Phew - what a week! This time last week Mr C and I were celebrating our 4th wedding anniversary. We promised each other that we weren't going to get gifts for each other particularly since we have lots of birthdays in November and December, not to mention Christmas and then the baby arriving shortly thereafter. Naturally, he couldn't resist and I received a beautiful bouquet of red roses (which sadly I didn't photogragh in time) and a very cute little pencil case for holding all my lovingly labelled "crochet and knitting crap". I believe it was from John Lewis and is the perfect size for hooks, scissors and dpn's and quite rightly will keep all the "crochet and knitting crap" in one place. (Mr C is only kidding by the way - he loves my littery mess really...!).Sunday was spent getting Ollie's old babygro's and vests and things out of the loft in readiness for the baby - 6 weeks to go - yeah! Mr C even sorted out the freezer so now we have a lovely half full freezer in readiness for lots of yummy meals we can re-heat when the baby arrives and have no idea whether it's day or night anymore!
So that was all very nice. What then followed was a particularly crazy few days...
I was down for another growth scan on Wednesday and to be honest I've been a bit panicky about it. Worse case scenario was going to be that the baby wasn't growing as expected and the docs were going to have to c-section me much, much sooner. I think it's been bothering me a lot as I've been lying awake at night thinking about all sorts of things non-baby related as a distraction. I mean, I've been worrying about whether the chickens are regrowing their feathers after their autumn moult, getting my next knitting pattern onto paper and what are we going to watch when we've finished the complete West Wing boxset. Honestly! - certainly nothing that should keep you awake until 3am and then waking an hour later to revisit the whole crazy immaterial lot again. We turned up for the scan and the good news was that baby is growing nicely and we saw a chubby little person on the ultrasound screen weighing in at about 4lb 10oz (give or take a 1lb apparently!). Yeh!
What a relief! Plus my shortlived chicken obsessed insomnia was cured...... Or so we thought....
I woke up on Thursday to find blood. P A N I C
A phonecall to triage and in we all dashed, Mr C, Ollie and a bundle of knitting bits and bobs to keep me occupied. A very scared little person I was I can tell you. The only concellation was that the baby was clearly having a little party in there which felt reassuring. Within minutes I was strapped to the monitor and there was the baby's heartbeat. Thank heavens. About an hour passed and I was then seen by a doctor who after examining me said that she could see the show coming away. Eek. Definitely not ready for baby to arrive :: not today :: not next week :: certainly not before Christmas. We were all sent home. Call back if anything changes, pain, blood, c o n t r a c t i o n s . . . All seemed fine until a low numbing backache started a few hours later plus some pains in my lower abdomen. H.E.L.P.
Another phonecall to triage and another trip back to the hospital at midnight thinking : this : is : it. I am having a baby today, 7 weeks early. Back on the monitor and another examination. All seems ok.
It's now 2am and I'm physically exhausted. Discharged with the advice
"~ all looks ok but call back if anything changes: it's just one of those things : take it e a s y ~".
Back home. Bed. Sleep.
Dust settled I woke on Friday to find that the status quo had resumed and panic was all over.
Phew!
Something tells me this little one is going to be a handful.....!
Pen x