Nov 2011 - Mat B forms are in and time is flying not long now

[PamSco]

Sorry just went for a new thread as I couldn't see another.

Hope you are all well this morning

lk ooh how worrying, i'm glad you and livia are doing well. definately keep feet up and relax now.

mrsa glad you're feeling better today. did you have enough to eat and drink yesterday?

truffkin very of the spa.

i'm knackered after 2 days back at work, not sure how i'm going to manage doing the next 4 weeks.

i've booked onto a antenatal bf session thing, it's only 2 hours but am hoping they'll be able to help with some of the problems i had last time, as well as give me numbers of who i can call if i get problems again.

Stripey I was induced with DD, the pessary gel thing was fine but it burns like crazy! I'd never had a burning in that particular area before (or since!) so that was a new experience, but then I had to move on to the drip etc in the end. My own experience of being induced didn't end all that well, in that I ended up with emcs (but a healthy baby, and a healthy me, so in that respects I have no complaints), but I have loads of friends who have been induced and it has been fine. e.g. my sister was induced early, due to her baby's health problems, and whilst she had a very very long labour, she told me it was ok, really not as painful as she had feared it would be. Another friend was induced at around 35 weeks with both her pregnancies due to pre-eclampsia. Her first labour was around 5 hours, and her second labour was less than 2. So, for all the stories like mine, there are loads more where things go to plan.

MrsA I know what you are saying about the gestational diabetes, I have generally been able to keep the blood sugar under control most of the time, (although that has been by being very very strict with my diet) and it did make me wonder could they have got it wrong. As for the birth, I really don't know what to do. Part of me wants VBAC, I really do - this will be my second and last child, and on some level I feel that if I can't give birth to a baby 'properly' then on some level I have failed as a woman and as a mother. But in my first labour, she just got stuck anyway - I was fully dilated, and pushing, and I got nowhere because she was just too big to fit through my pelvis. The thought of going through all that again, and maybe getting to the same stage and having to have surgery anyway is just so scary. The ideal for me would be if I went into labour prematurely (although obviously not so prematurely that the baby would be at risk!) as that would take the decision out of my hands!

Sorry, thats an epic post. All mine are, once I start yakking, I can't stop.

Evening all,

I was going to suggest something like "It's the final countdown" for the next thread, but as we used up this one in a month I reckon that we wont be done by the end of that thread!!!

Sorry to hear about your scare LK, but lets hope you get home safe and sound tomorrow, I agree with everyone about how hard things are getting, am just living for the start of my maternity leave, but trying really hard not to complain to people apart from you guys and DH.

Have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes a couple of weeks ago so am busy finger pricking, diet watching and have to take tablets once a day, seem to be controlling my bloods now, but measured at 37 weeks yesterday so I doubt that they will let me go to full term, in theory baby H might be here in six weeks or so, both terrifying and really really exciting!!!

Thank goodness it's Wednesday :)

Evening, lk sorry to hear you've been in hospital miles from home, and missed a wedding, glad it looks as though you're heading home.

MrsArch your symptoms sound like low iron to me too. I had the dizzy drunk head thing and blood tests showed I was anaemic and Spatone has really helped.

Truffkin after an easy first 5 months I think I also underestimated how tiring this pregnancy would become. I am working until the end of October and have tons to do but no motivation. My 30 minute walk from the train to work now takes 40 minutes and I am so much more exhausted. Plus so difficult to even bend down these days!

Cali my DH is a shift worker too, in a hotel so literally 24 hours. I wish he could cut a deal like yours, I have no idea how its going to work when the little one comes. Since Sunday I have seen him for 5 minutes when I woke up when he came in at 1am this morning.

I am getting worried about my lack of organisation, which is really unlike me. Still haven't bought a thing for the baby, not even one babygro, and I don't know why I cant just get on with it. I think its all the stuff we have to do in the house putting me off but I need to bite the bullet and start shopping. Can you get personal baby shoppers??!

MW tomorrow so a half day at work, yippee.

lk just wanted to add that even if the worst came to the worst and you delivered soon, that there is a massive difference between a baby born at 28 weeks and a baby born at 31 weeks. Ds3 was born at 32 weeks and was released from hospital 15 days later. They are near enough normal at that age, just a bit small. I look at 32 weekers now and think they look massive compared to dd and they definitely move onwards to the SCBU within a few days.

NOT that that is going to happen to you but if it did, it wouldn't be as scary as for me and Poppet.

