June 2012 - The Jubilee Train has been delayed owing to the wrong sort of dates on the line. We have now arrived at Post-Natal Station and all passengers should disembark as quickly as possible!

[McKayz]

Morning!!!

Thought I'd start the new thread with Gwen's title now in case I fill the other one with my moaning.

I'll do the stats at a more normal time of day unless anyone else does it first.

Good luck tomorrow coops. My mw was extolling the virtues of sweeps this morning so much I nearly said to do one then and there!!

I'm not sure what the desire to clean means really. I do go through phases of it even when not pg so, while odd, it's not totally unheard of. And I do have a horrible habit of saying that if I'm going to do something, I might as well do it properly, so even making sure the outsides of upstairs were done too isn't really outlandish.

My dad just rang to wish me luck and tell me he was thinking of me. I said I was sure I'd speak to him several more times before I actually needed the good wishes!

Crackers thank you for your positive thoughts :) I guess they do have to come out sooner or later! Glad you are loving your mummy time :)

Morning All -
Thanks for the reassurance. Still absolutely zero birthing activity going on. Ate a hot curry last night (by mutual agreement the hot sex option is being avoiding; DH is too scared, I'm in too much pain). Also went to the pub where the landlord looked thoroughly shocked to see me, as did my friend who saw me as we left and demanded to know where my baby is.

I'm starting to feel bruised on the inside where he's kicking me and moving around and my back is killing me. I can see that all my plans of a natural, no-induction, no intervention type birth are getting less and less likely. By this time next week I'll be positively begging them to cut me open and get him the hell out.

God I'm sounding sorry for myself today aren't I!?! Will pull myself together and try not to have a complete meltdown at my sweep (I'm making my DH come with me to hold my hand mainly to ensure that he is sharing in my pain).

Hope everyone has a lovely day.
xxx

I really hope it goes well coops :)

I daubed my stomach in moisturisey oil and the words "Happy Birthday" last night, which caused DH to weep with mirth and me to weep with frustration. I have no excuse to feel so pissed off so early into my official overduedom, but I was kind of somehow convinced the baby was going to be early so I feel it's really late already!

DH did get a late pregnancy "treat" this am though which was not as horrendous as I had anticipated... hope it works though. He declared afterwards: "Right, baby, I've checked and the coast is clear."

Sending definite OUT vibes to us leftovers!

Well that's it; I officially no longer believe in my due date. I'm now going with the date I worked out when I first found out I was pregnant which was the 28th June. This still means I'm overdue but much less overdue than the NHS thinks. Had my sweep; cervix still impossible to access which surely means he's just not ready. Everything else completely fine. DH and I going slowly mental.

Off for a short walk later; am resigned to July.
:)

Just checking in to give a hug to anyone still waiting the arrival of their LO!

28th July practically makes us due date buddies, coops, so it's an excellent plan to move it. Is the NHS date based on sizes at scans? That's all I have to go on as ours is a "helped" baby and I've no idea when my last period was. Well, I do, but it was about April so it's not worth going on!

Thanks shelduck for the hugs :)

We walked into town which is about a mile, wandered round a carnival there for a bit (bet on a ferret race and won!!!) and then walked back. I've slept since! We have a curry for tea, I'm hoping Andy Murray's match is REALLY EXCITING so as to PANIC the baby out. So: sex, walking, panicking and curry.... something has to work?! If not, I shall be in the front pew at church tomorrow to try the praying option.......!!

awww come on babies - hugs to mums feeling black and blue insides

Morning All - right, today is going to be a productive day I've decided. I'm going to do the ironing, do some dusting, roast a chicken and (possibly) clean out the fridge. Bathroom has been defuzzed of DH's hair already.

I am now going to embark on an extended moan which you are all entirely welcome to skip over.

