Gotta be starting something…

So, an appointment with the Consultant Anesthetist on a thursday afternoon spurred me on for a walk. I had been visited in the morning by the beautiful Sian and Leon. Sian and I joked about the size of my bump, and how I had scared the wonderful Hubby by telling him the baby could come at any time! Oh how we laughed :S ….

The weather was lovely, and I hadn’t walked anywhere of late, so I took myself off on a stroll to Walsall Manor hospital. I found the journey pleasant, if a little tiring. Out in the sunshine, me and the Sedgbean singing along to some of our favourite tunes! I was feeling great, looking forward to a weekend with my Mum, some long overdue quality time!

Hubby arrived home, and informed me that we were taking my hospital bag on our trip. Trial Run. “Ok, no worries” I thought, “This makes sense”. The following day we were in Wirral, (Friday), and we picked up the Travel System from Mama’s and Papa’s, and spent the evening putting it together and taking it down again. Some arguments. No shouting. We also indulged in some Dairy Milk, and X-Men First Class. Sedgbean got hiccups. Tired so bed. (At this stage I was barely sleeping due to the size of my belly so any excuse to go to bed, I took it)

I think I must have slept for a massive 2 hours when I woke up with a pressing feeling in my netherbits! Uh Oh!! Gonna wet myself! The naughty little Sedgbean must have been moving around and settled on top of my bladder!! Never mind, up I get to go to the bathroom. Stood up … sat straight back down again. Woah!!! Seriously lost control of my bladder here!! Just the act of standing had caused some embarrassing trickling. Ok, hold it Rach, hold it in, and try again. Same thing. Uh Oh! That horrific thought flashed across my mind. “What if this is your waters breaking?” Well, no. Impossible. I’m only 35 weeks pregnant, so its too early for that. I know I’m unlucky but surely I’m not THAT unlucky!! Am I??

Several further attempts got me as far as the end of the bed with fluid trickling down my legs. My shuffling around the bedroom had woken Ben, who I later discovered had been watching me with some mirth!

“Whats up?”

“Well, I don’t want to panic you but one of two things is happening. Either I’m pissing myself for the first time in a very long time, or my waters have broken”

“O….K…. Er, right. What shall we do?”

Well, the only thing I knew was that gravity was winning the battle and unless I got to the bathroom sharpish, I would possibly be leaving my mum and dad with a gorgeous wee stain on the carpet. I pegged it down the hall which took forever (if you have ever been to my parents house, you will understand!) and plonked myself on the toilet. Sweet relief!!
One problem. Now I have opened the floodgates (if you will pardon the pun) I seemed to be waiting an awfully long time for this trickling to stop. I made it back to the bedroom in an equally humourous fashion, and Ben and I set about getting a phone number for NHS Direct.

(After hanging over the side of the bath to allow this fluid to empty, and being pretty convinced it was NOT coming out of my bladder, the realisation set in that this could very well be my waters breaking. Great. Even better was the fact that I had not discussed what to do if this happened with my midwife. No Birth plan either. All I had were my pregnancy notes and phone numbers for the delivery suite at the Manor. Since I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be going there, if my waters HAD broken, I would need some advice!)
After speaking to Arrowe Park Hospital, we eventually made our way in, being admitted at 04:45am. I was ushered into Delivery to be hooked up to monitors and await my fate. Had my waters broken? Was the baby on its way? Did I have enough in my Maternity Bag? Would I be getting any breakfast? All the thoughts rushing around in my head were intense, but I knew one thing – Life was not going to be the same after this weekend!