Evening all. Lk hope you and bump are ok and you and your bump too Pam. Am here just lurking/tired out! Just busy at work and kids etc!

Fingers crossed everyone else well etc! Off to bed and shall check in soon :-)

lk hope everything is still going well :)

mashpot I'll be your personal baby shopper, I'm absolute loving the shopping just not the paying for the shopping haha.

Tjuice wish my work was like that, your trip sounds lush!!

mrsA I felt like that early pregnancy and it was an inner ear infection it was horrid and I had it for about a month :-S

My last MW appointment went well am now classed as a normal pregnancy, I think it's funny how they just presumed that something would go wrong because my BMI was 35.5, my GTT is clear, blood pressure ridiculously low, I haven't but on much weight except baby and bump is measuring 30wks when I'm 29+5 so pleased as I feel like it's my body sticking the middle finger up at the system.

Not been good the last couple of days keep having really hot flushes and feeling sick I put it down to work as it only happens there haha!

Hello all. Livia still hanging in there although another scare last night with 7 hours of tightenings. But they calmed down so am v hopeful of going home today. 7 days in hospital 5 hours away from home is quite enough! Thanks all for good wishes. I can't wait for my own bed and a decent sleep ...

Oh LK i hope she hangs on in there - I bet when you're back home and more relaxed and get some sleep that things are much calmer. But like chip said, at 32 weeks, you're only 5 weeks off term.
And on a practical note, now that we're in September, if she does come early you know whe won't be going to school until she's almost 5 which may not seem important now but one of DD's friends is 2 weeks older than her (born 29 Aug) and will be off to school 4 days after she turns 4 next year whereas DD won't go for 2 years and she will be 2 weeks away from 5 when she starts.
That will suit DD so much better and she wasn't even premature. In fact I think if your baby is premature and was born in the summer, you can ask to defer a year.

Anyway, enough of me rambling - thanks for your messages I felt fine yesterday and feel the same today. I suspect it is down to the changes in my diet I've made. Whilst I don't believe I have gest diabetes, the raised blood sugars have made me make some slight changes. We do have a pretty good diet but I've swapped to wholemeal pasta and brown rice, and am having the whole earth peanut butter that doesn't have sugar added. Small changes but hopefully they should keep things on an even keel.

I have also started taking spatone. My accupunturist is part of a natural childbirth forum and she got some free samples that she gave me. I liked it so much (I couldn't stomach floradix) that we ordere 6 weeks worth (3 for 2 at Tesco!), so hopefully that'll sort me out.

snoozle you make a very interesting point about your last birth. It sounds similar to mine in that I was induced (pessary and then drip). I feel cheated as I never got fully dilated and pushing and the EMCS really affected my bonding and feeding of DD, so I need to know I've given it my best shot. But if you did everything you could to get your LO out, then another c-section might not be so terrifying.
Can I ask - were you pushing lying on your back? Ina May Gaskin believes that no one ever grows a baby too big to birth. Even discussing gest diabetes, she advises on diet if blood sugars are high but does not recommend daily testing and just lets the woman get on with it. On The Farm (her birthing community in America) they encourage a vegetarian diet high in veg and pulses.

She also recommends birthing kneeling or on hands and knees (especially good for preventing shoulder dystocia - where the head comes out but the shoulders are stuck) and that changing position or rocking during pushing can also help.
The Farm has birthed thousands of babies and has a c-section rate of 1% and foreceps rates of about 0.1%. Results speak volumes.....

On DD's antenatal thread, a mum gave birth to No2 4 months ago at home with an independent midwife. The baby was over 11lbs and she birthed naturally and didn't tear.

Each to their own but clinical data shows growth scans can be very inaccurate, just saying

Sorry for mega post - must do some work.

Hi everyone

Haven't been on here for ages as we have had a really busy summer caravanning all over the place.

Also exhausted with very low iron and low blood pressure so have been feeling wiped out. So glad my boys are back at school so now have a chance to recover and rest.

Wow am amazed at the two babies born already so contratulations to both our new baby girls - how lovely. What a surprise but glad they are both doing so well.

Will have a read through all the posts on here - will need a rest afterwards, you are really a chatty lot!

Morning all, at work, but failed to yet do anything which could be classed as work!

Really need to sort this out now as it's bugging me... IK/LK which one is it...capital 'i' or little 'l'. More importantly, i'm glad it looks like you may be on your way home soon, and I agree, the stress element may disappear once you are home and things will be much less likely to kick off!

