Friday 1st August

Thought I would try and do more regular updates now rather than try to get a few weeks done all in one go!'

Today we had our first booking with the independent midwife Helena. This is something we decided on a couple of weeks ago. So effectively we have stepped outside of the community midwife system and booked privately, just for our midwife (we still get scans and GP help, and hospital services etc like anyone else). There are lots of reasons, but basically I want to have the same midwife all the way through including through my labour, and also, going this route is the only way we probably could, and the only way we would feel really comfortable having a home birth which is what we have decided we are going to do.

Anyway, she is lovely. Today she was here for just over 2 hours and we went through all my medical history etc and then finally she checked me over and we got to hear the heartbeat. What a different experience to last time with the community midwife in our 'absolutely no more than 10 minute' appointment. Helena spent ages finding the heartbeat and then made sure that we were satisfied that we had heard enough and was pointing out the sound of the placenta and pointed out the sound of a kick etc. Anyway, much more reassuring. And I can just call her whenever I want, and will see her much more regularly than I would in the community midwife system (would have been 10 or 11 weeks between appointments there. It is an expensive option, but then I suppose we had expected to probably have to pay out for more ivf so there you go!