We will BROOK NO ARGUMENT on having serene, pain free, uncomplicated pregnancies and sneeze births! Vol 8

[ScreamIfYouWantToGoFaster]

Hello ladies! I can't wait to see how many No Brooking babies arrive during the course of this thread!! Do you realise we have now filled SEVEN threads (and that's just the graduates!) That's 7000 posts and counting!

Let's all get settled in for some serious No Brooking, we have a lot of painless sneeze births to get through over the next couple of weeks!

Hi girls,I was also thinking about aubers and what she started, she must have popped by now?

I am still lurking and reading all of your ate preggo gripes with a mixture of horror and amusement!! I would defo ban DH from going anywhere in the 3rd trimester!! biscuits what a lovely bump!!

I had a terrible night as kept on losing more brown stuff, then one wipe of red and thought that is it, its over. Cried, accepted it was over and then today - nothing and 3rd hcg level of 1989 so going up still!! Doc was reassusing and said it can be caused by implantation, an irritable cervix, a nicked blood vessle etc

Am off on hols this week, so hopefully that will prove a nice distraction and not long to wait before a 6 week scan! I am brooking no argument for a positive outcome.

Right, firstly, my apologies - i think this might be a mammoth post - might do it in two bits:

BF - I never bothered with bf specific clothes - I had so much trouble getting DS latched on I couldn't be doing with a teeny tiny hole for him. Especially with mahoosive norks. Mostly I just pulled my top up and let DS cover my tummy - I wish I'd thought of the bump band trick though - I would have felt more comfortable with that I think. Or maybe a vest I could pull down as I didn't like exposing my tummy. To be honest, DS fed for so long at a time that mostly if out I would go and find a bf room somewhere to do it. Unless I was out with my Mummy friends having cake and coffee and then we were all feeding anyway.

Dream - ladders? Really?

Pomme - lovely to hear from you - hope DD1 gets back on the straight and narrow soon - I know DS is always a PITA when he's been with my in-laws and it takes a while to 'get him back', And that's when he's been with them for an afternoon not a few days!

Plus, I love the term 'norkage' - I shall be immediately adopting that for my own use!

Right, I'm going to do another post about my hospital appointment - I'm all confuddled and need your collective help!

pop from what I hear very normal symptoms indeed, have you any sickness yet?

I have except for falling asleep on the sofa at 9pm every night!!

Farfalla - lovely to hear from you. I'd been thinking about you wondering how you were. So glad to hear about those HCG levels going up - I can see how the blood would freak you out, but the HCG must be reassuring?

I will continue brooking apace for you until you can get to that scan to see the wee bean in the right place with a gorgeous little tickety tickety hearbeat. Well, of course, I'll be brooking for you after that too, but you know what I mean!

I have seen aubers on a few threads but was too shy to ask how she was doing

biscuits:)

Farfalla, Brooking like mad for you here too. Stick, little bean, stick!

Ow, if DH comes home without Rennies murder will be done. Owwwww.

Biscuits, what happened?

Great new thread, filling up nicely! I should be able to discuss the china situation with DH later ( builder is coming in about and hour so can't discuss straightaway) hopefully he has been able to move it forward to end of march. DS's would basically look after them selves during Easter break and would help with stuff like shopping and hoovering I would be able to lie in and relax in the day as I would not be at work for those weeks. I think I would be unlikely to go in to labour that early especially if I took it really easy! The money would be useful. I might ask him to order loads of baby stuff on line before he goes so I can have lots of parcels to look forward to while he is away:)

Right, my hospital appointment this afternoon.

Basically, they repeated my mw appt from yesterday. Urine, blood pressure, listened to the heartbeat, asked me if the movements were all ok. All tickety boo. Marvellous I thought. Oh, and not OC - just occasionally itchy hands and feet - this is apparently fine.

So she said she'd just go and check (with the consultant?) that they were happy to let me go and just return for my next scan a week on Monday.

Then when she came back in she said 'That's all fine for you to go and come back on the 12th (good!). But I understand you had a third degree tear last time? Yes. Well, then we just need to make you aware that if you have even a little bit of damage this time round that that might lead to future problems, or incontinence type issues etc? Is a VB something you're keen to try?

So now I'm thinking, well, I wouldn't exactly say I was desperate to try a VB but I've not exactly been offered any alternatives? So I said this, and that I was concerned in case I needed an instrumental delivery again, especially as time goes on and the baby is getting bigger and bigger. She said that of course they might be more inclined if things aren't progressing to go for CS rather than instrumental intervention, but they can't make that sort of decision until you're at the point in time because it would depend how everything was going. And I am of course aware that there comes a time when you can't necessarily back out and do a CS if the baby is too far down the birth canal

So I said well, no-one has ever mentioned CS to me - is that something they would consider in my position? And she said 'oh yes, if that was what you wanted?' .

