BROOKING NO ARGUMENT for pain-free sneeze births and an abundance of empty birthing pools - pt 12!

[FluffyJawsOfDoom]

I think this is the first time I've ever started a brooking thread!

Ooo so many scans!

tock is there a specific brand or type of ring sling you'd recommend for a newborn or are they much of a muchness?

A few niggles here and tightenings but nothing that is really suggesting labour imminent if anything baby just making itself comfortable DH's boss has said baby can arrive now cause she has found cover for his paternity leave, although his supervisor asked could I wait a couple of days so the cover can be reminded how to do the job lol and it's 1st October on Mon which is when I said earliest baby could arrive, plus a full moon on Sunday anything is possible.
I have to admit I haven't really thought of the pros and cons for induction I guess I am going for the if I get to being that pg that its considered I will be just so glad to have my baby healthy in my arms I won't care. I'm already fed up of being pg mainly because I want to know whether it is a boy or girl. They are starting with two sweeps before full on induction so will just have to wait and see. Even with induction baby may take its own sweet time on one of other threads i'm on 6 lots of the gel and five days before baby finally made its appearance.

Hope scans all go well!

little, green, the race is on then!

fluffy, I had scans at 18 weeks, so they've skipped 20 weeks, and I'll be seen again at 22-23 weeks. They now have a separate department for Fetal Medicine, which is nicer than having to wait knowing you are getting bad news in the same waiting room as all the happy normal pregnant people clutching happy scans.

cakes, DS arrived after the second sweep. Whether it was that or that he was just fully cooked that got things going, I don't know, but I liked feeling I was doing something to get him going! How exciting to be having a surprise brooking baby though.

My sister's hospital won't tell you the sex - does everyone else's here give you the option?

bartlet I'm at stoke mandeville which lets you find out. The other hospital option was Watford general who never used to say, but recently have started to, so everyone round here can find out if the want.
I was so adamant I didn't want to know with dd, but really don't feel as strongly this time.

Morning all. Just popping in because you'd dropped off my threads I'm on list. How exciting that there are potentially 3 Brooking babies due in Oct.

October is a good juicy brooker's month.

Thanks for asking re' slings Fluff - I went for a wrap sling. Really snug and warm for both of you and easy to breastfeed. Something like the Moby wrap sling - tho' I can't actually remember which one I had and will use again. Ergo is good from 6 months on for back-carrying. DP loved a bit more structure so more of a carrier. There are tonnes to choose from but the Bjorn seems popular. I got a v sweet one for a tiny baby too - over the shoulder pouch really, but would worry that after a couple of weeks this would be bad for your back as one-sided. Whims is bound to have good advice on this too.

Great that you are doing so well without any major twanging, pinging or BH. That DD of yours may not want to come out in a hurry after all.

Thinking of you too Cakes.

Yes - bad MWing re' that induction, but also not just one MW. They called DF in one day for induction then sent her home so whole hospital is clearly having policy issues/traffic problems. Most of the stories that come out of my local hospital labour ward are not v positive so I hope everyone else does much better with their local services. HB gives me the chance for full attention from two MWs - hence being a fan. Of course we will have to see if I will get lucky second time round.

Waves to all. Will check in re' scan news for those coming up to 18-20wks... xxxx

ps I'm an extremely fast, self-taught touch typist Little - probably not a good thing for anyone else.

Slight tangent to the induction staffing issues. There are three birth centres in my local vicinity (ranging between 12min travel and 40min) which between them last year handled 74 births. There were also about 100 home births in the entire county. When it is out of hours it now turns out that you are sent to whichever of the three has been opened first. So for example if I was first to go in to labour then my nearest birth centre would be opened and the MW would staff there any other women would also have to go there even if it wasn't there nearest. The PCT are trying to encourage us to use our local birth centres more but don't have enough births to require extra staff than they currently have. Due to all of this I considered having a home birth but was told that out of hours I would still have to go to the open birth centre if I wasn't the first in labour because that is where the MWs will be. So much for having a choice! To be fair though the likelihood of there being more than one person in labour at any one time is probably remote and it probably affects only a small percentage of women.
The number of MW also has an impact on other antenatal appts, if your MW was on call and someone has gone into labour that means a high likelihood of your appt being postponed, although I guess that can happen wherever you live?

