May 2013: 5 in the thread and the little one said, roll over - there's lots more on the way!

[Rhienne]

Running out of space over here so a new thread for all our fabulous birth stories!

Anyone else given up hope?
Kinda Expect to be induced on Thursday.
Everyone tries to say oh she's still got time, I look at them like . Don't look likely does it.

Sorry about my negativity.

Still sending those labour vibes to everyone else
41+1

No baby here either, 40+3. They're going to break my water tomorrow if nothing happens before.

Have you had a stretch and sweep cheerful or is it less common to do that in the U.S.?

Interesting how they'll go for breaking waters over other induction methods. 40+4 would also be considered early days in a normal pregnancy for induction in the UK. I don't think they'd break waters over here unless they had a specific reason to or they'd tried other forms of induction. It's Interesting how varied professional opinion/practice can be. Hope it all goes according to plan for you.

Living come what may, that baby will be out soon. You really don't have long now.

I'm still here with no signs of baby shifting. Just marking my place 40+ 3 x

I also had an uneventful night last night, 40+4 and still here, I'm getting really annoyed now with the "any sign of baby" messages I'm constantly getting. I'm not going to keep it a secret when she does arrive, no need to ask constantly!

Anyone else feel like killing the next person to say 'the baby will come when it's ready'!!!
Seriously??? That's the best you can do???
Sorry, just really hacked off with everyone that keeps telling me that.

Accupressure

A friend sent me this link and I think it might be useful. Am willing to try anything at the moment!!!

Oh yes dxb, my patience is really wearing thin for people who insist on telling me that. I usually get the "any baby yet" question ( no, obviously not), then the reply "oh she'll come when she's ready!" Oh, will she now?

Especially when it's not actually true. Some babies would stay in there quite happily forever if it wasn't for medical intervention...I just hope mine isn't 1 of them!

It is interesting isn't it Lolly? :)

I don't really know what a sweep is, but I think it's what we call stripping the membranes? Some doctors do it routinely if you're overdue and others don't.

I think in my case my Dr is going for the water breaking as I'm already dilated to almost 4 and have been having strong contractions for a few weeks. Plus we share her with another clinic so Monday was probably the easiest time for everyone. :) It's optional, but I gave the go ahead.

It sounds like a far more personal approach, cheerful than what we sometimes get with the NHS. think some hospitals are like 'this is how we do inductions so this is what will happen to you regardless of your personal circumstances'.

I've done a lot of walking the last 2 days. It's been good weather get out in, at least

Evening- Birth Story Alert ( tho nice one)

On Thursday I started getting period type pains after lunch so when DS went to bed at 7pm I put on nightwear to try and be more comfy..
Once I sat still I twigged the pain was coming in waves and. Timed them to discover they were every 6/7 mins but certainly not painful to think labour was going To start. After a few hrs I began to wonder if they were going to die off or progress so DH went to bed and i stayed up to assess what I thought- at 0100hrs I decided as they were low pain and no closer together I'd just go to bed- I was woken at 02.45hrs when my waters broke! From that point the pains were much stronger and every 3mins so I rang the birthing centre and woke DH. We arrived at the birthing centre at 4.15 and I was found to be only 2cm dilated. I have to say I was disappointed as I thought that at 3mins and second child d be further on.... Birthing centre had no one in so they said I could stay as waters gone but didn't register me or give me painkillers/pool as I wasn't officially there. The midwife said she would reexamine in 4hrs! I was really in pain now and didn't see how I'd cope that long with nothing! I stayed active, walking round room continuously until clearly my body language indcated t her I needed something! At 6.30 Ish she reluctantly allowed me in the pool and a codeine tablet! By 7.45 I was losing it ... I couldn't face hrs more pain so we agreed she would examine me so I could make some decisions..... I'm sure now that was my transmission as mins later I told her I felt the pain needed me to push! Very swiftly more midwives appeared, a hospital wristband landed on me and all the kit for babies appeared from the cupboards! I started uncontrollably pushing/ screaming and even mooing! Couldn't help it! Everyone thought it was moments away but it took me ages to push out my giant! After 50 mins f pushing ( not that painful til the end but very tiring!) and him being half in/out for 5 pushes ( very odd feeling) he finally arrived floating up to me. I caught him and discovered he was a boy. I cuddled him in the pool fr a few mins of delayed cord cutting and then got out to b amazed t find him to be 9lb 12oz ( ds1 was 7lb 2) Sadly due to his size I had an hr of stitching :-( but actually I'm less painful now than at this point with DS1.

Positive experience all round and home by 7.30pm. Could have been home quicker if we had pushed for it but we had our own em suite room and left in peace so just chilled together for the day.

Aww! Congratulations on your big boy! :) Hope you recover well. What does DS1 think of him?

Lolly it really depends here too...when I had DS we lived in a bigger city and my care was much more impersonal. Now we're in a very small place and it's really different. I'll probably be the only person in the hospital delivering that day, which they tell me means I won't have to wait for anything. :)

Hi all, apologies for delay in posting here, some of you might have seen on FB that my beautiful son Thomas arrived on Thursday morning, 8lbs 2.5oz!
Birth story already on FB page, tried to copy itover here but it was beyond my capabilities! As you can probably tell by my posting this at 4am sleep is now a distant memory!

