A Little Scare

Too close to the 20 week scan for a scare!

02/10/2015

After a mention of cervical shortening and funneling so close to the point that we lost Spud, the remainder of the week we felt on high alert.  Every time Clare sneezed, I winced.  Every time Clare complained of back ache, I worried.

I came home from work early on the Friday looking forward to a long weekend of chilling with my girl waiting for the scan on Tuesday to let us know where we stood.  Clare looked white, she was experiencing shooting pains that were intermittent and felt like contractions. We could only think the worst, so Clare rang the midwife to ask for advice.

The midwife suggested that we ring Maternity Triage to have them check her out. We arrived in the hospital moment later and checked in at Triage.  The nurse on the desk told us to go to the central delivery suite as they were expecting us.  This caused us to worry a little more, why were they expecting us on CDU?  The last time we were on CDU was when Spud was born, and it is truly heartbreaking to walk through those doors again in a similar situation.

As we entered the Central Delivery Unit, a nurse had Clare's notes ready and told us she had a room ready.  The room they had ready was room 8, the room that Spud was born in. I asked if we could go into another room as there was no way we could go back in there with so many sad memories.

Thankfully there was another room available and Clare and I sat waiting.  Another midwife entered our room and brought a saline solution and a collection of large tools.  I had to stop her at this point and ask for an explanation.  We had been rushed into CDU with no information, Clare having pains that felt like contractions and "tools" being brought into the room as a precaution.  It was only know that they explained that Maternity Triage was busy and they usually spill over into CDU, there is nothing to worry about, they just want to do a couple of checks to put our mind at ease and then send us on our merry way.

The air in the room lifted, we breathed again, I saw colour come back into Clare's face which had almost turned transparent.  A consultant came to see us and explained that this is perfectly normal with a shortened cervix and if the baby moves Clare would feel with twinges, especially if it was hitting a nerve.  After a check over, the consultation was over and Clare and I were happy to head back home for the weekend with a little more confidence....but believe me, that was a scary couple of hours that I do not want to relive.

Thankfully our scan on Tuesday showed that cervix has lengthened and the funneling reduced (all be it by half a millimeter) which strengthens our chances and hopes

Our doctor has signed Clare off for 6 weeks and order more strict bed rest to happen

One more scare....why not?

I had booked babysitting and dog sitting duties for Saturday 10th October as Clare had given me a pass to go to the cinema.  To save undue giddiness from Chewie I took him out for his nightly walk a little early and took his favourite ball.  After about 20 minutes I got a call from Clare to come home asap as she was not feeling well.  As I rushed through the door Clare was white and shaking, she looked terrible.  Thankfully, our babysitter (my Ma) turned up at the same time and we rang the out of hours doctor.  Clare had been showing signs of infection for a couple of days, however, water samples had come back inconclusive. A few hours later, we were at the out of hours clinic picking up antibiotics.

We were given three possible reasons for the loss of Spud
1) Weak Cervix
2) Factor V Leiden causing a blood clot
3) Infection

We have now covered all three bases, so what else do you have to throw at us that again we will prosper over.

Clare and I are more determined now to be blessed and the coming weeks are going to be tough, but we are going to get there.