21 August, 2009

Early stages of Delivery - Dad's perspective #2

Anyway, about two hours later, after intermittently waking up to sleepily find the contractions drawing closer and closer together...Flyingpops got out of bed and rang the Hospital and was told to call the Antenatal day unit, despite the fact that our notes (and even the name) suggested that this would be a rather pointless exercise (thanks to the early hour)...However, despite our doubts, they really were there - the advice being to get all our things together and be waiting outside the door at 9am, just because the baby was 5 weeks early...unfortunately after this exact moment, pretty much nothing went according to plan (or previous wishes)...

The first thing that happened was Flyingpops going absolutely crazy about all the baby clothes not being washed, so the line was strung across the garden and the washing machine was turned up to level 11-
Jobs during labour
-next the hospital luggage came under scrutiny and was found sorely lacking...so instead of her taking the prescribed lovely long, warm bath to help reduce the pain, the next couple of hours were spent sticking on (and hanging out) absolutely armfuls of baby vests/grows/blankets/booties/bibs, unpacking and repacking the maternity equipment (checking and charging batteries in mobiles/cameras/blackberry/ CD player/iPod/mini speakers/TENS machine/hand fan/etc.) and then, after doing a handover with her office over the phone (an hour later than we thought, after a very quick bath) we finally manage to turn up to the ADU (dragging bulging bags and heaps of cushions)...

And so, Flyingpops (posing for pictures in the hospital car park, trusting completely our coveted NCT advice here that we were in absolutely no hurry) holding hands, knowing the baby is on the way but thinking we have plenty of time...Flyingpops is popped up onto a trolley for a (rather nasty) examination by the (rather severe) doctor who has arrived, a quick scan is performed, and then the pronouncement is that the baby is definitely breach and should be delivered immediately by c-section as the cervix is already dilated by 4cm and labour is well underway (with not a breath of gas and air, nor a push of a TENS machine button)...! So much for needing pain relief!

But what the hell were we doing at home!!!!

No comments: