long-wait-2007

Hello, my name is Sylvia Christofis and I am 39 years old.  I am expecting my second child in 17 years.  My son Steven was born in December 1989.

I had four months of bad morning sickness until 16 weeks and trouble-free pregnancy until I reached 35 weeks.

At that stage, I developed High Blood pressure and was hospitalised for the remainder of the pregnancy.  At 38 weeks I was induced and told that I would need to have epidurals all day to keep my blood pressure down.

I was given the first epidural after about five hours of induced pain and contractions.  When my blood pressure increased they gave me the epidural.  Unfortunately, it blocked out all the pain except for a nerve in my backside. The contractions were shooting in that direction.  They gave me another which then killed all the pain.

I delivered with the help of forceps as I could not feel what I was doing.  It should have been a caesarean.  I remained in hospital for ten days with complications.  My son was a healthy 7Ib 90z.  Three years later I had a scan of my pelvis and found that I had a tilted pelvis being the reason the baby got stuck.  I was so sick after my son was born that I was advised to wait at least 5 years before having another child.

After that period we began trying for another one knowing a second pregnancy would be a caesarean.  Nothing ever happened again.  We tried for years and years.  I did not go to IVF as I felt it was there for people who could not have children at all and that it would be selfish of us to use those facilities as we already had one healthy child.  We had medical tests and they told us there was no medical reason why we could not conceive again.  We tried numerous things including fertility drugs.  Nothing worked.  After a while, we accepted that we were only meant to have one child.  The years passed and always with a sadness for me that I could not give my son a longed-for brother or sister.  We had never stopped trying and I am not sure how much money was spent on negative pregnancy tests.

Last year I was suffering severe abdominal pain.  I went to see my Gynaecologist who diagnosed painful fibroids and endometriosis.  He also said this was possibly the reason for my infertility.  We resigned ourselves to the fact we would have no more children.  I was very sad but realised our son would soon be an adult and our lifestyle had changed.  The desire for a baby had never left either of us.

I was booked in for a curette in January 2007.  The doctor told us if he needed to perform a hysterectomy then they would if it was medically necessary.  This prospect saddened me even more.  The week before my scheduled operation the hospital rang to confirm and asked me the date of my last period.  In my head, I knew I should have had one the week before but with the confusion of Christmas etc, I did not pay too much attention for the first time in years.  When I told them I was at least 5 days late they told me to do a test.  I did and nearly fell off the seat.  For the first time in 17 years, it was positive.  I rang my doctor who then said “Congratulations I will book you in for Pregnancy instead of a curette.”

I am now 15 weeks pregnant and extremely happy.  None of our family or friends could believe our news.  My teenage son’s reaction was one of horror as to the fact that his parent was still having sex.  He is really happy now.  All I want now is to see my who will be almost 18 holding his brother or sister in his arms.

Revised on 7th December 2021

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