Baby Sam – 7 days new!

The blood results came back at 2:00pm that afternoon and my OB decided we must deliver right away. I had preeclampsia.

At 7:30pm I was wheeled down to surgery to have my c-section a week early. I was dressed and prepped and Ash was bought in. Everything went fine until halfway though, when my blood pressure shot up incredibly high. Worse pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life. I can’t even explain. Ash was kicked out of theatre, and they were talking of giving me a general to stabilize me enough to continue the operation. Eventually I was stabilized without general though, and Sam was delivered at 8:06pm.

Unfortunately Ash and I both missed the birth as he wasn’t allowed back in at the time, and I was too unstable to know what was happening.

After Sam was born, Ash came back in and was able to hold him. Shortly after that, Ash and Sam were sent up to the nursery, and I was sent to recovery.

After recovery, I was sent back up to the birthing suite (not our room), because I needed close monitoring. In the birthing suite, things went downhill and my blood pressure kept shooting up. I became unconscious and unresponsive and was dangerously close to a stroke/seizure. A code blue was called, and the Mater hospital was called to try and transfer me to the intensive care unit there. It was decided though that I was too unstable to transfer, so they had to try and stabilize me there and then. Once I was stabilized, I was sent back downstairs to have a CTG scan as bleeding on the brain was suspected. Luckily, I got the all clear.

I was wheeled back to the birthing suite at 1am, 5 hours after the birth, and was finally allowed to be with Ash and Sam.

For the next two days though, I was to have a 24 hour nurse in the room with me, and she was unable to leave the room. I was also not allowed to stand up, move ect during this time, was only allowed limited stimulation, and not allowed visitors. I was being monitored very closely.

After two/three days, I was moved back to our normal room, had my drips and catheter out, and was able to stand up and start moving around and begin the healing process.

Throughout everything though, Sam has been a champ. He came out perfectly healthy. No issues at all. He’s feeding perfectly, and latched right from the first go. He’s doing all the right things and couldn’t be more perfect. I’m still a little worse for wear, but improving everyday. “

After this rocky start I can honestly say I wasn’t expecting them to be home from hospital so early, let alone bring Sam in for his photos at one week old. Kate being my best friend, I felt extremely sad that she had such a horrific birth experience, but when I see Sam’s little face, and the way that Kate looked at him during his newborn session, I can see how he shares his strength with her to help her move on. Sam is a reminder of how precious life is, for mothers as well as new babies, and even though this is the last baby for Kate and Ash, they can rejoice in their two boys, as different as they are, and watch them grow up to become as strong as they are!

Sam was a bit smaller than Jack, but his little legs and arms were quite strong at the newborn session. He was nice and relaxed and let us pose him mostly to our wishes, until after a couple of hours he’d had enough and made sure to tell us so! We even managed to squeeze in a Christmas look, which Kate sent as a thank-you card to the staff at the St. Andrew’s Hospital where she had Sam, and also Jack almost 3 years ago.