# He's here! And how it happened...



## Nic (Jun 10, 2012)

Hi guys

Just to let you all know my little boy has arrived! I am a bit late in posting, Arthur James was actually born on 29th May at 05.12am weighing 3.98kg at 35 weeks+4, exactly a month early! 

Arthur only arrived home with us on Friday as he has been in NICU since his arrival into the world, which many medical staff have told me was quite an ordeal! For those who don't know I was actually admitted to hospital on 15th May as the doctor was worried about my insulin requirements decreasing and also because of the size of the baby. Anyway it was there I stayed for 2 weeks being monitored (like Babysaurus) CTG three times a day, blood pressure checks, blood glucose - although I managed this myself and luckily persuaded them I only need to do it every 3 hours during the night and could report back with the results in the mornings. 

Time went surprisingly quickly in the end! On the Sunday before Arthur was born my induction was started, I had two gels over the day to try and start me off, then another during the night. I started to get lots of pain and by Monday morning was in agony! But when they examined me they couldn't really see anything never mind any progress! I was given the option of a c-section but advised the best thing to do would be to have an epidural and then have a full examination and see if my waters could be broken. So this is what happened! My waters were broken about 5pm on the Monday evening and I was put onto a sliding scale and a couple of hours after that the hormone drip was started. I was a bit dubious about the sliding scale to start with as I had such a bad experience when I went on it during my steroid injections. My blood sugars were around 4.6, 4.4 each hour and at first I didn't like it as it felt too low and I was unable to feel my legs and back so I wasn't sure how I would feel if a hypo was coming on. But as the hours passed as I saw my BG was really stable - constantly in the  4's so learnt to trust that the sliding scale was working.

I was examined again at 2am and couldn't believe that I had gone from being 2-2.5cm dilated to 10cm in the four hours since the last examination. I was told I could start pushing in a hour!

I then pushed for an hour but there wasn't enough progress so the doctor came to see me and said we would prepare for a c-section but the preference would be to deliver the baby with forceps or ventouse. Once we were in theatre my epidural was topped up and then I we had another go at pushing, I remember thinking I don't want a c-section after all this I am going to push the hardest I possibly can! Arthur was born at 05.12am and as soon as he come out he went over to the resus table and it was a couple of minutes before we heard a peep from him. He was quickly shown to me and then taken to the NICU unit. Meanwhile I was stitched up and repaired! 

It was only afterwards that I learnt what exactly went on, when I read his discharge summary on Friday I saw that his head was actually out for 5 mins before his shoulders were delivered and it described his breathing and how many breaths they had to give him to get him going, apparently it was two mins before he breathed. Also on delivery his clavical (collar bone) was fractured. Poor thing, but he is fine now

On delivery his blood sugars were 1.4-2.2 so he was on a glucose drip for a few days, he also developed some jaundice so was treated for that. And finally after 10 days in NICU we got him home!

As for me I have found my insulin requirements have dramatically decreased - now on about 20-25 units a day rather than 60 when I was pregnant and 30-35 before I was pregnant. Would be great to hear how other people's insulin requirements dropped and when they went back up again?

Hope I haven't bored you all with all the details of the birth!!


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## Steff (Jun 10, 2012)

Nic thank you so mush for sharing your birth story and Arthurs arrival into this world,I hope he brings you years of happiness and once again congratulations x


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## Monica (Jun 10, 2012)

Congratulations!!!


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## HOBIE (Jun 10, 2012)

Pleased 4u Nic !  Hello Arth !


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## shirl (Jun 10, 2012)

Welcome to the world little Arthur James, love the names, congratulations to you all

Shirl


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## Monkey (Jun 10, 2012)

Aw, congratulations! And a really good weight for being a few weeks early too.

Insulin wise, I can't really remember. I definitely went back to my pre-pregnancy doses once C was here, but I've got a feeling I dropped them further as was breastfeeding. Can try and have a hunt!


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## Nic (Jun 10, 2012)

Monkey said:


> Aw, congratulations! And a really good weight for being a few weeks early too.
> 
> Insulin wise, I can't really remember. I definitely went back to my pre-pregnancy doses once C was here, but I've got a feeling I dropped them further as was breastfeeding. Can try and have a hunt!


Thanks!

He was a lot larger than I expected. I knew he was going to be big, hence being induced but as my scan at 33 weeks + 4 he was estimated as 6lb 9oz so I was expecting him to be about 7lb 9oz-8lb on arrival but he was a lot bigger. Everyone on NICU kept commenting what a big boy he was as most of the babies in there are premature. But he is still pretty small really.

I am trying to breastfeed, emphasis on try! I ca only get him to do it using a nipple shield and I really don't think he gets enough from me most of the time as a couple of times after being on the breast I have given him a bottle and he has guzzled it down! I am expressing and we're feeding him that via a bottle and then also topping him up with some formula. Any advice on BF would be appreciated!


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## mum2westiesGill (Jun 10, 2012)

Congratulations on the birth of your new baby son Arthur!


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## trophywench (Jun 10, 2012)

Congratulations on Arthur's safe arrival - eventually !

My understanding is usually your BG and insulin requirements will stay low for as long as you b'f - and then when you stop, they'll go back up again.  Expressing 'counts' as b'f for the purpose of this equation.


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## sugarfreerach (Jun 10, 2012)

Congratulations! My advise with breast feeding is feed feed feed. It's the only way your body knows how much it needs to produce. Try and get in touch with a breast feeding specialist to see your latch and see if there are tongue tie issues. 

Insulin requirements went way way down after birth and then down again when I was breast feeding. Only really went up again when i stopped 6 months later.


