25th November 2024

Here goes the birth story...

I really want to try and grow this blog section of my website and give a real insight into my life as a mummy to three beautiful girls. So here goes nothing, the story of how our Novi Rae arrived. 

As stated in my last blog post, in my first pregnancy I had preclampsia, I then didn't get it in my second pregnancy. So this pregnancy I was being monitored for it but it wasn't really a big concern, and I'd said to myself I would love to go in to labour naturally (having never experienced this due to being induced twice before)

I had an obstetrican monitoring this pregnancy due to both the girls pregnancies not being totally straight forward prior. So at 38 + 4 I went for my last growth scan and that was all perfect she was measuring brilliantly and all was healthy. The day before this I went to the doctors where the doctor took my blood pressure (not pregnancy related) and it was reading high she reassured me not to worry and said to check it again at MAU after my growth scan, so after my scan I headed up to MAU for a check and again it read high - they reassured me and said let's read it three times and space it out try and relax and drink some water... all three readings came up high but there were no other signs of preclampsia, we waited a couple of hours for a doctor to come down and she simply said we advise that you don't go past 39 weeks you have 'PIH' (pregnancy-induced hypertension) which can lead to preclampsia - she simply said you have two options you either opt for an induction or you can elect to have a ceaserean. I had already stated the whole way through my pregnancy that I did not want to be induced this time round and that wasn't an option so a ceaserean would be my decision. As everyone is aware of how busy hospitals are and the general understaffing I couldn't book in for a ceaserean until the 25th November (their first availability) and I was put on medication to manage my blood pressure until then. 

Two days before an elective cesearean you go for a pre op where they let you know about what is going to happen (I think it's a day prior if you have any other weekday but Monday), have a blood test etc and are given the medication ready for the evening before and the morning of the operation. You obviously can't eat from the evening before your operation so we headed to the hospital for 8am the morning of the 25th (they didn't actually let us know at this point what the order of the day would be) So we arrive at 8am and are put on the labour ward to one side - they checked me in and then a doctor came around and stated the order of the day.. Brighton usually book in a maximum of three elective ceasereans in one day and I could feel it coming but I was number 3! This means the likely hood of you not actually getting done is potentially quite high as obviously emergencies take priority. The first lady went down around 9:30am and I thought amazing we are off to the best start (she was originally pushed from the Friday) then 2 emergencies came in and then around 1pm they came over and said we are unsure if you'll get done today as usually the last ceasearen is around 4:30/5pm. The second person then went in at 3pm and we were thinking there's no way we are getting done today (at this time still having not eaten a thing) The doctor in charge then came around and spoke to us and we expressed our concern that I was told and advised I was done at 39 weeks due to PIH and existing preclampsia with Afie. She then advised that the next two days were fully booked for elective ceaseareans and that she would do everything in her power to get us done on the 25th providing there were no more emergencies. at 4:50pm we got the green light that we were going to be having our c section but it still feels so unknown because until you get into the theatre an emergency could obviously still arise... at 5:18pm our little Novi Rae was born - and both myself and Justin were absolutely over the moon and obsessed with our newest little girl. 

I can't explain how it feels to not go through labour before a cesearean it's a strange/surreal feeling to go in for an operation and 45 minutes later come out with your baby - I was sitting in the recovery feeling on top of the world (definitely due to the meds) sipping a cup of tea and eating the best thing known to any woman that has just had a baby the TOAST!! we stayed in recovery for a couple of hours as the post natal ward was pretty busy - my mum then came to recovery and myself, Justin and my mum were just in absolute cloud nine and in absolute awe over Novi. Once heading down to the post natal ward, my mum headed home and Justin settled me and Novi in - he was actually going to stay with me for the evening and stay in hospital but once we'd headed down I said to him there is no point in us both being sleep deprived so he headed home to get a good nights sleep - bearing in mind 3rd time round you've got two other kids that you need to still have normality for. So Justin headed home and I stayed up all night holding Novi until he arrived back at the hospital the next day! After a ceaserean you still have the cathater in so I couldn't actually get out of the bed I simply stayed in the same position all night having to ring for the midwife when Novi needed changing - at this point she was latching and we were just having cuddles through the whole night.

The girls came up to the hospital after school the following day and we hadn't actually told them that we'd had Novi we wanted to surprise them... they knew I was in hospital and knew they were coming to see me but when they walked in they were just over the moon and went omg Novi is here!! I could have burst with absolute pride of my three girls all together. Justin then took the girls home for bedtime and at around 10pm that evening I was told I could go home, I was over the moon after both the first girls - I stayed in the hospital for 5 days with Afie and 7 days with Suri so felt so thankful to get home straight away with Novi. However I had totally forgotten how much of an emotional roller coaster the first few days/weeks are after having a baby and felt so utterly in love with Novi and on top of the world but also petrified of something going wrong - I feel like this is such a normal topic to speak about but somehow it isn't spoken about half as much as it should be. I have completely rambled on and I have so much more to speak about with Novi but I feel like this is the perfect place to hit pause before another blog post. 

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading our story of Novi Rae x


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