Reading Children's Festival: Town Centre Day

[ailbhe]

We up and left the house by trike on Friday morning, all three, at about 8:30, and headed for the hospital so that I could have my jab because of being Rhesus-. And then we headed back into town to buy Rob a new shirt (the one he'd worn to hospital was too sweaty to wear to work) and have a de-stressing cup of tea before he went back to work. I always need a destressing cup of something after going to the hospital, though this time I had no - not one - ZERO - panic attacks.

Rob went to work, and I realised that there was Something Happening in the town centre. It was Town Centre Day, and there local radio station had cars pumping out music, they were handing out balloons and stickers, there were stiltwalkers being ostriches, jugglers, face-painting (we did not indulge), pavement chalking (we indulged mightily and Linnea drew a triangle and a circle, and found some tiny ants), icecream (we had to go get sorbet), a little sunstroke, pigeons, and... I forget. Oh, a carousel where Linnea got to drive a bus, and we got a "one ride free" ticket when we bought her ride.

The Oxfam bookshop had a microscope set up showing wiggly things in water, and Lush were doing Dolly Pampering sessions, and practically everywhere was giving out free balloons and sweets. Most of the activities were aimed at primary school children on their mid-term break, but Linnea had a fantastic time, especially pavement chalking, and later gluing spangles onto a paper fish shape. The various stalls and street artists were very exciting. We didn't even go into Waterstones to get the free book because there was too much going on.

To top it all off, Rob got out of work early, so we all went to dinner by the riverside, with the trike parked right by our table. Then we triked home, Linnea went to bed, and Rob went to work in London from 9 pm to 4:30 am. Poor ole Rob.

Comments

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

How come you have to go to the hospital for your Rhesus-negativity jab? I always got mine from the midwife at the doctor's surgery, which seems much more civilised. I'm not sure I'll ever understand why maternity services vary so much from place to place - the practice we were with when Gnome was born had midwife-only antenatal care, but the one three miles away we're with now has shared care, which doesn't fill me with joy for if I have another baby.

[ailbhe]

I have no idea, but both jabs happen at hospital. In general my community midwife visits me at home, and she takes all my blood samples etc, but for some reason not the anti-d jab. I might ask her why sometime. For all I know she offered to do it and I refused out of consideration for her convenience.

I'm not seeing the midwife who is attached to my GP surgery, which may be further complicating matters - I'm seeing the one I was seeing *before* I changed practices at 20 weeks when pregnant with Linnea, since I saw her throughout Linnea's pregnancy and afterwards. She knows me.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Ah, that might complicate the thing - I think I'd finished with the anti-d jabs by the time I switched to home visits because I started planning a home birth rather late on. But you'd think that with your hospital issues, they'd try and sort out another way - it seems rather inhumane.

Also, the Children's Festival stuff sounds rather lovely - we have Treefest next weekend, which should offer some general hippie entertainment opportunities, but the Children's Festival here is very theatre-ish and doesn't seem to hit the streets much.

[ailbhe]

It really is quite likely that my midwife offered to set up an alternative for me and I refused because I have times when I feel like I'm being a nuisance. I just can't remember, which is another PTSD thing.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Ach, it's a pain when they hear what you say rather than what you actually want, isn't it? When I was pregnant I was the very queen of "no, that's fine", when in fact I was hardly able to tell what was real and what was freakout.

So is that all the anti-d done? And did I read you saying that Linnea's Rh- too? (I ask because Gnome is Rh-, so your situation now is exactly what I'd have if I were pregnant again.)

[ailbhe]

As people often yell at computers, "Do what I WANT, not what I SAY."

I have another anti-d jab in a few weeks. I have no idea whether Linnea is Rh-, though I ought to - I know I *have* the information but I can't remember it.

There is a plus to all this memory loss - Lean got to tell me several of her stories several times.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

Presumably your midwife will have the info about blood group, because of the effect it has on the risk for this pregnancy? Easy to ask? I'm only almost sure about Gnome because I'm almost sure I didn't have the post-birth anti-d jab. And I'm sure I was told.

Unfortunately, when I have lousy memory (when I'm more than usually tired or depressed), it tends to be me who repeats the stories.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

The blood group info is probably also on the discharge notes from Linnea's birth, which Rob could perhaps look at for you (by which I mean ailbhe if they're too triggery?

I'm Rh- myself, but the kids are Rh+. I remember that when orangebird was born, aegidian quipped, "Baby gets an A+, but mum only gets an A-!" Sadly, after 32 hours of "official" labour and a good deal longer before that, I wasn't quite up to seeing the funny side...

[barakta]

FWIW I always need a restorative cup of tea after hospitals too and I do not have PTSD. My mum was always brilliant when I was a kid, allowing me cup-of-tea time before taking me back to school. If I was really 'dead' then I didn't have to go back to school. The whole waiting in a waiting room and then having to be coherent at someone you've probably never met before is stressful.