Pregnancy Diary: Baby 12 in 2012 – Week 20

Ok, so I know I said I wouldn’t do this but 20 weeks?!!  Where did they go?!

Apologies for updating this later than the usual Monday.  Unfortunately, despite me declaring yesterday a full on writing and catch-up day for LFL my dad’s chest had other ideas and decided to give him some alarming pains.  Cue ambulance and a day in A&E.  He’s ok but still in hospital as they’ll be doing more investigation.  I’ll be heading back over in an hour or so, so thought I’d give a quick update to you now.

Anyway, twenty weeks huh?!  Has that gone as quickly for you as it has for me?

Last Tuesday was the day I was seeing my consultant.  I met up with my midwife Sally at the hospital and she sat and waited with me.  And we waited.  And we waited.  Eventually, an hour past my appointment time we finally were called in.

My consultant was not surprised to see me there at all.  “I knew you’d be back within a year,” she told me.  Everything came back ok.  No issues with urine, blood pressure or anything else.  The baby hid a while from the doppler which made me nervous but my consultant switched on the machine to scan it quickly.  There was baby, curled up with its little heart beating steadily.

Now, I have lost count of the number of times I have seen my babies scanned but the awe never eases. To think that that – a real person, is growing inside of me?!  It’s still such a miracle, I think!

We discussed the fact that this would be my fifth caesarean section and I asked out of curiosity more than anything else whether a VBAC might be considered.  My consultant explained that after one caesarean they don’t mind trialling it, after a second caesarean they are more cautious and try to coax you to agree to another, after a third caesarean they generally won’t entertain the thought of a VBAC.  Beyond that, she said, was not enough evidence on the effects to go by so they prefer to err on the side of caution with a c-section.

But what about me?  Was she concerned?

No!  I have good pregnancies, have never had any major issues and have never had any problems either during or after my c-sections. She’s happy.  My midwife is happy and we are all happy.  Actually, I was thrilled to have it confirmed that there was no concern at all.

The baby is due on December 2nd but I’ll be taken in at 38 weeks to ensure labour doesn’t kick off before then so that will make it mid November-ish.  My consultant will arrange the date at the next appointment in August.

Suddenly, it all seems more real!