My first time pregnancy story
I am pregnant for the first time and I live on a small remote island. This is my story.
BLog Chapters
Pregnancy blog: front page
Chapter 1: I'm pregnant! The initial emotions
Chapter 2: Sharing our good news
Chapter 3: The unwelcomed symptoms of pregnancy
Chapter 4: Initial midwifery appointment
Chapter 5: Hello baby!
Chapter 6: A healthy growing baby
Chapter 7: The happy second trimester
Chapter 8: Gifts & preparations
Chapter 9: Our plans for home birth
Chapter 10: The start of the third trimester
Chapter 11: Birthing options - a decision finally made
Chapter 12: An unplanned trip to the hospital
Chapter 13: Newest third trimester sensations
Chapter 14: Last minute preparations & more gifts
Chapter 15: A scare! Has the baby moved today?
Chapter 16: We are ready for the home birth
Chapter 17: The woes of late stage pregnancy
> Chapter 18: The excruciating waiting stage!
Chapter 19: Scanning & sweeping
Chapter 20: Trapped in town (an indefinite hospital stay)
Chapter 21: Baby's birthday! My delivery & birth story
Chapter 22: A quick recovery
Chapter 23: Final thoughts. . .
Chapter 1: I'm pregnant! The initial emotions
Chapter 2: Sharing our good news
Chapter 3: The unwelcomed symptoms of pregnancy
Chapter 4: Initial midwifery appointment
Chapter 5: Hello baby!
Chapter 6: A healthy growing baby
Chapter 7: The happy second trimester
Chapter 8: Gifts & preparations
Chapter 9: Our plans for home birth
Chapter 10: The start of the third trimester
Chapter 11: Birthing options - a decision finally made
Chapter 12: An unplanned trip to the hospital
Chapter 13: Newest third trimester sensations
Chapter 14: Last minute preparations & more gifts
Chapter 15: A scare! Has the baby moved today?
Chapter 16: We are ready for the home birth
Chapter 17: The woes of late stage pregnancy
> Chapter 18: The excruciating waiting stage!
Chapter 19: Scanning & sweeping
Chapter 20: Trapped in town (an indefinite hospital stay)
Chapter 21: Baby's birthday! My delivery & birth story
Chapter 22: A quick recovery
Chapter 23: Final thoughts. . .
Chapter 18: The excruciating waiting stage!
The midwives came to see us on 24th September (5 days before the due date). It was more of a social call than a medical check up - we are ready, they are ready, so we had a cup of tea and discussed how great Orkney is. My blood pressure was fine and the baby had a strong heartbeat but the midwives noted that I had an elevated count of white blood cells. I figured this is due to the slight cold I’ve had last week and they weren’t at all concerned as I have no symptoms of anything else going on. They did take the urine sample with them though for further tests. Also, at this 39 week and 2 day appointment the baby measured 3.1 kg in weight and was engaged in my pelvis by a scale of ⅗, meaning that 60% of their head was fully descended into correct position ready for the birth. We all agreed that if they don’t show up this week (and therefore we go overdue) we should come into the maternity unit and have an examination as well as a membrane sweep to encourage the little one to show up. They left and we went to our local beach to play with the dogs.
James and I are impulsive and impatient so this waiting stage has become so excruciatingly hard. It feels like we are experiencing some sort of a trippy psychedelic video effect where things appearing further away the closer we get. . . I think they call it the "Vertigo Effect" in cinematography? Well, it was how our lives began to feel.
Every new little twinge and twang gets me wondering if “this is it?!” but it never seems to be it. I am so excited that even if the twinges are a little painful I welcome them with excitement and anticipation - I really can’t wait to meet and greet my little baby! James is even more jumpy than me at this point, everything I say seems to be interpreted into “the baby’s coming” message for example when I say “my water bottle” it is often heard as “my water’s broken”! He has been ready for a baby for a really long time and this last couple of days are like a never ending Christmas Eve but Christmas never comes! You can see James’ state of mind in this rather amusing Tweet below.
Every new little twinge and twang gets me wondering if “this is it?!” but it never seems to be it. I am so excited that even if the twinges are a little painful I welcome them with excitement and anticipation - I really can’t wait to meet and greet my little baby! James is even more jumpy than me at this point, everything I say seems to be interpreted into “the baby’s coming” message for example when I say “my water bottle” it is often heard as “my water’s broken”! He has been ready for a baby for a really long time and this last couple of days are like a never ending Christmas Eve but Christmas never comes! You can see James’ state of mind in this rather amusing Tweet below.
Speaking of Twitter, as it’s the last week of pregnancy we started a Twitter countdown to the due date. These have been a lot of fun but also have added a lot of fuel to the irritating frustration of waiting for the baby. Here is a gallery of our thoughts and emotions at the time.
|
|
I know I said before that I wasn’t going to bounce on my ball in attempts to encourage the baby - well, this has changed. I was now bouncing on my ball like a champion, like a mad woman, bouncing for victory, bouncing for Team GB, bouncing like there was no tomorrow! I couldn’t help but think to myself that I’d much rather have labour pains than another day of this waiting stage - it was becoming torturous and soul crushing.
At 9am on 25th September we had a call from the maternity unit saying that there has been no change on the baby’s growth chart since the last measurement was taken so the policy is to go into the Kirkwall hospital and have a growth scan. We felt that there was no real concern as the baby was moving well, growing well and had a perfectly great heart beat yesterday. . . However, we agreed to attend the scan they had booked us for Thursday (27th September, 2 days before the due date) - we thought it would be a lovely last minute reassurance that the baby was in correct position ready for the birth, not to mention that we’d get another ultrasound photo for the album. James also had been waiting for a reason to go into town to visit the supermarket and charity shops but didn’t want to leave me alone for a whole day. This was a bit of a déjà vu “here we go again” moment (if you remember, we had the same concern at week 31).
However, as it turned out, I was really pleased we went in that day. . .
|
|