Louisa and I had been married almost 8 years before we started trying to fall pregnant. Louisa was 28 at the time and I was 34. We were happy that fertility wise, this wasn't too late, but Louisa could feel 30 approaching as we both wanted to start before she reached that.
We'd waited for this long for a couple of reasons. We'd previously lived in a townhouse where coughing loud would usually draw a complaint from the Neighbours, so we were pretty sure they wouldn't hesitate to complain constantly about the 'excessive' noise of a baby. Also, we wanted to do more work on our relationship to make sure we were working well togeather. Finally, I was never very paternal, not having many neices or nephews around to practice on, so it took me a while to come around. When I married Louisa, I inherited an instant collection of neices and nephews. Also, one of the major factors that helped me was when Louisa's sister-in-law Liz had our neice Zoe. For some strange reason, Zoe took a real shine to me, and how I felt about her took me a long way to being ready to have our own children.
Having said all this, we both realized that there would never be a perfect time to start a family. I would never feel completely ready, if we waited to pay off more of the house, we could be waiting quite a while and out relationship would never be perfect. So, towards the end of 2005, we decided it was time to start trying. We'd already been reading books and researching, talking about it a lot, and doing as much homework as we could. At the start of 2006, we took a driving holiday up to Port Douglas and, even though we started trying in December, this was our time to relax and really start trying.
It did the trick.
We've had some debate since about whether Louisa fell pregnant in December 2005, or in January 2006 on our trip, but in February 2006, the little home pregnancy test told us that we had been successful. A scan at the Obstetrician showed us a little Jelly Bean that was our Noah. Of course, we called him Bob while he was still 'on the inside'. If anyone asked if we called it bob coz it was a boy, we told them no, it's short for Kate. (Any Blackadder fans will get that one) We found out later on that Louisa had Placenta Previa where, early on the placenta starts to grow very low in the uterus and possibly over, or very close to, the cervix. This can be a problem because if it stays that way later in the pregnancy, it can cause bleeding, and may necessitate a cesarean delivery. Thankfully, in a later scan, it showed that the placenta had moved up as it had grown, so this was not a problem.
Louisa didn't cope terribly well with being pregnant. Early pregnancy can be described as just a set of symptoms. A desire to vomit, a strange desire for foods she didn't usually eat, being turned off by foods she did usually eat etc. The second trimester was the best. Not a lot of physical discomfort, but a real feeling of being happily pregnant. The third trimester was the worst. Noah was a big baby and made Louisa quite uncomfortable. He moved well in the uterus for most of the pregnancy, jabbing limbs into delicate places and sitting on organs that didn't respond well. Louisa put on a lot of weight, and retained a lot of fluid. Her ankles turned into Cankles (no difference between the calf and the ankle) and she became very swollen. Louisa also started to snore like a chainsaw going through a hardwood log. Some nights I moved to a spare room at the other end of the house (yes ACTUALLY the other end of the house), and still had to close the door to reduce the noise level enough to sleep. She really was in a bad way though, and I really don't mind. I only rib her about it because I'm usually the snorer, but I couldn't hold a candle to her effort.
Towards the end of the pregnancy, Noah's movement slowed down dramatically. He would move at times, but he would spend a lot of time not moving which started to concern us. The obstetrician put it down to the fact that he was so big, and could't move much any more, and we thought that sounded reasonable too. His pulse was good and everything else was ok, so we just kept on going and waiting for him to decide to come out. And kept waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Once Louisa was about 10 days past her due date, it seemed like he needed some coaxing, so just before midnight on Wednesday the 11th October, 2006, we arrived at the Northwest Hospital in Everton Hills so the doctors could see if they could persuade him to get a wriggle on.
We were led into a birthing suite when we arrived, and waited there a while. We were then moved into the waiting lounge as there was a lady coming in who didn't have such a recalcitrant baby. Within the hour, she had arrived, pushed a few times, given birth and had headed off to her room. We were not amused. So we went back in and started on the drips and gels and stuff designed to move the birth along. This didn't really work. Louisa did start to have contractions, and she began to dialate, but nothing more. The doctor decided to break her waters, which in her words was the most painful and horrific thing she had ever gone through. She had words with her mother for not warning her about that. This still didn't help and after about 12-13 hours, the contractions started to become eratic and she had only dialated 2cm. At about 5pm, our obstetrician decided we were going to have to use brute force and so we were whipped upstairs for an emergency cesarean. This went quite well, with no complications, and at around 6:20pm, we had a beautiful big boy Noah, weighing in at 10lb 1oz and 59cm long. I couldn't believe how much I loved him from the first time I saw him.
(to be continued)
