DEC 2010 the final countdown ~ merry christmas ladies, hello babies ~

[OnlyWantsOne]

Hi :)

40 + 2 here

So great to hear another lovely home birth story - thanks WLL

at snow, even if it does make things difficult. Only a light dusting here in Brizzle!

Congratulations to those who have had their LO's, so nice to hear happy stories of love and snuggles.

Hang on in there to those who haven't had theirs yet, I know it's easier said than done as I went 10 days over and was ridiculously fed up, but you soon forget all about that :o

Birth story if anyone is interested lol - Woke up at 2am Sunday morning with contraction that were mildly painful and 5 mins apart. By 3 am they were 3 mins apart and I was having to breathe through them. Tried watching Harry Potter to take my mind off it, then went in the shower followed by a bath at 5am, contractions still every 3 mins. Woke up my mother (who was annoyed lol) and phoned hospital at 5:30am but was told to take paracetemol and have a bath (aparantly I didn't sound like I was in labour

Anyway contractions were every 1.5 to 2 mins (each lasting a minute) by 8 am, waters still hadn't gone so my mam wouldnt let my sit on the sofa and I had to hold on to the fireplace whilst breathing through them. Rang hospital again and midwife was reluctant to let me come in as I didn't sound that bad, but I said I wasn't really coping and she said ok. So after drying my hair and getting dressed we went to hospital and I was examined at 9am and they found out I was 8cm dilated

Was whisked round to low dependency suite and given gas and air and within 45 minutes I was fully dilated and they told me to start pushing. After first exaimination my waters broke and kept coming out but had meconium in which worried the midwives, then Elaina's heartrate was dipping so they got more worried and kept bringing in more doctors. Was examined again at 10:15 who said her head was far too high and that it was facing the side and that I had to go to high dependency and have an epidural as they thought I would have to go theatre.

Was told to stop pushing and whisked round to yet another room, given epidural put on my back, feet up in stirrups and kept being told not to push for the next 1.5 hours. That was ridiculously hard because my body was doing it without me telling it to but they wouldnt let me. 11:45 I was finally allowed to push as her head had come right down and turned so 35 mins of proper pushing and she was born at 12:20pm weighing 7lb exactly. She came out with hand next to her head so I had a 2nd degree tear but other than that all fine.

10.5 hours from start to finish and I felt fine immediately after. Stitches took the best part of an hour and we had to stay in hospital overnight.

Just had her 5 day weighing today and has put on 4oz!!! Feeding about 1oz every hour atm which is hard work during the night.

But definately wouldnt change anything for the world :o

Sorry for the epic post lol x

Love all the birth stories coming in!

I just had my flu jab, a few months too late but hey. After all my phobic angsting, it was nothing at all and I feel a real fool not to have done it earlier. Let's hope I don't meet anyone with flu for the next ten days, while my immunity's mounting. The idea of having flu with a tiny newborn was just horrible, so let's hope it staves it off!

Congratulations Strix

Loving all the birth stories.

93pjb how funny, ds2 was delivered with waters still in tact and I found him the easiest of the 3!

Sorry, DF. Forgot the name. I'm definitely not the wait and see type. His name is Miles. He is the quietest baby on the ward. I'm sure that won't last long but I'm enjoying it while it does.

aimee that's quite an exciting labour. Honestly 'you don't sound like your in labour' and being as far as you were, how do they know how you are coping. Everyone deals with pain differently!

Still no sign of much here [labour wise]. Snow's started up again so maybe in a couple of hours things will kick off. Bloomin' pain in the doodad that's for sure.

Strix that's a lovely name! Mild Miles then, not mad Miles!

I was the first due date of all the people at work that were due, and I'm the only one that hasn't had it yet. Everyone else's were early, and most of them first timers.

5" snow & contractions 2 mins apart, they seemed to slam from 10 as soon as I stood up. Waters haven't broken and I am on my way to the hospital.

