PESH - 3 years of hard won baybees for the over-30's

[AlpinePony]

This is NOT a list:

BESH BAYBEES

dontrythisathome, girl born March 25 2010.
Cheggers, twinz girlz, born April 2010.
FannyPriceless, boy, born June 8 2010.
CurlyCasper, girl, born June 24 2010.
CUNextTuesday, boy, born June 29 2010.
AlpinePony, boy, born 1 July 2010.
Carrots, boy, born July 2010.
IggyPiggy, girl, born July 2010.
Cosmosis, boy, born Sept 5 2010.
Backinthebox, boy, born Sept 7 2010.
Skatergrrrl, girl, born Sept 10 2010.
VAG, boy, born Oct 2 2010.
Silversky, boy, born Nov 1 2010.
SomethingSuitablyWitty, girl born Nov 2 2010.
Honeymoo, boy, born Nov 11 2010.
okiecokie, girl, born Nov 12 2010.
ReginaMonologue, boy, born Nov 13 2010.
Lightspaperstandback, boy, born Nov 14 2010.
Maswera, boy, born Dec 24 2010.
PollyPoo, girl, born Jan 5 2011.
MrsFC, boy, born Jan 7 2011.
ChoChoSan, girl, born 6 Feb 2011.
Ginhag, boy born 11 Feb 2011.
Muser, girl, born 15 Feb 2011.
CluckyKate, boy, born 18 Feb 2011.
Perfect Dromedary, boy, born 23rd February 2011.
Casserole, girl, born 19th March 2011.
Medee, girl, born 26th March 2011.
StiffyByng, girl, born 17th May 2011.
Scorpette, boy, born 21st May 2011.
Rocketleaf, girl, born 23rd May 2011.
TwinkleToes, girl, born 7th June 2011.
Laurielou, boy, born 9th June 2011.
Orchid, girl, born 24th June 2011.
Ginfox, loving the new mega-boobs, due 12th July.
LadyGoneGaga, girl, born 24 July 2011.
Mrbitey, boy, born 29th July 2011.
Macaroonmum, boy, born 28th July 2011.
Owlbooty, boy, born 18th August 2011.
Ocarina, girl, born 6th September 2011.
Mountie, boy, born 27th August 2011.
Truffkin, boy, born 25th November 2011.
Islegrin, boy, born 14th December 2011.

UPDIFFED

BarbiesBeaver, can't quite believe it, due Christmas Day
BrownB, Baybee passport-grabbing bitch, due 22nd January 2012
AlpinePony, Greedy Double-Esh Baybee Boy Grabbing Bitch, due 19th Feb 2012
Rollerbaby, No pink here, expecting boy due March 20th 2012
KitandKat, third time lucky baybee, due 12th April 2012
IveBeenExpectingYou (CockDodger), A very active baby girl, due March 28th 2012
Silver, hoping for an easier sneeze, due mid-July 2012
Starryeyedmole, regretting recently investing in scales

And we're all on beaver watch in time for xmas!

Kat our house was 21deg plus so MB wore a short sleeved vest over a nappy mostly. I was paranoid about him bring too hot. No hat indoors. If he seemed cooler I'd put a sleepsuit on him too.

Now he is sleeping in a short sleeved vest and a 2.5 tog bag.

One item that was a god send cos I am terrible at decisions was a GRo egg for displaying the room temperature. Partic as I feel the cold and didn't want to overdress him.

Dreading trying to find something to wear to work today. Nothing fits. Nothing hides the fact I'm smuggling a football. Looks like I'll be sat behind my desk most of the day hiding my gut. Was hoping to get away with not telling them until end of month but can't see my tummy allowing me to get away with that. On the plus side no more saggy skin!!

Have had insomnia for weeks now. All related to the diffedness. HI reckons I should get up and potter instead of laying in bed. Errr he can shove that suggestion.

Scannage at 10.50 this morning. Once again am nervous and excited. So hope all is as it should be.

alps MIL informed me natural would be better for me this time around cos otherwise how will I manage with MB if I have a CS and can't carry or lift MB for six weeks? Everyone has an opinion don't they! Do you get help again?

