I forgot to mention that there was something else we needed to do before the midwives in Grantham would be happy - bloods.
In Grantham, they do a full blood count (to check for iron levels etc.) at 36 weeks. In Southend, we don't do them beyond about 28 weeks. Fortunately, K___ had a midwife's appointment at the surgery, so it wasn't too difficult to arrange. What was difficult was getting blood out of K___'s arm. The crook of her left arm has some slightly raised veins (her childhood 'friend' L__ squeezed her arm and up they came, never to go down again) and doctors tend to see it and suggest the other arm. The midwife was no different and opted for her right. K___'s not hugely down with the whole needles thing and looked away as the midwife pushed the needle into her arm. Unfortunately, the blood just didn't want to come out. I was looking and it really wasn't flowing into the reservoir as it should have been. At this point, K____ revealed that she's notoriously bad for giving blood and this kind of thing has happened before. The midwife pushed the needle a little further in too see if it would make a difference but it was still sluggish.
Eventually there was enough and the midwife packaged it up for us to deliver to the main doctor's surgery down the road. The results would be ready that afternoon and the midwife would text them to us later to provide to the Grantham midwives.
After that it was on with the normal midwife's examination: urine, blood pressure, measure the bump. One thing that came out was an estimate - and a heavily caveated one at that - of what size the baby might be. D____ had done this when she had visited us at home the previous weekend but she'd rather shocked K___ with her prediction of 7lbs 10oz, for the simple reason that she didn't clarify whether that was the size when she was measuring or a prediction of what she would be when born. Fortunately, the other midwife, K__, clarified it was a guestimate of birth weight, which was reassuring. She thought the baby would be about 7lbs 8 ozs, which is a fair size; not too heavy, not too light.
Now all we had to do was drive to Grantham...
In Grantham, they do a full blood count (to check for iron levels etc.) at 36 weeks. In Southend, we don't do them beyond about 28 weeks. Fortunately, K___ had a midwife's appointment at the surgery, so it wasn't too difficult to arrange. What was difficult was getting blood out of K___'s arm. The crook of her left arm has some slightly raised veins (her childhood 'friend' L__ squeezed her arm and up they came, never to go down again) and doctors tend to see it and suggest the other arm. The midwife was no different and opted for her right. K___'s not hugely down with the whole needles thing and looked away as the midwife pushed the needle into her arm. Unfortunately, the blood just didn't want to come out. I was looking and it really wasn't flowing into the reservoir as it should have been. At this point, K____ revealed that she's notoriously bad for giving blood and this kind of thing has happened before. The midwife pushed the needle a little further in too see if it would make a difference but it was still sluggish.
Eventually there was enough and the midwife packaged it up for us to deliver to the main doctor's surgery down the road. The results would be ready that afternoon and the midwife would text them to us later to provide to the Grantham midwives.
After that it was on with the normal midwife's examination: urine, blood pressure, measure the bump. One thing that came out was an estimate - and a heavily caveated one at that - of what size the baby might be. D____ had done this when she had visited us at home the previous weekend but she'd rather shocked K___ with her prediction of 7lbs 10oz, for the simple reason that she didn't clarify whether that was the size when she was measuring or a prediction of what she would be when born. Fortunately, the other midwife, K__, clarified it was a guestimate of birth weight, which was reassuring. She thought the baby would be about 7lbs 8 ozs, which is a fair size; not too heavy, not too light.
Now all we had to do was drive to Grantham...
I don't know if you either don't celebrate christmas or are really overwhelmed by the upcoming event -- the main event, if you will -- but I'd like to wish you guys happy holidays or at least a happy new year. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThank you sir; I can assure you we've had a lovely day!
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