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!

Confuddled Hope she does better on your colostrum.

Fraochsmum They said your obn has final say but their policy is that after 2hrs you are at least put on the list for emergency sections. Given the way my obn group has been with me I would be surprised if they jumped for a section after 2hrs 1min of pushing. Having said that I don't know if they would let me push for as long as 2 3/4hr. To be honest I don't want to find out!

I am still in denial about this whole delivery thing and keep telling myself that no matter how awful it is, it isn't as bad as being heavily pregnant in 30C heat and high humidity.

I'm now on maternity leave (yay!) and DP and I were talking last night about how it is all becoming more real. We were reminiscing about DD's birth and how we thought she was the most beautiful thing in the world but looking back on the pics now we think she looks a bit manky and weird. She also had jaundice - which we didn't pick up on - and so looks like she's got a tan. Not a good look on a newborn. The pics improve a bit if you put them into black and white. In fact we obviously have a complete blindspot with DD because every picture we take we think she looks gorgeous then about 3 months later we realise how odd she looks in it. Then we look at how she is now and say 'ah, now she's beautiful".

Stangirl jealous of your maternity leave - looking forward to mine!
Confuddled bless her - I hope she starts feeling a bit better soon. Must be so stressful for you.

Don't suppose anyone has any good tips for pillow placement for sleeping. Don't really want to buy a special pillow unless people think it's worth it - and none of them seem to help the back anyway. I finally managed to drop off at 4am this morning with one pillow wedged in my back, one in my front and two at my head! Poor DH.

Confuddled hope the colostrum starts to work it's magic and you get to BF soon. You must be knackered, poor chick.

Chrimbo I've got a V-pillow, and sleep with half between my knees, and the other half against the bump. It sort of works, but if I do actually sleep well I end up with a dead arm.

Twit I've been on ML for 3 weeks (had to finish early) and cannot believe how quickly it is going. I have a list of things to achieve before Foxcub arrives, and I have so far achieved sod all. I start chores, get tired after 10 mins, have a tea break that lasts about 2 hrs, then repeat. Tis brilliant!

stangirl that is totally hilarious and refreshingly honest!! I remember thinking that when people talked about the ' baby smell' - yeah, urine...
Christmas I also have a v-pillow that I got on Ebay and a couple of firm normal pillows for side sleeping (Asda £10 a pair!).
Hope all goes well with the feeding confuddled xxx I had to hand express into a cup and syringe-feed DD when she first arrived as she wouldn't latch on, so I feel your anguish
To be honest Want2be it really wasn't that bad, I wasn't in pain during it and it didn't hurt when she made an appearance. I was quite surprised myself how long it took. Not that I'm volunteering to go that long again mind you!

Confuddled I hope she's feeling a bit better today? Poor thing!

Stangirl I chortled to myself when I read your post! Poor DD! I have pledged to take lots of pictures of baby Lolita when she arrives as I have no pictures of me until I was 7 days old and then nothing until I was christened at 12 weeks. I'm the second child (older brother) and my mum claims that I looked so much like my brother when I was born that there didn't seem any point

Ginfox I'm very jealous of ML - I still ahve 3 weeks left and it feels like it is forever. It took me nearly 2 hours to get to work this morning...yawn...
I'm trying to get organised and finish things off and do sensible things like packing my bag but I can't seem to get myself organised. I did have my first NCT class this week and I really enjoyed it (more than I thought I would in fact!) so I'm starting to feel a bit more in tune with the fact that I am expecting a baby in 5 weeks! I have sort of got it in my head that babyLolita will be about 10 days late and that I therefore have almost 7 weeks left but I recognise that this is a somewhat risky strategy....I must organise a tour of the maternity unit today....

Talking about pillows, does anyone have any recommendations for pillows that can be used for feeding? I quite like the look of the widgey. Anyone got any experience?

Christmas I have terrible heartburn from about 18/19 weeks and so pillow arrangement has become a bit of an art for me I do have a v shaped pillow but it isn't necessary. I build a tower of pillows. One across normally on the bottom then the v shaped (or two pillows propped at an angle to make a V - then two more pillows propped as a V, then one vertically going up the middle of the V and then one behind the top of the vertical pillow on top of the V apex. I then sleep almost upright. I also have two pillows on either side where my knees go when I slip down a bit and turn sideways. All in all 9 pillows. With my last pregnancy I tore the ligaments in one of my feet and had to keep it raised up - that took another four pillows and made me sleep in a v shape. There isn't much room in the bed for DP but as he's very slim he manages. When my "nest" starting building at 20weeks he said "and so it begins".

Poor you confuddled. I hope things improve soon and you can get your dd where she needs to be!

I hope you're doing ok too - I sometimes think that when babies are born prem all the attention gets focussed on the baby. But of course, the mother has still given birth and needs care and attention!

