Feb 2011 - The home stretch! Let's see more of those babies :-)

[WanderingInAWinterWonderland]

A shiny new thread for a shiny new year.

I'm still at the hospital... On the delivery suite so can hear some very scary sounds!!!!!! Seen consultant who says everything looks ok and bp down to 83 now. Just waiting on bloods then I can go home :)

Back home now everyone but got to go back to hosp on Thursday. I am wondering if my machine might be dodgy as I tested again and it's now up to 110. DH thinks it's becuase I was rushing home etc Anyway the baby is fine so that's that! Night all!

This thread is moving too fast for me! Thanks for the lovely comments re photos. My DH is a photographer so he takes all the credit! Congrats to Cler! Wonderful news. Hope you're both doing well.
PDR Glad all is well with the baby. Maybe your DH is right about it rising again. Or the machine is playing up. Do you feel okay? Hope you can get some rest. My body clock is all over the shop at the moment. She is very alert from about 11pm till 6am, stretching and pushing. I can't get into a comfortable position to sleep. Also I feel nauseous al the time and have lost my appetite. The only thing that doesn't make me feel sick is fruit or fruit juices. And the nesting has kicked in for me too now. I suddenly realised that I haven't washed all her new clothes. I've got loads to do. I shall start later today. Some of my friends think I am bonkers doing this and said that they didn't (and neither did my mum or aunts) So will everyone else be doing this too?

Dreys, I've already washed all the baby clothes, bedding, blankets etc. Have got car seat and pram down from loft and washed those too! I just like the smell of pure softener on the clothes!
Slept terribly again last night, hips v painful and aching badly now. Baby was vvv low down when I came to bed last night, quite uncomfortable but a nice feeling too!
PDR glad all ok at the moment. It must be worrying for you but rest up and take things easy

Dreya, do you mean brand new stuff? I always wash brand new stuff for newborns but you don't need to do it for older babies. Not bonkers at all!

PDR glad you are OK. Try to rest and not worry too much!

PDR so glad all OK. I've got one of those bp monitor machines and some mws/GPs have been fine with me using it and others have got really cross and said they are no good unless they are calibrated regularly as they can be way off so be careful with trusting it too much.

dreya now I know your DH is a photographer I'm sure we'll all expect a super good photo of your LO once they come

Am hoping to attempt a little walk with DH today (have been stuck in for ages with all things moving/house improvement/sleeping related) and am wondering how far I get - my bets on 10 mins tops of old granny style walking before I have to sit down/give up with those low down aches and pains from baby being quite low. Still not quite sure how those of you at work are managing.

and dreya when I say 'they' I of course mean he/she - unless you're hiding more than one

morning!

Dreya I do wash all new baby clothes, I don´t wash new clothes for me or even for older children but for newborns yes. TBH I´m not sure why or even if it is necessary but it gives us something to do as we twiddle our thumbs in the final weeks! lol. I have definitely got to wash baby clothes as they have been in storage for a couple of years so need freshening.

Day off today and planning on staying in jammies as long as possible. dh is just doing some drum practice before work so waiting for him to leave me in peace.

I think baby might have moved head down.. don´t want to get excited and still have to wait for 37 week scan in a couple of weeks but can definitely feel a hard head like shape right in the V of my pelvis (externally feel, I mean!). the lump up by my ribs feels squishier so am hoping its the bum. Fingers crossed. worry this baby will have squashed body parts from being poked and prodded by me all the time!

PDR glad you are home and baby is ok, can you go to a pharmacy to get your bp checked? if so their machines might be more reliable?

snowangels - how far along are you? One thing about this baby being transverse/breech is I have not been as uncomfortable (yet) as i remember being with ds. With him i had loads more rib pain, back pain, even more acid. If I am right and this one has turned it would explain the generally more ´heavy´ feeling in a downwards direction ifyougetwhatimeanandithinkyoudo

My beautician (sounds poncy i only get waxed but she still is my beautician lol) really told me off about these varicose veins and told me to get walking so dh has been good about making me go everyday, good luck! i do feel better for the fresh air and (very mild) exercise.

roudthehouses I'm 35 weeks so still probably a fair way to go! Last few trips to mw they have said she is head down, so hoping she's sticking there but I can feel gradually she's getting lower from the pressure etc. I admit that so far I've not suffered too badly with actual rib pain (more discomfort) which so many of you mention, but I keep thinking either I've got that joy to come or my high anterior placenta is cushioning the ribs for me (I do get alot of painful kicks into my body parts to make up for it though). I still can't believe 40weeks is managing spin [in awe emoticon]

Morning ladies, hope all are feeling...well...I shouldn't really say 'well' these days, are we at best hoping for an 'as expected, but no worse'?! I'm a little better than yesterday having slept slightly better.

