Finally! A birth blog!

Finally a blog post I have been excited to write throughout my whole pregnancy!

THE BIRTH BLOG! 

:D

This is something I've been nervous about posting as everyone's birth story is different but every single one is helpful to hear when your planning your birth plan. 

So during the last few months of my pregnancy was a struggle due to many health issues that I had developed. This was mainly because of my brain pressure which was causing problems to my blood pressure making it go higher than what it should be. Of course this then was worrying as it was effecting my health and also baby's health. I was having weekly check ups of my blood pressure and every time I got kept in overnight at the hospital just in case anything bad happened whilst the pressure was higher. Luckily until 36 weeks it was easy to cope with but obviously things don't turn out the way you want them too. I started to get worse and got really poorly so they done loads of blood tests and they found out I had something which is called pre-eclampsia which is a condition that can affect yourself and your little one. This was being monitored closely and due to my health going downhill they said I would have to be induced by 38 weeks and doctors chose the 6th of October for me to be induced and gave me the option of if I wanted a normal delivery or a c-section. 

Nervous was a understatement as we was excited to meet her but nervous that it will be 2 weeks earlier. So on the 26th of October I was going into hospital for one of my weekly routine check ups and of course knowing my luck it didn't go to plan! My blood pressure was through the roof and there was protein in my wee ( which the doctors was worrying due to the pre-eclampsia) I got kept in overnight. All of this then meant the doctors moved my induction up to the Saturday instead, which meant we had to have the proper talk about what kind of delivery I was going to have. With the SPD and my brain pressure there was more of a push for a C-section because it might be safer but I decided that I wanted to at least give a normal birth a go and if I could do it then I wouldn't have such a massive recovery period. 

During the night on Thursday and early Friday morning my health got even worse! 

Just my luck I know right! :/ 

Friday morning the doctors came round and saw all my maternity notes and heard about what happened during the night and decided I can't wait another day to be induced and booked me in to be induced that day. 

OH MY GOD!

Was the words that was going through my head! Not because I was scared but because we could meet her any day and I would become a mummy. 

A pessary is what they give to people they want to induce their labour which is a little tablet that needs to be near your cervix to release the hormones to trick your body that you are in real labour. This is in for 24 hours and then after that you get checked and see if you have dilated at all. This was taken after they had put the pessary in. I was this happy once all the contractions had started that was for sure!

24 hours passed and I was 1.5cm dilated but my cervix was to high so they couldn't break my waters. This then meant I had to have another pessary, so another 24 hours passed, and I was checked at 6am and still nothing had changed. Annoyed isn't the right word but I don't exactly want to swear on this blog so annoyed is the perfect word. We then had the doctors come round and spoke about what our options were regarding the baby. I had to have a 24 hour rest and everyone who has 2 pessaries medically have to have it before they try anything else. This I was thankful for as I was struggling with the mini contractions that I was getting and even these was effecting my brain pressure to the point not even strong painkillers helped. So we went through the options and we decided a C-section was the safest choice for me.

My time slot came for me to go down to theatre and that walk is the scariest thing as you just think of things that are going to happen to you whilst they are doing the operation. So they sit you on a table to give you a spinal block so that you don't feel anything during the whole thing. They giving you a numbing injection and then they wheel you through to the actual theatre room and give you the main injection which will numb your body. This was a weird experience as it wasn't painful but it just felt like a lot of pressure. They also put in a catheter in as you can't feel anything and this is normally in for 24 hours. Within 5 minutes I couldn't feel anything and I was laying down being checked if I could actually feel anything and they spray you with a cold spray to see if you can feel that and if you don't you are ready to go!

They pinch you to see if you are big time numb and I couldn't feel it so they started but because I could feel anything I said to them have they started yet and one of the nurses said they are just about to get her head out!!! I honestly had no idea they had started let alone how quickly it happens.

At 12:32pm they made the first cut and by 12:37pm she was born..