Congrats to Strix,PJB and Heidipi - glad you are all ok!
Good luck Kelle- hope you make it through the snow to the hospital.
Currently up feeding the milk machine who has been nicknamed either Hugh the moo or alternatively Hugh the poo by his big sister! He put on 4 oz from birth to day 5 weigh in!!! We can visibly see him growing on a daily basis!
Hope everyone else is ok and bearing up with the wait!

good luck kellestar

Feeling utterly crappy here. I've got whatever DD had, involving raging temperature, extra amounts of aches pains and exhasution and a chesty cough. DH is working all weekend and I don't want to drag my M&D out in the snow to look after DD. I've tried to explain to her that mummy needs to lie in bed just like she did, but she's not really got the concept. After wanting LO to arrive early, I could do with a couple of days to get over the worst of this before any baby excitement.

Good luck Kelle, hope you get through the snow ok.

Bit annoyed here, mw came out Weds, gp Thurs. Mw was supposed to come out yesterday, but went to the wrong house. My neighbour came over later in the day with a note that the mw had put through her door. So I phoned them and they said they probably wouldn't be able to get out but would come round tomorrow (today). Just had a phone call from the mw who came out yesterday saying sorry she'd missed me (erm, yeah you will miss me if you don't go to my house), but due to the (1/2" of) snow they wouldn't be able to come out to me. I said about Caitlin needing the heel prick test tomorrow, she said they would call in the morning and if it's too dangerous for them to come out they would ask us to go down to the maternity centre to get her weighed and stabbed. So it's too dangerous for a fit and able mw to come out but they expect us to take a 5day old baby out in it (not forgetting the 5 & 9 year olds).

tmi - I'm sick of peeing myself every time I have a coughing fit.

interesting story aimee :) u were brave...10.5 hours seem like a lot to me!!!

Kellestar all the best!! :)

just wanted to share a weird thing that happened to me last night...

we had friends over yesterday(a couple). I didn't do any cooking or dish washing(as everyone was extra nice to me :))..but by the time they left(1am!!) i sure felt very tired!
went to sleep immediately but woke up at 2am..with the weirdest cramps/ braxton hicks, nausea AND heart burn...

something I didn't mention..I had had about half a pineapple at around 11:30pm.

So at 2pm I was in the loo with an upset stomach and the worst shivering I ever had!! I had goosebumps all over my body..!!!
was about to call the maternity helpline..coz I didn't know what was happening...:( but DH was very supportive..hugged me tight and put me to sleep :)
woke up at 6:30am..and I was sweating..apparently my fever was gone...and I was alright the next day(today)

By the way I have 5 days left till my due date...

I have a feeling the pineapple has got something to do with it...

Just thought I should share the experience... :)

Congratulations strix, glad ds arrived safely.
Hi heidi, sounds like you're really enjoying being a mummy, lovely names too.
Glad your dd is feeling better now Max, sorry to hear you are feeling so rough though, hope you're better soon. My dd is recovering well now too, full of beans and being quite hard work - have to arrange some play dates for her this week so she doesn't drive me up the wall.
Reshape, glad your dh got back from Scotland ok and sorry to hear about your ds, hope he doesn't pull his plaster and steri-strips off too!
Kellestar, no I won't be going in on the bike! He hasn't actually let me go pillion since we found out I was expecting. He got a lovely little polo he bought cheap from a friend and has now passed his drving test - which is a huge relief.
Me and dh have been trying this sex thing to get things moving, its a bit tricky and hasn't worked yet, but I figure its worth a try and dh knows he won't get any for a while after the baby is born!
WLL, thanks for sharing your birth story, sounds good - will try and remember that about transition!
Kellestar - Yeovil is where I'm having my baby, it is pretty snowy here, lots of roads closed, mainly due to jack-knifed lorries blocking them. My chickens are also reluctant to come out, but I tempt them with warm porridge - they are a bit spoilt!
Thanks for sharing your story aimee, sounds like you wre worried for a while, my dd was also born with her hand on her head, I'm hoping ds comes out without waving!
Thats interesting laziness, I've been munching pineapple but it doesn't seem to do much.
Went for a play in the local park yesterday with dh, dd and our dog, sat down when we got home and had several big contractions in a row, they then settled to every 10mins. After dd was in bed decided to have a bath and they stopped, just had the odd one since. Just as well really as they roads are pretty treacherous, but all this stop/starting is getting frustrating!

Hi all.

