Ewan's Musings
The day to day ramblings and thoughts of a Scotsman who will soon be leaving England.
The day to day ramblings and thoughts of a Scotsman who will soon be leaving England.
From Vikki
I had my 37 week antenatal this morning, everything fine. My blood pressure was 144/70 which surprised me - I feel so stressed about the move and packing the house and stuff I was sure it would be high! The midwife was lovely, and put the sonicaid on Eilidh's heart when she lifted up her t-shirt after we'd listened to the baby :) Eilidh's been going on about it ever since, "listen a name of baby sister's heart! Listen a Eilidh heart! badum badum badum badum!" :)
Then I saw the consultant anaesthetist to organise my caesarean - because I have a latex allergy they have to have it all booked in so they can have the theatre prepared for me. Also means I'll definitely be taken first which is nice. She was lovely, very reassuring yet realistic about the possible problems because of my weight. I had a lot of problems with the epidural last time, but I know I was in the wrong position so I asked this anaesthetist what position she would have me in and she said sitting up, hunched over which is exactly how I should have been. That gave us a lot of confidence in her! So I'm going to be having an epi-spinal anaesthetic, which means she'll site the epidural tube then use that to guide the spinal needle and do the spinal injection. If that works then we'll know within five minutes and then they can go on with the caesarean. If it doesn't work, the tube is already in the right place for an epidural so they'll go on to try that. That takes about half an hour to take effect. If that doesn't work then I'll have to have another general anaesthetic. She's also fine with me having gas and air while she's working on getting the needles into me - I had a bad experience with the epidurals last time and I'm very nervous. She felt my back and said she can't feel the landmarks of my spine so she'll have to feel with the needle, which is what was so painful last time. I also found it very painful just having her running her thumbs over my spine. She asked me what injury I'd had there, and I said nothing, it's just always been painful there and at the top of my spine too.
At least with the gas and air I won't have to be too aware of it, plus it'll give me something to do with my hands and something for Ewan to focus on too. I'm really hoping the epi-spinal works, I want so much to be awake for this baby being born, and for Ewan to be there too.
This time in two weeks I should be sitting in a hospital bed all full of tubes holding my new baby! If there are no emergencies to hold us up, we could be taken as early as 8.30am (I go in the night before and Ewan will be in by 8am) so fingers crossed I'll be back on the ward by lunchtime. Ewan should be able to call the anxious grandparents then and send a few texts, and the first pictures will be on the website that night :)