8 months pg and ds in traction for, ooh, about 4 weeks. And I was planning a Homebirth...

[MalmoMum]

A week ago I was glowing around the place, so pleased I had so much energy for this stage in the pg and wowed that I was keeping Sacro Iliac problems at bay by not walking too much but able to cycle loads. Ds was just starting to settle into nursery a few mornings a week (and the monthly bill was looking like a weekly one in the UK). I had my hair done and had booked in for a weekend away at Spa. The babysitter was sitting close by ready to look after ds while I went for a massage and dh did nothing...

So we went for a swim and ds took a pretty innocence looking slip. 20 hours later he was stablised with his legs in traction so We've been living in the hospital. Ds, 22 months, is taking it pretty well with relatively spasmodic frustration episodes. Any tips on entertainment welcome!

I'm now in the situation where my packed hospital bag is in hospital but I'm hoping that I can transfer to home to give birth and won't need to bring it home in the case that I need to transfer back. Etc!

The homebirth midwife came for a visit to the hospital this afternoon, as she came from elsewhere she had to pay for her parking. Then I had to bring her home so that she was sure about where we live. It was great to meet her again. Herself and her colleague were very laid back confident that I would not go into labour until things were more sorted and that's very reassuring.

An x-ray on Monday will let us know if ds can come home in a traction bed. He'll still need a lot of care but home would be so much nicer. Just had more of an insight into why homebirth seemed to be an attractive option.

Thanks for your reply Rozzy. Is it incredibly draining as there is little let up and he keeps trying to turn over in the night and waking up screaming. It takes ages to calm him down again and then I find it difficult to drop off again. Last night he did it every hour between 1 and 4am. I'm very aware that I am using up the energy I was saving for the new born. Unfortunately he doesn't need as much sleep as a new born during the day (2 hours yesterday).

It was nice to get one message of support! So thank you.

Malmomum - here's another message of support as you deserve lots! I hate being deprived of sleep. But where is you dh for night re-settling duties?

He's there with me, we had a bit of a tussle to get the hospital to let the 2 of us stay 'at this special time' so that we can take it in shifts. Ds does seem to settle better next to me in the middle of the night and I go and sleep on the other bed at around 5 am.

We are trying to keep dh's (english) paternity and holiday leave for when the new baby is here. He's recently taken on more at work and they are letting people go, so we are trying to keep him functioning during the day aswell.

wow - paternity leave! you're so lucky (dp is self-employed, and all of his big clients he can't afford to lose came up with lots of urgent work the day before dd was born). But I can't help thinking that sleep is particularly important during pregnancy (I know it was for me) - can you get someone else to entertain him in the day so you can catch up?

Gosh, I've just caught up with this, loads of sympathy on its way to Scandinavia.
As to entertainment, I assume you've thought of the obvious things like story/song tapes.
Do the hospital have people to help with entertainment ? A friend of mine has recently started working as a sort of occupational therapist on a children's ward so if you could give details of how much movement he has I could ask for some tips.