It had to happen at some stage and a few weeks ago I had the dreaded Emergency call. My sons girlfriend’s waters had broken, it looked as if our granddaughter was going to arrive early, too early at 28 weeks. My son was in pieces, they had already spent a night in delivery by the time that I arrived.
It was so good to be greeted at the airport by Neil, he seemed quite composed but a little stressed. He’d been having a few problems with his van so when he said “we might have to push her!”, my heart sank, I was so tired it was now past midnight. Thankfully she started after the fourth attempt and the drive back up the M4 to Royal Wootton Bassett seemed to fly by.
Lisa was in hospital but Neil didn’t really know what was happening and I think that, that was half of the stress but we had a pleasant evening and I met some of Lisa’s other children for the first time. It was good to be with my son I am not so sure about being back in the UK. It was night and it was cold, bitter, icy cold winds stung my bare skin, it was a cold I hadn’t felt in a long time.
The next day bright and early we were on our way to the hospital, every day parking was to be a nightmare, and might I add expensive, they had built a nice new hospital without enough car parking spaces – typical of the planning around new construction in Swindon. Even the car-park attendants were moaning and of course they added “We told them this would happen, but would they listen to us. No!”.
Lisa was still in delivery, she had had an uncomfortable night, but baby was still in situ. This was not only a new experience for my son, it was also a situation that I too had not been in before. There were meetings with doctors and nurses, none really telling us what was happening but preparing everyone for a premature birth. So at first it really did look like baby was on her way.
Lisa seemed excited by the prospect ordering us to buy premature nappies and clothes before we came in the next day. The doctors however, seemed less sure that baby was arriving. This did not stop Lisa, screaming “Oh, the pain, the pain!”. “Baby is coming” This was despite the doctors telling her not to push and baby wasn’t infact coming at all. It was now three days later, and with constant monitoring the doctors knew without a doubt baby wasn’t coming, and there was no way they would induce her because of the high risk to baby.
It was quite confusing because she was adamant the baby was on its way. At one stage asking me to look below as she could feel the baby’s head in the birth canal. I was met by a really unpleasant sight, in that of a prolapsed womb. Where she already had been through four pregnancies and had been pushing, the walls of the womb had collapsed and had fallen into the birth canal, no wonder the poor girl was in so much pain. It looked really nasty and not a sight I would like to see again.
It was now evident that the baby wasn’t infact coming but trying to convince Lisa of this was another matter. I started to see a pattern however. Whenever Neil or a nurse/doctor/another person came into the room, the pain and the noise would raise in volume. When they left within a few minutes I could calm her down and things would become more peaceful. So much so that I took command of the situation and sent Neil back to work, being self employed if he wasn’t working he wasn’t earning..
As he worked in London it would mean he wouldn’t be there at night but as Lisa settled down, and the painkillers started to work she was moved onto Hazel Ward, so neither of us had to be there at night anymore. A bit of a relief for both of us.
I ended up looking after her boys she already has five of them, they were all very nice and well behaved, well that was until Lisa was allowed home, then the house turned into a war zone and it wasn’t long (less than 24 hours) before we were rushing off to the hospital again. She was convinced baby was on its way this time, not only was she leaking water but she now had a discharge, she was convinced baby was on her way.
With hindsight it appears that every time she got really stressed, the stress would release some of the waters and it would appear that baby could be on the way. She has a bad back and I don’t think that his helped with pain spasms coinciding with the leaking of the waters. I did learn an interesting fact though and that was that the baby actually kept replenishing the waters by weeing, they take in fluid from the mother and it is normal for levels to rise and fall during pregnancy.
So our little angel was safe and she was happy where she was and no way did she want to come out yet.
But that didn’t mean less time spent in hospital, I watched as the nurses eyes raised and rolled and I could almost hear them saying “oh no its her again”. More doctors and nurses running around, and when Neil returned from London total pandemonium. But I was noticing a pattern, watching and observing the situation it was evident that Lisa was actually “getting off” on all of the attention, in particular that from Neil who of course was worried and believed her more than the doctors, or rather was so confused that he didn’t know what to do or who to believe.
But it wasn’t long before she was back on the ward, there was no way the doctors would induce her, no matter how much she wanted the baby to be born. Baby was monitored as were the pain spasms and once again they were adamant that the baby was not infact coming.
She was again let out of hospital, I stayed on for another couple of days but there wasn’t a lot I could do and I certainly couldn’t stay for the full 6 weeks till the end of the pregnancy. So I left after 10 days and I was pleased to be on my way home my son and I had just started to rub each other up the wrong way. Time to go home.
That was 3 weeks ago, Lisa has been omitted to hospital and sent home again but baby is still safe in the womb.. Their relationship has taken a little turn for the worst but we are all hoping that that is hormones and it will resolve itself in due course.
I did manage to visit Mum, my Sister and my very dear friend Bridgett which was lovely and certainly made the whole trip worthwhile. We are still awaiting the arrival of baby she is due at the end of July so we are all now just waiting for that all important phone call and not that of an emergency. Hoping that it won’t be a case of the Little Boy (or in our case the Little Girl) who Cried Wolf!
Article by Sensone