Graduated elderberries - 30+ and looking forward to DC1! (Thread 6)

[HazleNutt]

Oh, looks like I wrote the last post! So new thread here where we will see more berry babies and hopefully loads more graduates as well.

Even my DH was giggling at that story!!!! It's more the fact that she thought it would be this serene thing really
Great news on scan quod. Now you can begin to relax a bit!!!!
Lara was an angel last night. Fed every three hours and I had to wake her up! No crying or fussing. We both had a full nights sleep! But she is fussy today. My milk came through and my tits are the size of melons!!!!
I had a second degree tear and it has been stinging a bit but not massively. Sitting in a bath with tea tree oil is helping though.

Yay for scan news Quod! And I was totally the same- really wanted to know the sex after I'd said no lol! Downside was that I wss so convinced he was a girl I was a bit shocked when they held him up!

Stitches aren't so bad. I had an epi and forceps in the end (lovely spinal block in theatre) - stitches haven't stung at all, but they do ache if I do too much. I have some nice strong drugs for this tho :)

Definitely recommend tens machine- got to nearly 4cm with just that and a bit of gas and air before it got annoying.

Brave who do you speak to about the TENS machine, sounds like something worth investigating! Am I right in thinking you can rent them?

I was the same Brave, so so sure mine was a girl, but nope it's definitely a boy, I saw his bits on the screen! So much for mothers intuition huh

Yay for quod! I had a good scan too - went in for my (hopefully) last cervix scan and all looking closed and fine He also measured the head and said to him it looks fine based on circumference! And he put it on 4D for a minute and I saw the baby in 4D, looked a bit funny but amazing!

I heard you can hire TENS machines from local NCT or somewhere?

The consultant asked today if I want to know the sex - sooo tempting but managed to say no and not to ask me twice! Would never have found out without DH there though.

purple I'm going to start settling domestic arguments with a coin toss! Good work on the win!

If you google tens machine hire it will come up! I've hired it for 21 quid. It got me to 6cm. I could not have survived without that!!!!!

Found somewhere I can hire from, is one TENS machine better than another? Or are they all pretty much the same?

From what I read they seem pretty similar- it's more about what you want from them and how much you are prepared to spend on a fancy one. Mine was a mama tens from a site called www.pregnancy.tens.co.uk. Think the place is called tens med. it was the cheapest place I found. My hire is a 7 week one so you have plenty of time to return it x

I bought a Femme TENS off Amazon for about £30. It has a boost button which you press during contractions which I found was very good.

I was going to hire one but there was little difference in price on buying one so I bought one which I will sell on eBay unless I am mad enough to have another DC.

I hired the same one as Cavort from my local children's centre for £10. Didn't actually use it in labour but used it before for a couple of weeks for my bad back.

Been back to the breast feeding specialist today and now she thinks she's got thrush in her mouth which is putting her off feeding - always something hey! The good news is we managed to get her to feed using a nipple shield so I'm still hopeful she will get the hang of it eventually.

Ah Purple that's some positive news.
Great stuff on the cervix/head reassurance Alex. Being in Team Green must be doubly hard with all those extra scans.

I am reading the Hypnobirth book at the moment with a massive pinch of salt. Lovely idea and something to aim for and I'm up for learning all the techniques, but realistically I am also keeping an open mind to the possibility of a 24 hr labour ending with epidural and forceps. Birth discussion points in this house are: a) shall we attempt a home birth? and b) shall we have my mum there? Until recently I probably wouldn't have considered it, but my sister had my mum at her birth and she was an enormous support, so I am thinking of asking her. DP is, happily, open to both ideas.

Thanks quod as the head and cervix measured ok, I think it will be my last scan if all goes well! Feeling very pleased and touching wood, it sounds like getting a second opinion and not having the precautionary stitch early on was a good decision. Feeling very pleased and proud of bump and my cervix!

One of my midwives recommended looking into hypnobirthing. I kind of wrote it off at the time as hippy shit but I might have a little look into it if you are! I'm also up for just being informed, open to advice and taking it all as it comes on the day. And funnily enough a friend was tellin me today she had her sister and DH at her birth and it was great having the extra support, also meant they could share the support during her long labour/birth eek She suggested my mum, I could easily have my mum there for some of it so we'll see - wouldn't want to leave out MIL though so might keep it to just DH who is under strict instructions not to look at the business end

I'll come with you Alex! I will make a great birthing partner and can have lovely work related chats with your DH so he doesn't get too bored

Fabulous news on the scans all round berries.