My sister, who is very evangelical about natural birthing and hypno-birthing emailed me yesterday. She suggested that she had some hypno scripts which might help me to stop subconsciously blocking my cervix. While I'm quite happy to use the hypnosis stuff to help me relax, this seems a step too far. She also tried to suggest that hypnosis would move my placenta. I wasn't convinced by that either. There seems to be a growing contingent who think that I'm just not trying hard enough. I've tried to explain that I have limited control (conscious or otherwise) over what my body is doing but there is definitely an air of scepticism developing.

Annoyingly, despite having been super healthy throughout this pregnancy, my feet and hands have now started swelling. I'm not overly worried as my blood pressure is ok at present but it's so annoying - the only consistently thin parts of my body are my wrists and ankles. Now even that's gone! And the excellent skin that I've had throughout pregnancy has been replaced with masses of spots and blotches. Presumably this reflects some sort of hormone change (or the fact that I've been eating rubbish for the last fortnight) so maybe it's a good sign.

I should get a phonecall from the hospital tomorrow to arrange a check up, scan and the hard-sell on an induction. Have done lots of reading and while I can cope with a sweep, a full on induction just seems unnecessary and has the potential to lead to lots more intervention. Even the NICE guidance says that it is more painful and should be avoided.

Right - moan over.

A friend with a seven week old has offered to come round tomorrow - perhaps that'll get my hormones going (this is probably a bad time to admit that I'm not overly fond of small babies - I don't really know what to do with them apart from say "aw" a lot then hand them back. I imagine it'll be different with my own).

Gwennie if you could sling a prayer my way I'd be grateful . Hope you're feeling ok today and that Andy Murray got things going for you.

Have a lovely day all.
xxx

aww coops you poor thing - overdue is a special form of torture, isn't it?

re: induction - from my experience it was no more painful than naturally going into labour - it's the drip that is worse, the gel just starts you off. I had 2 sweeps and one gel thing this time, and until she got stuck, it was way less stressful than last time when I went into labour naturally and then had 2 days of painful and useless contractions before they had to put me on the drip and induce me on the 3rd day. hope your little one gets a move on soon.

Oh coops I would be at the insinuations that I wasn't trying hard enough too. As if you want to be going on and on for days and days and days..... I don't understand how people can be so blxxdy unsympathetic!

Having said that, DH has just come in from cleaning the car telling me that our next door but one neighbour is going to be induced at 38 weeks so she only has to go about another 4 weeks. This is the neighbour who, ten days ago, what telling me how lucky I was because she still had aaaaages to go and I was nearly there (and I was thinking that I had been pg for aaaaages longer than she had so too blxxdy right I should be nearly there). She is going to be induced owing to gestational diabetes and I've shown absolutely no sympathy for that, just hormonal raging jealousy!! So I'm just as bad.

One of our NCT friends said after she had her baby that you "would know your body" and when things really started rather than just being painful and uncomfortable you would know. Well my body is clearly shxt, because every flipping day I have several moments of thinking "Ooh, that's different" and trying not to let the thought that it might be IT creep in.... and it never is IT.

Haha..... as you will have gathered, none of my tricks of yesterday have done a thing - all the curry did was to cause DH to fart noxiously all night - and even that exciting tennis only caused a mild branston pickley serious of spasms. Coops, am joining you on the cleaning front today. Mega bedding washing going on and hoping to rid the bathroom of any last remaingin sign of mildew. Even DH is hoovering out the cars, maybe he's nesting too. [hopeful face]

Oh coops people are morons... Plain and simple.

gwennie have you ever given you LMP date with a straight face just for pure entertainment value??

Thinking of you guys!!

Sending you labour vibes ladies, I think you will know when it really happens, it's been a lot more intense for me than any practice pains.
Not v helpful of your sister Coops! I would be pretty too!

Aw you lot are nice. And much more sympathetic than I deserve. I am officially turning over a new leaf and stopping moaning from this point on. He will come when he is cooked.

Kveta thanks for that. Hopefully it won't come to any sort of induction but I'll bear what you said in mind. Don't like the idea of a drip at all so if anything I'll definitely go for the gels.

ffnorm you are absolutely right!

