Roller-coaster day

Hayley had her weekly appointment with the midwife this morning. Her blood pressure was 140/90. Her feet have been persistently swollen for the last few days and she has been feeling very hot but she hasn't had any headaches or any other signs of trouble.

Even so, when the midwife saw her she decided she "[didn't] like the look of her today" and in light of the raised blood pressure and other symptoms booked her into the Ante-natal clinic for 1.30pm.

The possible outcomes we were faced with at this point were:
- everything turns out to be ok and we come home;
- Hayley might be kept in overnight for monitoring;
- the baby is in distress they induce her;

At this point she called me at work and I came home on my bike as fast as I could pedal!

We went to the hospital and a midwife took Hayley's blood pressure which had fallen to 140/75. A good start!

She then strapped a heart-rate monitor onto Hayley to monitor the baby's heart and another monitor on her uterus to monitor pressure. Hayley also had to press a button whenever she felt the baby move.

I sat next to the bed holding the heart-rate monitor onto Hayley's tummy to make sure we could still hear the baby's heart (and the monitor could register it). It beat away for the next 20 minutes fluctuating with the movements. The midwife quickly re-assured us that this was a good sign.

Some of the baby's movements we saw were the biggest we have ever seen. The midwife said that the baby would be able to hear its own heartbeat (presumably on the monitor we were listening to) and seemed to imply this might be upsetting it slightly causing it to move a lot as it is used to hearing just the mother's heart (which beats at half the speed). We talked to Bump and then chatted normally in the hope that our voices would re-assure him/her. (I even sang the lullaby at one point as the kicks were huge!) It seemed to do the trick as there was less kicking after that.

At the end of the 20 minutes the midwife gave Hayley and the baby a clean bill of health for now and said she could go home.

She showed us the trace of the baby's heart-rate and pointed out that for the the first half of the measurements the baby was wide awake and active, but then showed a clear sleep pattern and less movement. Before we left I cheekily asked whether I could have a copy of the trace as a souvenir. I thought Hayley looked a bit embarrassed. Perhaps my blogging is getting out of hand...

Tonight Hayley is still feeling hot and her feet are still swollen, but she is now lying in bed with her feet up and our usual midwife (Jane) is coming round tomorrow. Fingers crossed this was just a one-off scare.