Due Sept 2005 - the calm before the storm...

[andif]

Nothing to say really, just here it is!

Morning ladies.

Congratulations Marinda and welcome to Caitlyn.

Hugs to those still waiting.

OMG Piccalilli - I thought you'd graduated to the post natal thread. Isn't this waiting awful? I'm back in to hospital on Friday too when I'll be 13 days over but only for another sweep think they're going to let me plod on as long as everthing's ok. At least there is light at the end of the tunnel for you...if nothing happens before then...
RZ - absolutely no twinges or backache to accompany my "shows". Think my mum has asked the pope to intervene to make sure baby stays put until she's back from Rome A WEEK TOMORROW! Your pains, nausea, etc sound promising, though.

Hi Jessysmummy - yes, the waiting's dreadful. I can't help worrying about whether the little one is OK in there although I guess if she wasn't she might think about coming out! At least I know that I'm going into hospital on Friday night and not leaving without the baby. I need to completely repack the hospital bags before then though - the little one was estimated to be about 7 llb IF she'd been on time but they're now estimating just over 8 which means all those tiny baby-grows I packed probably won't fit. Oh well, gives me something to do while I'm waiting!

So - is that three of us still loitering here? All with due dates 22-24 September?

JM: I would have thought you'd have this one in a shorter time than your first (i.e. before the cusp of 42 weeks) - it obviously doesn't realise this. I hear the pope is amenable like that though...

Piccalilli: I don't know if you saw my earlier posting about my midwife's comment? I see from the stats thread that you're having your first. If, like me, you're also Caucasian and in your 30s, then apparently we're buggered by genetics. I wouldn't have minded so much if I hadn't been poised since week 38...

KiwiKate: I have tried the caulophyllum - last weekend, when I thought I hovering then. Nothing. Am trying it again today, in the hope that I'm hovering closer.

Even the castor oil has barely had any effect - on any front. A mixed blessing. And I was prepared for a morning in the bathroom with 'Gardeners World'. (Not that I see myself doing any active digging in the foreseeable future - at least, not looking like this...)

RZ - I'm 30, so I guess that counts as 'in my thirties' and i am Caucasian. I really wasn't expecting to go overdue - I have a standard 28 day cycle, I know exactly when I ovulated and conceived, I was born on my due date.....oh well, just goes to show you cannot predict these things. I'm not keen to try the castor oil option but I have been eating an awful lot of pineapple.

Sitting here being large and unwieldy, I did some rootling around the internet and found some surprising research which suggests that Naegele's rule (or however you spell his name) indicating that pregnancy lasts 40 weeks from LMP (or 266 from ovulation) is flawed. According to Mittendorf who did research in 1990 amongst white Americans, the median gestation for a first child was 274 days from ovulation, rather than 266. Which would give me an approximate due date of 30th September / 1st October. White Americans having a second or subsequent child had a median gestation of 269 days from ovulation.

I don't know how big the sample group was, however.

I had read previously that research suggested that Japanese Americans had shorter gestations than Caucasian Americans - but had assumed that this was shorter than 266 days... rather than that Caucasian women were at the outside of the birthing spectrum. I think I found something that suggested that African-American women had shorter gestations too, but I'm not sure where I saw that.

I worry about whether it's alright in there (particularly because of my clotty issue) - but all signs are satisfactory thus far. However, when I read that under the nice Mittendorf's findings, I'm only 4-ish days overdue, I felt so much better about it...

Btw - castor oil has been a damp squib thus far... but the pineapple just wasn't working.

Got my first "...11 days overdue - oh well then you MUST have got your dates wrong" comment that I've been waiting for for at least a week. Was quick to point out that "my dates" we given to me by the hsopital after both scans pointed at 24th Sept.
I too am in my 30s and caucasian, went 13 days over with DD and am constantly late for everything although I was actually born 2 weeks early. I soon lost count of the number of people (incl mws) who told me that #2s ALWAYS come earlier. Well nah nah nah nah nah - proved them all wrong!
Think I'll leave the castor oil to you RZ as I can't even get peace from DD to go for a wee, never mind anything else.

Did you resist the urge to slap them? They'd never prosecute you...

Thing is, these procedures and policies lump everyone in together as one standard homogenised product ("I am not a number! I am a free man!!") I appreciate that a behemoth like the NHS can't work to every individual peculiarity, but it is frustrating.

I read something a while ago from a NZ midwife, saying that maternity services in NZ were applying 'normal' definitions of protein levels in urine to pregnant Maori women. These levels are presumably defined based on a largely Caucasian population (from research done in Europe or the US). By which standard, many Maori women were flagged with possible pre-eclampsia, until it was established that Maoris naturally have a higher level of protein in their urine anyway.

I thought it was interesting anyway... oh - the days are just flying by...

Well - don't know if it was the second dose of castor oil or the caulophyllum, but things seem to be progressing here. In quite a bit more pain / discomfort now (seems strange to be saying that positively) so hopefully this is it. Will be dead annoyed if it's all died away by morning...

