Nov 2011 - almost time to push!

[TerrysNo2]

Last thread was full so thought I would just start this one off - hope you don't mind as I know I've not been a regular but god forbid you guys having nowhere to chat ;)

Right, caz what's happening, I am stalking you all over the shop and need more news :)

Welcome hadak
snoozle great news about happy baby. Hope you can recover from your ordeal fast though :(
I think it is fair enough not to share your DS?s name. I?m sure it?s lovely
I must agree with your points on BF. IMO this is a decision every woman makes for herself and I don?t know why people judge. As you say, yes, in an ideal world every woman would breastfeed her child, but that is just not representative of the actual world. Good on you for having made your decision and sticking with it. Don?t let anyone make you feel guilty
cali so glad that you sound so much better! And well done for Abi latching on. Such a clever little girl :)
gold I have a feeling I will be pregnant forever...just can?t seem to shake the denial off!
I?ve also been suffering from various gastric issues. I am back on ABs for something or another. Was woken several times last night with cramps, but I have no idea if they are stomach cramps, or contractions...Grr!
Hope you feel better soon


Anyone else up? Couldn't be bothered to lay in bed tossing and turning any longer and I thought, oh well I might as well get up for work, forgetting of course about clocks going back. derrrr!

Morning all. Cali well done Abigail and yay for pre pregnancy jeans!
Awful night last night, pains but they weren't turning into anything serious. Very uncomfortable. Backs still sore, can't get rid, PMA is that I hope it's just because bubs is moving down a bit more as have aches on the other side to the sore side! Up far to early as per. PMA the f1 is on in a couple of hours. Was very much hoping to not be pregnant by the end of this weekend! Kids at their dads until teatime and OH obviously off work. The timing would have been great! So back to alternating between birthing ball and lying like a beached whale on the settee! Not entirely sure what to plan in for next week, not used to having time off! Repacked the hospital bags yesterday, all the washing is done. Am actually quite worried about going into labour at home on my own, or more so when my dd is here as she worries a lot. My ds takes things in his stride, she's the exact opposite. Ah well. Hope everyone is ok :) sorry for a bit of a grumpy post!

Terrys and Ali despite my decision not to bf, I agree 100% with you that I find it frustrating (possibly bordering on offensive!) when I hear people describe bf as 'icky' or 'yucky', and I have not taken offence at all with anything anyone has said on this thread about bf. I realise my case is a bit extreme and I would dearly love to have breastfed, but I think my energy as a mum is better focused on getting the other aspects right and doing the best I can for him.

OK, positive thoughts going out to everyone else this morning! Sending contraction vibes to everyone who wants them, and 'stay where you are for a few weeks yet!' vibes to everyone who doesn't.

Oh, and one more thing, when I was in hospital the strangest thing happened me. I had mentioned my terrible afterpains on a previous post, but what I forgot to mention was that one day, the baby in the bed opposite me was crying a lot, and every time she screamed, I got a contraction which had me in agony, it was so odd. It happens when my baby cries too, but I was so surprised to find that any baby crying had the same effect.....the body is a strange and wonderful thing. And afterpains - they are the great unspoken, you have all sorts of warnings from people about how painful labour can be, but no one prepares you for afterpains. I read somewhere they were mild cramps , but full blown contractions really was nearer the mark.

morning ladies. snoozle it doesn't matter what other people think, The best for your baby is what makes you both happy, be it ff or bf. There's no point making both of you miserable, stressed, depressed and on little mans' side hungry.

well i think i'll be into Nov as well, i have no signs of anything happening within the next two days. Which i'm happy with, i've been so busy the last two weeks with cooking and cleaning, i want to at least have a few days with ds at nursery, where i can just read or watch tv. Time for myself. Having said that i want to do the same as voodoo and go through my hosp bag to make sure i have everything and it's easy for dh to find.

voodoo i'm worried about ds being here (at least awake anyway), he wants to come with us to the hospital and doesn't want to stay with nana even though she'll be at our house. I don't think i'll be able to face the tears or guilt.

Morning all! Just a quickie to say congrats to hils and snoozle and great to hear you sounding so much more positive Cali. well despite only finishing work on fri and thinking I'd get at least a week of me time, it's looking like I may not even sneak into nov either!!! Waters broke at 1am this morn (with no warning/no pains) n now in throes of early labour at home after brief visit to birth centre to check all well. Contractions started about an hour after waters broke...so just waiting for things to heat up now...think x factor from last night as a distraction is in order!!! Hope everyone else is good.

