remember the sleepless nights, loads of nappies and how you actually play with a baby but I’m sure when she arrives this will all come flooding back to us.

I’ve also started to read ‘The contented baby with toddler’ book by Gina Ford and wish that I had started to read it earlier as it has some amazing information in it. As with all books you need to take from it what works for you and not stick to it like a bible. Some of the topics in her book provide information on how to juggle pregnancy with a toddler, labour and a toddler, introducing a toddler to a new sibling and routine ideas to fit around nursery, playgroup and classes as well as a newborn.

With all of the above, trying to keep calm and relax has been difficult but I have found that my weekly yoga class has become a bit of a lifeline.. It is a dedicated 1 1/2 hours to relax and focus on the baby and pregnancy without any of life’s other interruption’s. The class I go to is with Marion Symes and she is amazing, I feel really confident about the birth and have taken away some great techniques. For more information about her classes visit www.littlegemsyoga.co.uk or you can also buy her DVD’s if you don’t live in the area.

Hope you all had a great bank holiday weekend, I certainly did as we had Isabella’s god parents to stay and my friends arranged me a lovely baby shower at Lainston House, Winchester

Antenatal refresher course and yoga

Last night was my first NCT antenatal refresher course and I was a little dubious about wether I would find it useful but actually really enjoyed the first session and am looking forward to the rest. I would recommend these to any second time mum to not only meet some other mum’s in the same boat as you but also remind yourself of the stages of labour, pain relief, breathing etc.. The course is a 2 hour weekly session over 5 weeks and the last one is for your partner too. Not only is it nice to refresh yourself on labour but I find it a really nice time to focus on the baby as first time round with Isabella she was my only focus this time I struggle to get time to stop and think i’m even pregnant.

http://www.nct.org.uk

This time I have been suffering pelvic pain which is totally new to me, I think this is because I am constantly lifting Isabella and running around rather than resting. To help with this I have enrolled onto a specialist Yoga course with Marion Symes – She practiced as a midwife for 12 years but now her main focus is teaching pregnancy and postnatal yoga. She used to run Active birth preparation courses at her local maternity unit but she now incorporates this teaching into her antenatal yoga course. I am starting this six week course soon so will keep you updated on how I get one :-).

http://www.littlegemsyoga.co.uk

Anyway nearly the weekend,
Sophie
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