April 2011–Half in! Half out! On the grumpy couch...do the hokeycokey, breathe the baby out, that’s what it’s all about

[ILikeToMoveItMoveIt]

New thread here ladies.

Again, many thanks to Frakk for the inspired title

Do you think this thread will be the last ante-natal one for the April 11 crew? Or will I be the last one standing and having to start a new thread and talking to myself?!

Hi there, I hope you ladies will help me out - can I please ask you all a question?

If you were attending a breastfeeding education session for pregnant mums and their partners, and you were asked "name one thing you know about breastfeeding and one thing you'd like to know" what would your answers be?

I'm a BFing peer supporter and I have an interview for a job as a breastfeeding support worker on Thursday. I have to give a presentation about what I would cover during an antenatal Bfing workshop and how I would deliver it. I was thinking of starting by asking everyone to introduce themselves and tell me one thing they know and one thing they'd like to know about BFing. Obviously I need to know what type of answers I'd likely receive!

And I thought who better to ask than the lovely pg mums on MN

neenz Does it hurt? How will I know if I'm doing it right? How long before my milk supply settles down? What equipment will I need? How long will each feed take? How many extra calories does it burn per day

neenz
Name one thing you know - it's best for mother and baby.
one thing you'd like to know - how do you know when they are hungry and not tired, grouchy etc?
Hope this helps

Lovely cake arch. DS2's placenta is still in our freezer We will put it under a tree when we (finally) landscape the garden, as doing the garden is way down on our list of things to do, I think ds3 placenta will also be going in the freezer

I'm off to the hospital in a moment as I've been a bit worried about the reduction in movements over the past couple of days. The baby is moving but not as much and it takes a lot to rouse him, so I'm off for some monitoring. Wish me luck ladies.

Good luck ILike, hope everything's ok.

Neenz - having just finished a bf supporters course I should be able to say lots I know & nothing I don't, lol!
Good luck with the interview :)

Hope all is ok ILTMIMI

In news from lucieloo..... waters have just gone!! Was lying on the sofa and thought it was more plug coming out so got up and had to do the closed kneed run to the downstairs toilet still got soaked... have called the mw's though as looking brown to me so want her to check the pad..

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! Very Lucie. See told you something would occur today!!

Good Luck!!

ILike - I'm sure all is well, there is a lot less room to wiggle in there than there was. Fingers crossed for you though xx

lucie - eek how exciting! Is the midwife coming to you? V.good idea to get her to check incase it is some meconium. Fingers crossed for you too!

JKS - we get 'Mummy, Daddy, say sorry!' said in a cross voice and with a foot stamp if we are 'discussing' at volume! It generally stops us in our tracks because we are laughing so hard

neenz - this isn't quite answering your question, but my experience of a BFing workshop was pretty awful. The midwife just threw the floor open to questions, and we all sat there going 'ermmmm' because most people didn't really know anything about BFing. I personally would have preferred her to start with some information and then ask us if we had questions arising from that.

I don't remember who it was that mentioned this but google contraction timer there is also an i phone app, it's used like a stop watch but it records them and calculates the frequency etc, very interesting if your forgetful like me

neenz
Does baby have anything else, water etc?
Does it matter if I forget which side I fed on last time?
Should I offer the other breast if baby still won't settle?
Does it hurt my nipples/stomach when baby feeds?
How much will I leak?
Can I have a glass of wine/beer with dinner?

Iliketomoveit Good luck, I'm sure everything is fine, hugs xx

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggghhhh Lucie

Great news, I'm sure all's well, so baby on way, yey for you and yours.

It's very exciting news, save your energy it could be a long night, fingers crossed for you, good luck and aarrrrgh again I'm going to cry, where is my lazy baby?!

Lucie - yey for waters breaking!! Hope the MW says all is ok.