Though chip it's really nice of you to assure us all of the difference of being born at 31/32 weeks. Makes me worry much less know. Though I still hope the rest of the beans stay put for a couple of more weeks at least! I'm thinking Bonfire night could bring my little girl along a week early, with the excitement of fireworks! Though 2 weeks early would be nice as my mum is visiting that week! Chances are she'll probably stay put for weeks now!

Truffkin & Tjuice I am so jealous of your spa and "work" trips! They sound lovely!

I too am so excited about strictly coming back! I love this time of year, all the good tv is back! X factor, Strictly, Doc Martin starts again on Monday. I love saturday nights in front of the tele when it's miserable outside! The miserable weather this week, just makes me think Christmas is getting closer and I absolutely love it!

H007 pleased everything is "normal" as they put it... try not to get too stressed out about work etc though... just remember life's more important!

MrsA I agree completely about the birthing on your knees or all fours etc... even if you're not into the whole natural/mother earth type things, everything I've read tells me that laying on your back is not the way to go!

I haven't made any decisions about the birth yet, other than the fact that im taking my yoga ball and am going to be on my feet, moving around, leaning over my ball etc throughout. Do not intent to lay on my back unless they're taking the knife to me for any reason!

It just seems like common sense to let gravity help things along!

So glad it's thursday... yoga day... hoping she will give me some advise re the pain at the top of my leg! Failing that will chat to mw about it on sat and see if there is anything I can do as its making it difficult to get around now :(

Good morning all!

Mrs Arch Isn't it funny that we're "trained" to do certain things? The "lying on your back" is actually a relic of when women would often bleed to death after birth - if they were on their back, it was easier to hoist the foot of the bed up and prevent her bleeding out.
For the life of me, I am not lying down for as long as I can manage - I'm planning on squatting/standing as long as my legs can hold me, and have DP hold me up when they can't. Good thing he's a tall big ice hockey player.

Had a GP appointment today - I love my small one-doctor surgery!
She was happy that I looked happier. She did, how ever, give me two options.
1: If I get the temp HR job I'm interviewing for tomorrow, to rip up the sicknote she gave me.
2: If I don't get the job, use the sicknote signing me off my call centre job until I'm off for Mat. Leave.

She thinks going back to sitting tethered at a phone for two/three weeks would make me worse, and she does NOT want to up my medication just so I can go back. She was humming at the other job, but said if I felt I was able to cope with a less stressful job (and one clearly more suited to me), she was happy for me to go do it (with the "don't come crying to me, I told you so" look, which is fair enough).

She also told me to stop feeling guilty - that some pregnant ladies are energetic and lively until birth, but some just need more time resting and a slower pace.

Sprout has had hiccups all morning - good thing to know that her little lungs will be strong and good for all the screaming in 7 weeks time! (53 days to go!!!)

H007 I'm the same - had "DOOOOM" written all over my file - BMI of 38... Put on 7lbs so far, GTT perfect, 120/75 BP...

Good to know that most of it is "worst case scenario" stuff.

Cali I know, it's amazing how things develop. I've also read that Louis IV of France was fascinated by childbirth so he ordered his mistresses to give birth on their backs so he could watch! And it caught on from there.
I've never birthed naturally but even before DD came along, my overwhelming instinct was that i would want to birth on my knees, leaning over the bed or sofa.

It's the same with lots of stuff eg lesbianism have never been illegal in the UK whereas homosexualism used to be, all because Queen Victoria refused to believe 2 women could have sex
And our traditional image of Christmas is courtesy of Charles Dickens. Before him, it was very different.

Stuff like that fascinates me.

God baby brain - homosexualism???? WTF???!!!

MrsA Kneeling is my preferred/automatic position for pushing, found a large cushion (that is tossable afterwards) for kneeling on works well for me though I've heard other recommending thick yoga mats or camping mats.

Husband is plotting out the birthing room (or how to combine it with the stuff we already have in there) which works very well with my nesting needs right now . He's also been very sweet and bought the first new thing for baby and me (a nursing support pillow) and went out to buy all the things for DS1's birthday tomorrow (which he's been reminding of for the last week...every morning we get the countdown and then reminded of the countdown throughout the day). Will be spending today making a cake with him and this evening wrapping up his presents and blowing up balloons. Thankfully I've been blessed with a day of feeling pretty well (except some sore ab muscles) to get all this done!

