Nov 2011: aches, pains and waddling, soon to be cuddles and swaddling

[PamSco]

Thanks Moosey for the title :)

I thought I'd go for it as there are only 4 or 5 posts left to go on the old thread.

Two other threads to be aware of:

Stats - you can update announcements here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/1157973-Nov11-Stats-only

Post Natal - for those of you already cuddling :)
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/postnatal_clubs/1326836-November-2011-early-birds-just-in-time-and-late-to-the-party-all-welcome

Hope this thread sees all our nests full.

Just to let everyone know we are now back home with baby Christopher who was born on 11 11 11 weighing 7 lbs 12.

Had waters broken in birth centre then transferred to labour unit expecting to be put onto drip and epidural. Contractions kicked in v fast and thought would be about 4 cm and was thinking epidural but then had best news ever as was actually 9 cm. Got taken to birthing room and once I managed to take the mouth piece for the gas and air out my mouth where it had been firmly fixed for the previous 3 hours managed to gasp the word pool. Fabulous husband let the midwife team know I would love pool birth and they transferred me back to birth unit where a pool was free. God it felt good to get in the water. Midwife team were great and as birth centre dh got to stay with me all night and got a room and bathroom to ourselves. Dh was brilliant as managed to understand my needs and caught the baby as he crowned and even cut the cord. We had to stay for an extra day as they needed to check for possible heart mummer but all ok. Delighted to be home although second degree tear so a little sore but Christopher was worth it. Totally in love with him.

Sending lots of good labour vibes to those still waiting for their bundles of joy and congratulations to all the other new mums. Will read over the thread once a little more time.

YAY Cookie 11/11/11 lucky Christopher. Welcome Christopher with such a special birthday.

What a great story. I've heard so many who though tthey were 9 and were only 4 - the other way round sounds great :)

I'm hoping my chippy dinner gets things moving (40+2 tomorrow)

Ok I've got a spot at the top of my leg from when I was having a tidy up down there (sorry tmi) which appears to be infected and it is officially agony. I've covered it in germolene and a plaster. It's killing!
My dc's have returned from their dads like devil children. OH and I actually went and stood outside to escape from their sheer bloody mindedness. My blood pressure feels like it's through the roof, hearts racing and I feel over energised and shaky if that makes sense.
So am nearly looking forward to a quiet day in the house tomorrow! Sorry for the rant :(

Arrgghh so now apparently my posts are vanishing!
Sorry for the xposts!
Congrats cookie, glad you got the pool and a good OH! Welcome Christopher and what a good birthdate! Lovely story :)

I've had professional antenatal acupuncture throughout pregnancy and have had the induction points done. Those thinking of using things like this in labour should check out this site acupuncture.rhizome.net.nz/acupressure-intro.aspx. A brilliant midwife called Debra Betts teaches acupressure for childbirth and makes the info freely available on her website. My acupuncturist really recommends it. It's easy to use during labour and can be done by anyone and worst case, it'll do nothing ie it can't hurt.

No labour here either - quite happy about that. Had mild period pain again yesterday all day but it tapered off and not returned. My head is saying towards the end of this week, plus I'm meeting a friend for lunch tomorrow but I just need to say...

BUGGER!!! MY BOOBS!!!!!
Arggghhhhh!!!!!
My right boob is on fire. Feels like it's being cut with a razor blade. They just go hot and ache and ache and ache for about 10mins then stop as if it never happened.

Seeing IM Tuesday so going to mention.

I'm a celeb starts tonight!!! Yay!!! If When I labour at home, it will be on in the background for sure. :)

Congrats to our first (only?) 11/11/11 baby. Sounds like a fab birth in the pool.

Yay cookie and our 11/11/11 baby Christopher - I'm so pleased we had (at least?) one

thank you for the congrats ladies.

Congrats cookie and stripey.

Still having problems feeding, but am speaking to the mw again tomorrow and hopefully she'll be able to come out and give more advise. mum's going back home tomorrow and dh starts his pat leave, will see ifhe survives the 2 weeks. Hope there are some movements going on tonight and over next few days.

Evening ladies and thankyou to Gold Tjuice and Cookie for sharing your brth stories. Congratulations to you all.
Voodoo I too have been googling accupressure points and bribing my family to have a go. No joy yet though. I think I may try and book a session with a reflexologist as I am having no signs that baby wants to come out!!
Thank you all for the good wishes re the house of germs. I am still full of cold but DS appears to have made a bit of a recovery today. Amazing how quick youngsters recover.
Pam I too thought everybody must have gone into labour when I checked in thread this morning and felt a bit put out I was all by myself.
Pandia and Mrs A I think we share a due date, 16th? I wonder if the babies will actually make an appearence then.
Hope you all have a good evening and wishing those of you who are fed up of waiting speedy labours.

