A close call

We had a scary day yesterday - it started out normally, with a home visit from my lovely midwife. Everything was normal until we got to the doppler ultrasound of the heartbeat, which was very unusual, out of rhythm - a strange irregular three beat sound rather than the normal two beats I'd heard so many times before.

The midwife still wasn't too worried, but suggested that I go into the hospital to have it checked out, so Thomas and I drove in there, and we went into one of the delivery suites to be strapped up to the heart monitor. From there things got scary very quickly, the baby's heartbeat was reading as being very slow, something called brachycardia, and the registrar came in and suddenly I was being prepared for an emergency caesar. This was awfully familiar, as it was also week 34 when I had the caesar with Thomas after an abruption, so I knew all the routine of putting in canulas and drips, the gown and strange socks and signing the consent forms etc.

Poor Thomas had no idea what was going on but was extremely good, and just played quietly while all this was happening until Warren arrived.

Anyway, just when we thought it was all happening, they decided to confirm the problem with the more sophisticated ultrasound in the fetal medicine unit, which showed that the baby's heartbeat was arrhythmic but not as slow as it was reading upstairs. All very confusing to me. So all of a sudden everyone relaxed, and said we could go home, just come back for a scan next week.

Very strange indeed to come so close to another emergency premmie delivery, being treated like an invalid, and then to be getting dressed and driving home again minutes later! Of course we were hugely relieved not to be having the baby early, knowing how stressful it is to have a baby struggling in those early days in the NICU.

So now we're back home, just keeping an anxious eye on those foetal movements, but hoping everything will get back to normal and it will go to term.

So back to life as usual - it is Thomas' second birthday this weekend, so I am now madly planning a bananas in pyjamas cake, food and decorations. Hoping for some more good weather - it has been lovely here lately. Here is Thomas at the animal nursery at Floriade - we got there late in the afternoon and had it almost all to ourselves.

Thanks for the very helpful comments about the courses, I'm still pondering, but will have to make a decision before the end of October.