Earth Babies Blog

This is the story of the birth of my little miracle baby – Andrew Roy Cross, (older brother to Birth story of Michael Cross)
born on 24 June 2004.

I found out that I was pregnant on 2 December 2003. My due date was 10 August 2004. It was so exciting to tell everyone. My sister was the first to know and then I told my mom and my grandmother. My mom and sister were flying to visit my brother in Canada for the month that evening and I called my brother from the airport to tell him the news. Everyone was very excited, with it being the first grandchild on both my and my husband’s side of the family.

My pregnancy was great, except for the nausea, which lasted the whole way and was not only confined to morning sickness. I really felt like I was glowing. I love being pregnant.

I don’t know when exactly I began leaking amniotic fluid. I was feeling dampness downstairs for a week or so. I had been ill with bronchitis for a few days and had really been coughing a lot. I just assumed that the dampness was due to incontinence because of the pregnancy and that this was just worsened due to the coughing. I wore a pad and though nothing more of it.

My mom and sister had been away and I went to fetch them at the airport on Sunday 13 June. I had been booked off work for the week and between my mom and I we decided that I should go back home with her so that she could “look after” me and nurse me back to health, as I was still not feeling on top of the world. Just as a precautionary measure, I packed a bag for myself and one for little Andrew (I always say that one can never be too prepared, or maybe I just had a niggling feeling that something was about to happen), and off we went. It was actually great to be able to just rest and by the Thursday morning I was feeling a lot better and had a lot more energy. It is amazing what relaxation can do for the body.

I woke up the morning of 18 June and noticed that there was some blood in the fluid that I had been leaking. After calling the local GP, it was decided that I need to go to the hospital to be checked out under sterile conditions. They needed to find out what the fluid was that I was leaking. My mom drove me to the hospital and I was checked out by a gynecologist, who told me that it was definitely amniotic fluid and that I would have to be admitted into hospital and monitored. He also requested that I go for an in-depth scan to see how much amniotic fluid I still had. If there was not enough then I would have to have an emergency caesarean. I was given a cortisone injection to strengthen the baby’s lungs in case he was born early. I spent the entire day in a beautiful hospital gown, flat on my back (I was not allowed to move around at all) until I finally went for the scan later that afternoon. The scan revealed that the baby was doing very well and that there were still a few “pockets” of amniotic fluid and that I could continue with the pregnancy and it would not be necessary to do an early delivery. I was really relieved, as I felt that I was not quite ready to be dealing with a newborn baby and besides I was in a “strange” town and without my husband.

Semi-lying, I managed the 2 ½ hour trip back home early on Saturday morning. I was so glad to be home, at least now if things do go wrong I am in my own town, my own home and have my own doctor around as well as my husband.
I had my stork-tea that afternoon.

I went to see my gynecologist on Monday 21 June just to make sure that everything was fine. He did a full check and seemed to think that everything was fine. My leaking had even seemed to have sorted itself out. He sent me for some blood tests to check that I did not have an infection of some sort and then put me on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy, just as a precaution.

I woke up at about 2am on the morning of 23 June feeling pains in my stomach, but not thinking too much of it – I thought they were Braxton Hicks contractions, which is quite normal so far into the pregnancy. I went to the loo (my normal thing a few times a night) and then went back to bed. I woke again at 7am and the pains were still there. They were very slight and felt like period pains. My back was also quite sore. I told my husband that I think something is not right and he advised that I try to get hold of the doctor when his offices opened at 8am. My husband went to work and asked that I call him as soon as I know what is happening.

By 7h30 the pains were getting worse and I was getting a bit worried, so I called the labour ward at the hospital. I asked the sister on duty what a contraction feels like said that she thinks that what I am feeling are contractions and I could be in labour. She said that I should come to the hospital to be monitored. I was 33 weeks and 2 days pregnant – surely this is too early for labour! I called my husband and told him that I am going to the hospital and that (yes, I know I am crazy) drive myself because I felt fine. I did the whole packing my bag and Andrew’s bag thing and off I went.