I was a mummy … I was a real life mummy …. something I had always dreamed of being had actually come true!!

They took her away and cleaned her and done all their tests and weighed her and she was a little chunk as she weighed 7 pound 6 ounces. The first thing we saw once she was born was how dark her hair was and how much hair she had as well. We was able to have her close to us to see her properly.

By 1:20pm they was finished and I was stitched back up and placed into recovery. This was the first time I actually held her due to my arms feeling to numb when we was in the actual theatre. I couldn't believe she was here in my arms and not in my tummy as a little bump. The recovery room you are in there for an hour for you to be watched just in case you have any reaction to the surgery and they can do things if you do. This time I hadn't so after the hour had passed we was allowed back onto the ward.

My mum was the first person to meet her and she loved her! Then was my dad and her other grandparents came up in the evening to meet her as well. It was so overwhelming the fact that she was a real person. 

At our local hospital the visiting rules were that the parents of the baby could stay until 9pm and other visitors till 8pm. It was quite scary to think I had just had major surgery and i'm going to be left on my own without anyone by my side but that is what the midwifes are on call for. Because of the fact I had a C-section your not allowed to pick up anything heavy for a few weeks, and this included picking her up from the hospital cot to feed her and change her nappy. But the midwifes and nurses do this until you are physically ready to do it yourself. The next morning they took out the catheter out as I could feel my legs and move them around so there was no need for it to be in anymore. That was a different experience as well. I was glad once it was out as that meant I was in the mend. After this they try and get you up and walking to the toilet. My lord trying to get up was such a hard thing to do as it makes you realise how much you actually use your tummy muscles to do anything. It was so painful but I knew I needed to do it and once I was up it hurt for a few minutes but once you start walking it felt better. I was always told the first wee you do is painful and it was but I was expecting that.

So after 2 days in the hospital recovering baby and me was sent home. I was so thankful for all the staff at the hospital that looked after us. Coming home in the car was a sore time as every little bump in the road you feel. Ouch! I just held my tummy whenever I knew there was coming up. Once we was home it felt like we was a proper little family.

So this was my Birth Blog. Thank you to everyone who has read it and enjoyed it.
Looking forward to writing more blog about how Matilda develops and grows up!

From Mummy Emma & Baby Matilda.

xoxox

👶🏼 First Pregnancy Blog 👶🏼

Pregnancy Blog

It's amazing how one little news can change your life completely! 

Since being a little girl the one thing I've always wanted to be was a mum, and growing up with all the pcos and endometriosis problems they tell you that there might be a slight chance that you couldn't have children, and obviously this was such a hard thing to deal with, but I took everything in and just focused on other things rather than worrying about something I have no control over. 

So this year definitely was a shock when just a normal visit to the doctor turned into more news than one could ever expect.

I honestly thought I was just under the weather but little did I know it was a little baby that was causing all the different symptoms. 

It also happened to be the same day I found out that I got promoted to a shop manager, so the day is always going to be stuck in my head for one to remember.

I've always been told that becoming pregnant you change the way you think and see things and I didn't think that would happen until it happened to me. 

It took a while for it to even sink in that I was even pregnant. We had a little scare when I was 6 weeks as I was having such pain in my right side of my tummy they was concerned that it might of been a ectopic pregnancy which is when the baby grows inside your fallopian tube inside of inside your uterus. The wait for the ultrasound was so scary as you don't want to think the worst but you have to prepare yourself for it. So once the scan came around and to hear the lady say the baby is in the perfect place and to be able to see the little heartbeat beating away honestly just made you want to cry, not because it was upsetting but because it was a relief that everything was ok. 

This was the 6 weeks scan!

So as the weeks go on you get your first scan at 12 weeks and that's when they do all the health checks and make sure everything is on the right track. It is a amazing feeling to be able to see your little baby in your tummy on a screen moving around and it was such a strange feeling being able to see it move around on the screen and not being able to feel anything, but I knew soon enough I would be able to feel it. 