Can't post much - b/b down so borrowing a dongle from a friend for essential work purposes

MissLolita I have the boppy pillow for breastfeeding. It was a gift from my baby shower and all the girls were telling me that they are the best.... At $36 for a pillow I would try and find a 2nd hand one!

As for pillows at night, I have found that a mix between my dog, DH's arm and the duvet works well. The single duvet is folded up and goes between the legs, the dogs front leg goes under the belly and DH puts his arm over the top of my bump to stop the baby kicks from hitting my ribs.

Our dog is a golden and he is very soft. He has known I was pregnant from the start and is very into cuddling up to the baby bump. He even picks things up (that aren't edible) for me that I drop!

Pillows, I have the dream geniii...it was 45 quid but worth every penny. I have slept like a baby all pregnancy, minus a couple of heartburn nights. They sell for good money on ebay second hand.

can someone post the link to the facebook group? thanks

Cara, message MissL. After what's been going on we're not posting the link on the thread.

Not much has changed here. Baby is under the lights, was getting them above and below but they had to take her out of the babytherm and she wasn't maintaining her temperature without it so she's back in it with less lights. Tried to feed again today but she wasn't interested and fell asleep on my shoulder. Hoping my milk comes in over the weekend as she is three days old tomorrow. I'm struggling to express as I'm still in pain. Dr has added oramorph to my chart.

I'm sorry I'm not keeping up with everyone else's posts, I'm reading them but it's hard to remember what everyone has written and hard to keep scrolling on my phone.

Thanks confuddled, will do.
Thanks for keeping us updated - so excited for you! I'm sure that by the time it gets to July things will be much easier for you and your baby.

Confuddled I'm sending hugs to you both xxx

Hi Cara, the link is www.facebook.com/#!/home.php?sk=group_39358943912&ap=1 but I wont accept any FB requests without a corresponding PM with your real life name xxx

MissLolita I have the widgey pillow and found it great for DS2. It is nice and solid so it doesn't squidge down with weight of the baby. I found it really comfortable. Also, I did the baby will be late thing with DS1, and he came at 39 weeks. I went into complete denial that I was in labour. I was quite silly really.

My Mum has been visiting this weekend and has cleaned and tidied my whole house. She has done all of the nesting stuff that I just don't have the energy for. I am so lucky. I feel ready for the baby to come now.

6 weeks to go!!!

Woke up cleaned bathroom, washed, t-cut scratches out of car ready for sale, waxed car...fiddled with new car, washing done, caught up with best friend and neighbours.. shopping done...the list goes on....I have no idea where this burst of energy came from! more productive Saturday then I would normally have when not pregnant. even read baby books and a magazine and tidied nursery...I imagine I will not be able to move tomorrow, is this some form of nesting?!?!?

Confuddled hope all is improving with you and baby!

Jimmychoo, I have more energy now too. Weird! Not napping as much in the afternoons.

Regarding sleeping...I have 2 smart price ones for cushioning my hips, one under bump which has become wedge shaped, a triangle one which lays either side of torso and 2-3 pillows (depending on my indigestion) under my shoulders and head plus one between my legs. It's quite a sight and certainly fills up my side of the bed! I sleep fairly well but have trouble dropping off because of my restless legs....anyone worked out a cure for that? Hoping it doesn't get worse.

Sorry x post.....cara it's odd! I tell you what tho...am fairly sure icouldstill pull off naps in the week at work mind ;-) something about afternoon meetings......

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been on here much but I am having a bit of a time with this GD. Posted on my GD support thread recently so I'm including the link here

Congrats to confuddled! I do hope your little one starts to do better on your colustrum. I am going to start expressing at 36 wks as apparently GD delays the milk coming in for another 24 hrs, and the babies are at a high risk for hypoglycaemia so it's good to have colustrum to give them.

Twit I have 'buy more nursing bras' on my list too and still haven't done it. I'm a bit like Ginfox in terms of not achieving much on my 'to do' lists. Mind you, I have organised a 19 yr old from round the corner to do the school run for me twice a week which should give me a bit of a break and more time to order things.

I'm not napping much, seem to have better energy at the moment.

Fraochsmum I agree about the dressing gown and I have even bought a new one just to go in my hospital bag (just in case I have to go into hospital). I also think a trashy mag or book is good because I remember taking lots of highbrow stuff into hospital before ds1's birth and just not managing to focus on any of it.

rundmc I'm glad you got a goahead for normal vaginal delivery and hope the baby turns for you. Have you looked at the spinning babies website? Or some people find acupuncture helps.

I thought it was funny on Thursday when the obstetrician had problems finding my baby's heart beat and said the baby was 'back to back'. Previously she had been pretty consistently on one side and i had been feeling kicks in the right place. We had a scan later the same day and the sonographer said she was LOA which seemed right to me. I think some obstetricians are just bad at working out which bits are which by manual palpation - I've always found the midwives to be far better.

