What a Weekend

This past weekend was completely unforgettable. About 6 months ago I found out that Time Out for Women was coming to Australia. Unfortunately though it was only coming to Sydney, which is of course on the other side of the country. I have previously been to two other TOFW events (one in Boise and one in Vegas) and LOVED every second of it so I really wanted to go to this one. We have just had so much going on lately that we haven't really had time to catch our breaths, so Jonathan and I talked about it and decided that for my push present/Mother's Day present I should go to Sydney, have a breather and attend TOFW (I love my husband!!!). I have been looking forward to it for so long. I have had the plane tickets and accommodation booked for months and this weekend it finally came!! My Mum and a friend of hers were also attending so the plan was that they would fly over at Friday lunchtime, I would wait for Jonathan to get home from work, take Ashleigh with me and leave him with Julianna and I would catch the midnight flight and meet up with my mum on the Saturday morning.

I spent all day Friday getting myself and Ashleigh organised. I put Julianna in bed that night (had a little cry because I already missed her) and left for the airport around 10.45pm. When I got to the airport I didn't quite realise how far away the long term parking was away from the terminal so by the time I parked, got myself, Ashleigh and our things together and made it to the terminal I was running a little late. I still managed to make it though and got onto the plane without any dramas. When I got onto the plane I was a bit nervous about how Ashleigh would be during the flight but she actually settled right away and was fast asleep before we even taxied out of the terminal. I settled in for the long flight and away we went.

We taxied out of the terminal and then went to the end of the runway. We waited there while the plane started up it's engines and got ready to take off. Just as we were about to leave the engines died down and the announcement came over the speaker, "I'm sorry but unfortunately there is too much fog around the airport for us to leave the ground, we are going to have to go back to the terminal." The plane parked and we were all asked to gather up our belongings and disembark the plane. After hours of waiting for the fog to clear our flight was cancelled. I then had to wait in line for hours to get credit for my flight. I left the airport the next morning, the same time that I should have been landing in Sydney. After being up all night I went home and got into bed. I couldn't believe what had happened!!

I was so bitter about the whole thing until I thought about it the next day. I remember a scene from the movie "The Other Side of Heaven", where they are in a small sail boat in the middle of the ocean and suddenly the wind dies and they are left stranded. I remembered what someone on the boat said about how although they were praying for wind to carry them in one direction, someone else in the world may also be praying for wind to be blowing in the other direction. It made me think that although I really hated the fog that night, maybe it was a Godsend for someone else and maybe they needed it a little more than I did. 

The Story - As Promised

These last couple of months have been such a whirlwind, that I haven't really had time to catch my breath. Already Ashleigh will be six weeks old on Monday but with everything that has been going on it feels like I had her just yesterday. Luckily her birth was the only thing that has run completely smoothly, which made the whole experience so enjoyable.

For a couple of weeks before she was born I would start getting contractions, they would get quite strong and then suddenly stop. The only thing that worried me about this was the fact that Jonathan was away. I knew that he was only a couple of hours away, but I was really conflicted about calling him prematurely and having him come home or leaving it too late and having him miss the whole thing. This went on for a couple of weeks. I was due on the 23rd May (Monday) and had my doctor's appointment on the Thursday before (the 19th). I talked to my doctor about my concerns and he said he would examine me to get a better idea of what was going on. When he examined me he said that I was in the early stages of labour, and had been for a while. Jonathan was coming home the next day anyway, so he offered to break my water to hurry things along a bit. He tried to but unfortunately he couldn't. He did a scan, which showed that the baby had her head back and was stuck, so she had not dropped into position. He said that it didn't matter how many contractions I had, and how long I was in labour for I would not be able to have the baby naturally. It was history repeating itself, as I had had the same problem with Julianna. He scheduled me in for a c section on Monday morning.

Monday morning came and we had to be at  the hospital for 6.00am. When we got there they gave me a quick pre-op and then I was the first one scheduled in for the morning. Although I had a c section with Julianna I was a lot more nervous this time around. When I had Julianna my c section was an emergency c section at the end of a very long labour and I was more than ready for it. After pushing for three hours with Julianna, I was too tired to even remember anything that went on. This time around was completely different and I was fully aware of everything that was happening to me. My biggest fear was that I would feel the epidural going in. Fortunately I had a fantastic anesthetist, who talked me through the whole procedure and gave me a local before he did the epidural, so I didn't feel a thing. They started the operation and Ashleigh was born just a couple of minutes later. I got a look at her before they took her and Jonathan to the other side of the room so she could be examined and Jonathan could cut the cord. Everything ran smoothly up until that point and I though we were on the home stretch. As they started to clean me up though I started to feel a little off and Jonathan was back at my side with an extremely worried look on his face. I turned to the anesthetist and told him that I didn't feel well. I didn't think anything of it until he replied with, "I know". I suddenly felt the urge to pass out so I closed my eyes and hoped the feeling would pass. A few moments later the anesthetist asked me to open my eyes. When I did I felt fine again. It turned out that my blood pressure had suddenly crashed and they had to give me some more blood, luckily I was completely unaware of what was going on. Other than that the whole thing went off without any problems. 

I had to spend 24 hours still hooked up to the epidural and morphine, but the next morning they got me up out of bed and moving around. My that afternoon I was feeling 100% better and bored out of my mind. The next morning (the Wednesday) I couldn't bear the thought of spending another night in hospital so I begged the midwife to discharge me. The doctor came and examined me, and with his blessing and the promise that I would take it easy at home, I was out by 10.00 that morning.