I think Pavlovian means predictable in this sense. I hope so else this post title isn't as witty as I'd have liked it to be. And it's going to be a long one. It involves my last day of work, and a jaunt to the hospital (that's the dramatic element) but it all ends well. Dependent of course on your definition of the term 'well'.
Ok, so it's my final Friday. I spend the previous Thursday evening baking fairy cakes and a big pavlova as that is one of my favourite desserts and I decided I'd have something there I liked. I made it a peach melba style with peach slices and raspberries and it came out rather larger than I'd anticipated but looked splendid!
On getting to work I felt a bit daunted and sat in the car just letting time go by but headed in for 9.00am feeling a bit more relaxed. Everyone in the office was impressed with the cakes (vanilla with Cadbury mini eggs as decoration, and chocolate orange with chocolate orange slices as decoration) and there were suitable ooh's and aah's over the pavlova too!
Albeit my last day, there were many loose ends to tie up so I wasn't bored by any means and when we had our 10.20am tea break (yes, we are that routinal!) I had my first taste of my pavlova and it was yummy. The raspberries were quite sharp but with the meringue that was fluffy and marshmallowy it worked like a charm. I didn't eat very well yesterday to be honest, I kept nibbling at this pavlova instead which probably wasn't sensible but it was my last day and at 4.30 we all headed over to a local gastro-pub for after work drinks and a meal for those who wanted to eat which was nice. There were 14 of us in total.
Steve joined us for his dinner as he happened to be in the vicinity and some folks headed off directly but us admin girls stayed out till 7.30pm!! It was nice, just chatting and giggling. Steve came to get me and we had just settled into our evening of relaxing, watching some tv and chatting (the first evening in what felt like ages just the two of us) when I got some tummy cramps (and here comes the TMI part so look away those with a delicate constitution) I headed to the loo thinking nothing of it and went as relatively normal *blush* and then noticed the toilet seemed to be filled with blood. Lots and lots of bright red blood. Also a clot. I panicked. I called Steve and he looked too and said 'this is the sort of thing to check with the midwife' so we rang them and they asked us to come in. I wasn't sure where the blood had come from, just that there was a lot, and I wasn't bleeding or gushing my waters or anything like that but we drove round to the hosptial and off we went. They had a bed for me waiting and a midwife called Tracy began some tests, with a urine sample first, then they strapped the ECG to me to monitor the baby.
I was feeling a bit silly by this point, sure that it wasn't vaginal bleeding, but still not sure where or how the blood had come from when Tracy came back to say I had protein in my urine, low blood pressure and the baby's heart beat was a bit slow. So now I started to worry a bit. I had to lie on the bed and just relax whilst they continued to monitor the baby and after a glass of cold water, that seemed to wake him up enough to satisfy the midwife that all was well there. They then got a Dr in to do an internal as being 35 it has to be a Dr rather than a midwife.
The experience has helped me to decide that I would prefer a midwife led birth over a Dr one, as the Dr was very rushed, whereas the midwives seemed more friendly and this Dr lady came in to check me up there. They positioned a light which made Steve smirk so I glared at him until he looked suitably uncomfortable. He then genuinly looked terrified as they came at me with a speculum covered in jelly and man it hurt. They told me to relax and push down there, but I really couldn't. I tried but I froze so it was a painful examination.
My cervix was closed and there was no chance of the blood having come from there. Then Steve asked whether pavlova could cause bleeding to which I squeezed his fingers as we'd realised that was probably the reason for the protein in the urine, all the egg whites that go into pavlova and I'd not held back with the snacking of it.
The Dr did ask whether I'd eaten beetroot which could cause colouration and then that made me think of all the raspberries I'd eaten on the pavlova as that could have dyed things a bit more red than normal.
So all in all, after these numerous check-ups (which did help me feel very reassured about the standard of care at the maternity ward) we were allowed home about 11.30pm upon which I fell into bed, exhausted and slept right through till this morning!
So I don't think I could look another pavlova in the face for a very long time.
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