Kate! Damn you! Kidding! Ah more babies on the way then, hope your managing ok. Don't do what I did when watching x factor and jeer them all, wouldn't be good in your current position!
Snoozle, you shouldnt have to justify your decision at all, your baby - your choice. It's more important to feed baby than it is to worry about the why's and wherefores. Well done for making what I'm guessing was a difficult decision and then for being brave enough to share your personal feelings, enjoy your little boy :)
Cep, I hear you re your ds, so hard having that worry as well. I know no matter what I do my dd will be worried, she is like my shadow and is starting to worry now. They will forget though.
Well am sending strong and positive contraction vibes to Kate! Seriously what is wrong with November? Lol!

Kate!! How exciting!! Hope you are doing ok, and managing to keep distracted in the early stages. Ooh v excited for you!

I keep watching for early signs, a show, waters breaking, period pain, anything as feel SO ready for this baby to come...but nothing!! Just an endless migraine.. Think having the baby would be the best cure!

Pma to you Kate!

Congratulations to all with babies (I'm so ). Good luck those in labour.

I'm 40 weeks tomorrow. Not a hope!!!!! So fed up. Cannot sleep, moving my pelvis is agony. Back permanently in spasm and BHs so strong yesterday I actually shouted. Scared the crap out of DH!!!! DD asked if there was a wasp (she's knows me so well).

PMA. Baby will come eventually.

snoozle I remember the after pains from last time as medium period cramping - after labour nothing could be considered painful anymore although the MW that came last week said that in subsequent pregnancies after pains are meant to be worse. I am not surprised you get them when there is a baby crying, you can also leak milk when you hear a baby crying and BF-ing causes your uterus to contract which causes the pains so although you are not BF-ing it sounds like your body is doing the same things.

Good luck Kate

cali so pleased you are just enjoying your time with Abigail. I found BF so hard at the beginning with DS but my reasons weren't that great TBH - I just found the pressure of being his only food source quite hard, so after 2 weeks we introduced an expressed bottle which DH gave and after 6 weeks added some formula to this feed (as I couldn't express enough) and just doing this took the pressure off me and made me relax and enjoy BF-ing (so much so, I carried on for far longer than I ever intended)

katiebeau sending ctx vibes your way!

Right, off to local farm + soft play for another "last outing before baby"

Morning all. Go kate hope you get going well.

I woke a bit earlier today obviously due to the clock change. I couldn't feel any movements for what seemed like ages. After an hour the kicking started phew. Then OH reminded me that The Boy would have no clue about the end of BST. I now have this vain hope that The Boy enjoys a weekend lie in to 08:30h - oh what bliss that would be :)

After my post about how I'll be pregnant forever it seems like I was wrong. And I hopefully wont even have a Nov baby as I have been having contractions for 4 hours now, getting progressively worse!! Now almost 5 mins apart, very regular. Going to hospital in a bit.

I think this is it - wish me luck!!

Good luck Kate! How exciting!
Oh gold Good luck to you too!

pandia I too am looking for signs and there is zilch :(. Just want him out already

Oh gold! Good luck!! Positive vibes!!
I'm going to cry in a corner now... Or go for a long walk when bloody OH gets out of bed.....

Voodoo, give him a kick up the jacksy.

Gold - good luck, hope it goes smoothly :)

Hey! Gold I thought you were my EDD buddy! Don't do this to me :)

Best of luck!

Congrats hils and snoozle enjoy your babies xx
Great news cali

kate & gold good luck, how exciting xx

I'm sure I'll be a Nov baby despite everyone telling me otherwise I'm sure baby will be late!! I'm more than ready & have been nesting like mad but baby seems quite content on giving me painful BH and other signs of pre-labour signs but not doing anything more xx

Oh wow, sounds like more babies imminent on this thread - good luck Kate and GoldMaple hope it all goes smoothly for you.

Voodoo I am feeling very much like you about what to do with myself for the next few weeks. Work has been my primary focus for so long, it feels really strange to have time off with no purpose (like if we were going on holiday or to an event!)

Tomorrow I have a few errands to run, then on Tuesday I'm travelling up to Birmingham to do (hopefully) final house viewings to finalise our move. I'm gong to stay over at my sisters so I don't have to get there and back in one day, so it will overlap into Wednesday too. I can't recall if I mentioned that we are moving from London back to Birmingham between the baby arriving and Christmas so I'm sorting out a rental house for the time being, so we have some flexibility around timings and we can then worry about buying the right house once we are settled. This does mean that I have some internet-based tasks to complete once we've agreed a contract as I will need to book a removal company and order a few bits of furniture to be delivered to the new place and then start packing, so will have things to keep me occupied.

I don't have any plans for Thursday and Friday yet, but am sure I will make the most of relaxing and pottering for just 2 days, which is why I have things planned for the first part of the week. I will then need to think about week 2, but one step at a time!!

