Baby 3 days overdue
04:45 Woke up feeling crampy, and got up to go to the bathroom. Warm, wet gush. Sat on a towel on the bed for a bit, then woke Pete. He’s getting my cold. I’m having his baby.
05:15 Phoned the hospital and was advised to come in around 8am. Went back to bed and tried to sleep.
06:30 Got up and had a shower, put in laundry, washed up and tidied kitchen. Pete and I had some breakfast and gathered the vast quantity of stuff that is apparently necessary for giving birth. Feeling the occasional cramp, but nothing regular or severe.
07:40 Drove to Ascot. The traffic isn’t too bad yet and Pete has found a quicker route. The racecourse is right opposite the hospital, and they’re setting up already; looks like it’s going to be a lovely day at the races.
A student midwife checks my vitals, and confirms that there are no contractions yet. After a wait, the non-student midwife comes to poke and prod me, and have a listen to the heartbeat. I report some movements lower down, so they give me a scan to see if the baby is breech. It isn’t, but it is now lying back to back, but slightly diagonal, which is just what I thought! A further midwife is brought in to confirm the scan, and the registrar looks in as well. They all seem very excited by it, although apparently it’s not a particularly unusual position. Our original midwife says that the day she stops being excited by seeing a baby’s face on the screen, she will retire.
We are sent home to wait for contractions to start; this should normally happen within about 24 hours, but if not, we are to go back on Sunday morning. At this point, they will encourage us to start induction within the following 24 hours, but we can’t do this at Ascot, so will probably end up back in Reading. Let’s hope Bernard feels the same way I do about intervention, and shows his face before then.
09:30 Set off home; traffic still not too bad. Such a bad cramp that I think we are going to have to turn round, but it passes after a few moments.
10:00 Pete goes back to work. Hg has sent me a dvd, which I hope will distract me for the rest of the day. I send a few emails and texts, and settle down with the duvet and large quantities of pillows in the sitting room. Cramps are still coming, quite painful, and very irregular. Updates will follow.
And indeed they do, here – Pete