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Simplified Mum Life

Nina A Spencer – Motherhood Mentor – Simplifying the every day for busy overwhelmed mums -Mum Of Twins Twice! Placenta Accreta Survivor, Mental Health Champion, On my own simple living Journey filled with adventure and travel . Embracing The Imperfectly, Chaotic moments of motherhood.
Health & Fitness

I survived….. Just! (Placenta Percreta Cesarean hysterectomy) Part 2

Please Note images may be upsetting for some readers! 

Part one of my journey can be found here!

  • Saturday 2nd – The day went well – tried again to breastfeed, got out of bed and used the toilet. Then by tea time I started vomiting –  I was transferred to a ward during the night where the vomiting got worse!

I hadn’t yet opened my bowels after the op and the nurses were getting a little concerned – I was given suppositories to try to get things moving. and although some things moved it wasn’t easing things enough!

Sunday 3rd – & Monday 4th – Still vomiting, still no bowel movements, I couldn’t keep anything down. so I ended up with continuous IV fluids and pain relief.

In the end, I got transferred back down to the High Dependency ward where there was a better one to one care!

I was given enema’s to see if that would get my bowels moving and alleviate the sickness.

They didn’t work.

It was late on Monday night and I’d had a sip of water to take some tablets and wanted to hold ‘baby boy M’  when out of nowhere came another bout of sickness. It went everywhere all over me and my bed all over ‘baby boy M’ all over hubby’s trousers and shoes and all over the nurse.

I got out of bed and headed for a shower – It was the first shower id had since before my op! It was heaven, I actually felt like I was a human being again!

  • Tuesday 5th – Felt a little better I even managed to drink a couple of cups of orange juice and keep them down.

Then they decided to take out my staples – all looked well apart from one small gape at the bottom the nurse put some steri strips over it! IMG_3011

I was then transferred back to the ward and given some food I managed a biscuit and some fruit and some more orange juice.

Then more vomiting and later that day my wound opened up! There was a little bleeding and I was told later on it was 3cm deep and 9cm long!

I ended up back down to the High Dependency Unit.

Back in the side room!

Later on, I ended up with a tube down my nose to drain any more fluid that had been making me sick! this was not a pleasant experience every time I swallowed I could feel the tube in my throat however it did take the pressure of my stomach and ease the sickness.

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I was told I should be nil by mouth!

Wednesday 6th – Nil By mouth, lots of iv fluids and pain relief during the day then, later on, that day a surgeon and the anaesthetist from my previous op came to see my wound and said I needed to go to surgery to have it closed back up but beforehand I was to have an x-ray – the x-ray wasn’t a good enough result so I was set for a CT Scan. This is similar to an MRI but the tube is smaller so you don’t go as far in and don’t feel as claustrophobic. They put a cannula in my arm before I went down for the CT but due to all the previous cannulas, my arms were so bruised they couldn’t find a vein so had to get an ultrasound machine in to look for a suitable one! The cannula was for them to add some liquid during the CT Scan to dye my veins to check the flow of things. The dye gives you feeling of warmth from your head in a wave to your toes as it goes down you feel like you’ve had a wee – I was assured this was normal and I had not just disgraced myself. IMG_3086

The results came back

My bowel had twisted ……….

To be continued

Nina

Mum Life

October Half Term Bucket List 2017

Just one More week of school and its half term again!

As I was indisposed during most of the Summer holidays  I plan on making the most of this Half Term.

There are loads of things I want to do but I will still be recovering so I’m aware I need to not do too much.

I plan on utilising the grandparents for the small twins while I try and get a bit of quality time with the big two.

  • Pumpkin Picking – There is a farm nearby that has activities to do like a bouncy castle, tractor ride and more. It looks like a great activity for me and the big two to do!
  • Film Afternoon – I think we might have an afternoon snuggled on the couch watching a couple of dare I say Christmas films!
  • Craft – I have bought some craft supplies to make some Christmas cards I saw on Pinterest. I think I might buy a roll of kraft paper too and make some gift wrap!
  • Kite Flying – I think we will take a walk to the park on a blustery day and take our mini kites.
  • Baking  – M has asked if we can do some baking so we might have a go at something halloweeny!
  • Soft Play – J has asked to go to a big soft play with a big slide! I’m not sure if we will make it to the one he is thinking of but we might get to the local one during the week when I need a bit of a rest & decent coffee!

Here is what we got up to last year at October Half Term!

Let me know what your up to this Half Term

Nina x

Health & Fitness

I survived….. Just! (Placenta Percreta Cesarean hysterectomy) Part 1

This is quite a long story so I am posting in 2 parts!

Its well over a month since I posted about my Operation.

I just didn’t have the emotional or physical strength until now to post about the past month and a half.

If you follow my social media accounts you will see that I had got through the op.

I just thought I would jump on here today and let you know a little about the events of the past few weeks!

I posted up to the point that we had been admitted to Jessops Hospital to spend a week trying not to go into labour.

After a week of  “resting” hubby staying with me each and every day It was the Tuesday before I had my op!

  • Tuesday 29th – I thought it was going to be such a long day but in fact, I had that many people coming in and out.

The lovely nurse who took us to visit SCBU where my babies would be taken not because they thought there would be anything wrong with them but because I would need to recover from the anaesthetic.