She then gave me a leaflet on ELCS and said if we decided it was what we wanted to do then we would need to let someone know and probably the best time to do that would be at the scan a week on Monday (by which time I'll be 37+6 if I'm even still pg).

So now I feel all up in the air. I'd sort of assumed that they didn't think I'd need a CS because no one had mentioned it. But now I feel like they've said 'oh well, you can have one if you want - potter off home and have a think about it and decide what you want', which is kind of bewildering. And I feel like time is against me.

And then of course it's all the pros and cons of the various ways to weigh up. So CS obviously is no lifting for 6 weeks, no driving etc, and DH will have gone back to work etc, so that could be really difficult (and inconvenient for DH eh Scarlet? ). VB could go with no / little damage and I'd recover much quicker from that, but it could go wrong again and then I'd have a tough time recovering again, and a possible future of 'problems'.

Argh!!!

I don't even know what to start thinking about!

She also said if they do ELCS they normally do them at about 39 weeks, but tbh I don't think I'd want it booked that late because I'd probably have gone into labour by then? I mean the later it goes, the bigger the baby gets and the less I want a VB!

Help!!!!

Sorry if that's all a bit of a brain dump - I just feel all

Oh, and having read your earlier discussion, I now need to ask what CS overhang is - as if I needed another thing to factor in!

Too, biscuits, purple I think.

I expressed a lot last time with dd1 so used a bottle more. With male visitors would go upstairs.. This time have already fed in same room as dad and fil so better! I just tend to need to get whole boob out to do it and would rather be covered. I have seen women with large boobs use bf clothes though..

Biscuits you need a big chat with your dh. Sorry to hear they confused you.

I see you farfalla..

Yes - DH has had the abbreviated story in an email but is in London this afternoon so have to wait for him to get home about 8:30 :(

I need a creme egg or two

Hi far I'm glad your levels are looking good, like I said in conception try not to worry and enjoy your hollibobs - scan will be here before you know it :)
No sickness (hurrah! I do feel like I'm cheating though!) just a bit of nausea if I don't eat loads of crap enough.

Gosh biscuits I bet that has you in a spin! I have no experience of either, but I think a discussion with DH is in order, and maybe a pros-and-cons list?

Wow that sounds like a big choice to bring up for the first time at this stage Biscuits! That sounds like it would immediately throw confusion on the situation when you had only recently started to calm down about vb!

Naturally I can't offer any useful advice I'm afraid, being a clueless newbie. However I will be turning some No Brooking on the matter in the hope that you and your DH will be able to quickly reach the best decision for you, and then be 100% comfortable with your choice.

For what it's worth I don't think the mw mentioned anything you didn't already know about vb? You more than most will know that it doesn't always go to plan! So maybe if you were happy with the vb before it might be best to stick with that? Whereas if you were secretly wishing for a cs before, now's your chance!

Farfalla sorry to hear about the discharge but it's great that you had such a positive appt today! Serious No Brooking going on for you as well!

I've bought 4 bfing tops so far, and I'm going to leave it at that until I see how I get on with them (and bfing in general!) I feel like my boobs are HUGE already though, so I can imagine them not fitting through the gaps once my milk comes in! ('Norkage' is an EXCELLENT word btw Pomme! )

Goodness, that's a lot of info to take in and make a speedy decision on, Biscuits! Did they give you any indication of when you might be expected to go into labour, given how early you went last time? CS overhang is your tummy hanging down over the scar - in some people it vanishes v quickly and in others it sticks around. A lot seems to depend on your weight and number of CS, though. Lots of people said when they lost weight it vanished .

Don't forget that if you have an agreed CS date and go into labour earlier, they will whisk you in and do a CS there and then, unless you opt for trial of labour. So even if they do book you in at 39 weeks it doesn't mean all is lost if you start cx early.

How much practical help will you have after DH goes back to work?

I suppose the worst case scenario would be tearing again, but then no one can say if you will or not, so it's really hard to decide! I'm no help, really .

for you Biscuits. That's a big decision you need to make and the time pressure is no doubt making it seem even harder. So hard to know what would be best when you have no idea how a VB would go. Did they say what most people tend to do when on DC2 after a 3rd degree tear?

Is there any way that you can arrange to speak to the consultant about it yourself? I found it a bit frustrating last week speaking to the registrar, them going out to speak to the consultant, coming back and speaking to me and then not seeming to want to answer any further questions as that would mean them having to get up and go and find the consultant again.