This was the scan picture from 12 weeks!

I surprisingly had a little bump already but where I always used to swell up from my previous problems no one really noticed the difference. The strange thing was that I used to think that this was a cute little bump. Little did I know the further along the cuter the bumps are!

My little bump at 12 weeks!

My little bump at 14 weeks!

My little bump at 16 weeks!

My little bump at 18 weeks! 

My little bump at 20 weeks!

At this point is when you have normally your 2nd scan and this is another health check for baby but it is also the time you can finally find out the gender of your little one! My scan went well and the baby was measuring at a healthy size and was weighing 15 ounces. Growing perfectly. We didn't find out as we was having a big gender reveal party to find out the sex. We had a cake made with the colour of the gender inside as I didn't like the idea of popping a balloon as I'm not a fan of the sound of it. So I thought well I am pregnant any old excuse to have cake really!

So we had an old friend make our cake for us and it was exciting to be able to find out what are baby was going to be. So the night before the party Gemma and I set up all the decorations by blowing up all the balloons and sorting out the sweet table and even the party favours. Of course we enjoyed this as any sweet that didn't fit we could just eat it and no one would know. Well they will now but it's fine as the party has already been and gone. 

Party day has arrived. WHOOP WHOOP!!

I don't think we got any sleep the night before as we ended up getting up at 5 am just because the baby was awake as that was its routine for a while to wake up everyday at that time which was annoying but we needed to get up early but not that early. Opps my bad! But we straight away had a cup of tea which woke us up. Then we sorted out all the last minute decorations such as the helium balloons which the ones I had brought a few of them had holes in them which I was quite surprised for card factory balloons as they are normally quite good. But luckily I had brought extra anyway :) 

This was the invite for the party, as I quite like the theme winnie the pooh at the moment we made the invites the same.

Everyone had to wear the colour they thought the gender would be. Such as if they thought it was a girl they would have to wear pink and the same for a boy they would be in blue. There was a ray of just pink and blue with everyone that turned up which was amazing to see. 

I wore a white dress that had pink at the bottom of the sleeves as I thought girl. So here's some pictures from the day.

This cake was made by Liz. This was an amazing cake as it tasted incredible and it fed over 40 people which is what we needed. 

So if anyone in East Sussex needs a good cake maker I would highly suggest Liz. This is her facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/LushCakesByLiz/

We got everyone to stand in front of us so that when we cut the cake I could record everyone's reactions.

So it was time to cut into the cake and find out what the baby is.....

Wonder what it could be???

IT WAS PINK!!!

A LITTLE GIRL!!

We was so surprised but over the moon as we didn't care what it would be as long as it was healthy that's what made it all important. 

So this was honestly the best few months leading up to finding out that she's a little girl.

Well enough reading for now as I better work out what to write for the second part of the pregnancy blog...

I hope you've enjoyed reading my story so far...

Here's to the next pregnancy blog and finding out more stuff about our baby and sorting out the nursery and baby clothes shopping.

Suprise! Who doesn't love a surprise???

Surprise Weekend Vlog

I also done a vlog the whole weekend if you fancy a watch!

This year for Christmas I decided to surprise my best friend with a weekend away to London. 

This was a total shock to me as what I had planned for her didn't actually last till Christmas so I had to improvise. I said to her that the surprise was her early present. She was absolutely fine with that. 

So I love giving surprises to people as I enjoy seeing their faces once they've realised what they've got. A few years ago I surprised my mum with Adele tickets to the London O2 and the year after I surprised my other best friend Gemma for her birthday and we went up to London as I got her tickets to go see the lion king. I done a clue every month leading up to the day we was in London. She didn't have a clue and she didn't even think when we was standing outside the theatre. So I pretended to take a picture of her when I was actually filming her reaction. This was priceless for me. She ended up screaming and the people around us probably would of thought what are those girls doing..