Silv yes, I'll have the doula here again for 6 (?) Days after. Jb's mum is flying in to look after bear but will be gone by the time I'm released. I don't buy that six weeks rubbish, I mean seriously, I held bear after 2 hours - although they did give me morphine innit. But I was walking and doing housework in a few days. As for carrying MB, he's walking now isn't he? One of the first things I did was teach bear to go up and down stairs himself which has helped. For post-parting it's been decided that Jb will get everyone downstairs with what we need before he goes to work. Could that work for you?

cavey I'd love to help, but mine is with boo right now. I got it on amazon for 60 I think which is a small price to pay for a baybee.

kit in light of what Silv says, it does occur to me that perhaps I wrapped bear up more as he was premature and under 6lbs.

I think my recovery was somewhat lengthened due to the muppets at the hospital and their lack of basic care! I'm sure HI would be fine with a similar situ as before and bringing everything downstairs for me. It'll be the wrestling of the child during nappy changes that will prove tricky or bedtime when HI is at work and I have to try and get MB into his cot? My mum could maybe visit unless she is working.

So much to think about! In fact don't know why I am even thinking about it as it's a long way off yet.

The cat seems to have an abscess in his cheek and is covered in sores under his body and limping. He looks an absolute mess. Not sure what he's been up to but he's very nervous and a bugger to catch. Lucky for me I managed to grab him so he's off to the vets later today.

Oooh happy scannage silv and thanks for the clothing tips. I have seen those eggs in the shops so may invest in one or similar. I sympathise with the insomnia, I am getting it too, had a bad night last night but getting up doesn't do me any good either as I have zero chance of getting any more sleep that night if I get up, but if I stay in bed I have at least a hope of a snooze.

Four times! Four bloody times I had to get up in the night to go to the loo. I gave up at 5 am and got up. Is it asking too much to get a bit of sleep?
I've even tried drinking less fluid in the evening but to no avail.

KitKat - same here. Four-five times a night. Was coming down with a cold last week (still suffering) and I got up EVERY SINGLE EFFIN HOUR!! Doesn't seem to matter if you drink less. We are in a really old fashioned house too and our only toilet is downstairs (fell down them on a trip to the loo about six weeks ago, so now clutching on the rails on each and every trip...). But I seem to have come through the fog, and in spite of rubbish sleep, I am feeling pretty rested and okay.

We appear to have abandoned the fred... so I'll talk to myself for a bit. My EDD is tomorrow, and have felt a bit odd today. However am now pretty sure that whatever it was, is not the baby arriving just yet. Ho hum...

How're you doing Brownie? Any twinginess?

I dunno where everyone is, although I have seen a few of the usual suspects around on other freds.

Yes where is everyone?? Time for cervix watch, am passing round the snacks and hoping that browniebaybee is planning on getting a move on!

Am very impatient now! Hoping brownie has some news soon and sending the easy sneezy vibes her way.

Watching OBEM. MiniKit has learnt the art of proper kicking this week so I can't watch in De Nile any more though.

Five babies by age 27! Bloody hell!

I might be in labour finally. Only time will tell. Had a bit of kick start at the hospital this morning [in the assessment unit, amongst women screaming with pain at being examined and the midwife going, "can I have some help in here...! She's delivering her baby!"]. My blood pressure was pretty high, but I made good my escape at lunchtime. Am now having little twinges that I believe may be tiny beginner contractions. So - will let you know Buggs, Kat and Gin what happens as and when!

Yay! Come on babybrown! Fingers Xed for an easy-sneezy birf.

Glad we have news at last. Tis bloody freezing here in the Brownwatch tent.

Holy crap, I'm top of the list! I've never been top before - what with being a dirty queue-jumper an ' all.

Well done brownie! :)

We need to get more going on in here!

So, am getting comfy in the best front row seats in the waiting room for Monday's sunroof show. I have popcorn and gin lemonade if anyone else is joining me. Only two more days alps not long now!!

Woo hoo!! Go Alps!!

I forgot to update the fred. Birthing story follows:

I certainly didn't get what I was hoping for by way of hippy birth, but on balance it was the best it could have been. And what the wise ESH have always said holds true for me too - it doesn't really matter what happens during the birth - once I was holding my baby I didn't care.

I had my baybee girl on 2 February at 22:54 hours, weighing 3.91kg. The only pain relief I had was my tens machine. I'm still feeling a little traumatised by this - in spite of it being my birth plan. My birth plan did not really have a contingency for induction and painful contractions every freaking 90 sec - 2 minutes. I ended up with an episiotomy and a ventouse delivery (kiwi cap on MiniB's head). It all got a little hairy at the end as my wee girl's heart rate was decreasing with each contraction, so it suddenly became imperative to GET HER OUT as quickly as possible. I pushed so hard the blood vessels in my left eye burst, and I had a raspberry flush over my face where capillaries had burst. I won't even mention my arse.

