June Just around the corner now...

[petitech]

Will this be the final thread?!? I somehow think not, with more and more people starting on maternity leave, we have time for a good few more methinks!

Thanks Nurse Sunshine, we do have a nurse coming in every day to give granny her pills, so maybe we aren't so bad...

Oh Jasmine, how sad. Am really sorry to hear all that, it's horrible bad luck.

knackered Jebediah!

Apparently there are no NHS antenatal classes in Gloucester. There is a drop-in Q&A session every Sunday at one of the birth units but that's it! I wasn't too bothered until Tuesday night when DP asked 'what a contraction was'. He's on a steep learning curve for the next few weeks, if only I was a radio telescope or a car, he'd have no problems figuring it all out.

CMH1st, I would give your MW a call now if you are considering a homebirth at this stage. I just brought it up at my 34-week appointment, so she will be coming here for my 36-week appointment. I'm not sure how much longer you would be able to leave it. Remember that if you plan a homebirth, you can decide at any stage to go to hospital, but not necessarily vice-versa.

Knackered, I also love the name Jonah - too bad your DH won't agree! I think Jude, Joshua and James are lovely too.

Jasmine, what a nightmare! It sounds like you are coping with the situation much better than I would at this stage.

Sorry about your friend Leroy

Notoast buy your DP the Haynes Manual for babies. Haynes sounds like its right up his street!

..and this one too Haynes baby maintenance

Just thought I'd share a positive homebirth story with you for those who are interested, I went to a midwife led homebirth session and a couple who had a homebirth 2 weeks ago came along to tell their story. It was their first baby and everything went really well although she did say the only place she felt comfortable was sitting on the loo and ended up giving birth in a tiny bathroom with 2 midwives, her Mum and her DH all balancing on the edge of the bath and standing on the loo etc to fit in the room! But it was a lovely story and I spent most of it with tears in my eyes. Gorgeous baby! I want one myself!

TMI questions coming... is anyone else having pain when they poo?? I don't mean because of piles, I mean internally, like there is just no room for the poo to pass through. Oh it is so painful it made me groan in the toilets at work the other day and a woma ion the next cubicle asked if I was ok

Thornykate don't worry - there are probably several down there I just don't know how tell lol.
Leroy I'm getting those stabbing, twangy pains really badly just now - I nearly doubled right over in sainsbo's this morning when one took me by surprise. I think that they set off other general uterus-pain as well sometimes.
Really hope your friend's baby gets better - poor thing :(
I'm afraid I have no idea MrsNoggin - I think if she is head up at 36 weeks, they would be concerned but I'm guessing.

Leroy - so sorry about your friend, how worrying. I hope the baby shows signs of improvement very soon.

Moog - yes I get some discomfort pooing, presumably as baby is now squashing our bowels!

Jasmine - yey for the Ozone man! Will you still need to redecorate? Hope you enjoy the party
I have the Haynes manual, a friend got it for me.

Oh and first time mums must get this book.
Trust me it is essential

Ooh, I'm so excited as I remembered I have a load of Amazon vouchers so I am going to order a Moby Wrap today. With everything else going on it's probably a silly thing to get excited about but yet I still am. Moby's seem pretty universally liked and easy for a firsttimer, and then when I have mastered that with new baby I can borrow other types of sling from my sling meet.

Yarg to the bee incident Jasmine. I like bees but could not have coped with that I think. Glad the ozone has done it's job and as soon as the sun comes back out you can get airing to get rid of any residual smell.

I'm interested in the baby postioning, hopefully I can see where mie is lying when I see my midwifes on Monday, and if not in optimal position then I have time to try and turn her. I didn't have a clue about mumsnet last time and had no ide there were ways to encourage a back to back baby, i just accepted that I would have a more painful labour, silly me.

Sorry to all those having sleepless nights, try and get as much rest as you can when maternity leave starts. there is nothing wrong with napping in the day, as long as any existing children are compliant. I'll be taking advantage of having a sofa snooze today when ds goes for his afternoon nap :)

*encourage a back to back baby to move I meant to say. Ignore all the other typos!

Just catching up now!

Jasmine BLIMEY what a story about the bees!! Glad its sorted though. Last think you need when pg.

sasa you are right in that babies heads don't normally engage in a 2nd+ pg until labour starts. My baby has been engaged for over 2 weeks and I have no idea (nor do the midwives) how on earth they are still in there!!!. I swear it feels like the baby is going to come out at any minute. I have had so many 'signs' of labour (period pains, diarreah, feeling sick, aching back, braxton hicks for hours........but NOTHING!!). All very odd. Think baby is comfy in there (which apparently means it's a boy.......?????!!!)

moomin lovely to keep hearing from you, and Florence is doing amazingly well. I can't believe how far you've come, and that we are all still 'cooking' our little ones!!

