I had my one and only hospital appointment today.

We are using an IM but decided to book with an Ob so she has someone to name if we have to be transferred in an emergency (which we don't anticipate but obviously cannot guarantee won't happen).

My first shock was how supportive my Ob was - it's the same guy i had with DD. He is generally supportive of HB, but also goes straight to medical model/maximum intervention if something seems not completely textbook. But he was SO casual and supportive about it, asked for my thyroid numbers (which i'd just had done last week) and said i should see my GP (i know him, he said, he's a good lad) every 4 weeks to have my bloods redone, and asked me to come back at 41+1, should i get that far, to make sure all is normal - i made that appointment but i might not keep it, i'll see how i feel at the time.

My second shock was my BP. At booking with DD it was 146/85 and they dx "high essential BP" and proceeded to "watch it carefully" during the whole pregnancy. I had my BP done about a million times, almost always with the horrible bleeping machine, and it was always high and labile (up and down all over the place). Again and again i was told "you might not get a HB if it stays high" - very quick way to stress a PG woman even more! So this time they did it, with te horrid machine - 147/86. THEN she did it again, 5 minutes later, 133/76. "Ah," she said "normal but with whitecoat". WTF - i spent my ENTIRE last pregnancy panicking about my bloody BP and all they needed to do was take it a second time at that first appointment!? My own midwife did it 2 weeks ago when she booked me and it was 128/70, in my own house, with a manual sphig. Even my GP can get a diastolic of 72 if he lets me calm down and uses the real sphig. I cannot believe the stress i went through for 9 whole months when there was NOTHING WRONG with me.

My third shock, and this is the real kicker, was my birth notes. I asked to have them read to me because i wanted to know what the midwives said on their forms. My active labour was....wait for it....89minutes! 1hr 24 1st stage, 5mins(!) 2nd stage, 14mins 3rd stage (i thought it was 7, not sure why!). Now i knew i was in labour for A LOT longer than that, but even so, the idea of my active stage being so short is crazy. The ob winked (WINKED!) and said "it'll be quicker next time too, you happy to catch dad?" to DH.

Better stop, the baby is kicking so i'm going to bed to enjoy.

Bx