Despite this, I was convinced that she would arrive earlier than that. Anna was induced a week early due to severe pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure which can lead to serious complications for both mother and baby). and this pregnancy had been far from easy. I had been put on a daily dose of Aspirin at 16 weeks pregnant due to my blood pressure creeping up (not considered dangerously high but rising) and, at my 20 week hospital appointment, the consultant said 'Well, if we can get you to 34 weeks, we will be doing well'. What!!??!!! I think she meant that 34 weeks was a milestone as my pre-eclampsia with Anna suddenly started and immediately went out of control at that point.
Fortunately, 34 weeks came and went and the situation seemed to be suggesting that events were becoming much smoother. Then I got hit by that food poisoning bug and my 'show' (See post on 'Peekaboo Anna') and they were suddenly warning me that the baby would be here in a couple of weeks. Cue a mad dash to John Lewis to buy much-needed baby essentials as nothing had been bought up until then (head in the sand, denial, complete fear of it all going wrong etc).
Yet still those two weeks passed and nothing happened. Not even a murmur! In fact, I got to 41 weeks (a week over my due date) and still nothing! James' 40th birthday celebrations, my birthday and some much-treasured tickets to go and see Dirty Dancing in the theatre (eventually donated to a friend) were all cancelled in anticipation that this baby would arrive instead. Bad timing was and still is a key feature of baby number two! (Anna's birthday and birthday party were two examples with Christmas being a third)
At 41 and a half weeks, I waddled slowly into the Antenatal day unit at Chester hospital. They were going to scan me and check my vital statistics (blood pressure, waters intact, size of bump and sanity levels). Chester hospital policy is that they will induce on the 14th day/exactly 2 weeks after your due date. My 14th day was Christmas Day. All along, my community midwife (as useful as a chocolate teapot - a midwife who had a phobia of needles so refused to do any blood tests and didn't feel or listen to my 'bump' ONCE during the 9 months - no exaggeration!) had said that there was no way that they would induce me on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve so they would induce on the 23rd. I had worked out that this would probably mean a Christmas Eve baby and, being my second, they would probably let me out on Christmas Eve night or, at worst, Christmas day morning. This wouldn't be the best scenario in the world but at least I would get to spend Christmas day with Anna.
Ho Ho Ho. How wrong I could be!
After doing all my checks, the midwife who had a face like she was chewing a wasp, said that there were no signs that baby was coming despite looking 'very big' and suggested a sweep which I reluctantly agreed to in sheer desperation to get this baby out. Now I don't know what I had done to offend her but I swear she just wanted to torture me. You could argue that she was just trying to get me started but I am convinced that she got some pleasure from inflicting as much pain as possible. Even looking back now, that sweep was more painful than the early contractions in established labour (4cm dilated).
After torturing me for several minutes, she then turns round to me and says 'If that doesn't work, you obviously have to be induced. Christmas Eve at 2pm'. My face dropped. I had already told her that I had a 5 year old little girl at home who was so excited about Christmas and who, for the first time, really understood about the magic of Father Christmas and what it meant. As she went to do some paperwork, I burst out crying. this couldn't be happening. How was I going to go home and explain to Anna that I wouldn't be there on Christmas Day. Who was going to 'help' Father Christmas deliver his presents? Who was going to wake Anna up and whisper that Father Christmas had been and watch Anna's face as she discovered her huge Princess castle had been delivered magically? This wasn't fair!!
When the midwife/witch returned, she could obviously see that I had been crying but didn't bat an eyelid and proceeded to read out some pre-induction jargon about the procedure. After not listening to a word of it, I said 'Please don't induce me Christmas Eve. Why can't you induce me tomorrow (day before Christmas Eve)? You have just told the lady in the bed next to me that she can'. The sour faced cow (harsh but how I felt at the time. Come to think of it, I still do.) said 'She is being induced tomorrow due to a medical condition. You have just made it far too comfortable in there' (jabbing her finger aggressively at my massive bump which was admittedly taking up half the room).
"OK', I said 'What about inducing me on Boxing Day?"
"No" she replied.
She then went on to explain that 'At this hospital we have a policy that means that we do not induce before 14 days because this gives your baby the best opportunity to deliver naturally. However, research shows that leaving it any longer than 14 days means significant risk as your placenta starts to deteriorate. 14 days is when we induce with no exceptions'.
I was now getting desperate " Well, 14 days for me is Christmas Day. What about inducing me at 2pm on Christmas Day. At least I get the morning with my daughter" I begged.
'That is not possible as we try to minimise non-essential procedures on Christmas Day"
So let me get this right, you induce at 14 days with no exceptions and then turn round to say you won't induce on Christmas Day despite that being 14 days overdue for me!!! Aghhh!
She then had the cheek to say " At least you will get your picture in the paper. Make sure you bring your make up bag'. I wanted to slap her! Who cares about some bloody paper when I miss my daughter's face at discovering Father Christmas had been and opening her presents on Christmas morning.
The other midwife who spoke to me as I was leaving seemed so much more sympathetic "I am so sorry that you are missing Christmas day with your daughter". I thanked her through my tears.
