May be Babies - The Third Trimester

[SirCharles]

A new thread as the other one was ready to burst!
Thanks *Mikocat" for the new name.

Wow, I come back to the thread after a while to find a whole bunch of new babies! Congrats everyone - so many new posts that it's hard to keep up :)

I'm 39 weeks today and so impatient for him/her to arrive now. At my midwife appointment this week I was told what I had suspected, that he/she still isn't even remotely engaged, so is obviously quite happy in there at the moment. Thankfully not feeling too crap, just tired and fed up of waiting! No hints that labour may be imminent.

mythical and harecare - hope things get going properly for you soon, it must be so frustrating!

lucky, I'm just like that too - I'm 37 + 3 and my bump has definitely dropped in the last week or so, really noticeably as about three people today mentioned it! I feel like I have a grapefruit between my thighs, and lots of twinges /aches. I don't remember this with the other two either - must be a third time thing! Saw the mw today, and she thinks I'm about 4/5 engaged (but she is counting backwards iyswim - 0/5 would be fully engaged. Hoping the baby hangs on for the ELCS!

LittleSarah brilliant news about your essay!

Wriggle glad you are healing well. I've always been signed back on to drive around the 4 week mark, but will hopefully try for earlier this time, all being well. I went to the GP and got him to note on my record that he had agreed I could drive, then phoned through to the insurance co to let them know. This is what I was told to do both times, but obv. different insurers can have different rules.

Hope things get moving for all of you overdue and waiting soon! I remember how tedious it gets...

Have been trying to get through the to-do list - I have over 40 eBay listings ending tomorrow night, so have been packing things in readiness to courier, and tidying away all the things I won't have chance to list for a few months/years weeks. I've also decorated the DDs present from the baby (dolls fairy castle) by painting flowers round the walls - looks quite cute, though hopelessly amateurish a bit rustic! Will try to finish the baby's toy elephant tomorrow - need to sew his feet, ears, eyes, tail and tusks on, and will try to get the DDs to help stuff him! I've also generated another pile of ironing to plough through. The new cotbed sheets arrived yesterday from Vertbaudet, and they are gorgeous - a lovely apple green, look lovely in the baby's rooom - at least they are washed now. OMG I'm never going to get everything done in time am I?????

Well done on your essay littlesarah, catsy, you are far too busy and getting too much done to be so heavily pregnant! Well done!
Lots of show, sporadic contractions, DDs at Grandmas so I can focus on rocking/bouncing out this baby.
Anyone know if an induction means I will have to have the baby in hospital rather than mlu?

exciting harecare!! youmay not need an induction as things seem to be starting on their own!! you've done it twice before, so your body knws the drill. It shouldnt be long now :)

i was induced with DS1 - sweep and gel are ok for the mlu but if you start the drip then you have to be on the labour ward and constantly monitored (which i was)

littlesarah - well done for your essay!!

catsycat - how do you manage to do all those things? if i lift a finger, im instantly tired.... i wish i had your energy.. i still have to prepare the mose basket... and prepare beds, dinner for my bil and his friend who are coming over this weekend (please, please, i want to go in labour now so i dont have to sit through numerous games of football on the playsation...)

Oh harecare - hopefully this is things starting for you and you won't need that induction!

catsy - you sound very creative! I am useless when it comes to sewing, knitting or drawing/painting so am a bit ! I did buy a cross stitch to do whilst on ML though so must start that!

Right, sorry for short post but I hear DS!

Hope this is it harecare, sounds promising!

You sound v busy catsy, would love to see pics of the elephant once it's finished!

I seem to be having a rather emotional 24 hours, have cried on DH too many times in a general 'I will be pregnant forever, why hasn't the baby come?' style. Oh dear! Baby better hurry up otherwise I'm going to run out of tissues!

Can I pick the brains of all the 2nd/3rd/4th time mums please? Did you have labours that were similar to your mum? My mum is convinced I'll go about ten days over, because she went ten days over when she had me. She also reckons that because she had quite a slow labour that started with sporadic contractions, that's what I'll get too. Likely?! Or not?!

How are you doing mythical?

dreamingofanallotment as a 4th timer - terrifyingly - yes my labour was almost identical to my mothers the first time - which happened to be with me! Not so much on the second, but definitely the first. My sister however who is the one below me was almost on time and didn't have a hard go at all, so not sure how much sense it makes. I have heard you do what your mother did. Just remember to relax - I didn't and it made it so much worse. Breathe and relax through the pain, don't panic and clench as I did. Wishing you best of luck. I have 6 days left - trying to sort out life! Off to costco to make sure I have enough food to feed everyone when I am unable!

