35 weeks

Last week was an eventful one on the baby front. Wednesday was my regular check-in at the doctor’s office. Dr. Bailey gave me my papers, because Friday we had our hospital pre-admit appointment. As she handed the papers over I asked if much has changed at the hospital since we went through this last time, and her reply was all about the epidural and how great it is now that it’s available here. However, she followed that up with her first-ever admission of the drawbacks, risks of complications, recovery time etc. I don’t doubt for a minute that an epidural is a wonderful relief, but I also have to say how awesome it was when Liam was born to be mobile right away. Being stuck in bed would drive me crazy. And if that weren’t encouragement enough, there was also forceps talk to drive home the fact that I’d really rather avoid it.

We then had our pre-admit, which included a quick tour of the maternity ward. On the one hand, it all seems like just yesterday that Liam was born. I clearly remembered being in triage and which room we had, and the fact that they push ginger ale on you 24/7 while you’re there (we were even offered a ginger ale during our pre-admit, and the nurse made sure she pointed out all the fridges where it’s stocked during our tour). On the other hand, some of the details are hard to remember. Maybe that’s due in part to the fact that we pulled an all-nighter at the hospital. Dozing off in between contractions definitely helps the time to pass faster, and I hope the same thing happens this time, too.

I had the same pit-of-my-stomach sense of impending doom I had when we stepped off the elevator and onto the ward last time, the one that would have had me willing to call the whole thing off had I heard any screaming in the background. Luckily there was none of that; the big excitement of the day was the scrawny, inefficient-looking little security guard posted outside the strip of patient rooms. (Seems someone was being paid a visit from Children’s Aid on Friday, one the hospital staff did not expect to end happily.) Still, the hospital experience coupled with Dr. Bailey’s epidural horror stories sent me straight to the phone when we left, and I called the doula we used last time. I did contact her last fall, but hadn’t spoken with her since. Last week was all the push I needed to decide I definitely want her back. Luckily she returned my message, and I think we are good to go now.

Officially there are 5 weeks left on the countdown clock, but my guess (hope) is that it will be more like 4. Which doesn’t sound like much at all. When I was pregnant with Liam, I thought (worried) about being in labour constantly, and I think it helped because in the end, it wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. This time around, I had hardly given labour a second thought until last week… and now I’m starting to freak out a bit. Reality is starting to sink in, and I’m not sure that it’s a good thing.