June 2013 - thread 9 - not many babies left to arrive now :-)

[MrsBri]

New thread as we appear to be talking a fair bit!

Lets hope we've all given birth by the end of this one :-)

3 nights of what I think are contractions only to materialise into nothing, you would think as this is my 2nd I would know better but clearly not!!! In my defence dd was 7 weeks early and it all happened quickly so I actually feel like a 1st timer!

Maybe something will happen soon??

oh no Sarah! hope toy get your sleepy girl back soon, gonna go drink pineapple juice while alternating between bouncing on.tge ball and cleaning tge floor before and after I get taken out foe lunch, I think I'll call it operation body give me my baby?

Mrs Bri I was convinced I would go early, not sure why. If this lo arrives today or tomorrow I was right, but not looking likely!
MadameJ I've had contractions on and off since tues, still no 'active' labour. Is a quick earlylabour as bad as they say?

Littlemiss, my first labour was indeed a difficult one but I was in complete shock the whole way through as there really was no build up and I was 7cm before I even got checked out so I suppose I was quite lucky, it did end up with forceps due to dd being back to back and in an extremely dodgy position, the outcome however was very positive :-)

I had myself convinced too, Littlemiss! It's a bugger, isn't it?

I've been told that a fast labour can be quite brutal / traumatic for your body to deal with. I'll go for a nice mid-length labour then please!

Madame, these false starts are all a pain in the arse, aren't they? :-/

We seem to have stalled on the baby front now. I wonder who'll be next? Could be any of us!

MadameJ, I was SO convinced last night, and this is my third! I couldn't keep still, had to keep walking round with the pain, but then everything stopped. It was all on one side as well, so now that I'm slightly more rational, I'm telling myself it was positioning.

Still not a hundred percent right from my migraines. It's like a kind of sensory bleedthrough where I'm seeing and feeling things that aren't there. All very weird.

MrsBri that calculator brings me to Sat 22nd rather than Wed 19th. Have a meeting at school tonight, one on Thurs night, thurs am my son's class is presenting in assembly and Friday Toby's new reception teacher is doing a home visit! Please hang on baby!!

Sorry Sarah - i certainly havent swapped my non-sleeping girl for yours. Mine just feeds and feeds and feeds. 8-10.30pm then 12.30-2.30am then 4.30-6.30am then 8.30-9am and back on again now. DH thinks its more for comfort than sustenance and wonders if we should get a dummy. The guidance reckons a month but if she is already latching on wonderfully for the sake of our sanity do we try it??

On the plus side we tried her with a bottle of expressed milk which she took no bother. Unfortunately DH had to wake me after as it wasnt enough to fill her up.

Sunny I read somewhere that after 45 mins or so it's just for comfort. I got a dummy out last night and she sucked on it like the world was ending. I've just been letting her daytime sleep till she wakes and feed her when she sqwaks. Maybe today I will actually wake her up to feed in the day to try and prevent a rerun of last night. Neighbours probably think we have abandoned or starved her. Or both.

Sparkle, are your bowel movements loose also? We were told that sickness and diarrhoea are signs of upcoming labour.

You could be next then!! :-)

I've felt really sick, but not been sick. I am definitely having a clear out too. I reckon half of my baby weight is blockage! :-/

Sparkle that sounds promising- a few people I know had sickness as their first sign of labour.

Hawkmoth that sounds terrible and the last thing you need right now!

That's some hours of feeding there! I know that we went for the dummy fairly early on with DS and were happy that we did!

I meant to ask earlier too- nipple shields- do you sterilise them like with bottles etc? Thinking about having some in my hospital bag as my destroyed nipples were a large factor in my giving up last time. Would the tommee tippee antibacterial wipes do in hospital in the absence of steriliser as such?!

Hello everyone! Sorry - I've been lurking lazily and nosing through all your posts, but thought it was about time I said hello. My DD is due on 25th, so I still have 8 days to go, but i'm at my wits' end already. This pregnancy has been horrendous - SPD, sickness right through, and that annoying irritable uterus thing that means I've been having contractions since 28 weeks :( it's landed me in hospital twice with them flapping that a baby might be imminent, so I think it's the least she can do to actually get a wriggle on now.