She gave me a pack to express some milk if I felt up to it after I had come round from the anaesthetic. She gave me some cloth hearts that I could put in my top and then when the babies were away from me we could exchange scents to aid bonding and milk flow.

The anaesthetist came back to see me to make sure I had no more questions.

The surgeon came to make sure I knew what was happening the next day.

I had the perinatal nurse come and chat through things with me to ease my mind a little.

Some of the other members of the team came and introduced themselves too.

That night myself and hubby went out to the seating area with a cuppa. I prayed silently and we held each other for a while, tears flowing about the enormity of the next day!

  • Wednesday 30th – I got dressed into my gown hubby got into a pair of scrubs! Around 7am my anaesthetist came to see me and then around 8.30 we were wheeled down to theatre.

We got into the recovery room and I said goodbye to hubby.

I remember going into the theatre down a corridor with my amazing anaesthetist (little did I know how amazing she was going to be through the rest of my journey)

She talked to me all the way through the prep of the operation. until finally, she said I’m now giving you your sleepy meds …………

I don’t remember what time I came around but when I did hubby was there and my mum. I was in the recovery room and Hubby showed me a pic of the babies. I remember there were tv theme tunes playing in the background.

I can’t remember much else until I woke in intensive care and had my babies at my side.

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I remember the only thing I had to say was – Blimey baby girl J has long nails would there be any nail clippers to clip her nails? I did try to give them a little breast milk but I really was too tired and full of morphine to feed them any significant amount.

I spent one night on intensive care hooked up to so many monitors that every time I dropped off to sleep the monitors would beep as the heart rate monitor is set at a certain amount and every time I nodded off my heart rate would go down further than that amount. They told me not to worry but when it’s beeping you can’t really forget about it!

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  • Thursday 31st – After a bed bath, I was transferred to a high dependency ward where I remember wanting desperately to get out of bed but they said my temperature was too high and they thought I had an infection. The next min everyone else babies and mums who were just post op too were wheeled out of the ward and a portable x-ray machine was wheeled into x-ray my chest.

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From here I was on drip fed antibiotics and fluids and a bag of blood.

  • Friday 1st – I was then given a side room and my babies were transferred to be with me. Hubby stayed with me and our babies. I was too weak to look after them at this point my thoughts of breastfeeding were now replaced with the guilt of not even being able to cuddle them!

It was from here I was able to get out of bed for the first time – after just a normal c section this feels like the worst thing in the world! You feel like you are going to rip open and everything feels like its going to fall out.

I continued to be given IV fluids and painkillers,

I managed to eat some food and drink a little tea!

Everything was going in the right direction………….

To be continued

Nina

Mum Life

And just like that we went from a family of 5 to a family of 7! 5 weeks in.

It’s been 5 weeks since they arrived into the world on August 30th but I just wanted to introduce our new twins, Mason & Jessica!

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The journey has not been an easy one and the delivery was far from simple but they are here and healthy!

They were born by a complex CSection under general Anaesthetic, not at all what I had planned.

Weighing in at 5lb11 Baby boy M was born at 10.53am and baby girl followed a minute later at 10.54am weighing 6lb 14.

5 weeks Update –

Mason has already developed a little character and Jessica Is not far behind!  They both seem to be lifting their heads and looking around at new things.

To be honest, the past 5 weeks have been gone in a bit of a blur! I spent alot of the time ill. (birth post coming soon!)

At 5 weeks they are now in 0 – 3month clothing.

I am still recovering from my op so our days are spent slow, though we have managed to do some of the school runs and had a few outings to soft play, a party and a trip to the sure start centre to get the babies weighed.

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First soft play visit 3weeks 4 days old

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Getting ready to leave the hospital age 13 days old

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5 weeks old

Thanks to everyone for your prayers thoughts and well wishes.

I cant tell you how much they meant to me!

And thanks to all the staff at Jessops / Hallamshire hospital, everyone was amazing!

Nina x

Mum Life

A letter to my big boy starting year one.

J, it’s almost time to start year one!

What a year it has been. When I first took you into nursery you were shy and not very confident without mummy.

Now look at you. You are confident in loads of things. You can say your lines in assemblies and school plays with loads of confidence.

You still love playing with your “misters” and I love that you can immerse yourself in that play.

You sometimes still need mummy more than Your twin sister M.

I know you are worried about what’s going to happen once your new baby brother & sister arrive. I’ll let you into a secret so am I.

But you are an amazing little boy and I’m sure you and the rest of us will adapt to the new life.

We’ve had a busy year. What with you learning how to swim. Playing the drums. And going on our family adventures. I can see a lot of your big brother in you and you idolise him and although this scares me a little I’m glad you have someone to look up to.

Just like mummy you love your food and often can be found at grandmas asking for an egg, a biscuit, or a bacon buttie.

You also have those boy moments when all you want to do is sulk or be a monkey. This is sometimes mummy’s fault as I get tired and ratty with you back. Sometimes I don’t realise how frustrated you are with things and I think you get this from me too! Mummy is trying to parent you and M better.

J you are going to be amazing in year one. It may be hard work. But now you have started liking writing and doing sums and going to break time with the big boys and girls so you can have a pizza snack you will continue to grow.

Love you little dude. I’m so so proud of you.

Mummy xx

Where to next?