It's hard to think about much else other than babies, birth, potential pitfalls, consequences and generalised worry.I'm still at work though and we moved office on Monday - a really nice new building we're in, it's so much better than the old place, it distracted me for about 24 hours but now my mind is fully back on the baby thing.
The due date was yesterday but baby doesn't appear to have known that. Girlfriend (GF) is now massive - or mahoosive as trendy young go-getting TV presenter Fearne Cotton says. She's fed up, she can barely even get in the bath, she just can't wait until he or she is out.
GF's blood pressure is still ridiculously high. Well, it's high then it's low. In our usual antenatal appointment yesterday afternoon the lower number went so high that the midwife, Risi, didn't want to tell us what it was - 110 we found out when the doctor was called in.
Risi said she knew the consultant was going to be unhappy with the results and quickly had GF on the couch giving her a sweep.
I speak here as if I know the vocabulary well, I'd only actually found out what a sweep was the night before. I'd seen women on pregnancy messageboards giving each other tips on how to get things moving along with advice such as: a hot curry, sex, eating pineapple, drinking raspberry leaf tea. While looking at Mumsnet on Saturday there were a few people saying they had triggered labour by having a sweep and I was about to suggest to GF that she purchase a hefty yard brush from the hardware shop at the top of the road and go outside to clear up the fallen leaves. luckily GF brought up
how she was going to ask for a sweep and explained it all before I embarrassed myself.
It's where the midwife gives the mother an internal probing, the intention being to stimulate the cirvix into producing, um ... hang on a second I'm just going to shout through to GF to ask what it is that it's meant TO TRIGGER> Prostoglandin. That's right. It's a hormone or an enzyme that brings on contractions. Something like that.
GF squealed quite a bit while the sweeping happened - a tiny bit weird being in the same room where someone else is sticking their fingers up your partner, I have to admit. But I surprised myself by getting choked up. It was the FIRST PAIN I've seen GF in and I knew it was minor compared to what is going to happen in the next few days. I'm tellin' ya, I'm gonna be blubbin like a good un at the birth. Possibly at the first contraction to be honest. What's up with me?
And get this. When we saw the doctor I got choked up again because he talked about bringing GF in to hospital that night. This was it. It was happening. But oh no, he then backtracked and said he'd give her until tomorrow morning. We were to report to the Day Assessment Unit (DAU) at 9am for a series of blood pressure tests across an hour to gauge the situation a little better. Not big news to us, we've been here a number of times already.
Doctor left the room but midwife Risi wasn't happy just letting us go home while GF's blood pressure was still so high. She sent us to the DAU there and then for some tests immediately. We spent an hour in the quiet room in the DAU and her blood pressure sank right down to something very very normal.
The results look rather as if girlfriend gets nervy when she comes into the hospital - White Coat Syndrome as they call it. However, GF vigorously maintains that this is not the case. It may well be that, at rest, her blood pressure is relatively normal but what is it like as soon as she excerts herself at home by just a little bit of pottering between kitchen and living room? Is this high blood pressure harming baby? It worries us because high blood pressure can result in less oxygen getting through the placenta.
We went home and hoped that the sweep might start off the contractions. They say that a sweep can give results within about 6 hours. Not for us though.
She touched the head! The midwife actually touched our baby's head when doing this sweep thing. Amazing. Actually slightly scary. But amazing. Wouldn't that break the waters, I wondered? Apparently not.
Wednesday ... and we went out for lunch today at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen in West Hampstead - a very last minute decision after spending this morning in the hospital too. Blood pressure was fine but this is all getting too much. She's being observed so closely that it's hard not to get stressed about what might be going on - the side effect of being looked after extremely well by the hospital, taste the irony. But when her BP is high then it's HIGH, right? And that's not good.
We sought out the midwife again today and met with her discussing our concerns for about half an hour. The upshot is that GF is going to get an enema and a sweep on Friday. The enema apparently can clear the bowel and help baby down the passages into the right position. This means we're giving GF every chance to have a natural birth and avoid getting induced - the preferred option obviously. Tuesday is our next appointment with the consultant and, at 41 weeks, one week overdue, that's where we'll discuss getting baby out.
We've booked in diary time with the midwife for the birth already. Next Thursday at 8:30am, we have to come in to the hospital to have GF's waters broken to try and bring on a natural birth if all is 'favourable' on the Tuesday. And apparently 'favourable' means that your cirvix has to be 'ripe'. If her cirvix is not 'ripe' then she's got to go in to hospital Wednesday night for induction.
So. One more week of waiting maximum.
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