Ten weeks on the dot and what did I decide to do? Throw myself down the stairs! Admittedly it was only about five steps and I was holding the handrail, but it was enough to leave me feel like I’d pulled every muscle from my chest downwards. There’s a reason not to take the dogs in the garden at six in the morning – wait until you’re a little more awake first!
So, because I had a lot of pain in my back and low in my stomach, and because I really felt like I’d pulled all of my muscles, we decided to head to the early pregnancy unit to make sure that Chip was ok. Although I didn’t fall on my front, I was pretty scared for baby and thought it best to get checked out, so off we went to the EPU. On arrival there they took my blood pressure (normal) and I did the usual urine test(normal). And then we waited… and waited. It was quite busy there, so we got comfortable.
We saw a nurse and I explained what had happened, she offered paracetamol (which I had already taken) and reassured us that we had done the right thing. After checking when the next appointment was, she advised us that we would have to wait for a scan some time between 1020 and 1120. So, we got comfortable once more!
I really don’t like the EPU. Partly because we went to this particular one with Squishy so there are bad memories there, but partly because it’s such a scary place. You hope that none of the women sitting in the waiting room with you will get bad news, but you know that some of them will. Then there’s the chancers. There was a lady who showed up when we were there asking for a scan to check for a heartbeat at six weeks. The receptionist asked her if she had pain or bleeding, to which she replied in the negative. The receptionist then recommended that if she just wants a scan, she should head to a local private facility and pay for one as the EPU is an emergency unit for women with pain or bleeding. Funnily enough the lady then decided “oh well I am having some pain…” That gave me rage.
Before long, we were called through for our scan. I was surprised that she went straight for an external scan. I guess I’ve now been told far too often that they “won’t see anything” because of “high BMI” – evidently being overweight makes you akin to a leper in the NHS but another post on that soon. Anyway, so this would be my second external scan.
After a tense moment of holding my breath, she confirmed that everything was totally, 100% fine with our baby. Measurements were right on track. She couldn’t see any bleeding around the sac and the heartbeat was nice and strong. Then, amazingly, she played us the heartbeat. Seeing it on the screen was one thing, but hearing that beautiful sound was just the most wonderful thing in the world. We were also amazed at how big Chip is since our last scan just over two weeks before. We could see little T-Rex arms waving around, which I thought was hilarious!
Little Chip and the T-Rex arms
Anyhow, so thankfully Chip was fine and healthy and totally unbothered by my attempt to fly that morning. We thanked the sonographer, she gave us a photograph and we left. I still have a pretty sore back, but it’s getting less sore as the days go by and I was more concerned about tiny baby’s safety if I’m honest.
(This post was written at ten weeks pregnant)
Papa, Eden & Me 
These posts are great, thank you for posting them. Glad everything was ok after your fall. Looking forward to the next post!
Just came across your post. You have a really good readable writing style, I remember going to the EPU a few times and seeing the other women there wondering what they were going through. I also named my little bean! He/she is called eggy, my mum came up with the name, so we wouldn’t refer to as ‘it’.