An overdue update

Each time I long onto my blog, I feel very guilty for not posting in such a long time. I’ve been meaning to write this post for months but I’ve had my hands a little full.

To all my long time followers, you would know that my husband and I found out we were expecting our very first baby in November of 2013 (due in July 2014). I found it very difficult to keep our little blessing a surprise and we announced our pregnancy very early at 6 weeks. I had experienced a very difficult teaching year and the last few weeks of school were quite draining, especially with my body growing a very tiny little human! I ended up telling my principal which resulted in me not securing a contract for the 2014 teaching year. At the time, I was heartbroken but chose to see the silver lining – 6 months of relief teaching and focusing on preparing my body (and house eeeep) for what was to come.

I experienced little morning sickness and generally felt pretty un-pregnant which meant I was able to scoop up as much relief work as I could. I also didn’t really start showing until I was about 23 weeks pregnant, and even then you could really only tell if I lifted my shirt up! With lots of teachers in my family, I was never short of days – just enough to keep me busy but not too tired. It all worked out pretty perfectly actually!

It got to May and I was 31 weeks pregnant. I started to get very sick and ended up in hospital on a drip one evening after constant throwing up, upset stomach, migraines and convulsions. After attempting to run tests, it was decided that I had gastro and was sent home. The sickness seemed to ease a little but certainly didn’t go away. I got to 33 weeks and had my baby shower, still quite sick and starting to feel the baby move less and less.

The next day, I headed to the hospital just to check everything was okay and they ended up checking me into maternity. I ended up developing pre-eclampsia which is quite common in pregnancy, especially with a family history like I had. It explained why my belly was so small – the placenta wasn’t working as it should have been which meant our baby girl wasn’t getting all of the nutrients she required to make it to full term. My case was so severe that my organs were starting to shut down which is what caused me to be so unwell. Usually pre-eclampsia is found much earlier than mine and can be controlled with medication. Unfortunately it was too late for me and I had to have an emergency caesarian at 33+6 weeks. Our beautiful little miracle, Lilly-anne,  was born on the 27th of May at 1:19am weighing a teeny tiny 1.59 kg (3 pounds, 8 ounces) – breathing completely on her own! You can read more about my complicated birth story on my mummy blog.

Our gorgeous girl spent almost 5 weeks in the special care nursery due to being so small. She needed to be fed through a feeding tube because she was too weak to suck from a bottle or breastfeed. We finally got to bring her home at the end of June which is when our parenting journey really began.

{above images by Lana Bell Photography at 8 weeks old}

I took a much needed break away from teaching, TPTing and blogging to spend time with my beautiful family. I honestly feel as though I have found what I was put on this Earth to do – be a mummy! Some days I really miss having my own class and everything that comes along with it but I am really enjoying this stage of my life. I am aiming to stay at home until we are finished making babies and they are all school aged. I will continue to work on teaching resources and blogging until I’m ready to return full time!

Miss Lilly is now a cheeky and happy little 8 month old – how time flies!