Hi All, tnx for messages you lovely bunch. Lindy, thank you, you will find loads of support here. Bf - don't worry, nothing about my pg has been normal, you shouldn't expect such drama .. And Lizzie, God I thought of your story with Evie during the course of that night!!!!!!
*Anyway ...
I'm sitting on a bed screaming & Grace the Junior Midwife is trying to calm me down for the baby's sake & so she puts a monitor on me & I hear the heartbeat & start to breathe & try & calm down for Wriggle's sake. Finally a registrar shows up & announces that my membranes have bulged through the stitch & have created a balloon btw my legs which is collecting water. I mean, Jesus Christ! What more's a girl to go through? She tries to find my stitch despite me telling her the anaethetist who's put it in told me it's a shirodkar, up behind my bladder,& needs to come out under a spinal & despite me Yelling in pain, before the senior consultant rocks up & orders me into theatre announcing she's going to perform a caesar.
The fab midwife has rung Matt & he arrives just as I'm being wheeled in & an amazing crack team of anaethetists get on the case. The senior registrar asks me what Dr Kumar's plans for my delivery had been as the baby is head down & engaged & I told her I'd been advised it would depend on Wriggle's position. She then has a conflab with the anaethetist b/c I'd had a dvt-busting blood thinner injection at 10pm & the rules dictate a 12-hour interval btw that & a spinal or there's a risk of paralysis if he hits a blood vessel. But he was competent & confident & elected to bend the rules & give me one anyway so they could remove the stitch & give me a c- section if necessary. Phew. Cue enormous south african assistant rolling me over onto my side while Grace holds one leg in the air to stop me squashing my own membrane balloon, into the fetal position & a jab in the spine hy presto numb from the waist down ... I was chatting to Matt & one of the ace team of paedatricians on hand to revive Wriggles if he came when the registrar turned to me & said 'okay, the stitch is out & your membranes have gone' ... & I hadn't felt a thing ...
Back on the labour ward I'm hooked up to a monitor, having regular contractions & spinal top-us as the contractions come and by god was I relieved when it hit 0800 & I knew the hospital would come to life with decent consultants again. First up a lady who was very nice but instinct told me she wasn't right for me, Wriggles' heartbeat would drop every time I had a contraction & she was dithering about what to do & muttering about caesars and waiting & stuff. Politely I told her no disrespect but I wanted to see Dr Kumar & was informed he was in a meeting. Well, as soon as she left the room I told Matt to go & find Dr Kumar & not to come back without him (!) & bless him, he's not the pushy type but 'our baby's life depends on it' gave him the shove he needed & most brilliantly he arrived with the Big Man at his side within about ten minutes. Good work that man!!! Dr Kumar made some swift decisions & concluded it was probably best not to wait but to bring labour on, so they administered an intravenous hormone to move me along and things began to hot up.
It got even better when the marvellous Mr McCarthy, my modest, dry Irish Consultant took over from the lady consultant & started doing his rounds. He's pretty aloof & told me he'd only come & see me if it was an emergency during the course of the day & when I asked who would deliver said 'a midwife most likely' before departing. Cue the arrival of the most fabulous, eccentric Irish Midwife (who I think he sent in) who started looking at my obs & decided things weren't really alright, the baby's heartbeat was fluctuating violently & that Mr McCarthy should be called back in. Well, blow me down, the big man himself arrived & announced he was going to deliver (!) which is apparently very rare & he really was just totally brilliant. I hadn't taken any antenatal classes, didn't dare, didn't know what to expect but I have to say that the delivery was probably one of the most straightforward parts of my pregnancy. Mr McCarthy told me afterwards that he had been concerned about the baby's heartbeat a couple of times & that he had considered using forceps as I was to far gone for a caesar, but we did it eventually, Matt was amazing & I still can't believe that that little mite Matt was holding today slid effortlessly out of me & into the arms of the waiting paediatric team for revival. I just can't believe I have a son!!
We had a chat with The Consultant in Nicu today who again questioned Wriggle's gestational age, commenting that both his size & behaviour were ahead. It wasn't the milkman, I promise, we had 4 scans in the first trimester that were absolutely consistent with the date we thought we conceived & also a sizing scan which backed this up. Maybe our son is just a Genius ... But he is rather large for his age.*
Consultant did advise caution though, telling us not to look at it through 'rosy glasses' - it might look like he's doing well now but premmies in care can provide a 'rollercoaster' ride ... Bugger. And I just had a fleeting glimpse of positive
I know it'll be a tough journey.*
Anyway.*
Off to milk myself for the umpteenth time today & then my much-needed bed.*
Thanks for your lovely messages. Zzzzzzz