Fed up and running out of positivity...please help? Sorry it's long!

[shinyshilling]

I am 41+ 3days and have had a great pregnancy feeling positive throughout. I have planned to have a waterbirth at home (if possible). I have been great up until now, and after a night of no sleep and plently of mind turning I'm feelin pretty low. Everybody keeps asking "No sign of this baby yet?" which I can mostly ignore and let it go over my head, but it's getting a bit much now. All the people from my antenatal classes seem to have had their babies and I still feel fine but with things a bit uneventful. I have plenty of movement, had the runs yesterday, but not this morning and have had over the last three days what I presume to be a show (not one big lump of mucus, but a little bit each morning, with lots at 4:00am today, cream in colour but with no blood)I have had on off crampy pains, but nothing that lasts.

I am booked to see the consultant again on Thursday and if I haven't had the baby by then, he wants me to go in for twice weekly monitoring. I attend a hospital outside of my health authority and my CM is from another authority and the regulations are slightly different. Basically, my midwife has offered me a sweep which so far I have declined, prefering to do everything as far as possible as naturally as possible, but I am aware that time is running out for me and that if I leave things much longer, I may have to go into hospital to be induced (which I really, really don't want) My midwife says that I have until about 42+3 until she gets twitchy and would prefer me to go into hospital. I am also aware that the longer I leave it, the more likely it is that there is meconium present, which apparently also means that I'd have to go into hospital. I so much want a homebirth, and know that this may not be possible, but I want to give myself the best possible chance (I have had loads of really bad experiences related to hospitals and my family)Does anyone have any words of advice to set me back on a steady footing? I'm sure this anxiety is normal, it's just come as a bit of a shock because up until now I've felt great. Thank you so much for any help offered.

[colditz]

Bless you, it is rubbish when you go overdues, I went to 40 + 16 myself.

Induction is not that bad. Being in hospital with a baby is totally different to being in hospital poorly.

hope you have your baby very soon

[hockeymum]

poor you, not having a very shiny time! I went to 40 +20! and there was meconium etc.

I would recommend a sweep, its not a form of induction as it just tickles your cervix into dilating a bit which can start things off. I went into labour directly from a vigorous sweep and labour was no different because of it. AFAIK a sweep wont put you in labour if you're not nearly ready (the same goes with curry, long walks, scrubbing floors and sex) Do as many of those as you can manage (although when my consultant recommended sex as sperm contains prostin which they use for induction I said "i dont care if my baby never comes out I'm not doing it!).

Try and spend time relaxing if you can, its tempting this late to close yourself off from friends and recluse yourself a bit, but actually you'll benefit from forgetting about it for a while, get to the cinema if you can or rent DVDs for a bit of escapism.

I got myself really worked up at this stage and after my dd was born my friend said "if she (dd) could talk to you now, she would ask you why did you worry so much, I came when I was ready, it was just me in there, here I am".

Hope you feel better soon, you'll soon be holding your wonderful baby and it was all be so much more than worth it.