A sneak preview of Littlest Miss

Well, with all the upset and drama of the stupid consultant visit last week, I never got around to blogging about our 3d scan the previous day!

As with Lilly, we went along to Take A Peek in St Helens, which is a private 3d/4d scanning place. I think when we went while pregnant with Lilly it had just open, as the prices seem to have gone up quite a lot since then – seem to remember paying about £80 for a superduper package – 20 minute scan, DVD, lots of printed out pics and a CD of all the images. This time we went for the most basic option – £65 for 10 minutes and two colour photos (although we paid an extra £5 for two more prints).

I was 28+4 at the scan – around the same gestation as I was when we went with Lilly. And, just like Lilly, our new baby is also pretty camera shy and uncooperative – she spent the vast majority of the scan looking like this:

As you can see – she had her arm firmly over her face and was firmly curled up into a ball! (Apologies for the picture quality too – it’s a photo of the photo!)

Lilly came with us and we tried to explain to her what we were going to see – i.e. her new baby sister with a special camera. She was very well behaved even though we had to wait a little while, and although she only took a passing interest in what we were seeing on the screen she seemed to understand a little bit and quite enjoyed it.

Eventually, baby moved a little bit (helped by Lilly shouting: “Wake Up Baby!” and running up to my tummy saying: “Boo!”) and we managed to get some other shots of her face – again, not brilliantly clear, but something!

The highlight for Lilly was when the sonographer printed her out her very own picture of her baby sister. Don’t suppose Lilly could make head nor tail of what she was looking at, but she was really chuffed with it and has been quite posessive over it ever since!

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Back to square one in the VBAC stakes…

Well, went to see the consultant again today for 28 week bloods and general checkup. Feel like i’ve taken a massive step backwards in my quest for a VBAC.

Last time I went to see the (a) consultant, i came away feeling really positive. Because of the nature of Lilly’s birth (continuous monitoring leading meaning I had to stay lying on the bed, leading to failure to progress, fetal distress and emergency c-section), I explained to him that my main fears were not being able to remain mobile and the same thing happening again. He had thoroughly read my notes and told me that, although I would need continous monitoring, this need not start until about 5-6cm dilated, and that the hospital was hoping to have wireless monitors by June, which would allow me to remain mobile whilst being monitored.

But, oh no, when I went today that all went up in a puff of smoke.

This doctor practically laughed when I asked if they had the wireless monitors yet, and made me feel like i’d just invented something fit for Tomorrow’s World. Upshot is, no, the wireless monitors won’t be in place.

He said I’d need continous monitoring and that I’d have to stay on the bed for this. I asked whether there would be any way I could maintain a bit of mobility – even sitting on a birthing ball right next to the monitor? – he said no, not possible.

All in all total conflict to what last consultant told me three months ago.

Out of interest, i thought I’d ask him how long they’d “let” me go overdue, to see what he’d say. I know the hospital policy is supposed to be 14 days. Last consultant told me 15-20 days to give me the maximum chance of a VBAC (which i did think sounded quite long!). This one was pretty non-committal but hinted at only 10 days.

He doesn’t want me back at the hospital til 39 weeks – which, as it is on a Tuesday actually works out as two days before my due date, so pretty much full term.

I came away from it all feeling like i wanted to cry, to be honest.

Surely the quickest way to a repeat performance of failure to progress is to lie on my back waiting for things to not happen? If I’m made to stay on the bed I can’t help but feel an emergency section is once again more than likely.

What’s especially frustrating is that you get a totally different opinion depending on who you see. There is no basic hospital policy about labouring naturally after a previous c-section. So, what’s the point in seeing a consultant? In reality, it comes down to who is on shift the day you’re in labour.

It’s left me feeling pretty deflated. I feel like I’m going to have to fight a battle to get something approaching the birth I want, but I’m going to have to fight it whilst I’m in labour, rather than having the bones of a plan agreed in advance. I know birth rarely conforms to a plan (ha! Nobody knows that more than me!) and I know that a healthy mum and baby are the most important thing at the end of it all, but I don’t want to be left feeling that I’ve had another section that could have been avoided if only things had been handled differently.

I also asked him about my failed epidural top up last time, which lead to my section having to be carried out under general anaesthetic. At the VERY LEAST, this time I’d like to be actually concious when my baby comes into the world, thanks very much.

Basically, my questions were whether there was a reason for the epidural failure last time – could it happen again? How could it be avoided? If I manage to labour without an epidural (which I’m hoping to do, at least until the later stages), and then a section becomes neccessary in a hurry, what anaesthetic will they use? Can I have anything put in place (canula or whatever it’s called) just in case, so that if an epidural or spinal block is needed in a hurry, that would help? He rambled on a bit but basically said no, there’s nothing I can do to help, every emergency is different.

