December 2010:where we await the best Christmas presents ever

[Miffster]

Stats thread here

Woke up severely dehydrated, I hate having to have the heating on so much. DH ended up on the sofa poor thing, we tried sleeping together but he snores the second his head hits the pillow and he can only take so much of me kicking him in the shins

Today we'll sort out the sofa bed for the spare room.

Hope OWO is ok.

Wave to all. It's so icy out there, take care. Here's hoping I don't have to make a mad dash to hospital any time soon.

Congratulations Jobob

Fed up today and pissed off, and hormonal that is all...

snap C&G

Hello all, our hot water pipes have frozen in the utility room and downstairs bathroom so no washing machine or shower.

Tried Evening Primrose Oil caps up my fanjo last night, had loads of discharge, not sure if it is begginning of a show or not and plenty of random twingey pains since.
Don't know if this is all good or bad so not sure if I will do it again tonight.

Had a row with DH about next weekend, he is going to his Christmas party and staying over.
I asked him not to drink much and he said he will carry on as usual (i.e getting hammered) unless I phone him, I said in that case I won't phone him as I don't want him to be drunk with me in the hospital. Now he thinks I'm being mean depriving him of witnessing his DC's birth and he would just sober up in the taxi to the hospital as it's an hours drive. AIBU??

C&G and CAT sorry you are both feeling rubbish

DF DH and I both refuse to move out of our bed even though we both annoy the pants off each other!
He sleep talks, actually he sleep vomited last night at least it wasn't real I suppose, and I am up and down all night and have a tendancy to hum really loudly when asleep.

Lavita glad all is still going well, hope to join you with feeding routines soon.

Miffster it's great that your DH wants to help but expressing doesn't always work as well as lavita's experience. It worked really well for me with DD but found it very hard with DS.

OWO hope it's all going well.

Hello to everyone else.

sorry you have the hump C&G & cheryl I had a(nother) crap night's sleep last night so I'm far from my best today as well.

notso your DH is definitely BU - my due date is NYE but DH announced (entirely off his own back) the other night that he won't be drinking alcohol after Tuesday. He's also due to be working nights over my due weekend and has already come up with plans as to how I should get hold of him if things kick off.

C&G & CAT Hope you both feel better soon!

Lee Have you been offered an ECV? I had one last week and it was fab. Although there's only a 25% chance of success with first babies, it worked a dream on me and was not at all painful, just a little uncomfortable. Baby didn't seem to mind at all either and they do lots of monitoring to make sure they are ok. As it's not your first, the chance of success for you would be much better at around 75% too.

notso You are absolutely not BU and I think your DH needs to sort it out. He can get drunk any time but he's about to have a baby!

Definitely nesting now. I've had a freecycle givaway splurge and got rid of loads of stuff that's been hanging around cluttering up the place for ages. Mind you it's all being replaced with baby stuff, which is driving Mr GGG mad as he hates clutter. He's upstairs testing out the birth pool right now actually. We're going to get in it later

miffster I've been sleeping a bit better too and it is amazing how much better you feel after a few uninterrupted hours. In terms of expressing, might be best to leave until BF well established. Your DH cans till do nappy changes and settling back to sleep as if Tiny anything like DD, will feed, just start settling to sleep, then do explosive poo which requires changing and re-settling to sleep again. My DH used to come downstairs with DD and bounce her on the big exercise ball in front of the TV.

slightly I don't have a decent coat either and am just waddling around pulling big baggy jumper over the bump when I have to.

DF I'm sure I read somewhere only 5% of babies are actually born on their due date. Mind you one of DH's relatives gave birth on her due date twice. Which is clearly just showing off!

Sorry you are both feeling poo C&G and CAT hope you feel better soon.

notso are evening primrose supposed to bring on labour then? Haven't heard of that before. And no YADNBU about DH, I would be annoyed if my DH was out on the lash at this stage and I'm only just 37 weeks.