After a cathartic rant at DH plus tears i'm still fed up but better than i was.
Never reached 40wks before with no baby :(

And with all the ouches from BHs + sore pelvis from very low baby i think i've just had enough.
Hopefully tomorrow will be a brighter day :)

Hiya all, I've not been on this thread for ages and so much has happened in my absence! Congratulations to all the new mums and babies

Tomorrow is my due date but I don't expect baby to arrive for quite some time yet going on my past history. (ds1 now 12, went into labour at 40+7, went to hosp and ended with emcs, ds2 now 3 1/2, supposed to be home birth but didn't go into labour by 40+14 so had elcs at 40+16)

This time plan is for hospital VBAC. Could have had sweeps from 38 weeks but I chose to start at 39 weeks as I wasn't ready for anything to be encouraged, still had shopping to do! I've had one on monday, thursday and today but although my cervix has softened and opened a little over the last week, nothing dramatic has happened.

Tomorrow I have an appointment at the hospital to see my pro-vbac consultant (I am in the special clinic!) who will no doubt give me another sweep and ask me to tell the community midwives to come every other day for the next two weeks. Then we'll discuss what happens at 40+14...urgh. With ds2 this was a horrible stressful time so labour pre then would be ideal!

Todays midwife said that baby is head down, not engaged (as expected) and could do with shifting over to the centre a bit so as not to be an OP presentation. She recommended spending time on my hands and knees with my bum in the air. Cue smiles from DP She also said to bounce on a yoda ball. So I finally blew up my old exercise ball. Naturally ds2 had first go, ds1 would have but he's away at the moment. Must plonk my bum on there instead of a chair up the table...or at least turn the chair round and lean over it

Hope to keep in touch now I've come back again. Good luck to all the other peeps waiting to pop x

JKS Things will be better in the morning, you need the 8 hours sleep. It's very annoying just waiting when the goal posts have gone from that magical 40 weeks full term bla bla that you forget it can go on 2 weeks further.

But it will happen within a fortnight and then the world will be right again.

I'm heading to bed with a cuppa and a book but good night, I hope you sleep well

Good night and good luck Lucie

Goodnight April Family
Good luck anyone labouring tonight xxx

Hi Ladies. i am enjoying a few minutes peace whilst George is sleeping (swaddled) and am waiting for lovely DH to bring me my tea, so thought I would attempt to share my birth story.

Here goes. Went into hospital delivery suite y/day as per instructions at 9am. Kept waiting in windowless room for 1 hr. Then saw midwife who did Bp, urine dip then disappeared for another hr. heart tracing done, then she disappeared again. Finally 3 hrs after arriving she returned and broke my waters which took quite a lot of effort.
She then advised we went for a walk around to try and get things moving but straight away I started getting lower period type pains which fairly rapidly ramped up to full on contraction pain and me moaning and mooing like a cow.

A fantastic midwife then appeared to tell me she would be looking after me and would I like a waterbirth as the pool was free. I thought yes please give it a go. So transferred to actual delivery room and contractions started coming thick and fast. I begged for gas and air. Midwife intermittently checked fetal heart with sonicaid.

About 2:30 pm attempted to go into pool but couldn't get comfortable position ,so ended up naked hanging onto DH and midwifes shoulders. Then pain became much worse, midwife coudn't hear heart with sonicaid, so examined on bed 9cm dilated and by then I had started pu3shing. Fetal heart slowed down so they put a clip on his head ( I was completely out of it by now and begging for more pain relief!) Told i needed to push hard as baby distressed and needed to come out asap, so pushed and pushed. Given episiotomy as told would get nasty tear otherwise. Few more pushes and George arrived at 3:08pm.All very quick and quite shocking but midwife was fantastic.
Stitched up chatting to midwife off my head on gas and air whilst DH cuddled George.
Asked if wanted 6hr discharge. Ended up going home at 11.30 pm! Now home and just settling in to getting George established feeding. Forgot how new borns mainly cry, and feed with not much sleeping involved!