Tock I think the calling someone in for induction then sending them home sounds very much like it was just a problem predicting numbers/complications - much like we have here in A&E. Things can change in a blink of an eye and I guess its the same with labouring women, if they had an influx or if one or two women in labour developed complications then they wouldhave to weigh up the risks of inducing/leaving your DF against the workload at that time she arrived. With the current promotion of home births and the well documented shortage of midwives I worry about how they will be able to cope with the 2 midwives per labouring woman assuming uptake on HB continues to increase. Still the recruitment drive for midwives is still going strong here so maybe they will have the balance right within the next fewyears - lets hope so anyway!
On the sex of baby subject our Trust will tell you but only if you ask.
Fluff You are looking blooming marvelous on FB lovely! Xx

Don't worry Olives - HB uptake has only reached 2-3% in most places so even if it doubles it won't be affect many births.
Bit tough on you there Cakes - one of the harder aspects of living in a remote area but I hope it all works out. The birthing centres sound good to me...
At our Trust you are given a choice to find out the birth, but I've discovered even if you say you don't want to know the sonographer fails to keep the surprise. You will all be pleased to know I didn't kick up a fuss though I'm annoyed. They have told me that they are given no training re' how to explain to people that there may be a problem...
Buggering orf again. xxxx

Morning all. I'm back in work after a week off, and bored stupid! Can't wait for my ML to start :)

I didn't really get much done through the week, but enjoyed being able to relax. I painted the nursery white as an undercoat (it was vertical stripes of dark, mid and light brown, so awful to paint over). I've got a couple of plans for nursery ideas now, mostly around a Japanese anime cartoon I really like Totoro. If you've not seen it I highly recommend it. It's just such an innocent story in many ways, though does deal with a mother being in hospital, and the anxieties of the children.

Thinking of copying some mural ideas simple trees, dust sprites and if I'm feeling adventurous, maybe a mini Totoro.

On the induction discussion - I've not given it much thought, and hope not to get to that situation! If I go 2 full weeks overdue we'll be looking at 23rd Dec for induction. I'd like to avoid a Christmas baby if possible, so will be looking for lots on 'on time' vibes near the date! If I'm recommended for induction though, I'll trust the midwives and agree - but only after a serious discussion with them on their reasoning.

Tock of course you don't need to disappear. I don't think this is the kind of place where you'll be excluded for having your own opinion on something - just as you wouldn't exclude others for theirs!

Hope everyone else is well, and that babies arrive on time and scans go well. Looking forward to the scan updates and pictures. :)

Hi everyone. Been at IL's over the weekend, lovely to come back and see everyone updating. Yay for scans and imminent births!

Stacks it sounds like you've done loads of preparation, well done! You sound v artistic, very jealous of your talents. We went down the wall sticker route with DD, I think that's pretty much all I'm capable of :)

I have to say that I'm very much with tock on the whole induction issue, having been induced with DD. I expect that the fact that I didn't want to be induced has coloured my view of it though, and that the hospital I was in is sadly well-known for being a bit pushy and over-medicalising birth. If it's your choice to be induced I should think that the experience is a lot more positive. That's really what birth should be about in this day and age anyway, your choice and having it respected. So choose what is best for you, fluff and all the best x

cake that sounds like a very odd situation with the midwives in your area. In my case, I've been assigned to the HB midwives team, which only works on HB's. They allocate quite carefully as well, so you're unlikely to get clashes with other women giving birth at the same time although obviously it can happen. The birth centres are all attached to hospitals but have their own MW teams.

little I'm very glad to hear you've chosen Stoke Mandeville over Watford Gen - although I've never given birth in WG I've been there enough times to know that it could double as one of the seven circles of hell! I think because of the location it's just very busy and staff are horrifically overworked, but god, the stories I could tell...

bartlet so happy that everything is going well. I think I've missed if you've found out the sex or not?

at whims. How's the US treating you, sista?

Sooo... called my mw, who said that due to HB team being 'floating' I would have to contact my GP re: WC jab. Who seem to have NO IDEA what I'm talking about! It's been all over the news, how could they not know?! Anyway, main GP is going to call me back re: jabs later today, as he's the person most likely to have a scooby. Don't know whether it's receptionist being a bit flakey (which is very likely, they're a bit scatty there IMO) or practice badly informed all round. FX it's the former.

Oh, and I'm a little bit more myself, thank you everyone for being so kind. I'm trying to keep myself busy, and actually doing stuff to prepare for DD2's arrival is helping.

