Monday 30 January 2012

The Hospital Diaries: The Eve of the Big Day!

Last night proved to be 100% sleepless. I spent the night chatting with a couple of friends, and downloading music to my phone.

At about 4am, someone knocked at my door. It was another patient. At first I thought I might have woken her up due to my playing music. Turns out she had been pacing the ward unable to sleep and noticed light coming from my room. It seems like I was the only other person in the ward to be awake. I invited her in for banter.

She was a year older than me, married, with a 1 and a half year old son. She hasn't been in Malta for long - she is originally from Libya. She was due to give birth at St James Hospital, but went into labour a month early and since they don't have incubators available, she came to Mater Dei instead. Her newborn son is currently in an incubator to get breathing assistance. She said that her husband and mother-in-law are going to be flying over today. We discussed the situation in Libya and the difference between the Community Hospital there, and over here.

We had banter for a while and she then went back to her room to try and get some rest. The rest of the night was spent downloading music and chatting.

Once dawn arrived, the ward came to life with Cleaning Ladies tidying up the rooms, the Food Lady taking orders, breakfast being fixed and so on and so forth.

I managed to snooze for half an hour before the Doctor came by - an Eastern European She-Doc - and she gave me a generic idea of what will be happening today. A midwife followed soon after and attached me to a monitor again.

She said that 4 patients checked in between last night and this morning. They already had about 7 deliveries schedules for today, so the delivery suite is packed full today.

Once the monitoring was over, I snoozed for about an hour and then my mum arrived and I got to go to get an Ultrasound done. Everything is fine with Creature - and I got shown his/her face in 4D and got given a snapshot of it! (See photo)

I can't wait to meet him/her in person!

When I got back to my room, I found Rose had arrived and set up the Altar. (See photo). The three of us are now just hanging out, talking, until it is time for the Doc to see me and check whether the Gel is required to start the induction.

The Gel's purpose is to help the cervix to "ripen" and soften so that it opens up bit by bit to allow the birth to happen.

Rose got me some Raspberry Leaf Tea, which is thought to assist labour and to reduce pain. We'll see if it really does speed up the process or not!

I'll update you some more later!

1 comment:

  1. im so psyched to see what you're going to have!! Im betting on a baby girl!!!

    ReplyDelete