So now looking forward to graduating to postnatal board. Good luck all those still awaiting their new arrivals and all those overdue. I know your pain but its so worth it in the end xx

Jen Congratulations, fast and furious but a great ending, I hope you get some sleep and hello George, be good to your mummy xx
night, night all, ovaltine is ready and I'm very sleepy x

Just a quickie, will catch up on messages tomorrow morning.

Back from hospital, all well. PHEW!

Thank you all so much for your answers to my BFing questions - they were really really helpful. Thanks for the feedback wrt having some info before you start Alibaba

Good luck with your babies. My littlest is 8mo now - the time flies so enjoy it!

Congratulations JenAt. Hopefully I will be able to join in with our news on Tues... Assuming an emergency doesn't shunt our cs - and that I can update from hospital. Counting the hours now....

Think we might have finally got a name, and DH has put up the last finishing touches to the nursery. Oooo, feeling a bit real now....and a little scary....

Glad all is well iltmi

Had a lovely day at my cousins wedding but now struggling to sleep. Feels like my ibs is flaring up :-(

Oh lucie looking forward to hearing your news

Wow fast and furious indeed Jen

Keeping fingers crossed for lucie - sounds like the sweep did its job.

kitty if you're getting tummy cramps it could be a sign of labour. Several people have mentioned, erm, emptying beforehand.

muffin roll on Tuesday!

Hello again bella - keep checking in or we'll start suspecting you've gone into labour...

arch fab cake. You deserve it all to yourself though

JKS hopefully the pains and ouchiness is just latent labour and when it happens it'll be quick!

Lis still no signs? Have you had it yet? What do you mean you're only 2 days overdue, you should have had it by now! takes phone off hook

Nope still no signs here. Thankfully, my ignoring of texts and messages yesterday seems to have worked as I've not had any today!! Yet!

Where is everyone? Ususally I've got a page to catch up on when I surface in the mornings? You're all off having you babies and left me.....

When I was young, I never needed anyone,
Making love was just for fun
Those days are gone......(too bloody right)
All by myself, don't wanna be all by myself,
Anymore

PMSL Lis - i'm still here.

Frak - i think you mean grouchiness

Still getting the BHs but no other signs, still no show or anything.

Have never been here before, 40+1.
If anyone makes a stupid comment today I may just bite their head off!

Good morning Lis I'm still here!!! Although was really hoping I wouldn't be, woken up at 4am this morning with period pains which I really hoped were the start of something but I fell back asleep and they had disappeared by this morning :(

Gaaah, I actually feel less likely to pop today than I have all last week, maybe the calm before the storm!?? Fingers crossed, 39+1 today, so sweep a week on wednesday but really hope she comes before that!

As suspected DP did not make it home in a fit state and on time on Saturday night, cue major rant from me which included me breaking his phone - woops!! Never mind, stropped yesterday and got a new camera for my troubles!

Congratulations Jen on baby George, sounds like it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride!! But glad all is well.

Lucie Hope you're having cuddles with your new baby right now!!

DP has taken the day off as he was so convinced baby would be appearing so better not waste all day on MN as he'll know what exactly I get up to all day while he's at work!

Looking forward to hearing more news later.

Aw JKS! Do you know the next verse! We can duet!!

No show here either! SPD is quite bad here today, so that's masking anything else that might be going on.

I gave myself a headache yesterday sniffing the clary sage (I know if shouldn't use it til in labour) but it did nothing! Vigourous bouncing on yoda ball. Nothing.

I'm running out of ideas!

Ha lis I'm sniffing the stuff at every contraction/sign of period pain. It might do something....

Have a fun day MrsW although be warned I'll be seriously annoyed if you queue jump!

Afternoon ladies. Alas was just my IBS. No further signs today, but i still have 10 days to go if the hospital know better than me ;)

Off to collect the changing matt, moses basket and pram mattresses later. Meanwhile my mates on her way over with her 2 kids (10 going on 20 and 6).

Fingers crossed for all of you due and overdue.

x