Brooking for you Farfalla. Sounds like all is well so far, the fact that your Hcg is rising as much as it is is brilliant news Boo to the bleeding, there's a fair few on here who had bleeding early days and are now well into the 3rd trimester

You're right Scream - the doctor didn't say anything I didn't already know about vb - I mean I knew it was a risk and any damage gives me a risk of future problems.

But then maybe I was secretly hoping for a CS to avoid it all. I think maybe earlier in the pg I kind of wanted someone to tell me I should have a CS and take the decision out of my hands so I didn't have to choose it if you see what I mean. So I was almost hoping it would be something like a breech baby which would weigh the scales in favour of an ELCS without me needing to pick it? But then nothing like that happened so I'd sort of reconciled myself to a VB (possibly with a bit of fingers in ears and lalala-ing about any damage that might be done, and just kind of hoping it would go OK this time).

And now I'm in a muddle.

Ultimately my main goal is to get the baby out safely (obviously), but after that I would like to avoid an incontinent future if at all possible......

But maybe I'd be able to do a VB with no damage?

Or maybe it would be hard to recover from a CS with DS?

Or maybe I'd get complications from a CS like an infected scar or something?

Scarlet I'm assuming that the consultant does a clinic on a Monday as I have my scan with her a week on Monday so if I need to I might call on Monday and see if she'd be able to squeeze me in, but at least I'll have had the weekend to chew it over with DH?

I mean maybe a compromise would be a bit like Dream - to have a CS booked in as a backstop at say 38-39 weeks to stop the baby getting too big, and then doing a trial of labour but with a 'no instruments' sort of vibe going on if I went into labour before then?

And then I'm wondering if maybe she didn't mean to make it sound quite so much like 'well, you pick my dear and let us know what you decide!' But then that is kind of what she said.....

Just PM'd you Biscuits re consultant.

Biscuits that plan sounds good with cs booked for then and just see how you go. I know two people in rl who have 3rd degree tears, one has had one vb and the other 2 and both so far have been fine. What a thing to spring on you though!

I was 40+13 with Dd, hence the extensive birth prep I have been doing in hope!
Dd has antibiotics for the 2nd time ever :( Didn't really have time to do me as Dr was running late, just listened to my chest and told me to get my ass to the Asthma clinic. I am hoping if Dd gets better I will start to be better, myself so fingers crossed!at

Farfalla I think Music had some pretty bad bleeding and is still nicely cooking and was it Dream with the juicy uterus??

Pomme your boobs will go down! Even in just a few days they will be different and maybe revisit the bf tops at about 6 weeks in, you should be a bit more pro at latching and boobage hopefully will have settled. I am going for BF tops as it will be summer and I won't want two layers unless the jelly belly is awful as I go for cheap vest pulled down and top pulled up so everything is covered. Which was great except I found that both tops would get stretched out and were like sacks when I lost a bit of weight. These were great I have a couple and would buy again

Also well done in being more confident in feeding, that is a great step and of course making as far as your milk coming in :)

I can't remember what else I was going to waffle on about?

Oh misc. items for hosp bag!
-Lip balm
-Hairbands
-Nail file! Not obvious but I am paranoid about scratching my baby with a raggy nail, especially if labour is going to be springing up on you.

• Antibacterial cleaner for hands, I have a cuticura, non alcohol, foaming one that is the same I used before as it is a bit kinder for your hands, this is also useful for nappy bag later on.

-CHANGE Lots of for hosp vending machine, car park + possibly payphone! I am saving up my £ coins. -Thick socks I have thermal ones packed as I was freezing for parts of my labour. Extra useful if these have the grippy bits on the bottom.

biscuits, this is exactly why I'm finding it so hard to make a decision and stick with it. I have friends (without third degree tears) who've had no tearing second time, and freinds who have had second degree tears again. I also don't want instrumental, and have been told as definitely as you that re-tearing ups our later chances of incontinence issues +++. The womens health physio said almost all the faceal incontinenece ladies she sees are 3rd or 4th degree tears, esp with damage on damage. (but we might have no tearing!) So hence my CS is booked in. I am assuming as I am fairly robust and it won't be EMCS (hopefully!) recovery will go ok. two people who had to have sections on the twins thread said it was a physical effort to stop themselves overdoing it within 2 weeks as they felt fine and one had a 2 year old too, but thats not the same for everyone. AGain, as far as I understand, if you go into labour before your date they will either let you try VB or whisk you in for EMCS (but v different experience to a true emergency I'd think) Making DDs tea so must dash, but wanted to add my brief tuppence worth!!!!

Which incidentally doesn't help you decide...

And far, hurrah, not long til your scan, wonderful hcg.