I'm feeling pretty crazy tbh. Am blaming the hormones, but I do feel sorry for DH having to live with me at the moment.

I've been bouncing on my ball, forcing DH to dtd, and walking as much as is possible with a pelvis that's falling apart. Read somewhere that swimming can help - trying to motivate myself to go, failing, feeling guilty for being so lazy.

Right, pity party over. Going to go chug down some more raspberry leaf tea and have a reverse psychology pep talk with baby giro.

Congratulations to all of you whose babies have arrived! X

AmI I bought a pair beforehand, sterilised them and had them in bag. Thank god. I do think you can go mad with sterilising everything that moves though. As the midwife said, your boobs aren't sterile!

Wow that is lots of feeding is that constant for 2 hours or every 2 hours food a certain amount of time?

Oh and is there a sure fire way to see if your milka in or no?

giro I bet after all that you'll go over now!

my mum is being my pity party and taking me out for lunch, I got her far too excited by telling her I lost a big chunk of plug, I actually thought she was going to scream, think she's more excited than.me!
right gonna get back on the floor rolling back and forward with my gym ball, come on ladies, the eviction notice has been served!

oh re throwing up, I keep heaving if I leave it 20 mins or so between getting up and breakfast or eating, it's meant many biscuits at 3 am so I dont sit heaving in bed!

Ha, yeah I've been living with biscuits by the bed too! Though secretly I'd quite like an excuse to keep that going post-pregnancy....

Have fun with your mum! I've been losing bits of my plug over the last week too, and on Sat we genuinely thought things were kicking off when I got a dodgy stomach and was having contractions, but it all stopped a few hours later :( I called my parents halfway through specifically to tell them nothing was happening, to buy myself a day or two from being bothered by them if I was about to go into labour! Otherwise I have no doubt they'd have been just as het up as your mum :)

Oh my god. Pretty much non stop feeding last night! 30 minute feeds on an hourly cycle. I am knackered (and he's on the boob again now!).

Re pooing, I went 2 days post birth. I'd been given both codeine and iron so was really worried but had been eating dried apricots since the birth (about 6-8 a day I think) which made it easy. Remember to drink plenty of water. I have a second degree tear and found it helped to wait till you really need to go and then just let your body do it, don't strain.

Re sweeps, mine didn't hurt at all. So it's possible! Fwiw I have a low pain threshold especially when it comes to down there (my smear last year was agony).

My 6 hour labour (DS2) was more traumatic than my 3 hour labour (DS1).

Some stuff about breast feeding that I've experienced:

If you have blocked ducts it can really hurt to feed (the breast itself, but also the nipple). I thought DS had a bad latch on the right side but as soon as my milk supply calmed down a bit the pain went.

A bit of pain is normal while your nipples gets used to things. I mean your nipples haven't had a baby suckling on them 8 hours a day before, it's no surprise that takes a bit of getting used to. It takes practice to get things right, for both mother and baby.

If it continues to hurt, GET HELP!! Not from midwives, but from a proper lactation consultant or breast feeding counsellor. DS1 had tongue tie, feeding was excruciating. I wouldn't have been able to continue if it wasn't for the bf counsellor who came to my house and the tongue tie clinic.

If you can stick with it through the difficult first bit, it's well worth it. Personally I love breast feeding, both the physical and emotional aspects of it. And I'm lazy, I don't think I could do all the bottle stuff all the time, especially in the middle of the night.

However, and i think this is the most important bit that often doesnt get mentioned: Your mental health is more important than any benefit breast milk can offer. If bfing is making you crazy, unhappy, in unbearable pain, unable to love/bond with your baby, then use formula. It's there as an alternative and it's awesome that it exists and gives us a choice.

I'm so jealous of those of you that have or are losing their plug! I've not had the slightest bit, waaa

Someone needs to have their baby so all the rest get the idea!

happy i havent lost anything either :( 39 weeks tomorrow.

i neeeeeed this baby to come out now i cant sleep at all and tmi but been having a clear out for a while now.

also was going to ask those of you who have had there babies and already have young children, how are your toddlers coping in the night? i worry that when baby comes it will wake up ds. is this the case for you or do they sleep though the crying?

I've not lost anything either, ladies. I'm just relying on the fact that you don't actually have to lose anything to go into labour. Would still prefer to see something though!