So I thought as I love giving surprises, I would surprise Hollie with a weekend away in London. 

Hollie comes over every Thursday so I thought I could come up with some clues to give her every week leading up to the day. I always thought when you give clues to someone they should always rhyme. 

These are the clues that I have given to her..

This was her first ever clue. She had no clue what it was.

This was her second clue. She still didn't have a clue. Kept calling me Dr Seuss because she liked the rhyming I had done.

This where I kind of slipped up and mentioned we was going to London as I thought we had already spoken about it. OPPS!

This was her fourth clue and she mentioned something about Winter Wonderland. Which I had to say that doesn't open till late November.

This was her fifth clue. Yep she still had no clue what so ever.

This was her last ever Thursday clue. We was 2 days away and she was starting to get really annoyed with the fact she still didn't know what we was doing.

 

This was her first clue for the BIG DAY. I gave this to her once we got onto the train, so it gave her something to think about.

 This is the clue I gave to her once we arrived outside the theatre. Once we took a picture outside the Musical poster. 

I also came up with a London To Do List

I had done this as I had to somehow get her to the place we needed to go too.

This included things that you would normally do in London without throwing her off the scent of her surprise.

My to do list I made included things such as:

• Take a picture at Bexhill station
• Take a picture at underground
• Take a picture of us eating lunch
• Buy one item from the Disney Store
• Take a picture of us outside the hotel room
• Take a picture of our posh room
• Take a picture with a old telephone box
• Take a random funny picture
• Take a funny video
• Take a picture with a Landmark
• Take a picture with our favourite musical poster 
• Take a picture of us in our pj's 
• Take a picture of our pudding order 
  

Little did she know that the thing in purple was her actual surprise!

I also wrote her a little letter that I had put in a Thank You card to give her once we arrived at the hotel as this year has been a tough one and I just wanted to give her something to say thank you. I cried whilst writing that letter so fingers crossed she doesn't cry. 

Turned out she did cry! My job was for her to know how thankful I was for her not to make her cry!

We then got ready and of course we had to take a few selfies I

  the mirror. What isn't a girls night without any pictures?? 

And some funny ones too!

Off we went on the tube to Piccadilly circus tube station! She still had no clue what her surprise would be. Until the final clue was read out loud.

FINALLY THE SECRET IS OUT!!

STRICTLY BALLROOM THE MUSICAL!

We saw it on the last day the musical was going to be in London but we also saw it during the night so it was the last ever performance of it! This made it extra special for us. The musical is such a classic to Hollie and I and once I found out from West End Live that it was going to be on I thought we need to get tickets asap!

Once the musical was over we was on such a musical singing spree so on the way back to the hotel we was singing songs non stop. But this made me not realise we had actually got on the wrong tube and good thing Hollie noticed otherwise we would of had a very long walk back!

The weekend was an absolute hit! 

I cant wait for the next adventure we have which I believe it going to be going to see the Spice Girls at Wembley!!

Log cabin bliss..

So this year after all the hospital visits and everything, I was so thankful that we had a holiday coming up. 

This place we went to we have been there 3 times before first 2 times we stayed in the same log cabin and the 3rd we stayed in a bigger one due to my auntie and uncle joining us. 

Well this year it was mum, dad, Martha, Rosey and my myself. So we decided that we would stay in the original one that sleeps 5 people. This was a fantastic lay out as my parents had their own bedroom with a double bed and in the girl's room there was a single bed downstairs and across the ceiling that made a 2nd mini bedroom up there. Which had 2 single mattress in it to make a double bed so that it could sleep 2 people. This was a space you could only really get into if you was a small person or a child. To my little cousins they thought this was the best thing ever! Their own little space all just to them as none of us could actually fit up there. This was the first picture I took of our whole holiday our little log cabin..  
This is the website that we used to book and honestly if anyone is wanting time away from the world and just be in nature, this is the best place to be.

http://www.kareliaholidays.co.uk/

Also a plus side, the log cabin had been upgraded since we was last there and there was actually our own private hot tub!!