Yay Cookie and Christopher! Sounds like a good labour and a fantastic birthday!

I'm in the not in labour camp and I'm 40 weeks today. Had curry on Friday, sex on Saturday and reflexology tomorrow. Think I'll try and book acupuncture for Wednesday. I really want this baby out before next weekend. I've had tonnes of messages but I'm trying not to get annoyed as its just people wishing we well and trying to be nice. If I hadn't had any messages I probably would've been annoyed thinking everyone had forgotten my due date - you can't win with me sometimes.

Anyway, baby not arriving gave me time to finish my birth playlist. And eat some more Ben & Jerry's.

Mash you sound very committed. I could probably do the reflexology and maybe the curry and acupuncture but I am afraid I far too whale like and knackered to consider DTD.
Good luck and enjoy the Ben and Jerrys

Congratulations cookie, glad everything is ok.
Feel wierd. Think I am getting a wierd and uncomfortable tension between thinking every single tightening might be something and thinking its just another tightening which leaves me in this emotional limbo of permanent anxiety. As I am sure you are all familiar with. Feeling it a bit tonight though. Probably shold just go to bed, I know I'm tired, but bed is so bloody uncomfrtable these days I cant motivate myself to go there. Plus I hate the night. I always feel more alone and more afraid at night.

hadak yes, due date this Wed. I don't know - keep thinking things will start soon (intuition?) But not sure. Was up early with DD, no naps all day and now full of energy and on the loo but who knows.

just I hear ya. I hate the night too. Feels very isolating. Daytime it always seems manageable. Good luck.

Hello all. Sorry for the disappearing act, hopefully all will become clear... And before I get to my rather long and self absorbed post huge huge congrats to all the new arrivals and speedy arrival best wishes to everyone else. I've read through a weeks worth of postings but have forgotten everything. D'oh.

So before I start I should say that I'm lying here at 1am with my darling, beautiful baby girl next to me and she was absolutely worth every minute of it but I'd be lying if I said the last week or so wasn't the hardest of my life, bar none. I'm feeling very fragile about what I'm about to write and could do with some virtual hugs, which seems very selfish after disappearing for so long but if there's any going they'd be very well received.

So, having been told my entire pregnancy I 'wouldn't go to term' (bicornuate uterus plus recurrent uti necessitating 5 lots of ab's plus 12 days in hospital) by the time I woke up at 40 plus 1 I was crawling up the Walls (daft I'm hindsight but there you go). Dh had actually been allowed back early from exercise in the states but only had 10 days or so at home so I was really starting to feel the pressure and the very real prospect of him having to return before she arrived. But, on the Saturday morning we were wrestling with the bloody space age pram when I had a bloody show. The relief was immense but I knew it could be a while so we decided to go for a nice last lunch at our favourite pub. Got back about 1pm and starting gushing bright red blood. Cue panic and going straight to hospital. Had been there about 40 mins and just given an internal when my waters went quite dramatically. They decided to keep me in but I didn't start contracting till about 9pm sat (ie 5 hrs later) and they weren't regular so they sent me home until a) they became regular or b) I would be induced at 8.30am sun. They werent regular at all so back we all went (dh and birth partner) next day. Was given prostin at 12 and things kicked off but I was only dilating at 1/2 cm an hour. Then at about 6pm Sunday it all started to go very pear shaped. Her heart rate started dipping dangerously with every contraction and they very quickly switched to head monitoring and prepped me for an emcs (cue me in floods of hysterical tears every time I contracted and saw her little heart rate slow dramatically and then slowly recover). After about 40 mins of this though she improved and they moved me to a private room and whacked me full of syntocin. I laboured through the night and had the full works, g and a, pethidine and an epidural. Somehow my angel of a mw (who never left my side except for 20mins in her 14 hrs or so there) knew exactly when enough was enough and gave me what I needed. By 1pm or so Monday (yes, nearly 48 hours later!) I was fully dilated and the dr told me to rest for an hr before pushing. Only then two things happened in quick succession: 1) they discovered she was back to back, head up and 2) her heart rate started to decelerate like mad again. The dr had disappeared after granting me my hr break but came back like a shot with a 'we need to get this baby out now' mentality. I was told I could push once with the ventouse and if she wasn't budging it was straight to theatre. Of course she was stuck fast and I was absolutely knackered so theatre it was. 2 more attempts with the ventouse and then it was emcs where we discovered her cord round her neck. She finally arrives at 2.44pm.

