Jue in June -Waters breaking everywhere and not a drop of Gaviscon to drink...

[NurseSunshine]

Here's another :)

Thank you Millie I am probably just over analysing! tmi alert did have loose bowel movement so maybe it was just that

whoops missed your post - good luck joanne hope you don't have to go to hospital, keep relaxed

No movement here. Less cramping than yesterday actually so I don't think I'm in the imminent club just yet

Hello ladies definitely no labour or anything here for me, but very very excited for everyone else! Go go go joanne and all you other ladies!!

barbie I can not BELIEVE what happened to you ! I hope that midwife apologised to you for being such a complete cow! So glad you stuck to your guns - being a first-timer I'd have probably gone home. Steeling myself to stick up for myself if it comes to it now :)

SELF-INDULGENT RANT ALERT - FEEL FREE TO IGNORE THIS NEXT BIT:

Getting slightly pissed off with my mum now. We have told her, several times, that we don't want people staying over in the first couple of weeks (she lives two hours away, along with DH's parents (they live more or less in the same town, and my dad lives an hour away). She is coming to stay for a week when DH goes back to work after paternity leave and we have said that people are more than welcome to pop up and see us and the baby whenever they like for the day but we won't be putting them up. We have also said that we'd like to come home from the hospital (all being well and we get to come home the same day), settle in, and for people only to start coming up the next day. The other day, in a very hint-hint wink-wink way, she said 'I've told work that the minute I hear you're in labour I'm leaving because it's a very special time and I'm not missing it for anything'. I said, 'well, you won't need to drop tools and leave work that moment because you'll be coming the next day anyway, won't you?' She went a bit quiet and the topic changed. Today she said 'I'm just going to pack an overnight bag because if you go into labour in the middle of the night I'll want to be there straight away, and I know you don't want people to stay but I suppose we'll have to find a Travelodge or something'. I said no need to pack an overnight bag as we wouldn't want people arriving at our house before we've even got home, and she said 'I knew you wouldn't tell us until you'd had the baby!' (which explains why she's ringing every five minutes to find out if I'm in labour or not). I have now texted her and said we'll definitely keep her updated about what's going on, but I meant that she won't need a Travelodge (which she knows she won't be able to find at 2am anyway!) because we want to come home, get settled in, and have a few hours to ourselves before everybody visits. She has ignored this text entirely, despite getting it about six hours ago.

We are also planning on having a little get-together in our garden in August giving friends/less close relatives the chance to come and meet the baby if they would like. We have told my mum (again, several times) that we probably won't go down to visit her during the school summer holidays or that we'll just play it by ear. Now she's started organising (and inviting people to!) her own little get together so they can visit the baby down there! And she's told DH's parents and my grandmother on my dad's side (she's been divorced from my dad for 25 years but my nan lives very close to her and they still get on). So now she's expecting us to take the baby to her house so she can throw a party for people which supersedes our own and is at a time we told her we didn't want to go home.

Grrrr.... all this would be fine if it wasn't the tip of the bleedin' iceberg.

Sorry for the rant!!!

Curiouselle I was going to suggest that if its not your bowels then the pains may be just a sign of your cervix slowly ripening and things shifting around. I think sometimes pains down that way are a sign of something imminent, sometimes they are just indicative of us being in the last couple of weeks of the longhaul.

I have been suffering from some lovely nerve pain on the right-hand side of my groin for days now, think she may be bouncing on something .

No more show since this morning . Hope otehrs are moving along nicely, my money is on Joanne and Almighty!

TTL x-posted.

I have nothing to suggest but your Mum sounds just like mine - I think some Mums work themselves into a massive frenzy of Granny-ness and do things by the end of your pregnancy that are completely insane. My Mum is a very sensible level-headed self-made bossy in control business woman who is currently working herself into a frenzied ball of emotional, hysterical hell, and did exactly the same when I was pregnant with ds. I think I posted on here ages ago about my Mum crying in the DAU when I was pregnant with ds that she didn't want them to let me out until I'd had the baby safely (I was around 34 weeks and was having some uterine grumblings). My Mum also got upset as she thought I was keeping ds away from her after he was born (she only got to see him every weekend and at least once in the week)

I think it is even worse if it is their little girl who is having the baby,and it is a big life event for them becoming a grandparent. I also think though it is worth reminding them sometimes that it is not as big a life event for them as it is for you and your partner. Hope you manage to sort things, maybe its worth having a very firm word now to avoid massive showdowns after the baby is born? I told my Mum off a couple of months ago when she "insisted" I book myself in for a CS this time around as she couldn't cope with the "stress" of waiting for me to have the baby safely a second time, and also that I should stop work immediately. I told her that I was in control of my pregnancy, not her, pretty much. It was a horrible conversation at the time and things were a little frosty for a bit, but she doesn't seem quite as frenzied as last time .