Morning all

Well done on your essay, sarah, great achievement :)

I'm so jealous of anyone who is remotely creative, catsy you must be a great mum :) Here's my tip of the day: if you're worried about not getting through your to-do list, shorten the list

40+6 here. Feeling achy, am really tired, find it difficult to move, am sick of pineapple. I'm wearing a kaftan for God's sake, A KAFTAN!! And crocs!

I have a sweep booked today, fingers crossed that it works. I'm going to talk to mw about getting an induction - this really is too much for me.

dreaming my labour couldn't have been more different to my mums'.. she had 4 babies on time, no pain relief, no stitches, no nothing.. I had a 17 days late induction & forceps delivery with spinal..
Interestingly though I think my gynae history has followed my (paternal) grandma's much more closely, she had a miscarriage before her first same as I did (my mum never had any) & a similar first birth.. she reassured me her second birth was a LOT better so I'm hoping mine will be!
But generally there does seem to be a trend towards being similar to your mum, search for topics on it on mn.
I also cried every single day of being overdue it's horrible! And yes went to bed every night thinking 'it could be tonight's..think it is more common to start at night.
Get some puzzles! Dh & I did loads while waiting for ds geeks!

Well done sarah on the positive doula feedback, & catsy on all the projects.. I have about 30 rows left of blanket.. determined to finish it today!

Woke with quite intense period like pains at 4am lasted for about 40 mins. Midwife coming for sweep in a bit, time to get ds dressed!

bodeccia lol at the kaftan. My pal lived in her moo-moo (homer Simpson version) in last weeks of pregnancy one v hot summer, always makes me smile.
congrats to sarah - brilliant feedback and well done for finishing.
Re. Labouring like your mother, I didn't with DD, she had very quick first birth then long second, whereas I was the opposite.
Toby is sleeping soundly , as is his Dad, DD at nursery and me wide awake.
wiggle that's fantastic news that Adam's gaining so much so quickly, you must be feeding up a stir, mothers gold.
MW was very happy with T yesterday, only dropped 70g so less than 2% and that's with a 50% tongue tie, which we only just found out about. must go & phone hospital to check about it.
Wishing lots of patience & comfort (as much as possible) to those waiting, even not going overdue thus time I was still spontaneously bursting into tears for 2 days before going to hospital. Hormones are a fickle mistress but it passes. Slightly perturbed that I missed baby blue day 4 with no effects, sure will be storing up to hit later in the Wk. Right need breakfast. Take care all.

Ooh cupcake - perhaps you won't be going over this time! Good luck with the blanket.

dreaming - My labours were nothing like my mum's. She went over by one week, then by two. She dilated very slowly and struggled and had epidurals and then forceps. I was four days early with dd and one with ds and had very short simple labours at home (5 hours, bit of gas and air, 2 hours, no pain relief). I think it is very difficult to tell. I did read in one of my articles that some research has found that length of gestation can actually match the father's mother although I'm sure this too is hit and miss. Not sure for me as have never asked ex about his mum's pregnancies and with dh's mum she had one early but probably started by a bad fall on ice and the second they induced a little early as she kept having false starts and lived in the middle of nowhere and going into hospital over and over wasn't really feasible.

You go for it catsy, I am most impressed. Do let us see the elephant. I have a pattern for one in this Tilda book which I really fancy trying. I have started a jumper for ds1 but doubt I will complete before baby comes. If I go over though....

Bodeccia - Good luck with the sweep, I'm not surprised you are feeling like that, I would be going mad too! Still eight days left here.

Good luck too to harecare and mythical, hope to hear announcements very soon.

Midwife was - I thought - coming first thing but no we have a mix up and she should be coming at 3pm. Not that there is much to report! Going to take ds to local soft play cafe this morning and may clean the oven this afternoon. Fun fun fun! Very excited at least to be close to what will hopefully be our last full weekend without a newborn....

harecare it's as tostaky said, sweep & pessaries with be fine for mlu, once on a drip you'd need monitoring. They also recommend epidural before drip as it starts the contractions so effectively. It does ramp up slowly though and I was very pleasantly surprised by it ( only half effective epidural really helped in knowing the contractions and breathing through them too) cew.. had it right that it's most important to relax (sounds mental I know) and breath the pain away, longer out breath. It really does work (the half epi obviously helped too )

Just back from hospital - I was in a lot of pain with v irregular contractions (and very frustrated after 3rd night of no sleep) so I went in to be monitored (and examined - after I insisted! ) midwife wasn't convinced but after she examined me she said "oh. You're 2 cms dilated and had 2 contractions in the past 10 minutes. You can go home now but we'll probably see you back around lunchtime!"
So I'm more positive today!! About time !

good luck mythical

Come on then mythical If I can't get anything going maybe you can.

