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?!

Jen Huge congrats to you and little baby George, sounds like you did well !!

Lucie Waiting in anticipation of you annoucement ! and thanks for cake recipe.

Well no news here either, today is 40+6 and to top things off I think im getting a cold, started with the sandpaper throat yesterday and today have started sneezing, no fever or heavy head but the 1st 2 symptoms are how my colds usually start. I cant believe i might have a cold whilst in labour and with my 1st week with newborn.

Anyone had experience in not being well during labour ? Will they put off my sweep for Wednesday till they think im better if i get proper sick ?

Im spending day in bed resting, drinking orange juice and water, any suggestions of how to not let my cold escalate are very welcome !

Feeling very sorry for myself today and actually now hoping baby holds out a little longer till i feel 100%, even worse DP is at work till 10pm today so nobody to look after me !! I want my mum now !

Hopefully we get some more baby news today to perk me up ! and cause i love hearing about all these new little babies :)

40+3. Was in a great mood yesterday/this morning as my show started yesterday. Was very excited. However, had midwife this lunch time and couldn't have a sweep as cervix still posterior. Now thoroughly demoralised. Going to cheer myself up with rhubarb pie and ice cream.

Aussie Olbas Oil. Couple of drops on your pillow when you go to sleep and have it on a hanky or face cloth to carry round and sniff. Steamy baths and showers to sweat it out. Paracetamol for the sore throat, if you can get soluble gargle with it. I find hot drinks rather than cold help more. Hot Orange is my fav. Or you could do honey and lemon or good old fashion tea. I have mine without milk when I'm ill, don't know why but I do!. Make sure to take on boared loads of fluids, not helpful when you bladder is the size of a pea I know. And finally sleep, as much as you can. You don't know when you are going to need your energy.

Once you get into labour, if you are still bunged up remember to take your Olbas oil. You can put it on a cloth and tie it round the gas and air sucky thing so that should keep your nose clear.

I think thats it, if I think of anything else I'll come back!

NurseLis signing off!!

Aw JSJ, just join us on the grumpy couch. But make sure to bring enough of that pie and icecream to go round! yum!

Awww poor you aussie - sounds utterly miserable. I know my nose is getting a bit bunged up at night (probably the air con humidifier thingy needs adjusting) but actually having a cold must be crap.

JSJ bugger on the posterior cervix but pretty please could I have some rhubarb pie? It sounds delicious...

It really is very good :) There's also Mackie's vanilla Ice cream to go with it. Yum yum.

Mackies is my fav!! Used to love going to the theatre so I could get my mini tub of Mackies during the interval!

BH's from 3am-ish, found myself in tears because I couldn't get my leg over the bath to get shower on my back as muscles seemed tight. Half an hour ago I just had 4 proper contractions one following the other, searing unavoidable pain. Wonder if this is it?

Ooooohhh! Fill your pool just incase! :o

I swivel into my shower now. Sit on the edge of the bath and swing my legs in. Obvioulsy only works if you've got a bath with a wide edge.

Ooooh oooooh exciting arch!

4 in half an hour is a good starting and they sound pretty unmistakeable.

Arch - hope things are really kicking off for you now

Off for a stomp/waddle round the block in a mo to see if that helps.
Do really feel like this 'waiting' stage could go indefinitely, still get some painful BHs but nothing else. weird. Didn't have this with either DS.
So maybe it is a girl - being fashionably late already

Ladies I'm red faced as nothing is happening now :(

There was no mistaking what they were though, it was like an old annoying aquantance turning up. I recognised them immediately.

Full moon tonight here. According to a French study of a 6 million birth sample over a number of years, there were more babies born on a Tuesday, least on a Sunday and there was a notcable spike of spontaneous labours start on a full moon. .....

Frakk I will try my very hardest not to queue jump, especially since I've mianed enough about other people doing it!! Speaking of which DP's ex's sister was in having her ECV today so she could even potentially have had her baby by now - must check FB!!

