Nothing could possibli go wrong

Had a crappy couple of days - but strangely, am fairly cool, calm and collected! Not sure why things aren't getting to me that would normally have me in a fury.

Wednesday, August 12

I had another appointment with the midwife at midday and also needed to get a blood sample taken for a compulsory blood test (apparently the hospital want to be sure that there is enough iron in my system). I left in time to get to the Pathology department by about 11.00 am so I could do the blood test before my appointment. But the hospital car park was full and by the time I had spent 15 minutes looking for a parking space in the surrounding streets, I didn't arrive at Pathology until 11.30 am. As I got out of the car, I noticed the exhaust was looking a bit too smoky... not a good sign when we have just had the car serviced!

At Pathology, I took the next number (47) and when 37 was called, I realised there were 10 people in the queue ahead of me. So I sat and waited, and waited, and waited. Then, at midday, I had to leave the queue and go to the Family Birth Centre for my appointment. At this point there were only about 2 or 3 people in the Pathology queue ahead of me, so it was really annoying to have to give up my place. I decided to try my luck with repositioning myself in the queue by grabbing a few more numbers. The number cards were back to the start with number 1 at the front. So I took 5 and 8, hopeful that by the time I finished with the midwife, my number might be up!

At the Family Birth Centre, I was kept waiting for nearly 25 minutes. Might as well have stayed in the queue at Pathology. Grrr! I ended up seeing the same midwife I saw at my last visit (one I don't like much). She gave me a swab to do the GBS test, then listened to Thumper's heartbeat, felt Thumper's position. I managed to ask a few questions as she rushed me out the door. She handed me the swab and said to give it to Pathology and ask them to send it off for testing along with my blood sample.

Back up to Pathology. Finally something good happens: the next number up is 5! The woman holding number 6 looks at me with daggers though... obviously wondering how I can just turn up and get seen straight away. Having the blood sample taken was stressful and unpleasant. In the same room, on the other side of the curtain, a baby about 6 months old was having a blood sample taken and he was extremely distressed, absolutely bawling. Plus I was feeling stressed from all the rushing about. Anyway, the needle hurt this time, and I still have a bruise 2 days later.

All done and finally time to go except... the FBC midwife hadn't given me a pathology request slip for the GBS swab so the Pathology department couldn't accept it. So I went back down to the FBC. There were no staff in sight. I waited for about 5 minutes and eventually someone appeared. After a fair bit of explaining on my part, she finally understood the situation and agreed to do the pathology request slip. I raced out the door to get back to the car before I got booked for staying past the 2 hour limit.

I got a bit of a rest at home in the afternoon before heading off to crèche to collect BallFiend. It wasn't till I got back to the car and had him all strapped in and ready to go that I remembered to check the nappy bag to ensure everything was in it (something I usually do before I leave the building). Usually, the carers are very good with packing all the clothes, dummy, blankie, etc. back into the bag. But of course this time, the dummy wasn't in the bag! I couldn't be bothered heading back to look for it, so when I got home I just emailed the crèche to ask them to keep an eye out for it.

Thursday, August 13

I slept very badly and woke up already completely exhausted! I had planned to take BallFiend out somewhere in the morning - maybe shopping or a visit to a friend's house, then I was going to tackle the remaining things on my "to do before Thumper is born" list while BallFiend had his afternoon nap, but all I could manage was slowly pottering about the house. Thank goodness for television - BallFiend watched it for about 3 hours straight!

Around 1.00 pm, I started feeling unwell - nausea, cramps in my lower belly and extending down my legs and a low back ache. I began to feel a bit anxious... maybe I was in early labour! Thumper was definitely not allowed to come out yet:

1. It is less than a week since BallFiend's birthday and I want as much time as possible between Thumper and BallFiend's birthdays, so that organising parties in future will be a little easier.
   
2. VoluableK was off to the Pink concert that night and wouldn't be available to come to support me during labour.
   
3. Being less than 37 weeks pregnant (ie. at this time I was 36 + 5 days), the hospital would consider it as a premature birth and so I would not be eligible for the Family Birth Centre.
   
4. I just don't feel ready yet!

I lay on the couch whilst BallFiend ran about amusing himself by throwing the beach ball up to the ceiling and rolling marbles across the floor and generally running amok. Clearly there was no way BallFiend was going to nap for me today. However I managed to nap for about half an hour, undisturbed by BallFiend's exuberance. I was very impressed with BallFiend's understanding when I explained that I felt sick and I was equally impressed with his ability to entertain himself, finding things to play with around the house and requesting nothing from me!

At about 2.00 pm, I messaged DeepSpice and asked him to come home early, saying I felt unwell (but not mentioning the possiblity of labour as I didn't want to get him overly alarmed). Anyway, DeepSpice said he would get away as early as possible, but he didn't understand that I meant as soon as possible. So I was disappointed when it got to 3.30 pm and DeepSpice hadn't even left work yet! However, thankfully I was feeling a bit better by this time... but also well enough to feel even more anxious that I hadn't finished off the final preparations for Thumper's arrival, such as finishing packing bags for hospital, leaving notes and checklists for family members who will be caring for BallFiend, etc.

By 4.30 pm, I was feeling pretty bad again, and very tired. I was still unsure if I was just experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions or was really in early labour, and DeepSpice was only just leaving work, so I decided to ask DesignerSis to come over and help me by getting dinner for BallFiend. However, DeepSpice got home around 5.00 pm, so I messaged DesignerSis and said not to worry about coming over.

I continued to feel nauseous and crampy to greater and lesser degrees all evening. But stupidly stayed up pretty late making sure all the last preparations were finished, in case we ended up rushing off to hospital later that night, including making DeepSpice install the baby capsule in the car! Finally in bed around 11.00 pm and asleep about midnight. Only to wake at 1.40 am needing to wee, then again at 4.20 am.

Friday, August 14

Surprisingly, after the events of Thursday, I felt much better when I woke up at 6.20 am, and strangely quite well rested! Obviously I wasn't in as good shape as I felt though because I dropped my dear old Palm Tungsten T3 on the floor! I am so clumsy at the moment... not sure if it is pregnancy-related. Anyway, the screen now has a massive crack through it, and it is clearly beyond repair. I had been thinking of decommissioning it, only because the battery performance had got really poor. But now I suppose I have no choice.

And there was still no sign of BallFiend's dummy when I picked him up at crèche this afternoon.
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