Pregnancy Diary - 29 Week's Pregnant!

29 week’s pregnant – the end is in sight – nearly!

Maybe it’s even closer than I think…

Jonny thinks I am completely and utterly mad to talk to the experts who all say my due date is 5th October and think they are wrong but I can’t help it. I feel like I could be a month further along because my last period was so light (not like me) and because this pregnancy was originally a twin pregnancy I think an implantation bleed was very likely.

It’s not just that though, my body has responded like it’s much further along all the way through. I felt the baby flutter at about 8 weeks which is ridiculous and far more likely to have been 12 don’t you think? And now I feel the pressure (anyone who has had a baby will know what I mean…) of the last trimester deep down.

Ok, ok, so the experts are experts for a reason and I am almost certainly wrong but I can’t help thinking this baby will come earlier than they say…

I mean even if I’m not further along it still might come earlier because I have this hormone level which is low called a Papp A. This means the placenta can stop working early on and because of that they do growth scans every few weeks from this point. If at some point the baby drops below the 9th centile they will induce me at 37 weeks which doesn’t sound fun.

I had my first of these scans yesterday and spoke with the consultant who advised that they would have induced Florence, who was on the 0 centile and borderline would have done the same for Jimmy who was born on the 9th. She looked back at my medical notes and suggested I may have had this low hormone with them too but that now the bench marks have changed for extra caution. The baby is hovering just above the 9th at the moment meaning they are not worried right now but… Having had two babies before I think this one will follow the same pattern and I’m going to be stung with an induction instead of my longed for home birth – how annoying!

I asked if I will still be able to have an active labour but she did not look optimistic. She said I will be on a hook up and constantly monitored.

With Florence I laboured at home for most of the time and then, because my labour went on for such a long time I was sent into hospital where I had far too much (for my liking) medical intervention. They insisted I had a shot of Pethadine when I arrived even though I wasn’t in much pain. they said that because I had not slept properly for 72 hours I needed it to get enough energy to push. This was utterly ridiculous as I wasn’t even contracting at that point and could have slept without it but it was my first baby, I was scared and I did as I was told. I had the shot of Pethadine and slept fitfully for the next 8 hours feeling very stressed out when I groggily woke up every twenty minutes and totally out of it. I feel it slowed everything down further and my only saving grace was that it was New Year’s Eve and far more emergency cases came in where the skeleton staff had to attend to them instead of muck about annoying me. By 11pm when it had been 9 hours since the shot I finally felt myself and my body naturally got into established labour, something I feel would have happened earlier if they hadn’t stuck me with that needle!

Second time around and I was determined. I knew I laboured long so it was no surprise to me when my waters went but still 24 hours later I had no real established pattern of contractions. I wasn’t worried and my lovely home birth midwives weren’t either but protocol insisted I go in for what I was told would be a check. I went in, I had a sweep, they did a trace and then… The consultant came around and said there was absolutely no way I was going home because the risk of infection was higher after waters have broken for 24 hours. But I didn’t have an infection at that point and saw little reason to not go home. I knew being in hospital would slow it all down and even though I knew that I wouldn’t be accepting drugs this time (and felt strong enough to be in control of that), I knew the stress would do me no good. Luckily I had a brilliant home birthing team who came to the hospital and basically broke me out. I had to sign a document to say I’d be back by 9am if nothing had progressed but I was allowed to go home and get on with it.

And get on with it I did. I didn’t go back to the hospital because at 9.17am Jimmy was born. It was a long arduous night of labour and it took such along time to get into established labour but I knew that it would happen and it did. He was back to back. He had his fist up. He did much damage on his way out which required lots of stitches (my midwife said they would have put me under for in hospital…) But I did it all at home and felt no stress like I would have done had I been in that clinical environment.

I had the best midwifery team ever because two days later when an infection ripped out my stitches (I probably picked this infection up when I was IN the hospital having my sweep and trace) they came back and organised for doctors to visit me at home and ensured that under all circumstances I did not get admitted to hospital. If I’d had him in the hospital and torn like that they wouldn’t have let me out, the infection would have then ensured I was in for even longer… I’m so pleased I had them championing me and wish I could have the same this time – alas Norfolk services seem to be farm more stretched.

Instead everyone speaks to me very clinically and I know that I am going to have to be very strong to get what I want when I want it. I’m not silly and if they want me to be induced early because the placenta stops working of course I’m not going to refuse but I will make sure they back off and leave me to it once I’m labouring. A hospital visit is not on my ideal agenda but I will do it if I have to and just think ‘watch out medical staff at the Norfolk and Norwich because I am one Mummy who knows her own mind’ – They will almost certainly wish I was at home right alongside me!

Anyway, for now, things are ticking along nicely – long may it continue!

This is my current bump (below). It feels huge to me and the heart burn coming with it is not exactly my favourite aspect of pregnancy… Roll on through this third and thankfully last trimester I say!

I loved pregnancy the first two times but this one has been a bloody pain in the neck… I’m just grumbly and wanting to want (I don’t even want one how un-me is this) a glass of Prosecco! The end is in sight people. The end is in sight!

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