Aaargh! After that massive post I've just realised I didn't address the issue of tantrumming toddlers.

DD has her moments, but she's generally a very sunny little soul so I think we've probably lucked out a bit. She does get overexcited and throws strops but they're never normally uncontrollable. On the occasions that she goes too far we use time out, and short calm explanations of why what she's done is naughty. I've taken on board a lot of stuff from MN and other sources about labelling the behaviour, not the child. Also, Playful Parenting (book) has been really good for keeping everything light and not scaring DD with over-reactions or unnecessary punishment.

We have systems at home that seem to keep everyone happy and keep DD feeling quite secure as well. She's given choices, ie choice of 2 outfits in the morning, or choice of breakfast (ie porridge or toast), but never more than 2 as it seems to a) stress her out and b) create more work for me! In fact when DH offered her the choice of toast, porridge or cereal one morning she got quite cross with him

I expect everything will go to pot with DC2 though! New baby and nearly 3yo, what can possibly go right wrong?

I didn't know you'd found out you were having another dd smegs, congrats
I chose stoke mandeville for dd due to general opinion of both hospitals amongst friends, and I loved it so it was the obvious choice for this baby too. Fwiw though, I've not heard any horror stories about Watford maternity dept in the last few years, so it's hopefully improved.

stacks I'm also jealous of your artistic skills. The nursery will probably be paint and a wallpaper border

Little Well, we were told it was more likely to be a girl than a boy, but sonographer wasn't too sure! I'm pretty sure it's a girl though, I thought the scan was quite conclusive actually.

My artistic skills are not good, but I have a few artists in the family :)

Smegs we were also told that our bump is only probably a boy. However, she said this while showing us a very obvious side ways view of a penis I think they're just not allowed to say 100% even if they're sure.

Hello all, especially Cakes and Fluffy - brooking for you both in birth month!

Smegs glad you are feeling a bit better. You are putting me to shame with your handling of terrible twos. DD is 3 now, and doesn't really have tantrums, but she does whinge quite a lot and can be quite demanding in expecting her own way all the time and we are not very good at handling it consistently and I have to admit we sometimes lose our tempers with her a bit. Oh dear, must try harder.

Bartlet congratulations on reaching the half-way point and I'm glad you are feeling a bit better emotionally, if not physically! Brooking the nausea/vomiting settles down soon.

Brooking for Little's and Olive's scans this week! Exciting times!

Stacks, glad you had a relaxing week off. Not long until mat leave now, surely? You asked about my back and it's blooming awful! No better, in fact it is worse, so I think I'll go back to the doctor this week to see if there is anything that can be done. Not sure if I'll just have to put up with it though.

Tock I totally sympathise re the challenging behaviour from our 2-3 year olds! DD is mostly a delight, but can try my patience at times. Brooking your bug clears up soon.

Not much to report here, just hobbling around hoping my back improves! Off on hols on Saturday and I can't wait! We could all do with some quality time together.

Haha, Gen I'm really not the supermum that post has made me out to be! DD hasn't had the terrible 2's yet, so I'm sure that when the bad behaviour arrives (and it will, just a question of when) I'll be tearing my hair out, just like other people do!

I bet you are supermum Smegs! Actually, I feel constantly guilty for working full time while DH is at home - he is not happy with the situation and neither am I, but for us, it's the only solution that makes financial sense. Hopefully maternity leave will help as I will have more time to spend with DD and hopefully help her in a more calm way. And of course, DC2 will be a dream and fit right in around it.

My dc2 is going to be one of those really easy babys too gen

We made it to October cakes! unless you popped while I wasn?t looking
I wouldn?t have even begun thinking about induction yet if I hadn?t been booked in at my consultant meeting plus I only have time for 1 sweep at 40+4 because of the midwife?s schedule and my due day falling on a weekend - though DH is adamant she?ll be here by then and I shouldn?t worry. :o

That sound like a strange set up at your birthing centres. Our community midwives are on call, but I think it?s quite unusual for them actually to be called up iyswim ? the unit has to be full to the brim I think. And the birth centre is in the main hospital, at the other end of the corridor to the (more medical) delivery suite.

Oh Bartlett that is a good idea. I was waiting in the scan waiting room a few weeks back (for physio though) and someone had clearly had some very bad news. I felt so awful for her and very guilty as I (then massively preggers) got up and waddled past her :(
My hospital will tell you the sex, but didn?t make a massive effort to look when it was clear she was in an awkward position ? so they will tell you if it?s obvious iyswim.