CathFin bless her, now I've calmed down I realise she was just trying to be helpful.

Gwennie pregnant women skipping the queue would definitely drive me mad too! I haven't had anything even vaguely contraction like for weeks apart from BHs so I guess it will be obvious when it actually gets going. Or maybe I've been in really slow, gentle labour for the past fortnight and tomorrow I'll wake up and find a baby has popped out in my sleep?

See you all tomorrow.
xxx

We didn't make church this morning (having used the fatal line "We'll see how we feel in the morning" last night.... when obviously in the morning we were going to feel like staying in bed...) but we did get to Evensong tonight so I have prayed very hard for GET OUT vibes for us :)

Have spoken to all lots of parents this evening, each phonecall opening with "No, no news." Hmph.

Maybe my waters will break all over my beautifully clean sheets and matress protector etc?

Sleep well xxx

Hi coops. I have to say, my experience of induction wasn't vey nice - it was a little bit hard and fast, resulting in quite difficult labour. With hindsight i wish i hadn't let myself be talked into it. BUT you'll see from kveta that everyone has a different experience of induction, and it can be absolutely fine. So my advice would just be as follows. If you are discussing induction with dr, make sure you know if DH is going to be able to stay with you throughout. And ask about all the pain relief options and scenarios, including before you reach established labour. (basically i ended up with really painful contractions, a minute and a half apart, but only 1cm dilated ie not established labour, so all they would give me was codeine. And it was outside partner visiting hours on the ward, so DH was not allowed to be with me, and i was just left on my own.) not trying to scare you! But these are the things i'd ask about with hindsight.

Hi to gwennie too! Come on babies!

Xxx

Shelduck - thank you. That's really helpful advice. From what I can tell with my sweeps I'm not dilated at all so if I was induced any time soon, it would probably be more like your experience than Kveta's. I will definitely check if DH can be with me if we do end up on that route because I'm not doing this on my own!

Gwennie any movement? We had the compulsory calls from the parents as well. MIL spoke to DH; amusingly the phone-call appeared to go "have you had it yet? You do know we go on holiday on Saturday?" It's that sort of relationship.

My bump was going absolutely mental last night. I had about two hours of constant kicks including at least one definite and purposeful punch. I've decided that he wants to come out but has given up on the traditional route and is now trying to batter his way through my abdomen. I may end up giving birth Alien-style.

I have a friend bringing over her baby this morning so I can practice. I just keep repeating "do not drop her" over and over again. Apart from that, I may clean out the fridge. Rock 'n' roll eh?

Have a lovely day everyone.
xxx

Thanks, shelduck, I'm further away from that possibility than poor Coops but particularly interested to hear about your DH not being able to stay with you.... I'm also not doing anything without him - I'm a wreck when I'm scared and on my own!

coops Hello! Back again! DH has gone off to work (because why wouldn't he? It's not like he's on paternity leave...) and we seem to be starting another baby-free week. That was not part of the plan. My SMiL was also making sure that we had their mobile numbers because they go away today! In fact, they only mentioned in passing in an email last week that they were going away and therefore we'd need to get in touch via mobile, "if they have any signal". I was a bit verging on because if the baby had arrived (huh!) we'd have spent ages trying to contact them on the landline (they don't normally operate via mobile) before telling our friends etc.

I, too, am going to give birth Alien stylee. In fact, we spend a considerable part of each evening sitting on the sofa going "aaaaallllllllliennnnnnnnnnnn!!!!" whilst DH prods different parts of the seemingly emerging baby. It was lots of fun until about a week ago. Now I'm kind of over it. And it hurts.

I have found the bump is a useful and helpful shelf to hold other people's babies on! Although the last little girl I was cuddlling got a right kicking . I had to apologise on behalf of my unborn child. This is becoming a theme.

I hope these babies of ours come out with a well rehearsed "Sorry I am late" and a better excuse than most of my pupils could come up with.