This Was Not In the Plan - however, I've now had a chance to process the information and come to terms with what happened, and I have to say that my daughter's birth was as good as it could have got.

My darling girl was comfy enough in my tummy, 11 days overdue, and there wasn't much by way amniotic fluid left in there (my waters never went - god knows where they got to...). So, induction was the right choice. What I didn't count on was the action of the pessary to be dismissed as "tightenings" and "period pain". The fact that I went into labour within a few hours of the pessary being inserted was entirely missed by the medical staff. The pessary went in just before 10am, and at 2pm I started getting period pains and tightenings. I spoke to the midwife at length at about 4pm, went out for a walk, had a bath... at which point I was really in labour in my humble opinion. They stuck me on a baby monitoring machine at about 6pm, but we kept losing the trace for the baby as she was in an awkward position and I was writhing a little. I fished out my tens machine and was eking it out as after all, "this wasn't labour, and I could be in for another 2-3 days of this shit". At 9pm, MrB was thrown out of the hospital, and by 9:45pm the contractions had changed - I was feeling the urge to push. However, as I wasn't in labour, and the pessary wouldn't put me into labour, so I was reluctant to accept that this was in fact... transition. I told the midwife at 10pm, and she tutted at me (the night duty midwife was truly awful - she'd been treating me like I was some melodramatic princess), and said she'd examine me (undertone stated, "and it will hurt!!"), and discovered I was 9 cm dilated. Cue frantic phone calls to MrB, franticly trying to get me to sit on a wheel chair (not the most comfortable experience when you have a baby in your birth canal) me charging out into the hallway towards the labour ward completely naked from the waist down, midwife chasing me with a sheet, her frantically trying to get the lift to come before I just walked down the stairs begging me to wait... I was sobbing that I wanted to get into a birthing pool, and was told that this would be possible, until the doctor came round and said that they needed to monitor the baby, so in fact it wouldn't be possible. I then demanded an epidural... They gave me gas and air, but it made my mouth so dry I just spat out the mouthpiece. I wasn't the most compliant of patients, but somehow they did manage to get me onto a bed, and MrB finally arrived, they realised that the baby's heart rate was decelerating during contractions, and before I knew it I was pushing pushing pushing (would have been far more fucking efficient if they'd allowed me to remain upright frankly), they were snipping away at my undercarriage, and the baby arrived at 10:54 pm.

It was all pretty quick in the end, the damage that was done to me is already repairing quite well, and the baby makes it totally worth it. I've processed the experience now and have come to the conclusion that the benign neglect I received actually played out in my favour in the end. If the fact that I was in labour had been picked up earlier I would have asked for a birthing pool. Given that they wanted to monitor the baby and we were having such trouble getting a reliable trace makes it logical to think that I would have been denied the water birth, and I have no doubt I would have then said, "if you want me to sit still on a fucking bed, then you need to give me an epidural." If I'd had an epidural and the baby's heart rate was decelerating during transition as happened, then it's doubtful I would have been able to push hard enough and effectively enough. Which leads me to believe that it would have been possible/probable that I would have ended up with forceps or an emcs.

So. Alls well that ends well. I do think that I wouldn't have needed the episiotomy/ventouse if I'd been able to deliver standing up or bending over as I wanted, but there you go. The cord was around her neck and if there was even the vaguest possibility that it was tightening during the contractions and restricting her blood supply to her brain, then I would have done anything that the doctors told me. I have a healthy happy baby and I am happy with that.

wow, what a story. Can't believe you got so far through labour without them realising. Well done you!

brownie Good job I'm not a nervous first-timer about to go through it all tomorrow! I am very angry on your behalf though, very angry. This is all exactly why the fuck women are throwing money at private births - it's fuck all with being "too posh to push" and a lot to do with being treated like a human being (imo).

Bear's cord was around his neck and he was having decelerations - but they don't think that was the only reason... and of course it was emcs for me becuase I was only 1cm so he wasn't going anywhere.

PS You are proper hardcore! I don't often give out a childbirth medal but in your case...

Bloody hell! You are hard as nails! Well done brownie Also angry on your behalf that you were not listened to by the staff and treated how you ought to have been.

Thank you kat - although you do realise it's all academic now and you're now at the top of the list? ;)

Ha! Kat's the top of the list...

Aren't there two more before me? I thought there were going to be 2 March baybees? Rollerbaby and CockDodger are due before me! I can stay in De Nile for a bit longer ta very much!