ProjectXY

3 more to go

We are less than a week away from moving into our new house (whoo-hoo), so I registered with the doctor in Heanor. It’s less than 2 min walk from the house so really handy. I had to go and see the midwife so she could get to know me and check my notes and also to be able to order the Anti-D that I need to have this week

Russ was in a workshop near London so he couldn’t go with me. Instead Sophie drove me there.

The midwife is really nice and for a change I can actually hear what she says. She told me that Sophie better come in as well because it was going to take a while. You see Derby hospitals use different maternity notes so she had to transfer all the information from the old ones.

I was so impressed. The pack the hospital gives you is great! It has loads of information I didn’t know before, maps of the hospital, help of all kinds and the notes are so much more detailed. They even have a part where all the feedings from when the baby is born are recorded to make sure I’m doing it right!

Anyway she checked everything. She took my blood pressure which is a bit low as usual and took blood for all sorts of tests. She said the usual ‘what fantastic veins you have and the blood comes rushing out it makes it really easy’ I find it funny that the blood fizzes, hehe. We also heard the baby’s heart beat

Anyway, at the beginning of the appointment I told her I felt ok, just a bit big. She measured my fundus height (size of my uterus) and she said that I really am big! I just hide it well. Apparently I am right at the upper limit of what is normal. I should be 27cm and I am 29. Added to the fact that I have relatives with diabetes she said we better make some tests to make sure I’m not developing gestational diabetes. This would make the baby too big which may make labour complicated and if it’s too bad that baby might be producing too much insulin to compensate. It’s not a very serious thing, and it happens quite often in pregnancy. It’s easily manageable and it goes away after birth so I’m not too concerned. Besides I still have to do the test to see if I even have it.

Now the test is the bit that is leaving me and Russ slightly worried. It’s called a Glucose Tolerance Test. Basically I can’t eat for 12 hours (only allowed to drink water). I go to the hospital, they test my blood and then I’m given a glucose drink. Then they test my blood again several times over 2 hours to see how I react to the glucose.

The bad bit about it is the not eating. Anyone who knows me know how my temper gets even worse if I’m hungry. Spending more than 14 hours without eating is not going to be nice. Russ told me he doesn’t want to go with me and that he would rather eat a bowl of spiders than to be with me if I haven’t had breakfast!

Anyway it’s going to happen on the 24th November so I advise you not to talk to me until lunch time

P.S.- And just because I like to make it difficult I am allergic to Latex gloves which might be a major pain. Everything in hospitals is latex!! So I am going to see a consultant at the hospital over this as well to see how serious it is. It might mean that I have to be followed by a consultant as well besides the midwife. My dentist had already complained about the fact that I am allergic to latex AND penicillin. He said ‘what an interesting combination’ with a not very happy face. But it could be that it’s just a small reaction and nothing to worry about.

In MK no one seemed to give a damn about any of these things. The new midwife wasn’t very impressed that they didn’t make more tests.

So far it seems like Derby is the place to be! I’m being well taken care of

It’s been a while since I updated this blog. It has much to do with the moving and the work we are doing on the business.

The test results came out ok and now I am waiting for an appointment with the midwife at the new surgery close to where we are gong to live. She should do a general check up as well.

The baby has been kicking A LOT! Sometimes it even hurts. You can actually see my tummy jump and it doesn’t make things like driving easy. She seems to be all over the place and you can already tell she doesn’t like loud noises (just like mum).

The bump is growing and growing. Getting into a car is becoming more difficult and I can’t bend or reach things that are too low down. Low seats and sofas are a no-no. I also stopped being able to see a few parts of my body

I also lost my skinny hands and feet. They are swollen. Lets say there is nothing even remotely skinny about my body anymore

But the worst is the insomnia. As if t wasn’t enough to be too big and struggle to change positions, I can’t go back to sleep for hours after I wake up to go to the toilet. Her kicking doesnt’ help as well. So lately I’ve been waking up at 3.30-4am and having no choice but to get up and do something useful. I usually go back and have a snooze after 7, but my sleeping patterns are definately weird. I guess it will help me get used to the not sleeping at all that comes after the baby is born

Since the trip to the hospital things have been a bit calmer. But today my doctor called me because they found some kind of bacteria on the swab test they did at the hospital. So he said it might be best to treat me with antibiotic. The problem was when he realised that the antibiotic that kills the bugs has penicillin – I am allergic. So he went off to ask the microbiologist for some advice. The answer was that there is one other antibiotic that kills them but 10% of the people that react to penicillin react to that one to

So I had to go in, do another test, and hope that the bugs are not there and were just some kind of contamination (I don’t have any other symptoms). Sigh… If they are we need to hope that I don’t react to that other antibiotic.

Just making things a bit more complicated. If this is as complicated as it gets I’ll be happy

Last night at about 11pm, Cat noticed she was bleeding, which obviously was a cause for concern. We decided to go to hospital to get it checked out. It seems even in an emergency, people here are slow to react but eventually we found the maternity department and waited to see someone.

The midwife came and used some kind of Doppler machine to find the baby’s heartbeat. It seemed to take a long time, but eventually after the point at which I would have given up, she found the baby’s heartbeat and it was beating strong and fine. A while later, the doctor came to see us and was checking that everything was OK.

Some time later, the doctor came back with the midwife to do an examination on Cat to see if they could work out what caused the bleeding. Then the doctor went away again to speak to another doctor to get a second opinion! Eventually they all agreed to give Cat some anti-D and do a blood test and send her home.

At this point it was already quite late (or very early if you prefer) and both of us fell asleep on and off. Cat had a bed but I had a chair that refused to allow me to sit comfortably! To be fair, I think the bed was just as uncomfortable!

We were also kept awake by the noise of several women giving birth in nearby rooms. I couldn’t help but laugh at the noise, but I think poor Cat was given a reminder of what is to come.

Eventually a nurse came to give Cat the anti-D injection into her bottom. I saw the 2 inch needle and had to turn away. Cat’s face showed just how unpleasant it was, and I give her a gold star for bravery!

We were then allowed to leave, and after wrestling with the car park ticket machine, we came home, thoroughly exhausted and drained from the whole experience.

Today I had to get up to go to a meeting at my old work, but when I got back home, I went almost immediately to bed and slept for about 6 hours. Cat was on her own for most of the day, and both of us are still worried and upset, but I think Cat is more so than me. We need things to go OK without incident for a bit, as last night shook us up quite a bit, and you begin to understand how worrying being a parent is going to be.

Hopefully this is the worst thing that happens in the pregnancy and everything goes better from now on. I think all of this is made worse by the fact that it is our first child, and everything is new to us. I’m sure my mum will tell us that the second one is easier