Thank you for the info and advice Snoozle and MrsA re induction. The maternity unit in Manchester seems pretty well kitted out, and the bed contorts to all sorts of shapes to keep you as upright as possible, and secure when under an epidural. I really really don't want to end up 'flat on my back', and have already said so to the obs, and she's very much against it too, esp as it puts more strain on the body, therefore on the heart. I think I will try and get some advice from my antenatal class on Saturday as to the best position. It's all a wee bit nerve wrecking.

what a scare Ik, I'm glad that things seem to be getting better, and I hope you get home soon.

Had a wee scare myself last night, was woken up at 4.30am with severe tummy cramps located around the lower half of my uterus. Thought it might be a combination of BH and constipation. Went to the loo, but it seemed to get worse and coming in waves of severe pain with an underlying burning ache - no blood or discharge though. Got advised to go to Lancaster (our nearest unit that deals with more awkward cases), just in case something was kicking off, cos I'd have to be transferred to Manchester asap. Spent a couple of hours being monitored there, still with the pain but no contractions were identified, and Modom was quite happily bouncing about like a bean (which didn't help with the pain). So to cut a long story short it was probably trapped wind with the occasional BH . But I guess that's the problem with being a first timer, got no bl**dy idea what's going on, or what's what. The MWs were lovely, and explained about contractions starting at the top of the uterus then traveling down - so now I know for next time!! Took some paracetamol and feeling lots better apart from the odd twinge - going to have a bath and hide my shame :o

Sorry for massive post x

pmsl at MrsA's lesbianism stories! I too love things like that though!

Stripey glad all was OK, but you've got me thinking I too do not have a clue what contractions feel like. It's only last week I found out the funny tightening of my belly is what braxton hicks are.

Maybe some advise needed from those who are a dab hand at this? Are contractions like BH but more painful, or are they something completely different?

Also... embarrassing Q to ask... but who cares on here! At what point do the constipation and piles kick in! It's the one thing I've been dreading the whole way through and wondering if I've managed to avoid it or if that's all still to come?!

Staceroo Pretty much like extremely strong BH during stage 1 (stage 2 is a completely different kettle of fish) for me, though the tightening can be in different areas depending on your body and the baby's position (hence back labour tends to be more tightening in the back, some people describe the tightening going down into their thighs since all the muscles in the area are interlinked).

And piles and constipation doesn't happen to everyone - actually, I think it's far more common after the birth than before (at least the focus on it by health profs. seems to suggest that). I know quite a few women who keep a gentle laxative in their postpartum care kits as standard due to it.

What's that coming over the hill, the third trimester? third trimester?
Feathering our nests and buying baby vests
Almost at the home straight...
Two beautiful babies born, many more to come...
Mat leave: probably the best holiday in the world...

Some daft suggestions to get us started...obviously some of them won't apply to all of us though.

lk how are you doing now? horrible not to be close to home. Hope things get better for you. Stripey same for you, no more frights and eat some apricots and let yer wind gang free eh

I got sent home from work this afternoon and didn't mention anything about wanting to go or feeling ill, I can only conclude that I must look very rough. Do feel it though- so tired of not sleeping and waking up in night with claw hands.

Getting mightily peed off with tradesmen. Have been chasing one for literally weeks, time to let it go me thinks. just wish they would say, nah job isn't for me, not fob you off. Means baby's room is at a standstill. Gah.

That's my moan for the day. Hope all is well wherever you are.

Aren't we all in the 3rd trimester now?

Yeah probably Cali.

Folic - I love "feathering our nests and buying baby vests!" You should be a copywriter. I couldn't for the life of me put some headlines together today. And I left my passport on the plane yesterday! I never believed in "pregnancy" brain before, but I think I am losing it a bit. Thank god its 4 weeks today until I am off on ML.

Re. birth position - its weird because I did all the reading about kneeling etc and really thought that's how it would go for me, but when it came down to it, it just felt right to push on my back. Maybe if it was a longer period of pushing, I would have had to move around into different positions, but I had the last cervix check and then 17mins later, Elodie was born. Now I am just scared that I will give birth early again and in 10 mins in my office toilets or something!

afternoon ladies. Saw my anethetist (sp) today had to see him to discuss yet more risks of being overweight. But again he seems happy for me to go the the mlu, i have good veins on my hands and good airways apparently, he's written something on my notes but for the life of me i can't understand his writing.