MrsNoggin I don't think they start checking babies position until your 36 week appt so don't worry. Head down now though is a good sign. DC1 was head down all the way through (though was also back to back, but didn't know until labour as she was born at 35 weeks).

BPrincess I think the left is better because of the shape of the pelvis meaning the baby fits better (according to spinning babies website). I wouldn't worry about being on the right though, my baby seems to switch to the front/ right then back again. I have no idea how as surely there is not much room in there now, although I am HUGE!!!!

Leroy so sorry to hear about your friend?s baby. How awful for her. I wouldn?t know what to say either.

On baby names, we didn?t name DD until she was 3 or 4 days old . We had a shortlist but none of the names suited her. This time around we have a long list but are waiting until baby arrives to decide!

Well I'm 38+3 today!!. I go from really excited to absolutely terrified! SPD has flared up and I feel like I have been repeatedly kicked in the groin BUT on the up side I have managed to get a bit of sleep, so feeling quite happy today :). I've also been transferred from consultant care to midwife care, HURRAY!!!!!. I was only on consultant care due to prem baby but now I am term I am low risk. I had to ring the hospital to arrange it but they agreed. It means the birth should be less medicalised (sp?), especially if I go overdue. Planning to have a waterbirth at the hospital if the pool is free/ there is enough time.

Have started drinking raspberry leaf tea, which given my last labour was 3 hours and I'm scared of having the baby on the bathroom floor/ in the car is probably a stupid idea. Really want things to start happening though.....

We're nearly there ladies!!!

Leroy I'm sorry about your friend's baby. I hope he recovers soon.

Jasmine at your crazy bee situation. No idea what an ozone generator is but it sounds like a miracle worker!

Moog that sounds like a lovely HB story, and you got to see a teensy baby! :)

Knackered I like Jude, Josh, Jacob/Jake, James

35 weeks today. Well after last week's nightmare theory test I turned up on the right day this morning and passed with flying colours which is a big relief :) Just need to get my practical out of the way and I can relax.

Sympathies to all those who're having trouble sleeping. I'm up every 2hours as well which drives me mad and basically makes me feel as though I haven't slept. Just take every opportunity to nap whenever you need to.

I am really ready to have this baby now! Though I feel bad for feeling like that as I know she needs to stay in for another 2 weeks to be really safe :-/

Oh and another qwuestion about raspberry leaf. Those who're taking capsules, what strength, and how many at how many weeks? I got some 400mg caps today and they say to take 6 a day but with no indication of how many weeks. Maybe it doesn't matter?

Congratulations Nurse when will the practical be?

GV must be a relief as well getting to over 38 weeks.

Nurse i was asking the same question about raspberry leaf on the last thread. It's all very confusing.
GV ah well, we are the proof that it's not just 1st babies that engage lol.
I'm having a lot of twinges as well, and it really is starting to feel all ready to go down there, but with my 1st pregnancy (boy), it was like this for about a month so I'm not holding out any hope of going early.
37 weeks tomorrow - off to the shops this afternoon to get hospital bag stuff like a 'disposable' nightshirt from primark for labour, and maternity pads and things. I wil be sorted by the end of the weekend - and about time too

leroy that is so awful about your friends poor baby :( I hope they can help him get better soon. Must admit I know little about that condition, I know my DS1 had to have suction after birth but have never come accross a baby who got I'll like your friends. Must be even more awful for you being pg too. I expect nobody knows what to say to her as words just aren't enough in these circumstances but you are being available to her & that is great, many people would just shy away through fear of saying the wrong thing. Sending positive thoughts & love to all of you x

nurse well done on the theory :)

I am 38 wks today & I keep stalking the may threads as my due date is the 26th may (but I was too fond of you guys to move threads when the 12am scan brought me forward to may ) & a few who were due end of may have delivered! Loads more tightenings the last few days which I never usually get but I suppose that's par for the course. My other 3 were not start stop labours; basically I just started having unmistakeable contractions so I hope this one will be the same.

Thanks guys :) I'm not sure when my practical will be, asap I hope. They said it could be up to 6 weeks. I was like er, I'll be a bit busy, y'know, giving birth!

Have just had some sad news, my Grandpa died today. It was expected, I spent all day sitting with him yesterday, and he just slipped away peacefully so it's not a shock or anything but still very sad. I wish I could have shown him the baby, he had Alzheimer's but he always really loved babies so I was wondering if he would react to seeing her.

12wk scan sorry my phone is adamant that it was a 12am scan & keeps correcting me !

Ssd I think the tea itself is bleurrrgh

Oh no nurse sorry to hear that, x posted with you. Glad you had some peaceful time with him towards the end, take care x

Nurse so sorry to hear it. And so close to seeing your new one too. Must be very sad for you. I still wish my grandma were around to see my first child and she died about six years ago now...