Alex when you are in labour you won't care if your DH, whole family, or the entire cast of EastEnders are down the business end.

I personally think it depends on your personality type as to whether Hypobirthing will work for you. I think relaxation will definitely help you in labour but only certain people will be focused enough manage it, of which I am not one.

The consultant did over the belly scan first for the head measurements, and then I automatically got into the position for him to do dildocam without him having to ask, legs spread, knees up - and he made a comment along the lines of "oh you've done this before! How many vaginal scans have you had now?" It made me want to laugh! Glad to hopefully have had my last dildocam for a while!

janey I'll just tell DH you'll do it - he can go to the pub and we can girly chat, perfect

Cross post cavort, thanks for the reassurance, I honestly am freaked out by the thought of DH seeing it looking all gross so glad I won't care at the time!

My DH stayed up the top end by choice for the whole of pushing and birth and then bizarrely decided to have a wander down the action end while I was being stitched up with my legs in stirrups, a scene I imagine resembled one from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre following an episiotomy. His resulting night terrors have just about stopped now.

I remember the mw saying "the head is out, do you want to have a look?" And DH gave the most emphatic NO I have ever heard! He was walking around room while I was being stitched up but tried desperately not to look!

Mine insisted he is staying at the top end, but during the action, still managed to see the head appearing and like cavort's, for some reason wandered down while I was being stitched. Luckily he does not seem to be too traumatized.
As was said, you really won't care who sees you at that point, don't worry about it.

So far it seems everyone was stitched, is that something I should prepare myself for?

Clearly I can't offer and advice as my stitches were due to an elcs! However my midwife told mr that 70-80% of first time mums have a tear - not sure if all of those would need stitching though....

Yes Cavort it strikes me that you would need extraordinary levels of concentration to get yourself into and keep yourself in a trance-like relaxed state during one of the most exciting, painful and probably scary days of your whole life. I do have a couple of friends who have managed it (one of them is a yoga teacher anyway so prob not representative) but I think it must depend on your physiology at least as much as your preparation.

another thing I would not worry too much about, mother. Most tears and stitches are not that bad, I took some paracetamol the first day but otherwise was walking and sitting just fine.

My episiotomy was quite uncomfortable for the first week, but not unbearably so and has been fine since. In fact I don't even know if it was the cut hurting or bruising from forceps so episiotomy might not have even hurt too much. I found Ibuprofen made things much more comfortable in that first week. If I was to go through another birth a cut or tear wouldn't show up on my worry radar.

That sounds ok hazle and cavort - and I also heard from a friend yesterday that she had quite bad tearing/stitching but with a spinal block and epidural, she didn't sound tooooo traumatised by it and still said if she were me, she'd try and go vaginal. She also had forceps the poor girl, she was 29 at the time. What she did say was that she was the worst story in her NCT group and the other older mums hadn't had it as bad. Oh and I've heard another couple of quick birth stories recently. Can you tell I'm desperately trying to hang on to the positives?

She was also reminding me about her breast feeding experience - how she went into it determined to do it, but she really struggled and just couldn't after a couple of weeks, the baby wouldn't do it properly no matter what she tried and it just wasn't working out. So am going into that really open minded as she was saying not to beat yourself up if it doesn't work out. She has a theory that with my smaller boobs (C cup at the mo) which don't hurt at all during pregnancy and aren't even tender, that should help with soreness - hers were so tender during pregnancy and BF. Probably BS but don't care as I liked her theory!

I am usually a staunch Atheist but today I am wondering if there is a God.... Tongue Tie clinic just phoned to offer us a cancellation so she's getting it snipped this afternoon. Oh please let this be the answer to my sleep deprivation!

Alex I also had small pain-free boobs during pregnancy and they have stepped up to the mark when it came to BF. If anything I think I have a bit of an oversupply. Yesterday Elodie had gained 2lb 3oz on her birth weight in 26 days so I am feeling quite proud of my little boobs. But I agree there is no shame in FF and don't let any BF Nazis (of which there are many) tell you otherwise. It's a matter of personal choice.