When I got to the hospital I was immediately hooked up onto a monitor as it was confirmed that I was definitely having contractions and was therefore definitely in the early stages of labour. PANIC!!!! I was only 33 weeks pregnant!!

The doctor was called and I was admitted into the hospital and immediately put onto a drip with medication in it to stop the contractions. This was at about 9am. My husband came to see me later that morning and we suddenly came to the realisation that our baby could be born any time from now. The medication that I was given did not seem to work very well for the contractions/pains and it was only after the dosage was increased that I felt better. The increase was so severe though that it was at the maximum allowed and I was warned that I would have to stay in hospital for a few days to be weaned off the medication. So it seemed as if I was not going very far.

My gynae came to see me just after 9pm and said that everything looked good. They baby was fine, I seemed to be doing well and the contractions seemed to have slowed down to such an extent that I was not really in labour any more. My husband went home after the doctor left and promised to come see me on his way to work the next morning.

All seemed to be under control, and I actually managed to get some sleep until 2am, when I woke up with terrible contractions and called the sister for some pain medication. She gave me a shot of pethedine and promised me that it would “knock me out” and that it would help for the pain. Needless to say, it did neither and it seemed as if nothing on this earth was going to stop these contractions. After an hour, I could not cope any more and went in search of the sisters on duty once again.

I was then moved from the general ward into the labour room so that I could be examined and the baby be monitored again. The contractions were becoming stronger and more frequent and it was quite evident when I was hooked up onto the monitors. There was nothing more that could be done to stop the labour process and it was all systems go for me.

My gynae was called at 4am and he told the sisters to schedule me for an emergency caesarean for 9am, as I was only about 2cm dilated. I called my husband shortly after 5 am and let him know that I was fully in labour and that Andrew was on his way and would be born by C-section at 9am. I called my mom at about 6am with the same news.

At about 5h30 my waters broke after an internal examination and I dilated another 2cm immediately. Labour progressed very quickly from there and things started gong a bit hazy for me. My gynae was called at 6am again and told that I was dilating very quickly and he moved the C-section forward to 8am.

What happened after that is a bit of a blur because things were moving quite fast and I was having a contraction every 1 ½ – 2 minutes and trying to still breathe in between. My husband arrived to support me – thank goodness – and he massaged by back for me and towelled down my forehead. He was a real star. Somewhere through this lot, I was prepped for the caesarean and my husband tried to fill out the concession forms for the epidural to be administrated. All I really remember is begging for an epidural and the nurses telling me I had to just wait for the anaesthetist, who was on his way.

Next thing my catheter was pulled out and I was told that it was too late for the caesarean and that the baby was coming…..

By this stage the contractions had let up and I started feeling the need to push. Only problem was that my doctor was not there yet. My gynae arrived a few minutes later and made an entrance in his own right. He had been out cycling when he got the call to come to the hospital urgently. He cycled into the hospital, into the ward, parked his bicycle outside the door, took off his cycling helmet and his cycling gloves, put a pair of latex gloves on and said, “Well, let’s deliver a baby”. The pushing was not too bad, although it was very tiring. It lasted for about 15 minutes and next thing Andrew was born. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world, seeing that little helpless baby and knowing that he is yours. The love that you feel for this child who is only a few seconds old and who you don’t even know yet, is indescribable.

Again, things moved quite fast after that and the cord was cut and Andrew was been given his apgar test (which he only scored 1/10 for). I was shown Andrew for a brief moment before he was taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Andrew ended up staying in the NICU for 3 weeks before we could finally take him home.

All in all a wonderful experience and something which I will remember for the rest of my life. It is truly a miracle to give birth!

Gestational age when born 33 weeks
Weight when born 2.23kg
Reason for premature birth (eg. Pre-term labour, pre-eclampisia, placenta praevia etc) Pre-term labour
Baby’s age at time of submitting (and date) 4 years (June 2008) Baby’s weight 16kg