Go joanne sounds promising. I hope you get your home birth and you don't get transferred to hospital due to a staff shortage.

Also sounds like a few more us may deliver fairly soon so good luck to others that are feeling like labour is imminent!

barbie I really feel for you. I had to have a similar conversation with my Mum as she wanted to dash straight up here after the baby was born. We would have had to put her up and whilst like you I am not adverse to the day visitor.. night time stays are out for the first 2 weeks! I had to explain that me and DH needed time to become a family and to adjust to life with this new little person in it and there would be no negotiations on this. My marriage is incredibly important to me and I wasn't willing to compromise on that. We also had to have a similar conversation with MIL. They both seem to accept that this is what we want although I'm sure they think we are weird! I hope you manage to sort it out with minimal further stress.

8RD not fair... you can't enter the race without me... please don't leave me

Neenewps don't make me laugh or my waters might break or something, and then you'll be screwed .

Just while I think about it too...

Ladies that have already given birth or about to... what did you do with your lady gardens in the end :o

8RB :o

Come on Joanne! Am sure you'll get to stay at home :)

Am thinking of everyone else who's having shows/rumblings

TTL strange how people just don't seem to hear what you're telling them sometimes isn't it. Maybe you could write her an email or something? It might be easier to get your point across in writing rather than phone or face to face where you can lose your thread or get frustrated.

[snurk] at 8RD's water going all over neenewps. Let go of her leg neen! She's supposed to save that sort of behaviour for mean MWs or free stuff in shops.

While reading the days posts I just ate nearly a whole block of Galaxy caramel . Wait til my DH finds out .

Kara DH is a bit up and down with his OCD. The depression seems to be holding off, but he's struggling. It's very much a step forward, half a step back at the moment. Hopefully as and when I go into labour he'll be able to put all that aside and just focus on me and LO. Thank you very much for asking.

TTL sounds like a nightmare with your mother. You're obviously not trying to insult her or deny her access, but she really should respect that you and your DH need some breathing space! My parents were great when DS was born and it's a pity they'll miss out this time around (being on the other side of the world and all), but then this time PILs are here (they missed out last time) and I've let DH know that they're welcome in the days after LO is born (partly because I really don't want comments about unwashed dishes etc when I've just had a baby and really can't be arsed with housework!). They mean well, but just know how to make me feel not quite good enough too. Anyway, I hope you and your DH sort it out before the baby comes.

Evening all,

sorry for the recent absence but it's all been a bit manic here. I haven't had a chance to catch up but hoping there have been more babies and huge congratulations to those who have them! To those who are still waiting, your time will come . . . deep breaths :)

For those who are interested here's my birth story with an added extra on what's been happening since . . . .

I had been having twinges on an off for a few weeks so thought nothing of the twinges I was getting on thursday 9th as they were no different to the others. 1am woken up by dd wanting a drink, 2.20am woken up by a rather large twinge. Lay in bed for another hour attempting to time them but seeing as they were nothing dramatic or even painful I wasn't too fussed.

Around 3.15am I decided to get up anyway as timing had totally woken me up! By the way the timing was rubbish as they were totally irregular in spacing and how long they lasted, plus they really weren't even vaguely painful. Went to the loo, had a show and my waters broke. Rang the hospital, this was around 3.30am, who told me to come in as my waters had broken. Called parents to come over, they live around 45mins away, and went upstairs to wake dh.

The rest sort of blurs but at some point around 3.50amish the contractions got really strong and I needed to breath through, at 4.10am dh called parents who were still 20/30 mins away so called a friend to come over until they arrived. 4.20am got in the car, back seat on all fours with my tens and really not feeling like I was coping with the pain but doing my best to keep calm.

We pulled into the hospital car part and Dexter's head came out, well as out as it can into a pair of knickers . I pulled them down as much as I could and the rest of the head came out. Dh was at this point driving with one hand on the wheel and the other holding the head. I pushed him out just as we arrived at the maternity unit. Dh ran in, midwives ran out and whisked Dexter off.