Having thought that was the end of it I then had a bloody nightmare 3 days where variously great mw's would keep my pain under control, others would completely let it drift but it transpires the bicornuate thing means extra special pain helpings for me. Took me an hour and a half to get up the first time . BUT my body never ceases to amaze me and every day is a 100% improvement on the last. Livia Rose is the best behaved baby in the world and after a tough few first days feeding as she swallowed a load of mucus were getting there with a mixture of breast, expressed and formula top up. It works for us and despite run ins with several mw's I'm standing my ground.

Dh left yesterday to complete his exercise and the combination of that plus remembrance Sunday in an army house plus hormones was a bit lethal but he'll be back well in time for Christmas which were both very much looking forward to.

In the meantime me and Livvy are spending good quality girl bonding time

Anyways, time for bed. Sorry for complete self absorption and like I said on fb THANK YOU for all your various words of wisdom over 9 months. Tis amazing what pops into your head at hour 38!

LK my goodness, you have certainly been through it. Lots of unmumsnetty hugs for you. My 1st labour though very short in comparison had a lot of similarities so you have my every sympathy - take your time to recover emotionally as well as physically & just enjoy your beautiful girl. I ended up having a debrief appt with the consultant when DS1 was 9 months old as I was still a bit traumatised by it all & it was a really helpful & cathartic experience.

LK, certainly sounds traumatic! Main thing is she is here safe and sound and your OH was home too!
Like Ali says, take your time and rest, spend it with your little girl and look forward to Xmas! There's nothing wrong with stepping off the treadmill and going at your own pace!
Ive refused to get out of bed and get OH up this morning. Decided it was time I got to get up at a decent time. Course am wide awake like! 40+6 :(

Oh my gosh, lk!! That sounds horrendous! I am so glad that you are starting to feel better.
I am so glad that your DH was there with you and that little Livia Rose is well, even though she was getting distressed.
Have loads of (((hugs))) all the way from Singapore!

Wow IK, you sound like you've really been through it! SO pleased Livia Rose has arrived and all is well!

Congrats to other new mums too... (I'm sorry I forget where I last got to in the list!)

No sign here yet :( wake up everyday thinking 'maybe today' and then 8:30 - 9pm rolls around before I know it and still no labour! 40+2 today.

Saw mw sat mornign and all is well - plan is they will come round to do a sweep sat afternoon (41 weeks) if no sign. Really hope it doesn't get to that!

Also hoping she comes before thurs or fri as it's FILs birthday then their anniversary and MIL has been saying she'll come on one of those days for months! (I just want her to be wrong!)

FX for all of us still waiting!

Popped in for an update on the expectant Mummy's.

LK. Massive hug from me. My first birth left me shattered and anxious. It does slowly get better. If not I discovered help out there. postnatal thread for November is up and running.

Congratulations to all new mums. Sorry if I missed any personal name shouts.

Feeding - my midwife was so lovely. Me tearful about no latch, no expressed milk. Shields worked but lazy boy refuses to work for his milk. Spent 6 hrs per day expessing for 3 days. I am a wreck. Milk has arrived though. MW fabulous. Lactation specialist not of this world. How do I stay in bed for an entire week with a toddler who I love and loves me and needs her Mummy too???? Sorry I did get stressed at the suggestion DD just has to accept Mummy is 100% with DS now.

Anyway will try and express until DH returns to work but it's impossible after that. I'm gutted he won't take from the breast directly but that's life.

Send silent dilation vibes to all you ladies waiting. It stinks I know. Box of Krispy Cream donuts for you all to share.

Oh and if someone finds a pelvic floor lying around it's mine. Either that or DS ate it on his way out!!

Yum donuts! Really need something today. Dd is evil, resulted in crying hissy fit before school and one very upset me telling her I cant have this behaviour! Argghh. However she has snapped out of it and is back to being her usual lovely self which is good. OH also apologised for me having to get up every day to get him up which was lovely too. I think they finally cottoned on just how knackered pregnancy makes you!
Katie am glad the mw has been helpful but not entirely sure how helpful the other ones attitude has been! It's like when u go to the docs with a bad back and a young child and they say well all we can suggest is that you don't lift the baby! Yeah right! Keep positive though, your doing great :)
Stace I totally hear you. Wake up thinking today is it and then next thing it's 9.30 and you realise that actually no, today wasn't the day after all! Baby is currently very very wriggly and it's quite painful as she is totally out of space and I can't stretch outwards anymore! Definitely think am losing bits of plug but it's not blood streaked (sorry tmi)!
Come on babies time to come out and see the world!!