Well earlier period pains have amounted to nothing except my mum getting stressed about lack of baby!! Just been for a long walk and have now reverted to RLT capsules and the occasional cup of tea as well (despite advice not to do this ) extra curricular activities this morning also had no effect whatsoever!

JSJ Totally empathise with you, I am dreading that being the case when I go for sweep next week. Hopefully things will get going for you soon and in the mean time enjoy the ice-cream!!

Arch Good luck, things are sounding promising for you!

Feel a bit fraudulent being grumpy when I'm not actually overdue yet but god this is such a pain and the worst bit is the not knowing, the thought that I could still be hanging on til the beginning of May is driving me crazy! My mum met an old work friend for coffee today who is due on the 29th and at her MW appt last week was offered a sweep there and then a) because I think she's expecting quite a big baby and also b) because, in the words of the midwife, it'd be better to have baby slightly early as the unit is quiet at the moment but it's likely to be very busy by the end of the month!! She declined as her husband was away with work but I am seriously contemplating phoning up and offering my services instead, I'll happily go in now!!

x-posts Arch - bugger!! Sounds like everything moving in the right direction though, hopefully tonight will be the night for you!!

Bugger indeed Arch.

Mind you, has anyone noticed it's a full moon tonight

Supposedly it helps trigger labour somehow, so lots of us should have babies tonight :)

Do we not need to roll about naked outside under the full moon while a high priestess burns sage in the dining room or something?? That sounds too much like hard work for me!!

I called my midwife today in a bit of a state because the thought of waiting until Thursday for my sweep and not even getting an appointment to discuss induction until next week was playing on my mind. Especially as I am now having to take more of my painkillers everyday just to get out of bed and shuffle back and forth from the loo. I'm worried about taking them and the effect they are having on Buster. Beginning to think he's better out here than in there.

She has arranged a consultant appointment tomorrow for me, where I'll get a sweep and be able to discuss my options for induction. Last week I was told the earliest I would be induced would be the 28th when I'm 40+12. That just made me want to cry. I need a happy medium somewhere as I am now just in so much pain with the SPD I would actually do anything to make it go away. So hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better, having had the magical sweep, and sort of know where we are going with it all.

Who knows, I might start tonight under the full moon while DH is dressed as a High Priestess burning basil (no sage) in the dining room!!:o

Bugger, no sage here either! well maybe a dusty pot hidden in a cupboard somewhere

DH did buy a plant of something or other yesterday to put in the garden, wonder if burning that would help

Not so sure about the rolling around bit, naked I could maybe do, lol!

I know for sure that some UK labour wards put extra staff on on the nights around full moon. Not sure about the rolling about naked thing theory and a "priestess burning herbs" would get short shrift from me right now but perhaps Clary Sage might do something. I too have got it out now. I'm getting knackered from BH, but that's all at present. The SPD is driving me to distraction too Lis so I understand. I meant to say on the Cherry Blossom tree. It may just be a very young specimen if it's stick-like still and not yet old enough to put energy into flowering. On the placenta idea. Last time I thought nothing of it but "shrug-that's medical yucky waste isn't it?" until i actually gave birth to it when i found the placenta something I was emmensely interested in, felt a huge sense of achievement in growing to nourish the baby and afterward regreted not putting it to some use somehow, although if I end up in hospital this time I still wouldn't take it home as I'd want it to be frozen pretty soon after birth so there's no degrading. If i do manage at home I'd be really happy to use it to nourish the soil, shame to burn it in that situation I feel. Hope that doesn't seem too lental-weavery :)

Chives - it was that DH bought, not sure if they do anything

Arch - i was totally fascinated with DS1's placenta when it finally came out - took a while.
DS2's i never saw (EMCS) and found out from my notes recently that it was 'friable & incomplete?' so told the MW the other day to bear in mind that I don't 'do' placentas incredibly well!

I'm sure that DS2's poor placenta is linked to his epilepsy/brain not developing properly but there is no research anywhere so we'll never know.

Will be intrigued by this one for definite.