I was taken inside, just a little bit shaky from the whole thing, and my placenta was delivered fine. In total my labour was from the first contraction that was painful enough to have to breath through to when he was born around 40 mins. I managed to get a 2nd degree tear but didn't need stitches.

Now Dexter! Because he was born outside in a car his temperature dropped significantly and he had problems breathing. They took him to scbu where he was warmed up and placed on a ventilator (with morphine on drip to stop him fighting the ventilator). For 2 days they had him ventilated as he couldn't regulate his oxygen or carbon dioxide. He had also somehow picked up a lung infection, no idea what it was, so was placed on a cocktail of antibiotics for that. The final problem was the green gunk they kept pulling from his stomach. It was assumed that he had swallowed meconium but there wasn't any in the waters and none in the car so to me seemed unlikely.

After 4 days it was decided that the hospital couldn't do anymore for him and didn't know what the problem with his stomach was as it wasn't improving. He was transferred to Addenbrooks in Cambridge, luckily only about 40mins from us, at 6pm on tuesday. Dh and I went home, put the other dc's to bed and then headed off.

We arrived just as Dexter was being wheeled down for an x-ray. An hour later the nurse came in and said they had found a blockage in his bowel and would need surgery. The surgery team came in and decided to operate that night. At 11.30pm we accompanied him being wheeled down to theatre. 1.30am he was out and told he had a malrotation of the bowel which can lead to death if not treated. It was basically a kink which meant nothing could get down so was all coming back into the stomach therefore nothing was being absorbed.

Anyway, fast forward a few days and he is now taking milk (I have been a daisy moo cow) but it will still be a few days until we can take him home as he needs to be on full feeds and not being sick.

It's not been the most ideal start to life with 3, there has been sooooooo much traveling and trying to fit it around the other 2 so as not to disrupt them too much, but he is perfectly gorgeous and we cannot wait to get him home with us.

Sorry for the all about me post! Now I will try to catch up with everyone else :)

Wow, what a busy couple of days for babies!

First of all welcome to kitcat and congratulations to MN2, CMH, Labella, Tabitha and Jimper!

I hope things are moving along for anyone else with missing plugs, back pains and breaking waters.

I'll get a bit of my birth story down now as it seems we will have a few to read over the next few days. Well I hadn't had so much of a braxton hick that was noticeable, nevermind a show or other symptoms so I thought I had weeks left yet. I went to bed on Wed night as normal but i couldn't sleep properly after the first hour. I kept waking with a gurgly tummy and thinking I needed a poo but I couldn't go. I gave up trying to sleep around 4am and got up to watch a film.

Husband woke up at 6.30 for work and by this time I was starting to think it could possibly be contractions as I noticed the gurgly pain feeling wasn't just my tummy but also in my back, although they weren't very strong. Dh got showered/ready for work but by the time he was ready to leave my cx had strenghtened a bit and he insisted on taking the day off. I was trying to assure him that just becasue contractions might have started a baby wasn't necessarily going to come the same day and that he should go to work as normal but he wanted to stay home anyway (and i'm very glad he did in the end)

I pottered about a bit as pain wasn't very intense but they were noticeably regular now as 10 mins apart but I was still insisting to dh not to get too excited as could stop or not intensify but I had a bath and they seemed to jump from every 10 mins to every 5 mins so dh took ds to family whilst i packed hospital bag. I posted about 11.30 am on the fb group to say cx were getting more regular, when suddenly pain became noticeabally stronger and I was thinking about needing a bit of pain relief.

Dh arrived home 5 mins later and I told I was ready to go to hospital. We only live 5 mins away but the journey was the most uncomfortable part of my labour. I had to lie across the back seat as coulod feel pressure from the babys head and I had a couple of cx that were now a bit intense on the journey. I arrived at hospital at 12.10pm and they took me straight to a delivery room as I had another painful cx as I handed over the notes so I asked for G&A straight away which imediately gave me relief. I was examined straight away and told I was already 10cm dilated so mw left to go and get warm towels ready for imminent arrival. Thea was born at 1.05pm and I was so happy to have had a labour so different to my induced labour, where I was in control all along, I could manage my pain and decide what position to birth in. I feel so lucky to have had the possible labour experience I could have had.

Thea is so beautiful, ds is in love with her which is cute. I'll try to add a pic to the group tomorrow.

Saturday night is birth story night! Thanks for sharing Crumble and Knackered. I am so sorry to hear Dexter has been ill Knackered, but very happy that he has had his surgery and is improving - it must have been very scary and difficult for you all.

Really interesting reading all these birth stories! Everyone should put one on.

