Happy new year!
We had my 16 week appointment with the midwife today. It was actually an adventure to get the appointment in the first place. It looks like my surgery only makes available appointments for a certain date 4 weeks in advance. I had already been told at my booking appointment that I needed to come back at 16 weeks, so I tried to book it as soon as I could (the midwife is only at the surgery two days a week, so I would think that the appointments run out quite quickly). However, every time I called I was told again and again that the appointments for that week weren’t available yet; I should call back the following week.
It wasn’t until just before Christmas that I managed to get the appointment. So that was lucky, I guess!
So we saw Madeleine again, and there were a couple of positives and a couple of negatives from the visit. The positives are (1) that we were given the opportunity to hear the twins’ heartbeats via a fetal doppler. Getting the first heartbeat was relatively simple… And both Jon and I were amazed, as it was so clear! (and so fast, but apparently it is normal that they beat twice as faster as an adult). Finding the second heartbeat was considerably more difficult, but Madeleine had warned us that sometimes it can’t be found… But with a bit of perseverance, we got there in the end and listened to twin no.2 as well. The sound wasn’t as clear and Jon reckons that the beat was slower as well, but I was just so excited to be listening to it that I didn’t notice it being any different.
The second positive from the visit is that I got home with a flu jab appointment for next week (which I had to request, wasn’t offered to me). I am happier now that I will have the jab, as both Jon and I were a bit concerned that we are in the middle of winter (and it’s likely to get colder soon) and I hadn’t had any protection.
On the other hand, there were also a couple of negatives from the visit. The first one is that my urine test came back quite high in protein. This could mean an urine infection (although I haven’t had any symptoms), so I need to take another sample for a more specialised test. Once I got the results I need to inform Madeleine by phone (I don’t have another appointment with her until week 28). From there, she will have to make a decision on the procedure to follow.
The second negative (although, not so much a negative.. more like a bit disappointed) was that we noticed – again – that the midwife was not as knowledgeable as we could have expected. It was little things, small details that made us doubt in a couple of occasions. For example, not being offered the flu jab. I had to specifically ask for it, when I am pretty much almost half way through my pregnancy and it is winter!. Also, I was given my urine sample back and she told me to empty it, wash it and then re-use the same pot for the next appointment. “Doesn’t it need to be sterilised?” I asked, to which she replied “No, it’ll be fine”. Mmmmm… I am no doctor, but I think there is a reason why they normally give you sterilised pots…
All in all the appointment went well, and I was just thrilled to have heard the babies heartbeats 🙂
And what else?
The return to work has been a bit hard. I was so lazy during the whole Christmas break, that having to get up at 6am on Wednesday was actually painful. But, hey, I suppose I need to get my ass moving.. I can’t be a couch potato for the rest of my life!
Please forgive the picture below. First of all I am wearing no bra and I think you can tell (more to come in the next few days about maternity bras). Secondly, I made Jon take the picture about 7 times and I still was not happy with it. I still look knackered. But I had to settle on one.. and this one was the less bad 🙁
I have added a “belly circumference” line as I want to keep track of how much the belly is growing. I thought this is something that the midwife did for you, but obviously it didn’t happen today. I suppose I should also add and keep track of my weight gain!
Read you soon!
🙂
Heartbeat – the first one was 154 bpm, the second was (I estimate was at about 145, only a touch slower.
I am concerned about the midwife. She spent the entire session asking my very organised wifey about all the facts of her pregnancy. Due date, next appointments, what are the next appointments for? Have you had this blood test, can you book the next thing in. What is your blood type?
She had a lot less answers than questions, and the whole “wash out the sterile sample container” thing absolutely baffled me. I can only assume she had forgotten to restock and had none of the right type available(!)
I am faced with a disappointing resolve. I will need to attend every appointment and for anything I/we consider significant, we must ask our doctor for a second opinion.
That sucks. But I honestly have little faith…not necessarily in the midwife, just in both the system and resource allocation. I think she is stretched too thin, and the “computer” system fails to aggregate the information together as it needs to.