I came home determined that I would refuse to be induced. Technically, I did have the right to refuse. One of the mum's at school did that and just had to fill in literally 20 forms saying she understood the risks involved etc.
However, after doing my own research on the matter, it was suggesting that 14 days seems to be a big milestone and anything beyond that would see a rapid decline in the state of the placenta which could potentially harm the unborn baby, especially as I had problems throughout this pregnancy. When induced with Anna, it took me a day and a half to get into established labour so I knew that this had the potential to be the same. It would mean definitely missing Christmas Day. After much soul searching and, yet again, with a heavy heavy heart, I accepted that I would miss my darling daughter's 5th Christmas as well as her birthday.
It was time to come up with a plan.
We told Anna that, because I might end up going into hospital on Christmas Day, we might have to tell Father Christmas to make a VERY SPECIAL one-off delivery on Christmas Eve morning for Miss Anna Gibson and that, because she was so amazing, he would agree to get his reindeer's out early and make a special trip just for her. We would have our Christmas Day on Christmas Eve instead, before I headed to hospital on Christmas Eve afternoon.
Anna was amazing and agreed to the plan, especially if it meant Father Christmas making a trip all for her! The only problem is that we couldn't tell Anna it was happening until actual Christmas Eve morning. My worst fear was that we would tell Anna that Father Christmas was coming that night (night before Christmas Eve) and then I go into labour. This would mean that Anna woke up on Christmas Eve morning with her Mummy and Daddy missing (gone to hospital due to labour) with Nanny and Grandad surprising her by being there instead and then that taking the joy out of a pile of presents supposedly delivered by Father Christmas. Due to this, we could plant the idea in her head but not actually tell her until the morning that it was happening. That meant that we didn't get to put the carrot, mince pie and glass of milk out for Rudolph and Santa as it had to be a surprise for Anna on Christmas Eve morning (providing I was still at home).
I didn't really fancy cooking Christmas dinner on the day that I was due to be induced. It would have meant that I was slaving over a hot oven whilst not spending the time with Anna, which was the whole point to having Christmas a day early. Oh, and I can't cook which would have made cooking a Christmas dinner like mission impossible. Therefore, we decided to book a table at the local pub. However, due to the late nature of all of this, all the tables had been booked. James worked his magic though and, after explaining the situation to the manager and how we were just trying to do our best for our little girl so she would get a Christmas, he said he could fit us in. In fact, we got a great table by the lovely open fire!
So Christmas Eve morning came. Father Christmas had come up trumps and magically placed a massive parcel under the tree and Mummy, Daddy and Anna had our Christmas morning a day early. We opened our presents to each other and gifts from friends. We ate chocolate and took ages to set up Anna's new toy, which was as tall as her!
Anna was thrilled with her huge princess castle and it turned out to be the perfect present as she was mesmerised by it and it completely distracted her for the next few days whilst her Mummy and Daddy were at the hospital.
Anna (dressed in her new nightie, delivered by the Christmas elves) with her Princess Castle... as big as her!
Just before it was time to leave for the hospital, Nanny and Grandad found us tucking into our Christmas pudding in the pub as they came to look after Anna. They are amazing as they had agreed to abandon their plans for a Christmas at home so that they could come and look after Anna, with Dad even giving up his traditional Christmas Eve evening spent in the pub!!
I yet again had to find myself putting on the bravest of faces (I still don't know how I managed it) as I kissed Anna goodbye, knowing that tomorrow was Christmas Day and I wouldn't get to see her, just like her birthday. It helped that we had just had a great morning and, to all intent and purpose, it was a Christmas morning to Anna but even so, it was so difficult.
So I went to hospital to be messed about with in a hot stuffy ward in a room with 4 walls, one tiny window and no form of entertainment whilst my daughter travelled in the opposite direction back home. Thankfully, she had her Nanny and Grandad so was having lots of fun whilst Grandad was getting a very detailed lesson on Disney Princesses and their castle.
Due to the fact that Anna had missed putting out the carrot, mince pie and glass of milk, we had quickly devised another plan, saying that Nanny had forgot to bring her presents for Anna so she had phoned Father Christmas and he had agreed to call back to our house to drop Nanny's presents off, whilst going to Isabella's (Isabella is in the same class as Anna and lives 3 doors down the street!) on Christmas Eve night. That Father Christmas must love Anna Gibson so much that he visited her twice this year as a special occasion!! So Anna got to put the carrot etc out on Christmas Eve and wake up on Christmas morning to another sack full of presents (Thank goodness that Nanny and Grandad are so generous).
Anna's Christmas Day was spent with her Nanny and Grandad as well as Uncle Phil and Goo-Goo (Anna's Great-Nan) who had made such a huge effort to drive up here themselves (With Goo-Goo being 80 yrs old and never going more than a few miles from home on Christmas Day, it was a big deal to come to Chester but they did - all for Anna! She is so lucky to have family who will do anything and everything for her!) A million Thank you's. Anna had huge amounts of fun and even reported back to me that she had loved laying the table and writing Christmas name places and all!
My Christmas Day was spent in a very different fashion, mainly in boredom followed by frustration, followed by complete agony on a scale never felt before but that story is for another day!
No comments:
Post a Comment