Morning ladies.
lk what a journey you had to get your little one here!!
I do hope you are managing to get some rest inbetween cuddles and feeds.
Voodoo really hope today is the day for you
I was up about every 40 mins throught the night needing the loo and belly pains but all gone now. It has however made me realise that yes this baby will be born at some time so I plan to pack my bag properly today and have already made supper for this evening and cleaned kitchen floor in the hope things may move in the right direction. I am due to see consultant tommorrow and am secretly terrified she will recommend induction sooner rather than later.
Hope you all have a good day and wishing lk a speedy recovery

LK wow that was a marathon. I hope you get proper rest and recuperatoin with your beautiful girl.

Just back from mw, wasn't offered a sweep as obviously nothing is going on so booked in for 41+2 next monday. She wanted me to have an induction plan and I said that it will be based on an assessment at 42+2 - bishop's score, my bp, protien in pee, baby hb and anything else day assessment are willing to check. She seemed ok about that.

So booking in for reflexology and acupncture next week.

40+2 today

Voodoo it's funny because i've had the bloody bit but not the other mucus-y bit! Had some blood on my tissue on weds night last week. MW said it probably is just cervix started to prepare etc.

Pam - my due date buddy - waiting sucks doesn't it!

Been very productive today though, ordered a massive shop (with intention of it seeing us through babies arrival!) done some washing and cleaned the kitchen. Now exhausted! current task is backing up our honeymoon videos onto disc so i can delete them of the video camera to make room for baby videos!

There really doesn't seem like many of us left now!

Forced myself to go out to the shops with my friend. She is of the ever so practical school and decided I needed to carry some shopping and walk around. Knackered now but did get some food for the tea which I haven't had the energy to think about and some stocking fillers. So nearly done with my dd's Xmas shopping which is weird! Am never this organised! Also bought a fresh cream apple turnover.... Oops :)
I agree we are definitely down to the last few on this thread now.
Pam sounds good that mw was happy with your induction plan. I haven't done that yet but I know on weds mw wants to discuss it with me. Hopefully not whilst she is doing the sweep.... Cos that would just be odd. I'm dreading tue sweep but it's a necessary evil I think.
Stace very productive day but sorting videos would be a step too far for me, it took 2 weeks for me to actually take the SD card out of the camera which was sitting on the computer desk and put it into the pc!
Hadak fingers crossed the consultant goes well tomorrow for you :)

Hi ladies

Nothing happening here so far - had reflexology this morning followed by a clary sage bath and bouncing on my birthing ball with no noticable effect whatsoever. Aaaaargh!

It really is the most bizzare state of being trying desperately to bring yourself to the point of extreme pain! I am in such a void, and feel like I am letting everyone down as the only thing we are all waiting for is not happening - come on Kath! said DH this morning as though I am deliberately keeping it in!

More comments today about how high my bump still is, nothing has changed at all. I am feeling amazingly well, better than I have done all pregnancy actually as blood pressure has returned to normal levels.

Wondering how much longer we will all have to wait? Keep popping on here to check if any more babies have arrived - good luck everyone

nothing hsppening here either, although due date not til tomorrow. have a sweep booked on wednesday morning with the consultant as was originally labelled high-risk for this preg due to dd being over 4kg and losing 1.3l of blood last time. haven't been treated any differently though apart from one consultant appt at 30 weeks when she asked me why i was there!! oh well! dd not at nursery today so took her to the local library for storytime. for the first time ever she really embarrassed me- she was asking for 'another book' as the woman was reading and wouldn't sit and listen at all before marching round the library saying 'mine' and grabbing every book. got some very disgusted looks from the yummy mummies! she is normally a darling, but this 'mine' phase is a particularly ugly one so hoping it ends soon. i told her she was naughty but she kept wagging her finger at me going 'mummy naughty;. what can you do? still she's been asleep for over 2.5 hours now so i can't complain too much!!
beginning to accept that this baby will be late just like she was, just hoping i don't have to do the induction route again, and that it moves from back to back!
sorry for the long post!
i hope everyone else is well, and not too frustrated.