So we are nearing the end!
Monday morning. 5.55am – I’m eating my breakfast.
Yes at 5.55am. I only know the time as I could only eat and drink until 6am and then after I had to be nil by mouth in preparation for my caesarean.
I’d double and triple packed my bag the night before so I could get ready nice and calmly and get to the hospital in time.
We left a little later than planned and then the morning just got worse and worse as it went on.
We arrived at the hospital and the maternity car park was full. All of the other car parks were pay and display. That’s fine as Dan’s one job was bring money and his phone to take photos… He didn’t have money and we had to be there in 5 minutes. A rush to the shop, a walk across a hospital and a blazing row later we arrived in the delivery suite all stressed angry and wanting to go home.
My midwife for the day (one I’d met before – I don’t think there wasn’t a midwife I hadn’t met) took me to a room on the delivery suite. She asked me how I was.
” I think he’s turned”
In the days leading up to my caesarean my bump changed and Baby Fox was back to kicking where he normally did. I knew he’d turned but nobody believed me. I didn’t get excited about meeting my baby because I knew they wouldn’t do the section. With breech babies they scan you before they do the section just to check.
So the midwife said, well the doctor will be along soon and she’ll examine you and scan you and we’ll go from there. But it’s unlikely she’ll want to go ahead with the section if he’s no longer breech. There is was. The realisation that we may not be leaving with a baby.
I was right. Baby Fox had turned. The doctor was the only doctor who would not turn a blind eye and go ahead anyway, according to the midwife, so we were going home.
Dan had told everyone we were booked in for a section, so he had to ring everybody to let them know it wasn’t happening, and tell his school his one day of Paternity Leave was just that and he’d be back in tomorrow. It hit him hard. He had expected to meet our baby today.
We were told that yet another clinic appointment would be made for us on Friday to see the consultant and to discuss our options. My friend Elaine from Church came with me as Dan had to work. The Doctor was not happy with doing anything other than booking me in for an induction at term plus 10 days.
I cried. I couldn’t go that far with nothing happening when Baby Fox was already going to be bigger than 9lb! She went to speak to the consultant, but she was busy, she asked us to wait in the waiting room whilst she spoke to her to double-check what she wanted to do.
An hour later she called us back in. The consultant wanted me to have a caesarean.
Yes. A caesarean! After they’d cancelled one just four days earlier.
My consultant wasn’t happy with me trying to deliver a big baby successfully and thought a caesarean was the best option. I didn’t care. I wanted him out. She booked the caesarean was booked for the following Friday, November 21st at 8am.
I had another pre-op check, albeit a slightly quicker one as I’d had one the week before. Then we were all set, we had to wait a week, no longer, until we met our baby. I knew he wouldn’t come before that date as he was far to comfy!
That week flew by. We made the most of our time together as a two, and got everything prepared for Baby Fox’s arrival. We arranged when Parents and Grandparents could visit once Baby Fox was born and then we were ready.
This time the caesarean was booked for the morning, so I had to stop eating and drinking at midnight and be on the labour ward by 8am. I got there and they got the forms filled in, scanned me and put me on the monitor.
I was having contractions.
I didn’t tell the midwife. Nothing was stopping this happening. I was prepared, I couldn’t cope if it was to change and everything be jeopardised again. She asked me if I was feeling anything. I lied and said no. She was happy and carried on. PHEW!
The next chapter will have a baby being born in it… I promise!
Mummy Fox xx