Probably already told you a bit of my story- it was such a long time ago but here is a summary:-

Went for a 'routine' scan (it was actually my 19th scan ). Consultant said 'Twin 2 has stopped growing I think you need to have your babies soon'- 'we need to deliver tomorrow'. Seeing i was only 32 weeks that was a big shock. Then he said 'no actually today'!!!

Then I was taken to the mat ward. Shortly after they came and said we dont have two cots in neo natal you'll need to go to another hospital. An ambulance took me to neighbouring Wigan (they put the siren on- very surreal).

I had Naomi by c-section at 8.10pm- they flashed her in front of my eyes. Then Ciara was born at 8.13pm, they took her out of the room then brought her back in for me to have a swift look before they took them both to the intensive care room at neo natal. I was eventually taken to my own room - later on a midwife came in and said 'you can go and see them now' I was so happy until she said 'no not you love'- she had been talking to my DH and my mum . The next morning I finally got to see my daughters properly.

Congratulations Crumble I want to see your pic. I've e-mailed milliemuffin but I've not been invited to the group (or if i have its not obvious) can anyone else invite me

just re read my story- sorry its so brief I don't think it sums up the emotional rollercoaster very well. Sleep deprevation is my excuse [sleepy smile]

I can Clarkiee

Thanks for the birth stories everyone. So interesting to read!

Wishing Dexter a speedy recovery Knackered. Must've been a really difficult time for you all but thankfully they found out what was wrong and got it sorted in good time :)

Clarkiee I sent you an MN message Tuesday at 8:15 saying I couldn't find you on fb (none of the pics I could see were as you described) and I suggested you add me instead. Having said that I've since been having trouble adding people to the fb group so if you pm NurseSunshine and hopefully she'll be able to add you instead.

Loving the birth stories tonight :)

Thanks nurse and milliemuffin will have a look for you message millie xxx

Clarkiee have PMed you

Just a quick one to say baby Rafael was born this afternoon. 3 day labour, one with gas & air. Lovely midwife. Baby healthy so far, it seems. I had big blood loss after, rushed to theatre, general anaesthetic but seem to be ok now, just a bit shellshocked! not fed him yet but haven't eaten myself in a few days...

Will catch up properly soon but just wanted to share my news!

Wow congratulations citizen- 3 days!!?!!?
Hope you recover soon- enjoy

Thanks nurse

Congratulations Citizen. Hope yoiu have a very speedy recovery :)

Well, best part of 3 days from when quite regular contractions started. People seem to count from different points but it certainly felt that way to me!

Hello Everyone

I have finally found a few minutes to post, but haven't read the thread so will have to have a catch up, big congratulations to those who have given birth and I hope that those still waiting wont be waiting to long!

I am totally and utterly in love, Cormac is beautiful and I am amazed by him, I can't stop gazing at him and kissing him.

He is 6 days old now - actually I think I was in labour this time last week! He hasn't slept for more than 30 minutes at a time though - I am totally exhausted. I feel and look like a zombie, been sleeping down stairs with him as it seems to make the nights shorter. He seems very windy and cries ALOT for hours unless he is being fed or held/rocked by me, he will only sleep in my arms. I think I am averaging about 2 hours broken sleep a night. On the plus side though, all the feeding must be doing something right as he was weighed for the first time since he was born yesterday and hasn't lost any weight so I was pleased. I am breast feeding and expressing the occassional bottle for him too, my nipples are in surprisingly good condition though, I am using mothercare mum to be nipple cream constantly and changing breast pads every time I feed which is hourly so I am able to keep them from cracking.

I am missing my other DC loads, I want them home but they are not due back for another week, I can't wait that long though so am having them back on Monday for a little while. I don't want them to feel left out because Cormac has arrived, I think having him has made me love them all more than I though possible if that makes sense.

I will add you on facebook Millie, thanks for the PM.

I will have a read of the thread now, can't wait to find out the baby news!

I am still trying to get used to the name Cormac as DP choose it and I forget it sometimes.

DP has gone out to wet the babies head tonight and I am feeling a bit left out, I have done alot this week though, went round the supermarket the day after he was born, visited lots and lots of relatives, went into town to get a fathers day gift for DP etc so need to take it easier I think. I miss DP, not just because he has gone out but in other ways too, I miss sleeping in the same bed as him and I miss the affection, I just dont want to be touched right now, even hugs hurt my boobs!!

Off to gaze at Cormac some more, as I have finished expressing now, will be back later!