Hi everyone still waiting on their babies. I was thinking about what i did/what happened the day i went into labour (8 days ago now!) and Coops one of the things that may have encouraged my DD to come out was that I was at my friend's DS's one year old birthday party and there were loads of babies there as well as a midwife (one of the baby's grans) and lots of talk about babies, so maybe spending time with your friend's baby today will get things going.
I also ate LOADS of food (there was a buffet at the party), LOADS of fizzy drinks and walked a lot that evening...and listened to the famous hypnobirthing CD (golden light blah blah).
So really hope all these little comfy babies get out and about!
x

Ok I'm fed up now. Have had another load of painful BHs, enough for me to get excited again. And then I bloody well went and moved. So everything has stopped again. Either do something, or don't, but stop this stupid faffing around!! I can't bear it!

Fluffy well I have snuggled with a seven week old baby (and I didn't drop her - hurray!) and listened to my hypno CD again. Will try the lots of food and fizzy drinks thing tonight. Wednesday will mark 2 weeks overdue and the hospital hasn't called to arrange an appointment so I'll chase them tomorrow unless tonight's the night.....???

Gwennie - poor you! I know exactly what you mean. But my big sis swears that lots of BHs means that your body will be extra prepared for the birth and thus it'll be a piece of cake when it finally happens.

Having spent some time with an actual baby has helped me get my head around things a bit, it seems a little less theoretical than it did, a little more real. Was slightly intimidated by just how comfortable and natural my friend was with her baby. I'm assuming I'll still be accidentally putting nappies on backwards and squirting him in the face with breast milk at seven weeks.

Chin up Gwennie we are going to have a baby each by the end of the week. We have to because both sets of parents are going to be away by Saturday! Have a lovely evening.
xxx

Full moon tonght, is it not? Have no idea about such things but I do believe some people say more babies are born around the full moon... so, here's hoping!

coops glad you had a nice time with the baby :) And congratulations on not dropping her!! I have been really interested to see how my NCT friends have been with their newborns - but I have found it quite encouraging to see how naturally they seem to have taken to it. Having said that, I'm currently of a "Sh*t, this is madness, why on earth are we doing this, it's far too late to go back, help help help..." frame of mind. Which is not terribly brilliant! Need to get a grip!

I think I'm just feeling even more emotional than usual: we heard very late last night that one of DH's two best friends from school died suddenly on Saturday. We didn't see him much now we're down south and he was a prestigious pianist so travelled a lot playing and spent time living away, but I had met him a few times and he was lovely: so modest but so talented. DH always talked so fondly of him and was obviously really upset last night. He just kept saying "It's so sad," and then when we eventually went to bed he cuddled into me and said "I don't want him to be dead.". It was just like he was a little boy and it made me realise how much I expect him to be "grown up" and strong for me when we're both the same inside really. Poor him :(

So I could really do with having a baby today, so that it's at least flipping well here, and hopefully a few days old before DH goes off to Edinburgh for funerals and suchlike :( Which is not a very nice reason to need to have a baby.

However, sitting around being maudlin is not going to help anything or anyone, so I am going to have a shower and think about stupid things I can send to my brother along with this rather crumbly flapjack I've made him. The joke is that if he doesn't like the flapjack he can hurl it at the enemy or use it as body armour, but I don't think this one will cut the mustard there, so to speak. What else shall I put in his parcel....? hmm......

Hope good days are had all around! xx

Gwennie???? Gwennie???? Are you still here? I'm rather selfishly hoping that I'm not the last man standing.

Have just booked myself in for a sweep at 10.30am. Hospital still hasn't bothered to call so am taking matters into my own hands. Can everyone please cross their fingers that my cervix is at least accessible this time?

Hope everyone has a lovely day.
xx

Oooh, cross post!

Oh Gwennie that's really sad for you and your DH. Will post properly when I get back. Hope you guys are ok. xxx

Ooh good luck with the sweep coops :) A sweep AND a full moon - it's got to be the day!! :)