This was my second week in Dunedin. This week seemed to kick off with a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions, which is slightly daunting as I’m terrified I won’t be able to tell the difference between BH and proper contractions (although everyone has told me I will DEFINITELY know!) Braxton Hicks are funny, my belly just gets really tight and it feel a bit uncomfortable for a few seconds before it passes. Sometimes I feel a bit lightheaded too, but it always goes away really quickly. It does make me a bit nervous for the real contractions though!
We had a nightmare of a day on Tuesday. I woke up in the morning and had the tiniest tiniest amount of brown spotting, so I called my midwife who recommended I go into Dunedin Hospital for a couple of quick tests. She didn’t think it was anything serious, but to go in just to be on the safe side. I arrived there at 10.30 in the morning and was told I’d be hooked up to a machine to monitor baby’s movements for 20 minutes. 1 hour and 20 mins later, they finally came back and unhooked me from the machine, said everything was fine with baby and the doctor would be around shortly to see me.
It wasn’t until after 5pm (and after they had put a very unnecessary stent in my arm and mucked it up twice!!) that I was finally seen by the doctor. They ran some tests, and said there was no blood or any issue that they could see. They then went away, and it wasn’t until about 7pm after I annoyed all the nurses that they finally came back to talk to me about whether I could go home! They recommended I stayed in overnight so they could monitor me, but I felt fine and hadn’t had any further issues, so I insisted on going home. I was so over it by then and had been sitting around for 9 hours, so I signed a form to discharge myself as there was no way I was staying in overnight. By the time I left, I was pretty grumpy and felt so stressed out from the whole thing. I absolutely hate hospitals, and the less time I can spend in one the better. We couldn’t believe that it took them so long to see me and the lack of communication about the whole thing was appalling!
I was told my 36 week scan would be brought forward to this week. Somehow the hospital managed to mess this up too, and I spent most of the morning trying to talk to someone about getting a time for this “urgent” scan. We were thrilled to see baby is spot on for size, and he now weighs an impressive 5.8 pounds! They did a 3D scan of his face and he was lying there with his hands up against his mouth and he looked SO grumpy! Probably as a result of all the poking, prodding and stress he had been subject to over the last couple of days!
The placenta has moved 13mm away from the cervix, which means it’s out of the real danger zone (which is under 10mm), but still low enough to be considered a risk for a natural birth. If a natural birth is attempted, sometimes there can be a lot of bleeding and baby ends up needing to come out via c-section, and there is potential for the mum to need a blood transfusion. Of course this is traumatic for baby (and mum!), so after talking to the obstetrician, we’ve decided to go for an elective C-section. I feel so much better about this as I know what I’m in for, rather than attempting a natural birth and potentially having something go wrong – especially since we live so far away.
I signed all the consents for the C-section, and we do have a date. I’m not going to share this just yet, but we will be meeting bubs in the next two weeks which is so incredibly exciting! I tried to suss the obstetrician out as to whether it would be safe for me to go home for a couple of days, but they are still keen for me to be in Dunedin in case any bleeding happens between now and C-Day.
On the renovations front, all our wiring is done, the laundry plumbing is in, the insulation is in, and we are just waiting on the builder to come and line the rooms (fingers crossed for this week!). We will be cutting it close, but it’s looking likely it will all get done in time!
How many weeks? 36
Size of baby? The size of a romaine lettuce…. not sure how big this is really but the picture looks huge!
Total weight gain? Up nearly 9kg now…. and I’m definitely feeling it.
Cravings? My appetite has been non-existent this week, I hardly feel hungry at all now
What I miss? Still the runny eggs…
What I’m looking forward to? Meeting the little guy