GGG ooh, hope you're enjoying the pool. We blew ours up yesterday to guage the size and make sure no holes etc. It was brilliant - huge with handles to hold onto to push and a seat and everything. It felt fab sitting in it and trying out different positions. We didn't fill it as don't want to waste the liner, plus it takes up easily 3/4 of our living room so couldn't leave it up. I reckon it's going to take about 1 1/2 hours to set up and fill on the day.

hey im fine im bored!!! having kinda regular but not lasting long, then nothing, then painful but not regular contractions.

Hope all else is well :)

Feeling better this evening than I have for the rest of the day. To sum it up - fed up, bored, pissed off, feeling crap for feeling crap, feeling guilty for feeling crap, don't see the point of contractions if there's no end product. Argh!

notso you are definitely not BU. I'd be saying the exact same as you are tbh.

WLL/Slightly I'm the same re coat. I looked for coats months ago but wasn't prepared to spend out for the sake of a few weeks, so am wearing my coat with a really thick scarf covering my belly or just saying sod it, who cares what I look like and sticking one of DPs on.

All the pools getting ready sounds very exciting, lets just hope you don't have to wait long for the babies to arrive.

Hey everyone just checking in, not read everyones posts or been following much as it hurts my back to sit up on the computer for longer than 5 minutes but through scanning saw jobos post ...congratulations!

Due on Wednesday!not had much in the way of any signs so I'm sure I'll be the last one here :-) hope everyone is well!I'm off to wander round the house aimlessly as is quickly becoming normal!

Congrats Jobo!!! Great news - Michael is a lovely name . Love to hear more about it!

OWO - Hopefully things are kicking off again... you must be getting fed up of the stop / start. I know when mine kicks off I'll be assuming the baby will be born very shortly after, but your experience is a good lesson in realising it can be more vague than that. Because I've only ever been induced I've not had this dilemma .

Hope those not sleeping well will do better tonight... I've been doing OK since I've been sleeping alone, although still up every 2 hours or so for a wee - and then I always have to check the boys and make sure their duvets are still on etc...

We have SNOW this weekend!!! I would say 'hooray' but it is a bit of a mixed blessing. It looks lovely and we've done sledging / snowmen etc but then we need to take the cars out tomorrow etc, so not all great. Still we've had a lovely lazy weekend doing not very much! Perfect... I refrained from sledging myself so I was the 'catcher' at the bottom - mainly to stop DS2 careering into a tree .

My tens machine has arived so I'll be having a look at the set up later on... and got my 40 wk check on Thursday. Was kind of hoping not to make it that far but I reckon I will.

Lavita - Great the expressing is working out so well and that 5 hours solid sleep will be lovely for you! Long may that continue...

GGG - Enjoy the pool!!! Sounds ace .

Gosh notso! Your husband is being totally unreasonable! Though is he reasoning that with your due date being 22nd December you are unlikely to go into labour? I would still expect him to take it easy and limit his drinking if it were me.

Sorry to hear about your pipes, I dread this happening to us - we've already had one leak and had to pull up loads of floorboards so I can do without another.

My DH has a can of lager most nights and has taken to asking me recently 'are you having the baby tonight' before deciding on another.

GreenGeekGirl I spent all yesterday moving crap from one part of the spare room to the other and tehn sat on teh floor for a good half an hour in dispair because it looked as awful as it had when I started. I cracked on with it today and it's looking better. DH and his brother moved the small sofabed upstairs and so now he has somewhere to sleep when he snores.

We've just got back in from meeting up with the people from the NCT class. One of them is being induced tomorrow because of a medical issue; I am next in line so far as Due dates go but I am not holding my breath. DH's car got a flat tyre on the way there so we had to get a taxi back as far too cold to be messing around with changing the car. It means he will have to have my car tomorrow for work and so I guess I will get on with more cleaning. My mum's partner is bringing the crib he's made for us some timne this week so that will be exciting but a little scary too.

Hope those of you feeling a bit rubbish feel better tomorrow, I too have been feeling quite angsty but feel ok at the moment.

