Quite unexpectedly, I had my 12 week scan on Monday. I say unexpectedly... I was after all, 12 weeks pregnant so it didn't come as that much of a surprise but on Monday morning at 10.59am I didn't even know I had an appointment for a scan and by 2pm I was at the hospital.
The plan to have my baby at the same hospital where Lara was born because it would be easier has proved a little stressful. Last week they said they were 'still in the process' of making the appointment and this week I rang them to find out whether they had actually got around to booking me in, only to find out that (a) yes they had and (b) they had sent all my appointment details to the address where I was registered last time I had given birth. Right. It can't be that uncommon that someone moves house between their visits to a hospital, can it? Why not read the new address and GP details on the frickin' booking in form???
I grovelled to my boss and re-arranged some meetings. Thankfully we have a very understanding boss who is expecting his first child next month. When we got to the hospital, it was clear from the two people in front of me in the queue that people do move house between hospital visits.... regularly! Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Anyway, the scan went very much like my last 12 week scan. Baby was there and seemed to have all the required pieces intact but didn't want to stay still long enough to have their measurements taken for the nuchal scan test. Actually, this baby did seem REALLY wiggly and it gave me the giggles which is not ideal when someone is trying to hold an ultrasound scanner to your belly. This merited a frown and a look of disgust from the sonographer.
The sonographer told me to go and empty my bladder a little (partially emptying your bladder is easier said that done when you've been tanking up on fluids for the past few hours in preparation for a scan). She also asked me to have a snack and wait for a little while. Half an hour later we tried again and baby had obviously chilled out a bit. She took the measurements and that just left me to have my blood sample taken for the combined downs syndrome test.
I had forgotten that given the whole 'out of area' thing, I still needed to have my booking bloods taken too which meant that the midwife needed to take 5 tubes of blood from me. I am notoriously difficult to extract blood from and the first attempt didn't yield anything. She tried the other arm and, as I started to hear the blood trickle into the first tube I knew I wasn't going to make it. The blood flow slowed down at the 4th tube but I don't remember the 5th because I lost consciousness and the next thing I knew I was in a bright room with a fan blasting cool air into my face. Ah well. I may not be able to cope with giving a blood sample, but at least I know I can deal with childbirth!
Anyway, the results of the scan showed that I am indeed due in the last week of April. That there is only 1 baby (phew) and that I have a small cyst on the edge of my womb which was 'probably' caused by (not the cause of) my miscarriage earlier in the year. Currently they don't seem worried by it but they will keep monitoring it.
The plan to have my baby at the same hospital where Lara was born because it would be easier has proved a little stressful. Last week they said they were 'still in the process' of making the appointment and this week I rang them to find out whether they had actually got around to booking me in, only to find out that (a) yes they had and (b) they had sent all my appointment details to the address where I was registered last time I had given birth. Right. It can't be that uncommon that someone moves house between their visits to a hospital, can it? Why not read the new address and GP details on the frickin' booking in form???
I grovelled to my boss and re-arranged some meetings. Thankfully we have a very understanding boss who is expecting his first child next month. When we got to the hospital, it was clear from the two people in front of me in the queue that people do move house between hospital visits.... regularly! Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Anyway, the scan went very much like my last 12 week scan. Baby was there and seemed to have all the required pieces intact but didn't want to stay still long enough to have their measurements taken for the nuchal scan test. Actually, this baby did seem REALLY wiggly and it gave me the giggles which is not ideal when someone is trying to hold an ultrasound scanner to your belly. This merited a frown and a look of disgust from the sonographer.
The sonographer told me to go and empty my bladder a little (partially emptying your bladder is easier said that done when you've been tanking up on fluids for the past few hours in preparation for a scan). She also asked me to have a snack and wait for a little while. Half an hour later we tried again and baby had obviously chilled out a bit. She took the measurements and that just left me to have my blood sample taken for the combined downs syndrome test.
I had forgotten that given the whole 'out of area' thing, I still needed to have my booking bloods taken too which meant that the midwife needed to take 5 tubes of blood from me. I am notoriously difficult to extract blood from and the first attempt didn't yield anything. She tried the other arm and, as I started to hear the blood trickle into the first tube I knew I wasn't going to make it. The blood flow slowed down at the 4th tube but I don't remember the 5th because I lost consciousness and the next thing I knew I was in a bright room with a fan blasting cool air into my face. Ah well. I may not be able to cope with giving a blood sample, but at least I know I can deal with childbirth!
Anyway, the results of the scan showed that I am indeed due in the last week of April. That there is only 1 baby (phew) and that I have a small cyst on the edge of my womb which was 'probably' caused by (not the cause of) my miscarriage earlier in the year. Currently they don't seem worried by it but they will keep monitoring it.