Want2bsupermum I completely agree with you about labour not being as bad as the waiting. I'm not one of these 'orgasmic birth' people, of course the labour is painful, but in my mind, once labour has started, it's far better to know that it's going to end at some point rather than just having to hang on in there with a huge belly feeling really hot and tired and not knowing when it's all going to finish.

and finally I love the dreamgenii too. It can be used for breastfeeding afterwards if you kind of wrap it round yourself, although it's a bit squidgier than some of the dedicated breastfeeding pillows like the boppy. I don't have one this time round [sob]

Hi all. Just having a toss and turn in bed so thought I'd come here for a bit.

Friday night they tried to get baby back on milk, gradually with the drip still in place. They gave her 2ml of formula - pumping was rubbish on Friday - every hour, she didn't bring it up so they drained her stomach to see how much was there and it was 8ml! So back off milk. I pumped all Saturday and was getting 10ml colostrum a time [proud boast] managed 4 lots of that then did 35ml! (Colostrum comes in 5ml amounts so my boobs have been working hard!) So they have about 80ml of my milk and as of Saturday night she's getting 1ml an hour!

My Doula wrote my story up on our private forum which was a little hard going as there were a few problems that I only had hazy memory of so was filled in better. Apparently my mum came before I was pushing as OH had called her as I'd asked - it was my sister's birthday and Mum had popped out to see her. She tried to come in and someone stopped her and said I didn't want her there and it was my decision! I was really upset about that, Mum didn't tell me because she knew it wasn't true. Personally I think they didn't need any more witnesses to how brutal they were being [cynical] my poor Doula was a back-up and what should have been easy - hold the gas & air, wipe my brow etc - ended up being thrown in it.

What else...

We asked the unit if they'd exempt our pastor from visiting so he could come and pray with us, they said yes but would still count him in numbers - max 3 to a bed - so instead they're going to let us take her to the chapel for half an hour with no limits on who can be there. Pastor said he could do it after morning service so I need to find out after breakfast if she's well enough (obviously can't take the lights with us!) and OH will let him know before the service. It's not a baptism type thing, nothing wrong with her like that, just prayer and anointing.

Mumtook a picture home that the hospital gave us and scanned it, OH has made it into a power point slide so her birth can be added to the notices in the service. After the service Mum's bringing me some clothes up and taking me out for dinner as I haven't left in over a week!

Little tip, don't buy Tesco's disposable pants! I just had to get a midwife to cut me out of a pair that were rolled into my section scar! They're a size 18-20 maternity supposedly! You've seen a couple of pictures of me on Facebook, I'm not that big!

I'd better try and get some sleep although the contractions are driving me up the wall! I can't express without oramorph because they get worse. I'm just falling apart below the lumber!

Another "toss and turner" here.....I can't believe I can't get any sleep after today....my body is craving it and I have such a big busy day tomorrow. :( stupid smoke alarm battery went and beeped but managed to kip thru it for 2 hours but gave in and took it down......that was 2 and a half hours ago....ZZzzzzzzz

Confuddled how comes u r still having contractions?

Anyone able to tell me their experiences of pethedine? Bumped into my friends hubby and he said she had no recollection of about 4-5 hours and only just remembers the birth!? Was ok birth tho and baby not drowsy. She's had mega bf issues since tho. Don't think that's related but she's really beaten herself up over it even tho they hd established feeding before she left.

After birth contractions. They shrink your uterus back to normal size and because I'm not breastfeeding it's taking it's time!

Just pumped 40ml and had to press call as I forgot to ask for pain killers first. I've stopped now (I'd need a new bottle anyway if I didn't ) but my tummy is really hurting and my boobs are still heavy. I need to stop pumping for comfort I think or I'll get engorged!

I've just fallen asleep with said 40ml in my hand, still attached to the expressing set. Not 40ml now... at least it was only 5ml I lost.

I had pethidine last time because they wanted me to sleep through my contractions as I'd be having a section. I didn't like the effect of it and I can't imagine what it's like to labour on it. It's one I'd leave as long as you can, do what you can on paracetamol and gas.

I had pethidine with dc2. I can only remember 1 long contraction as I passed out between them. The worst thing for me though was that she was born navy blue, no circulation, not breathing. And I was so spaced out I couldn't have cared less if they'd said she was dead.

Never again.

Hope all are well, hope babyconfuddled continues to improve. Still webless so posting in tiny chunks!

That's what I found. It didn't take the pain away just made me sleep between. I'd wake myself up crying out when a contraction came. I couldn't have changed position or anything to relieve it because it left me useless.

Well it's day 3.5 and I'm sobbing - yay - didn't help when midwife came to tell me they're asking the Dr to discharge me and take me off oramorph.

Off to have a - unmedicated - pump!