My experience of giving birth in Cambridgeshire

L was born on the Saturday 23rd of July at 16.22, after irregular contractions and ever increasing amount of show since previous Tuesday. Surviving with paracetamol, then TENS machine over the contractions that varied between 5 and 30 minutes between them, after several phone calls to the Labour ward over the previous days, we drove in early hours of Saturday after the show turned very fresh and plenty. At arrival I was checked and found to be 4cm dilated, that my blood pressure was a bit high and I was taken in after being given a paracetamol, beta blockers to curb the blood pressure and some Gaviscon (as the reflux I had been suffering for a month was really in overcharge at that point).

The hospital was very very busy at the time and they had called some of the community midwives to help with the influx; my birth preferences mentioned that we wanted a delayed cord clamping which the first midwife did say she didn't see anything stopping us from having. Things went ahead, shifts changed and another midwife took over, I kept on huffing and puffing my gas and air, waiting for the pain to get worse. Around two o'clock the doctor had made the decision that things weren't getting along fast enough on their own even though I was about 7cm dilated and the midwife broke my waters. That certainly got things going, after that I had to fight against the urge of pushing really hard. Once I got the permission to push, things went quite fast and she was born at 16.22. Apparently we didn't take too long from the crowning; she was fully out on the next push, being a rather small baby (3.24kg or 7lb 1 ½oz). Despite our request, apparently my beta blockers and blood clotting disorder meant that we couldn't have delayed cord clamping after all, which came as a surprise to both of us but especially the Bear rather late in the process before she was born and didn't really have time to contest the issue. However, she was lifted on my chest straight after being born, and eventually we nursed for an hour before she was weighed. She scored full 10's on both Apgar checks.

We got transferred to the postnatal ward around nine o'clock. The Bear stayed in until around one and went home then. His brother and mother came over from LN the following day, thinking we'd be discharged on Sunday they left early in the morning. However, at some point we realised she hadn't peed, so we were forced to stay in another night, and so the guests just popped in the hospital during the visiting hours. Sunday evening was consumed by a cluster feeding session that lasted five hours until one o'clock. Around two o'clock the midwives decided that I needed a break and took the baby into their care for a while, and as I was in the loo taking care of my own bodily functions, the midwives changed L's nappy to find a soaking wet diaper. We got great breastfeeding advice in the hospital, including how to safely co-sleep in the bed if the baby is going through a clusterfeeding night, and after an excellent nights sleep (after all, I had been sleeping poorly for nearly a year with our shoddy bed and then pregnancy) we got discharged the following morning. C had her baby on Sunday morning and D was induced around noonish, so we were all in the antenatal/postnatal ward at the same time.

L's umbilical cord stump came off on the following Friday night, and her sleeping improved greatly after that. We've been using our cloth nappies ever since and that seems to be going well too. While baby and daddy seem to be sleeping quite well, I've had a few nights when my sleep has been lacking due to them both snoring quite loudly when I've wanted to sleep myself. Nosefrida is a gift from heaven! Also, the freezer burritos for lunches and readymade freezed dinners have been heavensent. L was registered on the Wednesday following week, after nearly two weeks of staring at her face and wondering what name would suit her. Eventually her first name came almost as a revelation as it wasn't in the original list at all.

All in all, L's been a relatively easy baby. She doesn't really cry for no good reasons, so far the only reasons have been wind or poop, or hunger, all of which we've been able to solve. She's slept through a few shopping trips to nearby shops we've been to and didn't seem to mind being breastfed at Tesco's Harris and Hoole either. I've been quite happy with my post pregnancy body, having actually lost about five kilos from when I got pregnant. I'm also extremely happy that L was born exactly on the due date, as now I've got something positive in my life on that date too, not just the anniversary of my mother's funeral.

Still pregnant

Ever since my last post, I've had an appointment with my GP, several phone calls to midwives, an ultrasound scan, appointment with a consultant obstetrician, prescriptions issued and my first booking appointment with my midwife. It's been busy time, sorry that I've not blogged!

First up was the appointment with the GP, which was relatively uneventful. He wanted to see my homozygous Factor V Leiden lab results from Finland, but seemed to misplace them almost immediately and I had to resend them the scanned paperwork after calling a doctor about a discharge I didn't know what to make of it. That phone call seemed to nudge some other paperwork through, and I was later contacted by the midwife, who contacted the hospital, who wanted all sorts of paperwork to prove I'm eligible for NHS treatment, and after sorting that out, finally got a scan date, a consultant date and a midwife appointment. Before anything more important happened, I had to go and collect my Bounty pack which also included the 30-page A4-sized Pregnancy Notes-booklet, meant to be filled by me, the midwives and doctors that see me. In comparison to what expectant mothers are given in Finland, this seems excessive and somewhat questionable in data protection sense, as the leaflet has my NHS number, phone number, home address, health details...

So, what has been found?

Despite what I was first told by a group of midwives, I did eventually have an early scan on NHS. The due date was shifted by a day, and now it's 30th of July. I had a consultants appointment on the Tuesday after, just before Christmas, and as predicted, I was put on Fragmin, a 7500IU low molecular weight heparin injected subcutaneously, as prophylaxis against blood clots, and a baby dose of aspirin. I'll have extra ultrasound scans in the later pregnancy, I'll have a glucose test to check if I've got gestational diabetes, and some visits at the hospital.

So far I've had a week of injections and my stomach feels and looks like a pin cushion. I've not yet found the rhythm of doing it nonchalantly - I hesitate and flinch every time I need to inject. This happy activity will continue more or less until September.

We told the immediate family about the forthcoming family occasion on Christmas Day. Lots of tears were shed. We even have some video from the moment, but not publishing that quite yet :-D We asked everyone to keep the news to themselves for a few weeks more, until the second ultrasound scan. My Christmas meals included beetroot and blue cheese bake, gravlax I cured myself after freezing the fresh salmon for four days, turkey, IKEA ham, roast potates, hard cheeses and trifle. I did longingly look at everyone eating heaps of chicken liver pate, but didn't partake past a teaspoonful to try the recipe.

We had to return from the inlaws for the booking appointment with the midwife on Tuesday. It was fairly uneventful as well. Three tubes of blood were drawn, some of the booklet filled and forms filed in. I also requested a sharps box for my used needles. I do wonder why it has been so difficult to get one, hasn't yet dawned on me.

I've not had much nausea and absolutely no throwing up yet. However, in the past few weeks my appetite seems to have increased several folds, as I get hungry almost immediately after a meal. This makes trying to keep my weight where it is a bit difficult...

Anyway, that's it for now. Hopefully my fatigue and hunger pangs allow me to write again, maybe a little bit sooner.