Busy Day

[orangefoot]

I spent most of the morning and a bit of the afternoon at the hospital today sorting aout my treatment plan and getting a prescription for daily injections - which they had to order in at the pharmacy (!)

I have Protein S Deficiency which is a blood clotting disorder so I will have to inject myself daily to prevent clots. despite this being my fourth pregnancy I have never had to do this before so I've been a bit worried about it. I had to sit with a nurse and show her that I could do the shot myself before they would let me take all the stuff home with me to do each morning. It took me about five minutes of talking about nothing to psyche myself up to stick it in. Then I felt all odd - on top of my existing queasiness - and had to put my head between my knees.

The best thing is though that I spoke to the professor who is caring for me and among other things told him I didn't want to birth in the hospital and he just said "Ok homebirth, I'll write it in your notes." It is such a relief to know that I won't be forced to go to that place other than for checkups and my local midwifery team have also said that they are happy to support me at home which is fantastic.

Injecting won't seem so bad now that I can think of a peaceful homebirth at the end of it all; visualising a hospital birth would be just horrible.

I hope you are all ok
Rachel

[hannahmom]

I was just diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in October - the same thing happened to me when they were teaching me how to do my insulin injections I chickened out a good 15 times. Unfortunately it's second nature now.

Hooray for planning your homebirth! It always seems to work that way - when you are prepared for a struggle.

[chalynm]

That's great about the homebirth, Rachel. I wish it were that easy for me. Our state doesn't allow for m/w assisted homebirth, the thought of a regular OB makes me cringe (they probably wouldn't do a homebirth anyway), DH won't go for an unassisted birth, and I refuse to set foot in any of the hospitals in our area, barring an major emergency, of course, so we comproimsed and found a birth center about an hour away.

Good look with the injections. You're a braver woman than I.

[jadzia's_mommy]

Those shots must be scary to do, Rachel! But that is great that you'll get to do a homebirth. I HATE hospitals too!! Icky!

[orangefoot]

Thanks all!

Its not been too bad after the first time I injected which left a horrible bruise. I've been trying below my belly button now where I have loads of stretch marks and its not bruisubg there at all - I don't know why; I need to make the most of it before all that skin gets really tight!

I had planned to have dd at a birth centre near us which is really great, my local midwive, a fantastic room, lovely oval pool and a real bathroom and kitchen. Dds head didn't engage all through pregnancy and still not even when my waters broke by which time she had her head nestled on my hip. My ctx had tailed off and gone whacky so the mws suggested that I transfer to the hospital and get a pit drip move her down before things got more complicated. So off we went at 4 in the morning! I did birth her without an epidural or instrumets stuck in me but that night was the most awful experience of my life.

Going to the hospital makes me feel anxious and the smell of it connects to somewhere in my brain that tells me it is not a good place to be.

I spoke to the mw who was with me that night this morning to book with her and her team and she said I was right to go with my gut and stick out for a homebirth. She was gutted to have to transfer me and have to leave me and dh in the care of strangers with drips and monitors.

Here's hoping for a healing experience