BIRTH STORY (nice one - couldn't have been better really )

Saw midwife at 41wk appt last Wednesday and was given second sweep. It was actually the student midwife who did it - I did tell her to have a good go at it and not to worry about hurting me - was quite desperate! She did have a good go but it actually wasn't uncomfortable really. Nothing apart from a few BH for the rest of the afternoon. After dinner I went for a really brisk walk, totally powered up the hills and we didn't get back til about 11pm. At about midnight just as I was settling intoned started together contractions that were about 10mins apart and regular, not that painful but couldn't sleep with them, got DH up about 1.30 when they were getting closer together but still quite manageable. Took some paracetamol and put pirates of the Caribbean on for distraction - gotta love a bit of Johnny Depp - phoned the labour ward when getting 3 in 10 mins but was still able to speak through them so midwife told me to hold off for a bit. Was using my tens machine and coping so happy enough to wait. At about 4.30 phoned again as contractions getting stronger and coming about every 2 mins. Arrived at 5am, midwife thought I might still be in latent phase as although contractions were frequent they were still manageable so I was trying to prepare myself for the long haul. She did all her checks and examined me about 6am, I was quite grateful that she wasn't rushing to examine me and was doing all the rest of the checks first as I thought this would buy me a bit more time to get to 4cm and not have to go home! When she did examine me she was quite surprised to find I was 6cm and my waters broke during the examination. I was just so delighted that I wouldn't have to go home! Contractions ramped up pretty quickly after that. I got moved into the delivery suite by about 6.30 still just using tens but started to feel a bit of pushing pressure so got some gas and air which really worked for me. Midwife also said would help to stop me from pushing before I was ready. I had been worried that the gas and air might make me a bit sick and disorientated but it was good and while I was still aware of the pain it wasn't really distressing.
When she did examine me she was quite surprised to find that I was fully dilated and she could see vertex. She kept telling me to just use the gas and air for contractions but i really couldn't feel any breaks between them! Thomas was born about an hour later and delivered up onto my chest and cried immediately. I asked them to delay clamping the cord until it stopped pulsing then give me the injection to deliver the placenta which they did. I had a small second degree tear which was stitched up under local which was really not that bad either and I didn't care as I was so besotted with my baby!

Thomas was born at 8.14 and I left the hospital at about 3.30pm.

We're just so smitten with our little guy and I would do it all again tomorrow no problem

Great birth stories scooby and cuppa. Thanks for sharing

How are the stragglers today? I'm still straggling!

40+4

Well done scooby and cuppa they are lovely birth stories.

I'm still here, 40+9 . Cannot wait to tell my very own birth story. Although I might want to think
About a birth plan at this stage. I don't know If it's worth it tho. All it would say is 'not too many internals and get baby out as quickly and as safely as possible '

Gonna go for a VERY long walk this morning after my breakfast. Don't usually eat breakfast but all I seem to do is eat since about 38 weeks. And today I'm gonna take the last stabiliser off DS bike... Maybe... I'll think about it lol! I'd booked to go to chessington world of adventures today as I thought baby would have been here by now but I just cannot face it. Walking around being happy alllllll day. Lucky I didn't tell DS before hand, it was gonna be our lil day out together just me and him after the baby was born. I feel quite guilty now as I'm typing this.
I know Im going on abit, this is like my daily journal haha.

living you carry on! I enjoy reading how the stragglers are getting on. I'm here lolly how funny that we had the same due date yet are both still waiting.

All the way through I've said I want a may, not June, baby as all of DP's nieces and nephews have June birthdays. My worst case scenario is the baby being born on the 1st as this is the first born niece's birthday. With a sweep on the 31st, this is looking more and more likely :-( x

Had a sweep this morning (40+5), with some bloody discharge afterwards. Now feeling a little sore and crampy. Let's hope this is the start of good things to come. According to my Dr my uterus is actually quite soft, but the baby's head is still quite high.

Booked for an induction on Wednesday evening if the baby doesn't show up before then. They will start with a pessary and keep me overnight. So I'm guessing that either Thursday or Friday the baby will be born. In a way I like the fact that I'm booked in. I still hate the thought of an induction, but it is comforting to have some kind of time frame.

Any tips on how to get through an induced labour?

Can't wait to see you all over at the post natal thread soon. I know how you are all feeling as I thought Teddy would never come and he was only 3 days over.

I'm still convinced from period and conception dates that he was due on 10th May which would make him 9 days over. He is so super dry and has really long toes and fingers which is usually a common sign of over due babies.

Hopefully we don't all go too long over. Does anyone else feel guilty that they're not doing enough? I feel like I should always be keeping active and doing something to encourage her to come out, if I'm sitting on the couch I feel guilty that I'm not bouncing on my birthing ball, and if I'm at home I feel bad that I'm not out having a big long walk instead.

I've been really tired these past few days but don't want to take a nap because I won't be staying active, but all I want to do is curl up under my covers and close my eyes or lie down sprawled on the couch watching films.

Tiger make sure you take your rest too. Keeping active, bouncing and going for walks is all great but don't forget you are carrying a tiny human!

I take it as I go along. If I feel energetic enough I go for walks, cook, do laundry etc. If I don't feel up for it I lie on the couch, take naps or relax in the pool.

Just woke up from a nap now and will be loading up the dishwasher in a minute...

TMI

Ahh! I'm so uncomfortable! I need to pooh but I can't go, my fanjo is hurting and I just feel like my insides are going to fall out of me. This baby needs to hurry up :-s

Just dropped in to catch up on everyone's stories and saw the thread is almost full. There's a new antenatal thread here if those still waiting want to continue antenatal (for just a few more days, hang in there!).

The post-natal thread seems to be here.

And our stats thread is here.

:)