Our 'Naughty' Daughter

Already I feel like one of those parents whose child can do no wrong!  My unborn daughter was called naughty by two different healthcare professionals on Monday.  I didn't like it.  The reason was that, during our scan to check on her size, it was discovered that she is still breech.  She has been breech for at least 4 weeks now.  The chances of her turning before we need to have an induction are getting smaller. 

Some of our rapidly expanding reading materials 

We had been so busy worrying that she would get too big because of my wife's gestational diabetes, that we had just assumed her position would take care of itself.  We had got used to the idea of an early induction and now we have some other possibilities to get our heads around.

The good news is that her size is perfect.  This means that, with everything else being normal, my wife would be induced at about 38 weeks.  However, the sonographer, of course, found that our baby is the wrong way up.  She was the first to comment on our little one's behaviour.  I know she was only joking, but I felt very defensive of my daughter.  It doesn't bode well for the future.  How am I going to react when my daughter's teachers say she has done something wrong?  Will I believe them?  I am delusional enough at this point in the pregnancy to believe that my daughter will be perfectly behaved all of the time once she is born.

One bit of other news from the scan is that we are definitely having a daughter.  This will stop me worrying about what happens if, when our baby arrives, we hear the words 'It's a boy!' when we have spent the last 6 months getting prepared for welcoming a daughter to our family.  She also has hair on the back of her head.  We don't know about the top!

We then had an appointment with the obstetrician.  During these appointments we are seen by a midwife first.  She was the second person to admonish our baby bump.  Silently irritated, I listened as we were told everything else was going well by the registrar.  Then we were told what would happen next.  This is the moment where things get a little complicated.  Bear with me.

At 37 weeks, a little over a week from now, we go to the hospital for a presentation scan.  This will tell use which way up our 'naughty' little girl is.  If she has turned, then we will be on for an induction during the following week.  We have been told that the induction process can take a few days for some people, which we are obviously very excited about!  This is the ideal scenario.  But, if she is still breech then we will be given the option of having an ECV.  This is an External Cephalic Version.  It is a process where the obstetrician externally attempts to turn your baby.  I've seen this done on TV and it looks pretty brutal.  If we choose this option, then we will need to take our hospital bag, as there is a very small risk that baby won't like it and become distressed, which may need an emergency cesarean section.

If the ECV is successful, and our little one doesn't decide to immediately turn herself around on the way home (she is naughty after all), then we'll be back on for an induction at 38 weeks.  If it isn't (and there is close to a 50% chance) then we will be booked in for a cesarean section a couple of weeks later.  We were helpfully informed that people do come in for their cesareans only to discover that their child has turned!  We are not sure what would happen to us at this stage.  We were feeling a little overwhelmed and didn't think to ask this question.  My guess is we'll be induced that day.

So we're a little confused and quite uncertain about what will happen and when it will happen, but we'd be even less certain if everything was going normally!  We'd have no idea when our little lady would be making an appearance.  The important thing is my wife and baby are well and are being very well looked after.  Aside from the behaviour issues we clearly have to address with our daughter the moment she is born (maybe some time of the naughty step will do it!), that is all that matters to me.

Living With Gestational Diabetes

My wife has taken to regularly injecting drugs.  Don't panic, she isn't mainlining heroin.  She is injecting insulin.  Unfortunately, she has been diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  As I have confessed previously, I am not any kind of medical authority.  I don't know how well I am able to explain this condition.  But I will give it a go.

Several weeks ago, because of a family history of later onset diabetes, my wife undertook a glucose tolerance test during a visit to the midwife.  I received a text later that morning from my wife saying that I should phone her when I had a minute.  Everything was fine with our baby, but the results of the test showed that my wife had gestational diabetes.  We were prepared for this because of her family history.  However, it still worried me enormously.  I was worried for my wife and for our unborn baby.  I didn't know much about it, so I promptly Googled it.  This is a dangerous thing to do.  It often leads you to finding the most severe facts about the condition which only served to worry me further.

I know the NHS is often criticised, but we have received some incredible support, care and attention from everyone we have met during the pregnancy.  We found out about the diabetes on the Wednesday before the May Day bank holiday.  The diabetic nurse insisted upon seeing us before the weekend and opened her clinic half an hour earlier on the Friday morning in order to see us and get my wife started on testing her blood sugars.  This is indicative of lengths people in the NHS have been prepared to go to help us during the pregnancy.

We were initially told that my wife's blood sugars might be controlled with diet alone.  However, they weren't.  So within a few days she started tablets which help to lower blood sugar levels.  This had a positive effect for a few more days before it became obvious that even this wasn't helping.  This was an incredibly frustrating and upsetting time for her.  She was doing everything she could do in order to control her sugar levels for the sake of our daughter.  It was yet another point during the pregnancy where I have felt utterly useless.  I was worried and I couldn't do anything to help because she was doing everything possible and it still wasn't helping.  As it turned out, the insulin, which was a last resort at the beginning of the process, was quite a relief to my wife.  Through injecting insulin, she has seen her blood sugars reduce and feels happier that our daughter isn't getting too much sugar.  She feels happier, which means that I feel happier too.

As part of the extra care you receive when you have gestational diabetes, you attend an antenatal clinic where you meet with the diabetic team, including a dietitian, a diabetic nurse and a diabetic consultant who check how well you are getting on with the drug regime and diet restrictions.  You also see an obstetric consultant (or a 'baby doctor' as the diabetic consultant referred to him as).  They check on the baby and how well mother is doing. You also have a scan to check that baby isn't getting too big.  This is the one of the real concerns with gestational diabetes.  Because my wife's body isn't able to control her blood sugars properly, there can be too much sugar in her blood.  This could lead to our baby taking on too much sugar and becoming too big.

We have been to two clinics now.  Our first visit was arranged last minute so we didn't have a scan.  Everything seemed well and my wife's bump was described as 'perfect' in size by the consultant.  In case you are wondering he didn't just have a look, he actually measured it!  The scan at our second visit showed that our baby is progressing well.  She isn't too big.  This is a relief.  In fact she sits very nicely in the middle of the upper and lower percentiles on her growth charts.  We need to return to this clinic a week on Monday where we will have another scan and meet with all of the wonderful healthcare professionals once again to check how both my wife and daughter are keeping and progressing.

Our baby is actually due on 21st July but because of the diabetes and complications which can occur if the pregnancy is allowed to go on past the due date we will be offered an induction at 38 or 39 weeks even if our daughter isn't too big.  On finding out about the induction, largely due to my medical ignorance, it wasn't actually me who was fretting this time, it was my wife.  I don't know much about the process.  I have read about it since finding out and it seems like it could be quite difficult for my my wife.  I now understand (in a very simplified way) what it entails and, therefore, why my wife was panicked.  But what I also know is that she will be given the very best care by the 'baby doctors' and the midwives at Gloucester Royal Hospital.  And I will be there every single step of the way to act as her personal punchbag!  So she needn't fret either!