I'm 35 weeks too and baby is head down and seems to pop into pelvis for a recce every now and then but doesn't seem to stay there - s/he is obviously just checking it out before s/he decides to engage!

It's weird though that people talk about getting kicked in ribs. With head down baby at the moment, his/her bum still only comes up to just above my belly button, so not too high to cause any problems. Is this weird? I'm measuring OK for dates (a little over in fact) so I'm not actually worried about size of baby, just curious as you all seem to be talking about babies meddling with ribs!

Last night I had kind of stabbing pains right down on my pubic bone, don't know what that was all about, was when I was sitting/lying completely still, lasted about half an hour.

Mum, Dad and DH all predicted that this baby was going to arrive between 38 and 40 weeks, nobody thinks I'm going to go over, which I hope turns out to be true! 3-4 weeks from now would be great, really don't want it to be 6!

Have a nice day ladies.

Dx

Hello

Glad you are home and ok pdr hopefully it was a blip in the machine

I hope this baby isn't too late either, I have 5.5 weeks to go but then think "ah it could be 7!"
Both boys were late

Am waiting for mw to call back as she can't see me for my 34 week check! Hopefully they will see me at weekend.

Just off to try a new Toddler group with ds2, hope they're as friendly as you lot!

Oh and angels, this might be last week of spin. I can manage the class but not the day afterwards. Wipes me out! I swam yesterday instead but am gyming tomorrow and spinning on fri - gulp

This thread is too fast for me! Busy day yesterday so no time to log on!

Congrats Cler! I'm glad you're both home and well, would love to hear your birth story when you find the time!

Glad you're home PDR, best to be on safe side with these things.

Thanks v much for doing the stats sbf - good job! I hope we can all stay in touch in ante natal!

Clear discharge here too (lovely)...

Not looked at anyone's photos yet as my iPhone isn't allowing it and can't be arsed going onto the laptop but I will!

Loved OBEM last night, I thought Lydia was amazing, all 3 of them were infact. I'm always a blubbering wreck when the baby arrives! Can't get enough!

I saw MW yesterday at coming on 37 weeks and measure 38. She said it was a "good sized baby"... Gulp! Also despite baby no longer being breech it appears to be back to back or sideways on, she couldn't tell for sure so I'm going for a scan tomorrow. Has anyone had a scan this far on into a pregnancy?! I'm excited at the idea of seeing bub but wonder if I'll see much? Will the be visible as I'm in the surprise camp!! DP home today after 3 weeks away so looking forward to doing less! But he's only back for a week :(

Needtosleep, just remembered your post! Promising!!! You could be next! It'll be me who goes late, I'm never early for anything

Have a good day ladies, hope these aches and sleeplessness eases up a bit

Should read - will the sex be visible as I'm in the surprise camp!

PDR glad everything is ok. From what I understand about taking blood pressure in pregnancy, due to a higher than normal blood volume a special maternity cuff needs to be used for taking blood pressure - it is bigger than the standard GP surgery / chemist cuff, as the smaller cuff can give inaccurate, higher results.

earlgrey am surprised that you need a scan if the baby is not breech, as surely it is moving about quite a bit (mine is anyway) and not fixed in a back to back etc. position.

I loved OBEM too, and am aspiring for a Lydia style water birth (minus the vomiting sister thank you).

My cat was ill again last night. Thank goodness DH didn't go off to London until this morning, so he had the lovely job of cleaning up the numerous piles of cat sick. Don't know how I'm going to cope if she keeps being ill after #2 is born and he is working away.

sbf so glad you said that re: cuff as when I've used my bp monitor recently it was really tight to get on - I thought I must have super fat arms now and got really miserable. This has given me hope that they might just be regularly fat and not excessively humungous (and if I interpreted your comment wrong and I do have massive arms please don't tell me - I'd rather live in ignorant bliss on that one!).

earl think if anything it might be harder to tell sex this far on as baby is so big and squashed up. Sure I read that somewhere anyway.

