Best made plans

After months of trying and waiting in aniticipation you find out you are pregnant.

After the jubilations subside you get to enjoy the idea of creating this human being and all the joyous and tough times you may encounter along the way.

The first trimester

You have heard the horror stories from friends who couldn’t go anywhere due to excesive morning/all day sickness or there are those who manage to escape the nausea. Whichever one befalls you, know that it usually passes and you must just sucumb to whatever your body wants.

If your body wants potatos and naartjies as I did then just enjoy them. Do what it takes to keep yourself functioning.

Make sure you sleep as much as you can and if you have the energy enjoy taking light walks to keep up your enegry levels.

The second and third trimester

Your belly is growing beautifully now and the bump has gone from looking like you ate too much at lunch to you looking pregnant.

You can start feeling your baby moving and the scans are showing more detail.

This is also a great time to prepare the babies room, start thinking about baby names and getting your hospital bag ready.

The last item for me was the most important and I will ellude to that in my next point.

The arrival

You have read or prepared both birthing methods, you have writen your birth plan and discussed it with your gynae.

What you cannot read about or prepare for is the early unplanned arrival of baby.

My baby arrived 4 weeks early with a gush of my waters breaking and the biggest fright we could have ever experienced. Luckily, we were home and my husband was very calm and knew to grab mine and babies bag and race to the hospital safely.

We were planning on waiting to decide on the birthing method until the week before, depending on his weight. Well he had other ideas and we had to have an emergency C-section. My placenta had started to come away from my uterus which caused my water to break.

Luckily baby’s heartbeat was stable, but he had to come out immediately. Neither my gynae nor her assistant were available so that was also a shock but the on call gynae and team were phenomenal, so I was in very safe hands.

Luckily the end result was positive and both baby and I were healthy and safe, and the procedure went well.

The point I would like to make is that whilst you have a specific plan in mind, don’t be too hung up on it as best made plans sometimes don’t work out and being able to adjust to what is currently happening meant we could just get on with the birth and not be upset with not having our way. We just wanted our baby to come out healthy and strong, it didn’t matter which way it happened.

The focus needs to be on having a healthy baby and a safe procedure so that you as mom can look after your precious creation.

In life we can spend all our lives making plans but sometimes these little treasures have other plans.

Go with it and enjoy the experience.