July 2011 - the final push!

[buttonmoon78]

I'm not going to do the stats as it took up so much of every page! Welcome, everyone!

Ooooo and happy birthday button would definitely be milking the fact hubby had forgot!!

Pesha I am with you on getting on with this pregnancy. The obn said I could have my induction at wk 39 and I am signing myself up. The baby is HUGE and my body can't take the abuse for too much longer. The worry I have is that delaying the birth will lengthen the sleepless nights.

Jimmy My chiro does a lot of work with those who have breech babies. She has a pretty high success rate according to my obn.

Scottygirl I recall there being a can of pineapple in the pantry.... off to consume it before I jump DH, take evening primrose oil and go to my 2nd acupunture session tomorrow.

He's remembered! Turned up last night - whisked me off to nice restaurant for dinner, off out shopping and lunch today . He's suitably mortified. When I (magnanimously) said I didn't mind too much - we're not big birthday people and I know how busy he's been, he said that made it worse and there was no excuse. So there we are - I've been gracious, now I shall be grasping

Jimmy they'll offer to do ecv which varies in its success rate depending upon the practitioner (you can ask for the stats for who does yours). If it works, there's something like a 1% risk that it'll turn back but normally it doesn't. If it doesn't work they'll normally offer you a section at 38/39wks. Spinning babies is meant to be a good site and the Royal College of Obs & Gynaes do a very informative leaflet - google 'RCOG ECV' and it should bring up what I'm talking about. It gives you all the stats and recommendations.

If you've got any questions on the actual procedure, just ask - it wasn't what I expected at all and I didn't know anyone who'd had it done to ask them!

There's still time to ask all those questions - when you're given unexpected news it's logical to only think through the implications later!

ooh lots going on here. no time to post any news just marking my spot. good luck to all those getting fed up and trying pineapple, EPO etc!

Hi everyone, I'm very excited!!!
Yesterday I got to meet the very gorgeous Professor Brian Cox - he was lovely!! I behaved like a teenager and giggled and blushed but I couldn't help myself!
Then today I got a call from my midwife saying that I hadn't left it too late to have a homebirth after all and that she would get someone to call me early next week (she's on holiday) to have a chat and make arrangements! xxx

That's good news MissLolita!

We went to look at the local birth centre and have finally decided to have the baby there - it's only tiny and run by midwives but the atmosphere was so much more relaxing than the hospital and I would definitely be able to have a water birth there. It's similar to a home birth in that the only pain relief is gas and air and occasionally pethidine (which just makes me sick anyway) but hopefully the TENS/hypnobirthing/water will help - although I'm worried I'm going to be a complete wimp and have to transfer for an epidural

Evening ladies, oo lots going on, just got back from my holiday and having a good catch up. been to Butlins for 5 days and am now totally shattered. Havnt been before but would go again, its chavtastic but so much to do for kids of all ages we'll definitely return. I need a holiday to get over it, but had a lovely afternoon nap each day with DS before we went to watch a show each evening.
Ive got my final scan on Monday morning, providing baby isnt measuring too big they will book me a c-section for 2 weeks later. Actually hope it isnt sooner apart from some back ache and insomnia im doing ok and am looking forward to relaxing a bit over the next 2 weeks - as much as a mum to a terrible 2's toddler can relax! Cant believe that im sleeping completely normal as in not needing 1 pillow for support at all - hope this is ok for the baby, i needed loads in my first pregnancy.

Misslolita great news! I had midwife come yesterday to confirm my HB and talk through how it works etc. They seem really supportive of it here. We have no MW units or anything like that so the choice is homeor hopsital.
Sues I am sleeping more comfortably than first PG and don't seem to be suffering with the dreaded heartburn that plagued the last weeks last time. Or maybe it's thanks to button's tip of a glass of milk before bed!

spannerpants the birth centre sounds great. I wish there was an option like that round here, but as I say it's only big hopsitals or home.

On the PND topic, my friend is still all over the place. The doctor keeps coming and then she gets angry and sends them away. She is suffering with paranoia. My OH thinks I should tell her that I think she's being paranoid as it's a big symptom of depression, but would that just make her feel worse? I feel so out of my depth and worried about saying the wrong thing so I mostly try and listen. I've had my share of dark mental/emotional experiences but always on the aniexty end of the spectrum so I don't know much about depression.

BTW misslolita who is Brian Cox??
I met Jeremy Kyle on a school Media trip in Feb and that was the highlight of my year! lol

HI Just catching up with all your news - I was on this thread in the early stages then miscarried, you were all so kind and so I just wanted to let you know that after another false start I am now 12 +6 and all is going well. I have had to move to the December thread rather than the July but for an old timer that is not too much of a problem.

