Hello World

Who would have thought….. Three weeks earlier than expected, a mere four days after seeing the doctor and Sharon, I would be writing to tell you about the birth of our baby.

It all started out as an ordinary Saturday. Chris and I had planned to get some “house admin” out the way. As usual, Chris was up earlier than me; he set Senzo (gardener) to work and left to fetch the trailer he had hired for the day. I eventually dragged myself out of bed; still feeling exhausted and got going on my filing. We had asked Senzo to work an extra day to help us clear out the junk in the garage, so imagine my surprise when Chris got home with gym equipment he had collected from Mike and Laura……

As the day progressed, my back got more and more sore but I was adamant to finish my filing.

At about 3pm it was time for Senzo to go and we had offered him a lot of stuff from the garage. Chris said he would take him to a garage near Alexander and then Senzo would have to find a way to get the goods home. I decided to go with for the drive and along the way mentioned to Chris that the baby had been rather quiet and even joked that this may be the calm before the storm.

When we got back home, I insisted on getting the pram assembled. I wanted the car seat ready just in case! Once this was done, I lay down on the sofa and had a good sleep. By 8pm, I was really feeling uncomfortable and so went up to bath. After about an hour and half the “cramps “ were not subsiding so I called Chris. He assured me that this was merely Braxton-hicks and my body practicing and preparing for labour. I started timing them and soon realized they were 5mins apart. Chris went to sleep while I called Andrea (doula) she advised me to call Sharon as I was still only 37 weeks pregnant. After a q&a Sharon said she was coming to check us out. When she arrived we realized that this was in fact labour and we were going to have our baby. Knowing that our decision to have a home birth would be met with some opposition, we had decided not to tell people. We had started preparing for our home birth, but had also thought that we still had three weeks….. so we were far from ready!

Chris and Andrea were rallying around setting the stage while Sharon monitored me. We were only due to collect the birthing pool the following week so when we called Carol the pool lady, she offered to bring the pool to us and arrived at about 1.30am. During the setting up, I was baking a chocolate cake, and washing the vests and leggings that I had gotten on Friday.

At about 4am, the contractions had become irregular so Sharon & Andrea decided they would go home. Chris and I were fine with this as we knew that any time we needed them they would come back. After they left, the contractions resumed and the intensity mounted. We called Sharon back at about 7.30am as the contractions were now 2mins apart. When she arrived and checked us out we had progressed nicely and now knew we were definitely having our baby.

Time passed and eventually at 1pm it became clear that we needed Dr Mseleku to check us out. The baby was lying posterior – hence the incredible back ache – with the chin lifted and more than likely a hand in the way. Therefore, so to say stuck and unable to progress further down the birth canal. Even though it was not ideal to be going to hospital we knew that now was the time to go so as to avert any unnecessary risks. We got to hospital at about 2pm and after being checked were told that there was no way our baby could be born naturally as he/she was stuck with the head tilted to the side, posterior, chin raised. It was now obvious that an emergency c-section was how we were going to meet our little one safely. While waiting for the theatre, my waters broke naturally and even this did not help “flush” him/her straight. I am glad they broke as this was the only other option that could have made a natural birth still possible. Earlier this had been discussed as an option to consider. Sharon had said she could break my waters artificially but only in hospital and it would then mean I would have to push like a crazy person and she was not sure I had the stamina to carry on. Now knowing that he/she was really stuck and we needed to do a search and rescue to get our baby. At no point did baby ever go into distress and we had the gentlest ceasar possible. We watched as her head, shoulders, body and legs came out. When she was out, she opened her legs to show us who she was! We were so privileged as Dr Mseleku had come in on her day off. Zara Guinevere was born to Cat Stevens playing in the background. Chris and I always played Cat Stevens when driving “home to Ficksburg” and now our daughter was “brought home” to us with the same music.