Also, just for interests sake - with DS1 i had the jab (syntocin?) to speed up the delivery of the placenta as he was a little floppy (worn out) by the time he arrived. the placenta then took 2 hours!! with a lot of 'encouragement'.

I think that it detached almost too quickly and dropped down with some cord trapped behind it. This time i won't have the jab regardless.

I was about to come on here and tell everyone about the full moon, but I'm a bit late

Who do you think will oblige the full moon? It won't be me. I don't feel anywhere near ready. However if Mother Earth has other ideas for me I won't say no!

I think it might be syntometrine JKS, although I think there is also another drug as well with a similar name.

I didn't have the jab with ds2. The placenta took about 45 minutes to come out, but that was fine 45 mins seemed no time at all, for most of that time I was still in the pool and latching ds on.

The cord wasn't clamped until it stopped pulsing, and I didn't have any contractions to expel the placenta either. It was sitting at the entrance of my vagina for about 40 minutes, then to get it out I bobbed over a bucket (bought especially for the job!) and gave a little push and it plopped out. It was all very easy and stress-free, helped of course by the fact that the MW was fine about it and wasn't hovering over me with a syringe!

Oh, also meant to say. Rest, rest, rest Aussie. You'll often find a woman won't go into labour if she is unwell. It's not always the case of course, but mostly it is, so don't worry about that.

I thought I was getting a cold a few weeks ago, runny nose and sore throat etc, the symptoms persisted but haven't get any worse. So I've come to the conclusion that I've got hayfever. I have NEVER had hayfever. Damn my lowered immune system.

Aussie my sympathies, I can down with a cold on Saturday and I think it's nearing the end now after going into lockdown and doing nothing much since. Hope yours clears up as quickly. I think, maybe foolishly, that the body won't allow me to go into labour when I feel so shit. Surely would be against the babys best interests!

Yay to full moon tonight! Hope it sees a few more babies sprung from us Aprilites still waiting.

Pass that rhubarb pie and ice cream please.

Hey, I am now officially overdue! Hoorah! So, 40 weeks today, went for my appointment with the consultant and it went ok. She was not impressed with the notes on the stretch and sweeps I had already had and promised that she would give me a real one if at all possible. Well, the pain of it made me cry and shoot up to the ceiling but she said I had been very brave and that she had actually done a proper one and that is what they feel like.... Have had a tiny pink knicker smudge and lots of aches and pains since.

I'm now to have stretch and sweeps every other day, lots of sex and keep active. No other recommendations! My hoped for VBA2C has the following plan if I go very over again...
40+12 1/2 hr monitoring at hosp
40+14 1/2 hr monitoring at hosp
40+15 ARM at hosp
40+16 choose between syntocinon drip or ELCS
I think I'm ok with the plan. She has given me her mobile number which apparently I must shred after this is all over and I may call her whenever or ask for her to be called even when she is in France between 25th-29th or days 40+7-11 for me!

Ah well, fingers crossed for us all x

Hi all. Well I'm 39+6 so I was hoping that the full moon would work to kick me off for a rare due-date arrival tomorrow. But nothing doing so far. I am now officially I-M-P-A-T-I-E-N-T. My other half is refusing to have sex with me until he's finished all of the work he wants to get done before the baby arrives (he's self employed, working from home). Selfish, selfish, selfish.

I too have had a fit of the blues over the weekend, feeling bored, lonely and sorry for myself. Had a good cry yesterday after dropping a glass. Picked up a bit today as I met my mum and aunt for lunch.

Midwife tomorrow morning for my 40-week check, and I'm going to try to wriggle an answer out of them as to whether or not I can deliver in the MLU - so far there's been no clear answer, best I can ascertain is that I'll get triaged either into the MLU or the obstetric unit on the day, depending on the whim of the person doing the triaging. Which is a bit too much uncertainty for my liking. We'll see what they say...

Crossing my fingers for the full moon to work its magic on someone tonight (and hopefully me as well!)