Thorny the same as you - really should be on the May board but 12 wk scan put me forward a week and here I am. We must be one of the first due - I'm due 30th. Shall we have a race? Though I've not even had the slightest twinge yet. Methinks she's far too cosy in there.

Re raspberry leaf tea. I bought some when I found out I was pg, as an alternative to real tea, to cut down on a bit of caffeine. Had quite a few cups in early pregnancy then realised you're not supposed to drink it. Oops! (and no, it ain't that nice).

Friends round for dinner tonight. Feeling a bit tired but hopefully have just enough energy!

Nurse so sorry to hear about your Grandpa
BTW - you could try for a cancellation, wrt to your practical test?

Thorny - do you think you will make into June?

GV - wow nearly 39 weeks!!

I'm 36+2 today!

Hi ladies, we're on the home stretch now... and don't we know it!

Jasmine what a huge thing to be dealing with at the moment. You sound quite sane which is amazing! Sounds like you are on top of cleaning it all up with the ozone machine - that's what's recommended in the book I have called The Queen of Clean, an american woman who is a cleaning expert and happens to specialise in fire/smoke clean up. I had a look through the chapter for you and the only other thing she mentions is making sure that you clean out any central heating/air ducts with a professional company, if you have those (this is more common in houses in North America though)

leroy - very sorry about your friend's loss.

It feels like the no-so-calm before the storm at the moment. I'm ready in that the nursery etc is all set, but not really ready for the possibility of life turning upside down for a baby. DP keeps asking to go out to the pub, as he's realised time is running out for our social life for a while!

I'm glad (well not glad, but good to see that I'm not the only one) that people are having all sorts of err, tummy trouble at the moment. I have had a very dodgy tummy/digestive system for a week now, regardless of what I eat. It's no fun at all. I've also really started to feel uncomfortable and immobile even though I'm not that big. (Bump hasn't grown much since the 'emergency' scan I had a week ago.) I'm guessing she is still growing week by week as the books tell you, but I'm just one of those who isn't going to get a huge bump.

So in a nutshell - feeling like a gassy irritable lady who has no energy and can't do much.

On a happier note, my friends organised a small shower for me at the weekend and it was lovely. I was given a lift there and back (very grateful for that!), everyone brought food/drink/presents/kids and it was a pleasant afternoon indeed. They chipped in to get me some vouchers for the spa at Harvey Nicks - enough for a pedicure! Which I was very grateful for, as I can't reach my feet. I will have to see if I can drag myself there in the next week or so, as I can't see me finding the time once she's here.

Sorry, can't remember who asked but this explains why some people advise you to sleep on your left...

'The argument for not lying flat on your back comes from the fact that when you are supine the uterus lies against the vena cava, the large vein that carries blood from your body back to your heart. As the uterus enlarges beyond about 20 weeks size, the vena cava blood flow may be slowed, so less blood gets back around to the baby, leading to slowing of the baby's heart rate. Mom's blood pressure may drop as well. The good news is that just tilting to the left (by putting a pillow under your right hip) or lying all the way onto either side (right or left) can prevent vena cava compression. So there are lots of positions you can sleep in that can be comfortable and will not compromise blood flow.'

Also, wrt to RLT capsules, the general advise is to start with one a day from 34 weeks increasing to 4, 5 or 6 by 37 weeks. With DD (DC2) I took 2 in the morning and 2 at night from 37 weeks, had an EPOil capsule at 37+4 and my waters went the next day, contractions never got closer than 7mins apart (for about 3hrs) so was a real shock when I felt her head crowning! Let's hope this one goes as smoothly! DS was 8lb, DD 6lb 8, I reckon this one is going to be 8lb at least

Hiya - heres a little light hearted story to make you giggle...I have a friend I have been avoiding for a while because shes a typical doom and gloom monger who loves to say things like 'you wont know whats hit you once its born' and 'you are going to find it all really difficult at your age' etc etc, you know the type, never has a positive supportive word. She put on a massive amount of weight when pg and beyond, and now, 3 yrs later has only just managed to lose it. This afternoon she told me that I would have just as much problem especially as my body would have got used to eating the extra 5000 calories a day and I would need to keep that up when breastfeeding. I suggested she might have read the books wrong as in late pg and when breastfeeding the max extra calories you need is 500 a day, not 5000! Cue a small argument and a rush to get her pg book which was consulted, hurriedly closed, a pale face, an 'it doesnt say' comment and a change of subject. Made me giggle so much in a Dr Evil kind of way...she must have been gorging on pure lard to try and get her extra 5000 calories! Just me giggling? sorry, warped sense of humour!

Jas Mwah ha ha ha ha... I love it when they get a taste of their own medicine!