Jimmy- don't worry about a ECV its weird but works in about 50-70% in the right hands. It was never anything as an obstetrician that I had any success with so haven't performed them for the last 6 years- I thought I would concentrate on stuff i had better success with! Usually your unit will have only one or two consultants who will do it- if everybody does it then no one will be any good. If you come in in labour it depends how far gone you are - if you are ready to push then everything will be fine to let it happen naturally, if you are in the 1-7 cm stage then they will probably suggest a LSCS straight away. It should be booked for 39 weeks.
If you have a LSCS this time you can still have a normal delivery next time around and really it doesn't make much difference - or at least it didn't to me. Having delivered in a variety of ways I found they were all equally unpleasant until the baby came. Advantages and disadvantages to both

Spannerpants-Good luck with the birth centre- you are more likely not to need an epidural if they are geared up for all the less invasive options so trust them.

Good luck with your births and enjoy your babies- it won't be long before you are practising scales with a squeaky violin and learning reams of latin vocab all over again, and crying with them when they don't make the first team......

Crazy thanks for coming back and updating us. Good luck for December.

To all my fellow home birthers I've just been given the all clear as my bloods are almost high enough. What is very exciting is that the mw's go on call for me on Tuesday. My mw would have brought round the hb kit in Mon but they have so many hbs booked atm that they won't have a kit ready until Tuesday. Another good thing is that I don't have to go to the health centre for the rest of my appointments, they will all be at home. I always feel too hot and faint at the health centre.

I am ready to have this baby out now. I just want to meet her.

hi all am on the kindle so please excuse spelling and no punctuation.
i was booked in for my hb last tues and got my birth pack that evening. whenmw felt my belly babytwit moved and she was at how it looked he he he. id say he is of and on engaged but ive been getting period pains alot and all night for a few days. all my bh are sore too now.
i had a major meltdown last week but that is normal for me and i am more mellow now. i do feel bad for my family cos im next to useless now. like some of you im done now but know that whatever i try its all down to it being the right time. im not trying anything cos i dont want to get hung up on it and upset if i doesnt work which has happened before, so lots of deep breathes and what will be will be from me. i keep getting asked if i know when hell get here as if i should know by now but other than the meltdown i dont reall have any signs other than normal ones. am fed up with the pain too.
dh asked if i was excited. i said sort of but its hard to be excited about birth and labour cos it hurts and after isnt pleasnat either BUT i do want to meet babytwit and have my pain eased
anyway my hair looks great so yay
well im off for another uncomfy sleepless night sleep well all.

Small mercies eh twit? Something like that does make you feel better though, hell - I filed my nails last week and it cheered me up! Hope you are on the up tho x
That is really great news Crazy, hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well!
Glad you had a nice birthday button!
Great news Eglu x
That is lovely Spanner, and have to say I'm a little jealous! That is just like our local unit, but transfer is by 3-hour road trip or 1-hour plane/helicopter ride :(
I've got my next mw app on monday (36+1) so am hoping the Glasgow hospital have got back to them about seeing me, as that will be 2 weeks since she contacted them. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be seen this week, getting a bit anxious now cause I want to see where I'll be having monkey and the thought of a 6-hour journey is getting more and more dreadful.
Hope everyone is having a nice weekend and drier than ours!

Eglu that's great, keep eating the spinach soup. My date for the OK for homebirth is a week on Thursday. It's all booked in and the midwife came to talk to us about it yesterday. I have to hope she doesn't come too late either as they start wanting to induce around 42 weeks! I am trying to keep my iron levels high too as I had a lot of blood loss last time and was anaemic after the birth. I've asked to have the injection straight away this time, rather than a natural 3rd stage, in the hope of avoiding the slightly scary bleeding I had last time.

What's in the birth pack? Ours bring it all apparently. I think the only thing we need to get is a plastic sheet and plenty of paracetamol.

The midwife said to me 'well if you managed without pain relief last time you probably won't need it this time'. Hmmmm, I'm not so sure about that! I am dreading a really long first stage this time and having no idea how to deal with contractions (and everyone assuming that I know what I'm doing), since they were so quick and intense last time that I have blocked them out

too right fraochsmum
cara the things i will provide are dust sheet and old bedding and towells. i think there is plastic sheeting but extra cant hurt. they asked for a torch or desk lamp and somewhere to do stitches if needed but this can depend on the mw at the time.
everything else is up to you eg candles whale music
i have asked for the injection after the cord has stopped pulsating cos i get bored waitingg and my bp went up while i waited for nature with dd
have got the dcs presents from the baby to wrap although mainly for ds3 i had to be fair.
have a good day all.

I went out last night and had a lovely meal with DP. It was great to put on a posh frock (floor length, one-shouldered, black and silver striped dress) and swan about. Had some amazing food (goats cheese and pumpkin seed terrine with figs and black syrup, sea bream with an incredible pesto-type sauce) and caused a lot of comments about my condition and being out late from the good denizens of Brixton. It made a change from sitting on the sofa and wailing.