Fingers crossed for you honey, hope next time you post it will be to tell us of a happy arrival.

Good Luck RZ hope this is IT!!!

Oh Good Luck RZ, I really hope this is it for you. Hope you get the home birth you want and that everything goes ok. Please come back and let us know. x
Anything happen for you in the night piccalilli? Nothing here - except a frantic call from DPs in the middle of the night who thought we'd been trying to phone them...well they will go jetting off and abandoning me! Having really uncomfortable pelvic pain (only when I stand up or sit down) since my mammouth walk yesterday.

RZ - I'm hoping you have your baby by now.

Congratulations STM and everyone else with new babies.

Still no news from Kiwifruit. I ran into her on the DAU - but that was ages ago now. Sept 24. She was on her way out and I was on my way in to have Lola. Hope everything's ok.

RZ - good luck. I know how frustrating the start - stop stuff is. Hang in there!

Hi everyone, (especially JM and RZ)

I'm not going to give you any tips for speeding it up, because i dont have any (as you well know)

I ended up going in on Saturday afternoon after getting 'twinges' which i posted about and it was 'it' so i didn't need inducing.

He's so content, sleeps ALOT and feeds for 15mins every 3hours or so. I expressed some in hospital for him as he wasn't latching properly and ended up feeding the whole of SCBU (9babies) for the night....i knew i had lots. Milks in but no baby blues yet...is that good or bad?

Anyway dont feel like i should abandon you for the postnatal thread...you've been great for the last few weeks, so i'm still an antenatal at heart, even if not with a bump.

Love to you all....(not sending labour vibes...they never worked)

Hello

still nothing happening here - no twinges, no show, no real discomfort apart from what comes from being the size of an elephant and not hugely mobile. I have pretty much resigned myself to being induced. Good luck RZ - looks like it may be me and you in a race for last place JM!

Piccalilli - am exactly the same as you - no twinges, niggles, pains or anything else other than what comes with being twice normal size. Looks like it might stay that way until after the weekend too!
Glad you didn't need inducing in the end STM. Noah sounds very content and well fed!! How's DNM taken to him?

hi all,
JM, that was the exact question i was going to ask stm, how is dnm taken to noah?
thinking of you all, piccalli, so glad you've stopped lurking and joined in again, welcome back.
RZ, really hope you have your baby now, although i'm a tad disapointed as my money was on you.
Do we all know what we're having? i think jm=boy, picalli=girl rz=boy and kf=girl. anyone else care to have a guess?

You're not the first one to guess a boy for me, bubbles! I did think it might be a boy at the beginning but now I'm not so sure... Whatever it is, it's stubborn!
Still no niggles or twinges. Off for 2nd post-date appt tomorrow pm. Wish me luck that the mw's fiddling sets me off.
Hoping that RZ has finally done the deed.

Hello hello.

I'm afraid my uterus isn't quite as perky as to have pushed one out already - but I am in labour. Lots of twinges and (what I now realise were) some contractions last night, resolving themselves into something more regular around lunchtime today. My midwife has got an early night, in anticipation of being disturbed in the wee small hours. Luckily I slept reasonably well last night, as I can't imagine getting much tonight. (Hopefully!)

I don't know what I'm having, by the way - but my gut feeling is a girl. Although I've been wrong about other things, so what do I know...

bubbles2904: Sorry to disappoint! (But it's not out yet...)

Piccallili & JM: I'm at least 41+6, so there's still time!

Right. Got to go and be in pain now. Interestingly, now peanut's head is way way down in my pelvis, my spd has got better. In fact, between contractions, I feel better than I have for weeks.

Oh RZ, I got really excited then...thought you had an announcement to make but it sounds like you're well on your way. Hope all progresses well and baby arrives safe and sound in the early hours and at home. I'm 41+6 tomorrow (according to scans) so maybe I too will get some good news shortly.
Now...off you go and do some breathing or something. x

OOOOOHHHH how exciting.....

Best wishes for a wonderful home birth for you RZ hope you've heard the first cries of your baby by morning xxxx

Good luck those still with bumps.

RZ, my spd (which was BAD) totally disappeared with Grace's birth. Sounds like yours will too (YAY).

Hi Everyone - I'm back! Charlotte Sarah Poppy arrived on the 29th September at 3:20am, weighing 7lbs 1.5ozs. My birth story is here . Quick summary - my PIH developed into Pre Eclampsia, so had to be induced. Charlotte swallowed a load of merconium and ended up in Neo Natal ICU for about 30 hours, and we had to stay in hospital for 6 days as she was on IV antibiotics. All is fine now though, and we're settling into life at home. She's an angel baby (makes me nervous, as am waiting for it all to go pear shaped) - sleeps for 4 hours, feeds for 5 - 10 minutes (apparently my milk has the fastest letdown in the west), and barely cries
(if she hadn't had a hearing test in the ICU, I would be worried that she was deaf, as nothing seems to disturb her).

Congratulations to all the new arrivals, and fingers crossed for those still waiting. All sounding very promising for RZ...