Now I need to try and take stock and build myself back up to positivity again. Not sure what my plan of action is really. At the least it is to hope for a helpful and sympathetic consultant on the day. And also to do some more research to try and arm myself with a few facts for the fight ahead.

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28 weeks 1 day

Well, if I wasn’t feeling particularly tired last time I blogged, I certainly am now!

In the last week I have been feeling very pregnant indeed! I feel huge and I feel slow and I feel lazy!

I’ve also had some kind of strange bug which left me feeling a bit strange and slightly sicky – it still hasn’t really gone and it’s been a few days now. Tony has had it too so i don’t think it’s pregnancy related! When i eat it makes me feel slightly worse, so i’ve been off my food slightly for three days – nothing too major, although it’s been toast for dinner the last three nights!

We are now a week and a half into the Big Girl’s Bed for Lilly – it got a lot worse after the last post. In fact, a few nights ago, she was essentially awake for four hours through the night and T and I took it in shifts to stay with her. But last night – praise god! - she slept all night til the respectable hour of 6am!!! It felt amazing, and Lilly was rewarded with a cuddly Waybuloo which her daddy had promised her if she managed to sleep all night!

It’s now 8 weeks til I finish work. That feels like quite a long time. I could quite happily finish today, especially the way i’ve been feeling the past week. I’m just hoping that it will pass and I will get some energy back. I definitely cannot remember being this tired and slow and just all-round pregnant at this stage with Lilly – but then, I never had a toddler to look after too!

I’m hoping I haven’t been too ambitious with my plans to work until 36 weeks – I only worked to 35 weeks with Lilly but as she was 2 weeks overdue it felt like quite a long time. But this time in hindsight that extra week would have been lovely!

Note to self: In future, if contemplating number 3, start Mat Leave EARLY!!!!

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4d scan – and we’ve learnt that bubs is camera shy!

Well, it has been a while since I updated this, and I think the main thing to report is that we had our 4d scan… and discovered that Miss Bubs isn’t an exibitionist!!

We went for the first attempt on 22nd September – at 27 weeks 2 days. Me and her daddy were still impressed, even though she wouldn’t face the front, so we couldn’t get a full frontal of her face. BUT, we still did see a little chubby face and even watched her sucking her thumb very enthusiastically!

Here are a couple of pictures from that day…

Sucking her thumb!

Looks like she has her daddy’s cute nose!

The sonographer was determined to get better ‘face on’ shots, but after trying pacing up and down and having a cup of coffee, she still wasn’t playing ball, so they said we could come back the following Saturday for another try.

So, off we trooped on Saturday morning (29th Sep) for another attempt – but no, her ladyship is not interested in playing for the cameras!

We got some more pictures, but no better than last time. However, we did get to see bubs drinking and even saw her in a kind of hammock position with her legs up in the air which was quite funny. Oh, and at the very beginning we saw what looked very much like a smile!!

Here are some of the pictures from 28 weeks 2 days…

Rubbing her eyes, she’s not amused!

We also got a dvd from both visits and a cd of pics, as well as six colour pics.

Overall, it was a lovely experience, seeing our little princess on the screen. It’s a shame though, as they could have got such better pictures but she just wasn’t having any of it! It was very strange though, watching her kicking on screen and feeling it at the same time!

The other main development to note is that we had our first NCT class on Wednesday. It is quite far from us, actually – about 30 minutes drive! There were four other couples (supposed to be five but one didn’t turn up). They are all older than me and Tony – in their 30s, but i suppose we expected that. Three of them are all November mums, so about a month ahead of me, and one is 31st December, so a little bit later than me. It was quite funny really, talking to other pregnant ladies… and funny watching how they were all eyeing up each others bumps to see whose was bigger and smaller!!

The lady taking the course is a midewife, she seems really nice. We didn’t do much this first session, just introduced ourselves and then went through all the things we want to learn from the course. I was glad as all the others said that they wanted to know just as much about caring for the baby once it’s here as they did about the birth itself – which is exaclty what i was hoping for. She says next week we are going to learn all about “babies bums”!!

Apart from that, I am still feeling good. i can feel my belly is getting bigger and bigger now, and i am a little more tired, but apart from that i’m feeling fine!

Ooh yes, and we bought our cot yesterday. We have gone for one from Mothercare, and a cot rather than a cotbed. We decided a cotbed would probably swamp the baby’s room. Anyway, i’m hoping that by the time she grows out of it (about 2 years), we may have a baby brother or sister to pass it on to!!!

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