Hello everyone!

earlgrey I had a scan last week at 36 weeks and the sonographer told us not to expect to see much resembling a baby but we did get one pic of his face that was so chubby, it was lovely . A word of warning though, because he's so low down I practically had my knickers off when she checked his head size (wish I hadn't been wearing my big old greying granny pants...!). If you want to find out the sex they might be able to tell you but if you don't then I don't think there's a chance of you accidentally seeing something.

Taking it easy today but got to clean in a minute for mw visit this pm. Been having period pains with tightenings but nothing regular.

Every time I sit down now I can feel bump resting on the top of my legs, are any of you getting that? I'm a bit scared of squashing him head as I have stupidly low chairs so am sitting on the floor a lot more.

Oh, and the diarrhoea has returned, just thought I'd share!

Speaking of back to back (well, sbf was) - is that something that you know before birth or is it something they can't tell until you're in labour? I hear it could be more painful for this position so wonder if you have time to psyche yourself up for a possibly difficult birth or if it's a bit of pot luck on the day.

angels just read your post and my mw told me last week that the electronic bp monitors are notoriously incorrect and that the manual ones are far better. NOTHING to do with the size of arms etc!

Hi ladies
Love OBEM too - made DH watch it so he could try and remember what is coming - had to bribe him with cuppa and big slice of cake but he said he was glad he had in the end...

snowangels have just been for my VBAC appt and midwife said this one is back to back - am really annoyed as am sure he/she has been bum out for a while now but must have turned last night . Last baby I did all the kneeling/ball work to try and get her to turn but as I only got back pain during induction she must have still been there. MW said today that even if they are back to back they usually turn during labour. She siad to do a bit of leaning over things and kneeling and ball sitting every now and again to stop him/her getting too comfy in this position. So am gonna get a ball after all - thinking DD will love playing with it even if I don't.

Anyway have said am keen for VBAC so now just have to hope that this LO gets it's arse in gear and wants to come out on time/at all

thanks for all the thoughts everyone ? this is a very supportive thread :)

angels my mum also mentioned the calibrating thing and sbf I definitely don?t have the special cuff so maybe you both have a point.... will steer clear of the machine I think as the worry probably makes my bp rise even more!!! Got an appointment at the labour ward on Thursday morning so there will be plenty of monitoring done then that puts my mind at ease.

roundthehouses that?s a great idea about going to the pharmacy I might do that as I live very near one ? will ask them about special cuff though.

Needtosleep last night the consultant checked how engaged the baby was an practically had his hand down my knickers it was so low 4/5 apparently so that?s good to know as I think second babies can engage later (?)

Haven?t watched OBEM yet ? but had a bit of a live show last night on the delivery suite! 5 babies were born in the couple of hours I was there! Quite lucky as it meant my consultant was there already so he could check me over. Gosh I heard some scary sounds though Makes it all seem very real!!!!

In other news we took DS for his 2.5yr review and he amazingly behaved really well - even stood on the scales and stood still for his height to be measured .
We got a little bag thing with some books, crayons and a colouring book Very lovely and DS was chuffed but goodness me if they give these out to everyone in the country it must cost a fortune!!!!!!! HV said they were scrapping it, which whilst a shame for those who cannot afford to buy the things, is no bad thing IMO. I suppose I could have said no but not easy when she offered it to DS like a present!

Oh sorry one more thing - the HV wants to come to the house on 31st for a home visit Anyone else had one of these visits booked? I think I remember with DS one came after he was born but not before On the letter it says it's to "introduce us to the health visiting service" whatever that means. Have a good nose around people's houses more like!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the feedback! I too was surprised that the MW decided to send me for a scan as I was pretty certain all the arse in the air positions had worked and it was confirmed with the heartbeat being heard low down. However they couldn't determine the position for sure and I think they are just being cautious and wanting to check the position of the placenta since I'm planning a home birth. Needtosleep, I suspected as much and the sex will be well hidden! Will be nice to see what we can see anyway! Nice you got a pic of the chubby face!

PDR the live sound effects must've brought it home to you!! Argh!