I thought I would check in. DH and I decided to go to hospital on Friday after I started contracting at 4am. We went at mid-day but were sent home as I was only 1cm dilated. Contractions got worse, as did the snow, so we went back up at 8pm. Only 2cm dilated but they let us stay. We've just arrived home after two annoying days of erratic contractions and still no baby. Basically we got fed up with the hospital and decided home was best.

I was given Pethidine on Saturday which despite me saying I would never have (and me resisting it for a long time) really did allow me to have some rest (Though it didn't block out DH's snoring)and took the edge off the contractions.

Unfortunately now I have a urine infection which means my contractions are causing me extra pain when they squish my bladder - I have been given antibiotics. I wasn't able to have a bath at the MLU and found the environment very stressful so am hoping that by being at home my contractions will normalise and established labour will begin.

I am only doing this once and that's final!

My God, DF that sounds really stressful. Two and a half days in labour and still no baby? That sounds horrible.

I do hope it all picks up soon and you aren't waiting too much longer.

I'm not in established labour unfortunately :(
It's just the latent phase. I have surprised myself by being so crap at this :( . I have had so many people tell me so many positive birth stories but was totally unprepared for how tiring it is and how slowly it can happen.

The urine infection is making it all feel worse and I have a pain up my bum which is just unbearable when I get a contraction - but apparently not a sign that the baby is close.

Dueling that sucks. Hope the infection goes quickly and the slow latent phase means a straightforward actual established labour.

I am a week overdue and had enough, but I could have another couple of weeks to go. No signs of labour at all. Then there is the snow and the midwives not wanting to come out on Xmas day, on top of the usual labour/baby OK worries. Spent most of the weekend crying or whingeing to DH. He has hurt his leg falling on ice and is necking my co-codamol and not being the shoulder to cry on that I need!

Bah humbug :(

good luck DF

frankenfanny hope ur DH feels better soon..u so need him at this time.

I haven't been able to go out for a walk coz of the snow..which sucks :(

Oh, DF, what a bummer. ( not meant as a pun) You are NOT going to be crap at this, though! Labour can take so many forms, we just don't know what to expect. Try to just go with it and get as much rest now as humanly possible. The pain up the bum thing sounds horrible.

It may be that your body is using this latent phase to do a lot of work that you're not aware of as progres, but all the while, your uterus is toning and you are probably effacing and maybe dilating a bit too. It's all stuff you won't have to do once in established labour.

All the best and try to relax.

DF I hope you are feeling better at home, and that your labour progresses better once you are more relaxed. I couldn't believe how painful contractions are and I only had them for a few hours prior to my C section. I'm sure you'll be just fine

Hello, I haven't been able to handle coming on for a few days :( Have now had 14 days of contracting without being in established labour. Have been called into the hospital 5 times now, and each time Midwives can't believe i'm back and havent had baby. Have been feeling very very down. Cx can be regular and painful for around 12 hours a day. Have been told that cervix is just very posterior still, and baby back to back. mw still wasn't able to give me a stretch and sweep today though she tried (painfully) hard.

I just didn't imagine that it would be like this.
Sorry for whinge! It is still nice to read the happy stories though from everyone, so thank you.

button I hope your baby comes soon, that is a long wait!

Just a quick note to say baby boy born safe and well at 9.14pm 19th December. 7lb 1oz. No name yet!

Congratulations strix and max on your new arrivals hope everyone is doing well.

Button and df, really feel for you - that sounds completely exhausting and understandably dispiriting. Really hope things get started properly straight away and you are both back with beautiful birth stories very soon.

for Button Hope things happen for you soon.

Well, my waters just went in bed an hour ago! Was freaking out because hadn't felt baby move after they gushed but he has bumped me on three occasions now, phew! MW coming to check on me soon, just to be sure, as I was worried (she is a star) but she didn't sound alarmed or 'phone ambulance now!' so I feel better. HOrrible night to drive in. She is two villages away but fog and snow...

So what do I do?? DS1 was induced! Taken paracetomol and of course, DS woke up so is in bed with DH who will try to get him back to his cot. Am downstairs with Christmas tree lights, sitting on maternity pad in pants+maternity bed protector+towel, still dripping a bit! Should rest and try sleep but too wound up now!