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## fencesitter (Jun 10, 2012)

Congrats!! Sounds like rather an ordeal for you both, but it must be lovely to have baby Arthur home now 
I found BF difficult with my first one (over 9lbs) as he was v.hungry ... topped him up with formula but managed to keep going for 6 months like that so it worked out OK really. Fruit cake and the occasional Guinness recommended to keep production levels up  Agree that feed feed feed is the best way to make more milk, although it can take over your life a bit! My nice midwife said go for it, but don't beat yourself up if he needs topping up. Found that quite reassuring.
Baby no.2 was much easier, efficient feeder and only 7lbs ish at birth. She kept going for a year, at which point I'd had enough!


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## PhoebeC (Jun 11, 2012)

Wow to you for doing it.

Jemima was the same in neo-natal she looked huge compared to the other.


Jemima struggled with feeding at first so b/f was even harded, i expressed for the first 2 weeks, but as she wasnt home with me and we where back ad forth i soon went dry.

They only kept her in about 10 days aswell.

My insulin went back to before prganacy amounts as soon as i had her pretty much more than i was on while pregnant though, was hard in hospital getting them back to normal.

Hope your all doing well?

Rest when he rests.

xx


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## Monkey (Jun 11, 2012)

Nic said:


> Thanks!
> 
> He was a lot larger than I expected. I knew he was going to be big, hence being induced but as my scan at 33 weeks + 4 he was estimated as 6lb 9oz so I was expecting him to be about 7lb 9oz-8lb on arrival but he was a lot bigger. Everyone on NICU kept commenting what a big boy he was as most of the babies in there are premature. But he is still pretty small really.
> 
> I am trying to breastfeed, emphasis on try! I ca only get him to do it using a nipple shield and I really don't think he gets enough from me most of the time as a couple of times after being on the breast I have given him a bottle and he has guzzled it down! I am expressing and we're feeding him that via a bottle and then also topping him up with some formula. Any advice on BF would be appreciated!



It's really normal in the early days of bfing for it to feel never ending. The recommendation is 8-12 feeds in 24hrs. 

I'm not sure how much you know (so sorry if I'm stating the obvious) but bfing works on supply and demand - so the more he feeds, the more milk your body will make. Shields aren't necessarily a problem, altho it depends why you started using them - I'd 2nd what I said to babysaurus, and see if you can get a qualified breastfeeding counsellor or lactation consultant to check for a tongue tie. 

It's easier for babies to feed from a bottle than from the breast, so don't be surprised if he finds that heaps more straightforward. Also, cluster feeding in the evenings is really, really normal - it might seem never-ending and like you've not got enough milk, but it's a time of day when babes like to tank up and really stimulate supply for the next day.

I posted some telephone numbers on babysaurus's thread - if you can, give one a call and get some support. Do you have a local support group? (if you let me know where you are geographically, I can ask my network of bfing supporters if they know of a group near you.)

It's knackering, but you're really doing a fab job. Are you eating and drinking well? Plenty of fluids - oats are brilliant for supply (altho harder work for BG, I always find!). 

Will add anything else I think of later!


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## Monkey (Jun 11, 2012)

Forget that - I've just realised I gave you the numbers, sorry! Another thought - kellymom.com is a fab resource for good, evidence-based, up to date bfing info.


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## Babysaurus (Jun 12, 2012)

Thanks for sharing with us Nic and masses of congrats to you all! 

I had been wondering how you were getting on so now I know! x


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## Northerner (Jun 12, 2012)

Thank you for sharing your story Nic, many congratulations to you all


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## margie (Jun 13, 2012)

Congratulations Nic. Hope that you and baby are now both doing well.


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## Nic (Jun 13, 2012)

Monkey said:


> It's really normal in the early days of bfing for it to feel never ending. The recommendation is 8-12 feeds in 24hrs.
> 
> I'm not sure how much you know (so sorry if I'm stating the obvious) but bfing works on supply and demand - so the more he feeds, the more milk your body will make. Shields aren't necessarily a problem, altho it depends why you started using them - I'd 2nd what I said to babysaurus, and see if you can get a qualified breastfeeding counsellor or lactation consultant to check for a tongue tie.
> 
> ...



Thanks Monkey, I saw the numbers, very kind of you! I spoke with the health visitor today and there is a local support group at my health centre that I might go to next week, also a drop in at the hospital too and some local breast feeding cafes etc. I think I need to decide what I actually want to do in terms of whether to continue with bf. I really want to give my baby the best start - i.e breast milk but I also want the convenience of bottle feeding - that might sound really selfish! I don't really like the idea of constantly feeding every two hours, I would like to share the feeding with my husband and at the moment I wouldn't feel comfortable with bf when out and about as it's quite awkward using the nipple shield all the time and he generally fusses a lot more. Plus with having diabetes it is nice to be able to share feeds with my husband if I need to. On the expressing side I am finding that short bursts and often is working best for me and I am producing enough to give him about two thirds of his total daily intake as breast milk and the rest as formula. So I guess I need to decide how to proceed! Thanks again for your support


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## Nic (Jun 13, 2012)

Thanks everyone for your well wishes! Arthur and I are both doing well ; )


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## HappyHelen (Jun 15, 2012)

Hi Nic

Glad that you and Arthur are doing well. Just to let you know that my insulin levels dropped loads after I had Callum (they dropped well below my pre pregnancy doses by quite a bit). I didn't breast feed but still had very erratic sugars in the first 2-3 weeks post birth. My insulin needs have gradually increased (Callum is now 5 months) and am now on more than pre pregnancy doses but still nowhere near pregnancy amounts. 

Hope you are both ok and enjoying being a mum!


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