Back to my story, second time round...

So Haydn went off to his meeting (two and a half hours away) and I went to the hospital.  I went to the reception and asked, “Hi,” I said, “could you please direct me if I think that I am in labour?”  

The receptionist looked at me and with a twinkle of humor in her eyes replied, “That would be the labour ward Madam.”

“Oh no” I tried to explain that I was having a c-section on the 18^th but just needed to be reassured and my doctor was in surgery and so I had been told to go to the hospital and she would see me in between her other patients.  

The lady smiled a sympathetic smile probably thinks, “poor porridge brained woman...” but says, “Yes, madam, that would still be the labour ward” she smiled and pointed the way.  

Feeling stupid I walked on, this time a bit more prepared.  When I arrived at the labour ward I told the charge nurse that I was there to be checked by my doctor and had been told to come here. The ward staff were expecting me and a nurse showed me to a small room where I was fitted with a fetal monitor and told that someone would be in to check on me soon.   

It was so reassuring to hear that strong, loud and fast heart beating away in my belly.  By the time the midwife came in I was grinning from ear to ear, it felt like she was kicking against my spine and stretching, her heart was thumping along and I knew that we were both okay!

After looking at the monitor, print out and doing a quick internal, she said to me, “It looks like you are both getting too impatient to wait for the 18^th eh?  Dr will be in to see you soon.”  She smiled and left me wondering what the heck she meant.  (Can you see where this is going?  Maybe now you understand the porridge brain affliction).   

About 20 minutes passed and my doctor came in, she looked at the monitor, the report, etc and said to me, “Well you are in a hurry aren’t you?  I am just going to do a quick routine hysterectomy and then we will bring this baby out.”  Once again I was confused, “why do I need a hysterectomy?” I asked really confused.

She laughed, “Not you Tracy, another patient!  Then I will do your c-section, you are in labour silly.  You are already 6cm dilated and this baby is not gonna wait much longer.”

“I’m in labour?  But, I didn’t bring my bag, Haydn thought I was overreacting” I tried to explain.  (Yes, of course in hind sight it is a funny story).  

I finally managed to convince her that I was okay enough to make the 8km drive home, get me bag and be back within half an hour.  Once I got back to my car I rang Haydn, who thought I was joking but eventually agreed to turn around and come back to Joburg.  Next was my mom, who turned around on her way to work, she would stay with me until Haydn got back.  My gran was tasked with finding me a video camera – we had one for Megan and so we have to have one for Jenna!  

When I got back to the hospital I phoned Haydn, “the c-section is going ahead at 11, will you make it?”

“Trace, tell them they have to wait," there was a brief pause,"we are a bit lost!  We thought we could take a short cut and now we are not sure where we are, we are going to have to back track and find our way.” Haydn was a bit hysterical; I think he was feeling a bit stupid.  Eventually he convinced me to delay things as much as possible, I was not amused.

My mom was there, check.  The video camera was there, check.  I had been shaved and prepped, the only thing missing was Haydn.   They were just about to wheel me out of the ward when in walked the man of the moment.  He rushed to me and kissed my forehead apologizing for not taking me seriously.  This resulted in the nurses shouting at him and dragging him into a change room to get dressed for theatre.  The next time I saw him, I already had been "spine blocked" and the doctors were scrubbing up.  Because I was only 36 weeks along, there was a separate team just for my Jenna, in case she needed them.

When she was born with 10 precious fingers and toes, she needed to be incubated for a bit longer than normal but other than that she was fine, perfect even.  My second thought was that she looked so very different from Megan. 

It is amazing to me how different my two birth experiences were and how much more confident I was with Jenna.  I was also lucky to have a private room (the hospital was one of my clients) this time and so she was in my room the whole time.  By 5pm I was up and successfully breastfeeding, at 6pm I walked out to see Megan and show her, her new sister through the viewing window.  She was almost two and did not really know what was going on.  Just two days later we all went home, now a family of four.