Notso You are far from unreasonable, my DH really doesn't want to drink, even if we go out for a meal, he's nervous about being needed to drive me and being over the limit, so he's been joining me on the mocktails.

GGG I listed a ton of stuff on freecycle last weekend, had a few collectors, but I can't help looking at listings and picked up two black bags of plant pots. The liklihood of me getting back out in the potting shed is crazy, but I just can't resist plant pots. That is the joy of freecycle, one mans junk is another mans treasure.

DF my car has been sitting on the drive unused for a week, 2 flat tyres were found yesterday, must have been slow punctures. But it's the only baby friendly vehicle, so DH has loaded up the tyres to take to work and get the chaps next door to repair for me.

I've had the biggest urge to sort through my yarn towards the end of the week, so spare room is covered in little balls of yarn. I've had my yarn winder out and been spinning up neat little balls and tagging them. My list of things to do is running short and I'm avoiding things that sound like to much hardwork.

After nagging DH for near on nine months about moving the washing machine from the shed to the garage as it's warmer and won't freeze over, he chose this weekend to do it. The weekend where it has frozen over. I smirk with a little 'told you so' it's the first bit of snow, that everyone said wouldn't settle or cause us problems, but I knew that we would get hit, on the peak of a hill and low lying valleys around us manage to get no snow, but we got a fair covering. DH wouldn't allow me outside in case I slipped over, which I am prone to without being pregnant.

LO is still moving about in there, my cervix is sooooo sore, it feels like it's being tasered or something, I don't think it's going to happen for me anytime soon, as it's still shoulder into pelvis, which is making my SPD eyewatering at times. Rolling over at night is becoming a two person job.

MiL is now panicking that my waters will break on the new carpet/sofa so has asked that I refrain from lounging in the lounge and spend most of my time in the kitchen, which is tiled. I smiled and asked if I could borrow a pair of incontinence pants as that'll stop the leaks . I can't believe I managed to get a response in other than as I usually think of these amazing responses afterwards. DH chuckled and covered it up quickly.

38 weeks tomorrow.

Thanks ladies, for all your kind words.

notso can't believe your DH!

Chooster not sure if my experience is quite what people want to hear but I did get there in the end. The consultant agreed to induce me at 38 1/2 weeks due to teh stillbirth of DS2 at this stage in 2008. (I hope I haven't worried anyone - what happened to DS2 is very rare.) I was very relaxed, had had acupuncture and thought it would be not too bad. I had a pessary, which mostly worked, my waters broken, which mostly worked, syntocin drip, which worked, and an epidural which mostly worked.

Then it got to a stage where I wasn't progressing past 4cm they popped in a catheter and it seems that a full bladder had been stopping the head from dropping down and I whizzed to 7cm in about an hour. The registrar (lovely lovely man who had to give me the bad news last time and we have seen several times since then) told the midwife he was staying until the baby was born. Half an hour later I was fully dilated and good to go. I had a ventouse delivery as the registrar thought (and kept to himself thankfully) that the cord might be stopping the baby coming down and he was right- it was loosely round his neck.

I was lucky enough to have exceptional care, the order of the day was to intervene early if necessary. The bereavement midwife, who is also a friend took me through the greater part of my labour and one of the midwives who looked after me last time took me the rest of the way, so really nice to have gone full circle with them to a wonderful outcome this time. DS3 is the spitting image of his brothers and dark haired liked DS2, which means alot to me. Still can't believe we've got this far and I have this gorgeous wriggly squeaky little person next to me .

Notso you are NBU and did the capsule have any effect??

jobob thank you for sharing your story. So pleased for you, can't begin to imagine what you've been through but so wonderful to have Michael safely with you.

Hi all - haven't posted on here at all yet, but at 37+3 and due for a cs on the 8th, may I join you?

jobob - glad everything was ok, and many congratulations on the safe arrival of Michael - you must be chuffed to bits!

notso - yep, completely agree with everyone else here, yadnbu, you've given up so much to bring your DC into the world, he has to sacrifice a little too!

kellestar - I know exactly what you mean about the problems of dejunking, I just don't seem to get anywhere, despite trying to flylady every day! Mind you, I don't have much energy at the moment, so getting dressed and making the bed is about all that happens from my end around here! Thank God I have such a wonderful DH!!