I do need to sort my hospital bag out, baby's is done but I still had a few final things to get for me. Am picking up my tankini for in the pool this afternoon from Mothercare and need to find the flip flops I want to take with me, but pretty much everything else is sitting ready to be packed. We will need to decide on snacks and drinks so we have things ready to go, that is DH's job!

Oooo I'm so bloody hormonal eventually got OH out of bed with minimal tears (his) and minimal rage (mine) haha. I could actually sit and cry. Feels like pmt! It's a nice day so going to head to the coast and waddle along the seafront for a bit. If I could stomach fish and chips then today would be ideal.

Wow! Babies galore!

By the time this thread is full, we may be able to go straigh to post-natal! ;)

Ok I've decided I'm going to admit I'll be the one to turn out the lights here at the end :-(

I'm admitting it now I just have to accept it only doing this so that baby might make an appearance earlier hahaha

Goodluck to all those in labour or showing signs of early labour hate you :) and hello to all the newbies...

come on now please I've had enough

p.s. I'm only 37+2 so suppose I better make myself a and put my feet up, and stop wingeing

Thought id better pop in and say hi and a big congratulations for all those ladies who have had their scrummy babies. I dont think i have posted since the summer but wanted to mark my place for having a november baby still, seeing as though everyone else is having babies already! Very jealous, my little boy is breech with his bottom in my pelvis. They tried to turn him friday which was horrid, it didnt work due to being too late, too big espcially at 39 weeks and not enough fluid. Im having a c-section which isnt happening till the 14th november so i guess i will be here for quite a while.

Don't worry H007 - I'm only 37+5 so we're about the same. I'm off for a swim then a nice cup of raspberry leaf tea, trying to get things moving!

Pam and Truffkin I was going to ask about the TENS machines - has anyone used them before? Are they good and should I consider hiring one? Thank you.

HI guys,

I have finally caught up with all your news, it's taken me two days!!!

First up, the birth story!

I went into the hospital on Sunday last to have a planned induction, which was supposed to take between 24 and 36 hours to work, but didn't!!! So I was then waiting on the antenatal clinic until there was a place for me on the labour ward. Unfortunately I had to choose possibly the busiest week in the year and so I was waiting from 5am on Monday morning til 2am on Wednesday morning - to say that I was getting frustrated and upset would be a minor understatement, worse was that DH had to go home between 10pm and 9am, so had the whole evening on my own, pregnant ladies snore an awful lot too!!

Finally, there was a slot in the labour ward for me so DH got a phone call to get to the hospital whilst I got my stuff together and off we went!

The midwife broke my waters at five am, contractions started at seven and I got to know the initally fabulous effects of gas and air!!! However it didn't work and i basically got to 2cm by ten thirty, but felt really drunk so the anaesthetist came in and administered an epidural, she was one of the most favourite people I met that day and in my drunken gas and air state told her this and also explained that my bum felt like a marshmallow when she asked me how I felt - apparently one of the many amusing anecdotes I came away with during the day!

Anyway, by four pm I was starting to feel violently ill and J's heartbeat was dropping away, so the registrar on duty and the midwife both decided that I should have a section as the drugs being used to bring on the contractions were disagreeing with him, so by 18 minutes past four I was on the operating table and Jacob was rudely wrenched into the world, although they had to use forceps to get him out of my pelvis, so they reckon that he wouldn't have had a chance of being delivered normally due to his size anyway.

I had two nights on the post natal ward whilst mine and Jacob's blood sugars were checked, poor lamb he had to have blood from his heel taken three times, every two and then three hours over the course of a day, was very very distressing, will be glad if he doesn't have to go through that again! With all the crying babies and the total lack of success at getting him to latch on I got more and more distressed at was very very happy to get home on Friday night. There were a lot of staff and volunteers there who were pushing breast feeding and I actually got the point where I told the midwife who was looking after me that no-one else could touch my breasts any more, I was managing to express some colostrum, but I totally dried up and DH and I decided that it would be better for both me and J if we were at home.

Cali, I've also been very upset by the fact that I can't seem to breastfeed J, I always assumed that I would be able to feed my child myself, but he doesn't want to latch on, every time I try he just gets more and more distressed and I get upset about having an unhappy baby. I have been trying to express some milk to add to his formula and will do as long as I can, the difference between J on the day before he went onto formula and the day after was like day and night and does help my choice, as does the support of DH and my family, plus the fact that I did manage to express colostrum for him. I agree with whoever said that baby led weaning is the next chance to provide the best start for our kids and after all it's because we care so much about the health of our children that we make these decisions and therefore we shouldn't let anyone, including ourselves, judge those decisions.

Good luck to everyone else who is waiting for their bubs to arrive, sorry for the mammoth post, but it's been a week away!!

Looking forward to hearing some more good news :)