Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Introducing



Rylan (Rylie) Jacob Sebestyen and Lillian (Lilly) Rose Sebestyen

Born 18/02/2009

Times: 1:38am Rylie and 1:39am Lilly

Weights: 2.690Kg (5.7lb) Rylie and 2.109kg (4.6lb) Lilly

Lengths: 47cm Rylie and 45cm Lilly

We are all home healthy safe and happy and our new family of 5 are adjusting, there has been some tears, from the boys Rylie and Jordy and there has been a lot of hugs and kisses.

It feels so right being at home, words can not describe how we are feeling.

For me importantly I feel so relieved, the pain is gone and my recovery is going well. Being able to bend over and pick things up and get back onto the floor to play is a blessing. I feel like a sleep deprived new mother again, rather than a sleep deprived depressed and stressed pregnant woman!

Birth story and hospital stay posts to come!
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

37 weeks

Some hard lessons were learnt last week and emotionally it was a very difficult.

So we are all still here together in one body and even though the end is only 10 days away, it is going to be a long very long 10 days. I revisited an old haunt of mine, dark disturbing thoughts were cropping up in the middle of the night. I recognise them for what they are a means to tell me that it is all getting too much to handle.

I spoke to the Dr K on Thursday about bringing the surgery forward. I spoke to him about the thoughts that I was having, about snapping at Tim and Jordan, about the lack of sleep due to the pain, about just wanting these babies out.

He gave me 3 days; he has brought the surgery forward only 3 days and I was devastated!

It was like a slap in the face and I was a blubbering mess on the way home. Lucky Tim had finished work really early and came home and comforted me and lucky Jordy was in child care as I didn’t want him to see me like that…ever.

Dr K wants me to go on Anti depressants for the thoughts and go back to the centre to talk to someone. When I attempted to make an appointment, the receptionist was not helpful or friendly, so I gave up. Then I get a phone call from my GP requesting that they see me, I felt that people were over reacting and that the only thing that is going to help is delivering these children.

So it has been my mission to try anything to bring on this labour and the lesson that I have learnt is that these babies are just too comfortable and it seems that I’m trying to control something that is beyond me.

I’ve tried:
* Raspberry leaf tea, drinking it like it is water about 5-8 cups a day.
* Sex – only makes the Braxton hick contractions stronger
* Walking – only makes the abdominal cramping worse
* Acupressure – I paid and downloaded a book about trying different acupressure points to help dilate the cervix, help a baby engage and intiate labour. Whilst I’ve noticed that the girls head is lower than the boys, there is no way for me to tell if this acupressure has worked. But we were doing it every 2 hours for 2 days and nothing has happened.

Monday, February 09, 2009

36 Weeks

I made it to 36 weeks, when I booked into the hospital I was told “You will be lucky to get to 36 weeks”. Well here I am very excited and yet exhausted. I know that I would not have made it this far if I had continued working. It has been the rest and relaxing that I’ve been able to do at home that has really helped.

Having said all that, I’m now ready to have these babies out. My husband, father, friends, family and midwives have all said to me, ”Just try to hang in there another week”. My Mum has been the only one not to say anything when I tell her that I want these babies out. She can see me struggling.

I was back in hospital again yesterday as the contractions were worse and they were regular. 6pm on Saturday night they were 10 minutes apart and I was only able to sleep after 2am, but woke every 10 minutes.

Sunday morning they progressed to 7 minutes apart lasting 30 seconds, we still went grocery shopping but I just had to stop and breathe through the pain. It is our Nephews birthday tomorrow so we went for a little visit to give him the present. All the while we were there the contractions were regular.

Throughout the afternoon the contractions progressed to every 5 minutes then to every 3 minutes lasting 90 seconds. You can see why I thought I was in real labour. But the midwife put me on the monitor and determined that yet again they were Braxton hicks, more intense and regular but false labour all the same. They have not eased up at all and are still every 3-5 minutes apart.

Seeing how distressed I was yesterday, shocked my husband and when he saw me crying (yet again) in pain whilst trying to talk to the Midwife, changed his mind as well. Sometimes being told the cold hard truth by a stranger is better than reading books or making your own assumptions.

She basically told my husband that at 36 weeks these babies, may have feeding issues but as their weights and sizes are above average they will be perfectly ok. The steroid injections have helped mature their lungs so it is unlikely that they will have breathing issues.

I’ve already endured almost 3 weeks of semi regular contractions; being asked to endure another 3 weeks is weighing heavily on both our minds. I’m averaging about 4 hours sleep a night but it is not continuos as I’m getting up every 2 hours for the toilet.

We have both decided to talk to Dr K about my options. Every night before we go to bed we look at each other wondering if tonight will be the ‘real’ night. I don’t like going to bed as it is just so painful and uncomfortable, half the night is spent on the lounge chair trying to sleep. As I mentioned I’m exhausted.

Friday, February 06, 2009

No wonder

Dr K checked my cervix yesterday, still closed and to be honest I was a little disappointed as the contractions were quite strong on Wednesday night. Blood pressure and everything else is going along just fine.

So I’m just waiting, waiting and waiting, you would think that I would be used to waiting. Anyone that goes through fertility treatment is forced to do a lot of waiting. Waiting for your period to arrive, waiting for blood test results, waiting for ultrasounds, waiting to see your fertility specialist and then the dreaded two week wait. Once you find out your pregnant, you then have to wait for additional hCG beta testing and results.

I’m not a patient person and I hate waiting.

The ultrasound was surprising to say the least. The books say that the average weight of these babies should be approximately 2.3kg. My little boy weighs 2.689kg and my little girl weighs 2.501kg. No wonder I’m struggling and my belly feels so heavy.

My main concern after the ultrasound was that the babies are both breech, that is head up and when I spoke to Dr K’s midwife afterwards, I was told that if my water breaks I’m to go to hospital immediately, no waiting for Tim to come home, having both babies in breech could be dangerous.

I decided to ask my friend to buy some Raspberry Leaf tea to help bring on the labour. When I told Tim this he basically used my own beliefs as a wake up call. The universe will provide, but in this sense he meant that the universe will decide when these babies will arrive. He was strongly against me drinking the tea and believes that the babies will arrive when they are ready.

It was very hard to hear and very hard to accept, as my first thought was that he is not the one carrying these babies. He is not the one dealing with the contractions and he is not the one that can’t roll around in bed. I became quite emotional about this and just feel so helpless.