Antici........PAtion

One way or the other, this weekend is going to be interesting.

When we move house, we always seem to pick the worst time. A few years back, we picked the single hottest, record-breaking weekend in London. Now it seems we have picked the single worst, record-breaking one in Cape Town. Yup, the air pressure is set to drop to 940mb. Given that Hurricane Katrina was at 920mb when it made land in the US, that's pretty scary. Winds are predicted to get up to 100km/h.

Hmm.... could be interesting trying to move house in that sort of weather...

But there's something else I'm more interested in. I think I had a contraction today. A proper one. Not just a Braxton-Hicks.

With both previous pregnancies, I had contractions in week 33 (which is where I'm currently at). With Nellie, my waters broke after about 3 contractions (!!), and then labour had to be induced after 10 hours of not much else happening. With Zoe, I had contractions for about 8 hours, after which the pregnancy continued as normal until she died. I've been expecting something to happen this week, so wasn't surprised. I was, however, alarmed.

Thus far, nothing further. Baby boy seems healthy (although I can't find his heartbeat). He's kicking strongly, and the placental blood-flow sounds healthy, so I'm not too worried about him.

I'm not at all worried about him arriving this early, in fact. I am, however, worried about going into labour and not being in hospital to be monitored, and/or not having had some steroid injections beforehand. I suspect that Zoe died during the initial phases of labour at 37 weeks, following which the labour stopped again (for the 2nd time).

My uterus has been feeling rather irritable all week, which was the same with Zoe. ("Irritable uterus" means it's hard all the time and the midwife is unable to feel physically the position the baby is lying in. It's a sign that you're going to go into labour soon.) While the meds I've been on are supposed to reduce the risks of stillbirth, I have no idea what impact they will have on my body's decision to go into labour.

Nellie was born at 33+4, which would be on Saturday. She's fine, so I have all faith that if he's born this week, he'd be fine too.... as long as he is born alive.

So - will we be moving house or not this weekend??? Will the weather, or the baby, cause us to change our plans???? THAT is the question.

Girls are stronger than boys

I have several RSS feeds of a science nature that I subscribe to. Sometimes I find really fascinating things - like this story. A study has been done looking at infant mortality on a gender basis. What has been discovered is that boys are 60% more likely to be premature, and are more likely to die as a result. They are more susceptible to birth injury and respiratory distress. This is because they generally have bigger bodies and heads than baby girls.

What is really interesting though, is that the survival rate for boys has increased as neo-natal care has improved and as more C-sections are performed, thereby reducing the risk of fetal distress and injury during labour. In fact, C-section rate for boys is approximately 20% higher than for girls!

We girls always knew we were stronger than men!

As most of you know, I had a series of bloods taken before I was induced with Zoe. One set came back as questionable, so I had to repeat it recently, to confirm the results. After eventually pestering my consultant, I got my them back tonight.

I'm clear of diabetes, so I probably just had pregnancy diabetes (that will need monitoring during any future pregnancy). However, as suspected, I do have Antiphospholipid syndrome (also known as 'sticky blood' or Hughes' syndrome)

While my APS did not cause Zoe's death, or Janel's prem birth, women with APS suffer a high incidence of unexplained miscarriage, prem birth and stillbirth. Even with treatment (which would be a daily injection of heparin plus possibly daily doses of aspirin) in any future pregnancy, there is still a 25% chance of either a miscarriage, prem birth or stillbirth. Without treatment, the risk is much higher.

Fortunately, it does not seem bad enough at present to require me to take aspirin on a daily basis for the rest of my life, although I should take it in times of high risk (like when travelling long distances). I should ensure that I don't sit for long periods of time at my desk without walking around, drink plenty of fluids (which I'm bad at anyway) and have my blood monitored regularly.

[APS is not inheritable, so Janel (and future children) should be safe. However, as Graeme ALSO has this condition (what are the odds of that?!), in addition to his other blood disorders, we've been advised to have her checked when she reaches adulthood (around 18 yrs) anyway because she may well be genetically disposed to blood disorders.]

While knowing this doesn't bring Zoe back, it helps to know. And it makes Janel's survival and birth all the more miraculous. While I want another baby, at least now I know the risks involved of losing any number of future children and can go into the pregnancy prepared for the worst. At least now, if I know something is wrong (which I did with Zoe - if only I had known this then... she might still be alive now if I had known and asked for an induction...), I can make the decision about inducing labour or having an emergency c-section without needing to come across as a paranoid mother! At least now, because I know the risks, I will treasure every moment with my next child, rather than taking it for granted the way I did with Zoe.

So there we are.

Stupid Doctors!

So today was supposed to be my check-up with the consultant. I got there on time, only to be told - sorry, she's not in today. Would have been nice of them to ring and let me know, so that I didn't have to stress about getting there and finding parking (it was hailing today, so there was NO WAY I was walking to the clinic!) etc etc etc.

This clinic is driving me MAD!! Last time, I waited 2 hrs, only to see the registrar and not the doctor. This time, she's not there either, and no-one rings to tell me.

Anyway, I have another appointment booked now, for 2 weeks time. This will be the 3rd time I will try to see her - let's hope that I actually DO get to see her. Otherwise I'm going to kick up a bit of a fuss. They are potentially putting this baby's life and health at risk with all this lack of proper monitoring for risk of a prem birth!