Been quite twingy since yesterday morning, lower backache, cervical stinging, bump twinges with BH, fidgety, only got to sleep for a few hours thanks to some paracetamol - despite this being DC4 I've never been in labour, as all 3 were elcs's - do you think something might be starting?

Congratulations Jobob you sound like your enjoying your new arrival.

notso you should tell your DH that if he's been drinking and you go into labour you won't tell him as you need him to be able to help you not be something else you have to worry about.

Had an interesting day yesterday. Started having contractions yesterday morning which didn't stop all day. Really thought this is it but they everytime it started getting closer together and more painful it started slowing down again. It's really getting on my nerves now and DH doesn't help constantly asking if I'm having the baby, he doesn't seem to get that I'm mostly as clueless as he as to wether this is really it or not.

I'm 39 weeks tomorrow and really hoping that there aren't too many more false starts - not holding my breath though.

mamathulu it could be that something is happening but it could also be your body getting ready for labour. I know that's not very helpful but although it's DC3 for me I'm still not sure. IME the best way to tell is if contractions start getting regular and closer together but also more painful.

jobob so glad you have a snuggly baby congratulations :)

crazycat I didnt have any false starts with DC1, contractions like text book - baby 6 hours later. This time I feel so different!

for those of you with twitchy cervix feelings I explained to my MW that it felt like I was having a smear test, when they actually do the smear, kind of scratchy and sharp - she says that its very common (I didnt get it last time) and its probably the cervix ripening and thinning down which is causing the membranes to slightly come away and stretch,... but she couldnt say that for sure!!! Does any one else find it quite satisfying to feel it?

oh, and 26 days till Christmas guys!! This baby needs to come soon, as we will use the time DP has off to put decorations up etc with DD and she's really excited!! SIL arrives today (shes a MW) and is going to be my doulla... so, fuck off snow, thanks

I never had any false starts with my first two either OWO and they were both born by this stage which is probably why it's driving me nuts so much. Snow doesn't help as I haven't a clue when to phone DH if anything does happen just incase it's a false start - unless my waters break then I'll know it's for real.

I have had DP come home from work twice once at 36 weeks once at 37 when I was sure I was in labour, because I just couldnt cope and put DD to bed alone, as soon as he gets home it all stopped!! Muchas embarrased. Esp as DPs boss told some clients he'd gone home as I was about to have a baby at any moment

I'm struggling with how you tell early labour from false labour/BH too. Previously people, including my CMW had said "oh you just know " which I suppose may well still be true as I haven't got there yet. But I've had a few episodes of painful BH coming regularly and then just stopping which was confusing. I asked our NCT leader and she said that real labour that's getting on for being established will have contractions coming at shorter intervals, with longer & more painful contractions as time goes on. So my long painful BH aren't "right" as they go on too long to be early "proper" contractions and they don't follow the pattern.

notso - you are not being unreasonable at all! TBH I can't believe your OH on this one. My DH is on a continuous "don't-drink-so-much-he-can't drive" agreement atm in case he has to take me in at any point. And when he had a work do in London a couple of weeks back, he kept it to a few glasses of champagne so that he'd be fine to jump on the train or in a taxi at any point - and my MIL (who I adore) came to stay overnight so I wouldn't be alone.

jobob - congrats on the new arrival!

Can I ask why you had the acupuncture and did you have it the day before your IoL? I'm booked in for IoL at 40+3 because of OC and I've had acupuncture suggested as a way of possibly helping getting things moving. I'm not sure it's really for me, especially as I haven't been having acupuncture anyway and have had not great acu experiences in the past, so would be nervous at seeing someone new just for this.

However, I am now wondering about booking a massage (I get regular specialist massage) for the day before the IoL so that at the very least I'll be relaxed and not suffering much neck/back pain before labour even starts!