Oh lovely, Stangirl. Definitely make the most of moments like that as it will be quite a while before you can do that again afterwards.

Crazy that's fantastic news! I hope the rest of your pregnancy is healthy and happy . Thanks for updating us.

Great to hear all the homebirth's are on track. Not sure about mine now. Following sugar in urine and a rather alarming growth scan last week I have to have a GTT test tomorrow. If positive I will have to be in the hospital . But it may be negative and could jsut be a naturally huge baby . My home visit is booked in a week tomorrow anyway so will discuss all options with midwife then.

What are you getting from the baby for the otehr DC, Twit. I need to sort something out for DS but can't decide what. Need some ideas!

Cara we are asked to provide plastic sheeting, I also put old sheets on top of that as lying on plastice isn't pleasant. We also have to provide old towels, an anglepooise lamp or similar, a clock and plenty of tes for the midwives :). That is actually on their list.

The home birth kit comes in a mssive bag here. It has loads in it. They also bring two tanks of entonox and a tank of oxygen. I've cleared space in cupboard for it all. Oh, and not forgetting the syntometrine and vit k that have to be kept in the fridge.

Well, our w/e has been interesting.

Firstly, repentant dh misjudged a speed bump on Friday and has managed to knacker my pelvis totally so he's now feeling even worse than before. I've gone from taking 1xpara + 1xcocodamol to 2xcocodamol every 4 hours through the day and then crying through the night. Am hoping to get hold of physio tomorrow to see if I can have an emergency appt.

And yesterday I had a funny (oh, hilarious) conversation in Tesco's. You know, the sort where you just think 'shut up, shut up now'? It went like this:

Me:
Cashier: Oh, how lovely, twins!
Me:

Meanwhile, dh is back, almost incoherent with mirth, ds is utterly bemused and I'm about to spontaneously combust. Everyone between aisles 12 & 15 is looking at me and my bump, assessing whether they think I'm due in 6 weeks or not, assessing shape and height OR pissing themselves laughing!

If I'd been wearing a hat I'd have sent ds round with it to collect coppers

Button how annoying for you with the cashier. Some people just don't know when to shut up do they? I hope your pelvis isn't too bad either.

I appear to have pulled a muscle in my stomach, and forgot to ask the mw if it would hurt when I'm trying to push the baby out. I will have to ask on Tuesday.

button OMG why do people think you are public property when pregnant??? That's why you need to online shop :)
I went to Tesco's yesterday with my son (2 and a half) and it was horrendous, and we only went in to buy a father's day present and a couple of extra bits. I was boiling hot, couldn't make simple decisions without feeling flustered (which cake to buy), forgot half the list, leaked wee (nice)..... When we left I said that's it, online shopping until the baby is 1!

Button....I would have walked off and left my shopping there for them to clear away.

That's awful!

Button - you need to put a photo of your bump on your profile so we can all judge for ourselves!!

Pesha Will attempt to do so today! I don't even think it's that big. If you want big, you should've seen me with dd1!

Jimmy I would happily have done so but we were so low on some stuff that it would have meant trawling round somewhere else!

Pelvis is a little better today - instead of 30 mins to get out of bed, it took 15 (whoop whoop). And I think I might manage on 1 of each tablet this morning. So I'm hopeful that it won't be dreadful for long.

Cara at least I managed not to leak wee unlike last week's trip to M&S meaning I've started carrying spare pants for me as well as the pair I always carry for ds!

I also popped into Next to order some nursing bras as they had some which looked vaguely bra like (as opposed to two limp socks) but they can't be ordered instore, only via web or directory. I don't have an account on principle (last time I tried to order something I asked to pay by visa as I don't open accounts lightly and they wanted to do a credit search for using a card ) so shook the dust off there promptly. So I think now I shall pop back to M&S to get some of their bras. They have v good reviews and as I'm not terribly well endowed (only a C cup) I don't have to worry in the same way some of you do

Have also begun buying a few vest tops for after so I don't worry about wrecking all my nice summer tops when getting feeding going. I did look at the support vests in Mothercare but they were lined with a nasty sweaty lining which I didn't llike the look of. I've seen in a few places support vests where the front is cut so it's underneath your boobs/bra and I thought it would make an excellent breastfeeding support top. You can lift up your normal top and not expose your wobbly bits, but there's no extra faffing with extra drop down bits - a win/win. Might investigate when I go to M&S.

I too keep being asked if it's twins. I've put a pic on my profile from Saturday nigh to show how big I am. My DP always says "it's because you're short" when someone comments on how large I am. I reply "no, it's because I've put on 35lbs".