Thanks tock I?ll have a google at mobys :) so are you going to tell us if you?re having a DS2 or DD or do we have to guess? :o
Shocking that sonographers aren?t given training on delivering bad news, you?d think it was a key part of their job??

Aww thanks Olives! Feeling rather unwieldy now, like I might tip over in a stiff breeze! How are you finding having such a physically demanding job while updiffed, it must be quite a challenge?

I?ve not seen Totoro, but I love the nursery idea stacks. We?ve gone with plain walls but I am half way through sewing some bunting and DH?s very nice uncle has painted a lovely picture to hang on the wall.

smegs I phoned the GP on Friday and they knew nothing about the jab ? so I?m now too late to have it, I think, though someone on the Pregnancy forum suggested I might be offered it during delivery, though I can?t see why they would tbh. Did your GP get back to you? I hope you manage to get one.

Where are you going on your hollibobs Gen? Somewhere lovely I?m sure :)

Feeling super nauseous tonight. Could be the infamous clearing-out-of-the-system, but it?s more likely dinner DH would like baby to wait til his nightshifts are finished and he?s not so knackered :o

Smegs - glad to hear you are feeling on better form. It's a bit of a roller-coaster, isn't it, and has been for ages for us, given the long-ish period of TTC etc? I feel a bit dotty at times too, but am lucky to have had another relatively easy pg thus far. You have inspired me to buy that book. To be fair to DS he is mostly still a lovely sweet clever little boy, but he has much more 'feist' now (as you would hope; placid would worry me and wouldn't suit our family set-up) and of course it has combined with my pg/tiredness. So I feel that I'm v tough on him at times - and hate myself if I raise my voice. Having said that, sometimes booming at him is the only way for him to know he's hit a boundary so I'm not entirely against some strong emotion. We are v much into closed choices too, and time-out is pretty good. I try to use lots of affirmation and treats when he is good as well! The usual. Nonetheless I am far from perfect. My DP is v patient, thankfully. Gen - I sympathise with the feeling of imbalance with you and DH re' work; this is so hard but I reckon your DD probably really benefits... Enjoy hols.

Congrats on October Fluff - you receive £200 of monopoly money and a mocktail involving raspberry leaf tea. Not long now - we're all hanging in here for you.

Little - our DC2s will be bliss. Naturally.

Like the sound of artistic family Stacks - make the most of them.

Hugs to Olives, Whims and Bartlett... and Cakes of course.

Aw Tock your DS sounds adorable. My DD often says 'you're the best mummy in the whoooole world' and it is the best thing ever. Well done on trimester 3. Does that start at 27 weeks? I am 25 and a bit, so not too long to go.

Fluffy the bunting sounds nice and hurrah for reaching October! We are off to Wales on our hols and I can't wait!

Little, we should brook no argument for our easy babies! Why should the brooking stop at birth?

Going back to dr today about my back. I can hardly walk! The surgery also rang me yesterday to offer me the whooping cough vaccine, so it sounds like some PCTs already have a system in place. Hopefully everyone else will be offered it soon (I think you have to wait until 28 weeks to get it though). Fluffy I wonder if they will let you have it even though it's late? Perhaps some benefit will be conferred via BF, but I haven't done any research.

Poor you Gen - hope the Doc can help; sounds awful. I think tri 3 is start of week 28. I consider the 3rd of each month to be a new month so I am starting month 7 tomorrow; that'll do for tri3! You're nearly there too. I've got an inkling that our babies (and Whim's too) will come closer together than we think, so it's all a bit academic really...!

Hi all. Afraid all quiet here, think baby is too comfy, to the point of also making the minimum movement it can get away with over last 24hrs

I'm so glad we made it to October Fluffy now how long are our baby's going to keep us waiting?? My dh is getting impatient keeps asking am I going to have the baby today every morning before he goes to work lol but on other hand he thinks baby will arrive quite close to due date. My sweep is booked for sat cause my mw isn't working fri.
The bunting sounds nice would like to see a pic when its finished! Do you feel like baby is low down and heading right way? Have you started having the have you had baby yet messages?

Think I put a new pic on my profile the other day then didn't tell anyone.

Gen whereabouts in Wales are you going? There are some lovely beautiful places.