My Mum went 2 weeks over with each of her children and had long back to back labours. My 1st 2 were back to back, but this one is better positioned. I think it's best to assume you'll do as your Mum did, but then maybe get lucky.

It's so frustrating right now as I thought I'd go into labour as before - wake up one morning with contractions that continued through the day as I got jobs done, get more painful at night and then have the baby some time the next afternoon. This time I'm getting loads of show and these stupid pointless sporadic contractions that have no rhyme or reason to them.
I am bored of myself!
Truly.

Good luck mythical! Hopefully it will all happen for you now, looking forward to the birth announcement!

Bodeccia- I have a very funny mental image of you now in your crocs and kaftan! It's so hard to know what to wear at the end as you get too big for your maternity stuff even but don't want to buy anything else. I lived in pyjama bottoms at the end each time and didn't even make it 40 weeks.

Got Adam out in the rare bit of sunshine trying to clear the last little bit of jaundice! Not that it seems to be affecting his feeding- his appetite is huge! He looked exactly the same as his big brother did at birth, but now Adam's getting right chubby cheeks whilst his brother has always been super skinny. DS had reflux and threw up almost every time he fed, luckily Adam seems ok so far so our massive stack of bibs haven't made it out of the cupboard yet!

Harecare- keeping my fingers crossed for you it all kicks off properly ASAP.

Loving the baby updates ladies.. so glad they're getting on well. oltob not everyone gets the day 3 or 4 blues I guess.. just enjoy it :)

Good luck mythical sounds v promising!

Sweep went well, cervix is apparently soft & stretchy and she said she'd be surprised if I have to be induced.. I was very pleased to hear that!

Ahhhh harecare! You poor thing.

Wriggle - Glad to hear you are not spending your days covered in regurgitated baby milk .

Midwife visit all fine, still 3/5 palpable. Asked again if I had any pre labour signs last time, hmmmmm, not sure really! The other lady who is planning a home birth in the area has gone over her time, think she was due on the 8th, but hopefully she will deliver soon for both our sakes... (Although it would only be a problem if both labours fell on the weekend when there is only one team on call).

mythical - Hope you are in hospital now pushing and breathing like mad, good luck!

Oh cupcake meant to say really pleased to hear your cervix is nice and soft, hopefully you'll go into labour spontaneously any day now.

A wee update from me:

My mw couldn't do the sweep as the baby wasn't engaged enough (I'm basically not dilated at all). She said that my cervix was "nice and thin". I'm going back on Monday for another attempt at a sweep, and if nothing has happened by Thursday, I'm being induced then.

She gave me my bishop score which at the moment is a 3 - not great. She did say that this could change at any time.

I feel more relaxed knowing that this cannonball will be here next Thursday by the latest. I'm a bit worried about being induced, I'd rather she came naturally obvs...

Going for reflexology tomorrow morning. We'll see if that helps :)

Best of luck mythical and I'm sure something is starting for you too, harecare

Still at home as things weren't progressing - just been for a 3 mile walk around the countryside and getting some contractions now.. This is day 4 of slow labour!!

oh mythical.... here is a i know how awful that is... with DS2 i went 6 days over and that was 6 days of very slow labour. what worked well with me was to rest and relax while listening to my hypnobirthing cd. then suddenly bam! super strong contractions came and baby was out in 4 hours.
so take it one hour at a time, try to rest and baby will be here in no time :)

bodeccia - here is for your reflexology treatment tomorrow. i hope it gets baby moving for you :) enjoy your evening, relax and tomorrow is another day

i am debating whether i should go to the cinema tonight with dp... not sure i can sit for 1hr30.....

good luck everybody else!!

on the topic of labouring like our mum - my first labour was exactly like my mum first labour!
we both lost our waters and did not have any contractions for days. i had to be induced after 3 days but my mum went into labour naturally after 6 days (of course it was 1976 so hospital policies were very differrent!!!)

i should ask her about her third labour!!! (second one was totally different than mine)

Thank you, I guess I am just irrationally worried that they are never getting regular and they won't take me seriously... Also I'm worried that I'm slowing things down by trying to rest but I'm so tired :(