The good news and the serious stuff...

So I had my next OB appointment this morning. To get the results of the Glucose Tolerance Test that I had to do, after failing the Diabetes Exclusion Test. Apparently I failed the first test pretty spectacularly (if you are going to do it, do it well).

The good news is that I passed the GTT just fine - the OB classed the first one as an 'anomaly'. YAY!!!! I suspect I should probably still ease off on the Mars Bar Cheesecake, but it is good to know that I haven't been labelled as a Gestational Diabetic. And I can nibble on the occasional piece of chocolate, totally guilt-free!

As the title of this post implies, there are some serious thoughts going through my hormone-swamped brain as well. Brad and I are just sort of getting our heads around the whole 'actually having a second baby' thing. I have asked a good friend to mind Naomi when the time comes, and she has happily agreed to do so. N has played there with her little friend Harry a few times when I have had to do things, so hopefully she will be fine.

I had a long labour with Naomi - the first, 'latent' phase took about 24 hours, but the contractions were 3 minutes apart right from the first one. At about the 18 hour mark, I was tired, emotional and worrying that I couldn't make the distance. Then when I was told that I was only 2 cms dilated, I fell apart. It took some pethidine and a few hours sleep to get me back ready for more active labour, which still took another 10 hours. I was lucky to have had my wonderful sister as a midwife, and she knew what I really wanted -- ie, that my yelling for a caesarean to get it over and done with was just the tired raving of a scared woman. She (and Brad, my mum and another midwife) were a tower of strength in talking me through it.

I find myself being a bit concerned that the OB and the private hospital that we are going to this time might have a firm time frame in mind, and start talking about interventions such as epidurals, if I am not on their schedule. I did have a chat with the OB about this today, and he assured me that second labours are always different to the first time, and that he certainly did not expect me to have anything like the time frame. We also discussed natural options to get things moving - taking a walk, having a sleep, going home etc. He is happy to do these things, and doesn't feel the need to leap into breaking the waters, or using drugs to speed things up. This was reassuring.

A good friend who has had 4 natural births suggested that I use a little notebook, just to jot down my wishes before going to the hospital, so that the midwives have a note that I don't want to be told how dilated I am, don't want an epidural if at all possible etc. I think this is a good idea - especially as I want Brad to be able to focus on me and our baby, rather than have him in discussions with medical staff.

My question (after this long-winded and boring post) is -- has anyone actually written a birth plan, and if so, did you find that it helped to communicate your wishes and facilitate the kind of atmosphere in the birth suite that you wanted? If you know what I mean???