This was a fantastic idea as after the busy days we had out and about after tea it was nice to be able to relax in the hot for an hour and have our mini dance parties.

The bonus about where this log cabin is located is that it is not even 10 minutes away from Moors Valley. This place is a MASSIVE country park. It has a bike riding hire, play trails, Go Ape, Walking, Mini steam train rides, Golf course & so much more!

We ended up at this place nearly everyday even when it was raining we still went on our walks in the woods. Definitely made us of our wellie boots and jumping in muddle puddles.

https://www.moors-valley.co.uk/  If your ever near Ringwood, this is a place to check out!

These are some of the photos from Moors Valley..

We were also near a place where you could go crabbing. This was such a great memory as we had done this before and it was so strange going back to it. But we managed to catch a few crabs and some of them fell off the line when we brought them out the water.. Little hint if you go near muddleford the crabs like scotch eggs. 

We also planned a day to go to Monkey World. This was another favourite day of mine. Love being able to see the animals and more importantly seeing my two little cousins using my canon camera to take pictures and being shocked on how amazing some of them actually turned out. I'll just show you a few of the pictures rather than talking about it as a picture speaks more.

As I like to have things planned and came up with the idea so that the two little ones didn't depend on their ipad's and made them so they wasn't unsociable. My mum and I brought some colouring books, maths & English books, puzzle books. We wrapped them up and gave their stack of presents on the first night we arrived so that after a busy day they could relax and just have some fun with the books. 

But something that I am especially proud of was I thought of when ever I was younger and my mum and dad took me anywhere, they would get me to save everything from that day and put it into a scrapbook. Now I look back at all of the ones I made and i'm so thankful to mum and dad for making me do them as it brings back so many memories of my childhood. 

So I went out and brought each girl their own scrapbook and a massive tub of crafts which included funny scissors, stickers, glue, glitter, shapes, felt pens, pencils. It was honestly such a massive box which I think that I can remember I brought it off of amazon. So after everyday out we wrote the date up the top and they wrote down about what they had done on that certain day, so like on the day with went bike riding, they stuck in the bike cycle map, and drew pictures of their bikes that they rode. I also brought my mum a HP SPROCKET for Christmas last year. 

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/printers-scanners-and-ink/printers/hp-sprocket-mobile-photo-printer-white-10153564-pdt.html

This is a little machine where you can connect to your phone via Bluetooth and it prints out pictures just like a polaroid. They have the choice to be a thick picture but they can also be used as stickers so you could stick them on paper. So the girls had 2 photos a day that they could choose from what I had taken during the day that they could print out to stick in their book. This is such a great little device. I'm so glad I had brought it for my mum. It also comes in handy for presents, and definitely with Christmas coming up instead of using tags you could stick a picture of the person it belongs to on their present.

We also managed to book the Log Cabin for Rosey's 6th Birthday! Which she was so made up with. So the night before I got out all of the decorations to put around the cabin to celebrate. 

We asked her what she wanted for her birthday and her reply was....

So we made sure everyone got on their swimming costumes and trunks and headed to the main pool for the birthday party.

We also went to Burley which is a little National park that you drive through and their is wild horses walking around and if you go into town there is a little place where you can get a tractor ride to feed the deer's.

The girls really loved this day as they were able to feed them and they didn't realise that they come right up to the tractor and they would eat the food right out of your hand. 

But this place is such a quiet place, we already looking to go back next year as no matter how many times we have been and everything is the same, it is such a wonderful place. The staff is incredible as any problem we could just ring the person on hand if we had any questions for him. 

Were so thankful for the experience they give us every time we come to this Log Cabin.

So if anyone is looking for a little get away, they do a minimum night with is 1 night and it is such great prices as well. You get to use the main pool whenever you like. Go check it out :)