September 2013- We've managed to hold them in!

[fl0b0t]

Hi all! Providing the ladies who are currently in hospital don't give birth before the last 20 posts in our old thread, we've made it to a new one with babies all still staying put for now!

Here's the stats thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/a1694946-September-2013-STATS-THREAD

Welcome newbies! If anyone wants to join the FB group (better for sharing documents and pictures), please message myself or jennimoo with your real life name and email address and we can add you to the group!

:-)

Similar for me flobot, 2 weddings, bridesmaid at one, reading at both! It's making the time fly even faster. I can't wait to meet our baby but people have started telling me how much they missed being pregnant, even years after, missing the kicks and general feelings of having a baby inside. I hadn't thought about it really, until now, i am going to miss it tho sure it actually being here will be the most exciting thing ever!

I've heard people say they missed having the baby in their tummy, but I didn't feel that at all last time. And this time I'm suffering far more so although I know how hard it's likely to be with a newborn I'm ready to get my body back!

And 37 weeks today! I think that means if it all kicks off I can be MW led and water birth and what have you so anytime now will be fine. Can't imagine having to wait another 5 weeks...

I've also heard people in RL saying they missed having the baby inside. Can't say I've ever felt it though. Although I do remember in the early days wishing I could just pop her back there for a few hours so I could get some sleep!

Wincher, well done on getting the room finished! We've also spent the weekend painting, and sanding, and fixing the door so the catch will click shut. Just need to get the woodwork painted, BIL the electrician in, and the carpet fitted. Then I can put up the furniture, move DD1s toys/clothes in and finally get to grips sorting out the nursery. It's just tidying, organising and putting the cot sides on though, so I can do that in a day.

Started packing my hospital bag last night too. How many bags are you all taking? Last time I took one holdall and wasn't really prepared. This time there's a LOT more stuff I'm taking with, wondering if I'm over doing it.

Have just realised that as I'm hoping the consultant classes me as low risk tomorrow I'd like to use the pool at find point and maybe even for birth. However I've not given a thought to what to wear in the pool! :-/what has anyone else packed?

frog ive packed a bikini/tankini as im hoping for a water birth and figured a bit t shirt or nighty would get in the way. I have packed a few nighties just incase I dont get the water birth and I end up on the delivery suite.

frog I'm hoping to have a water birth too, and from various advice by wiser people who have done it before: I've got a nursing type nightie for before/ after pool (it buttons up the middle which is handy) and I'm going to take a cheapie bikini top for actually being in the water. Someone had mentioned before that a lot of people take a tshirt for being in the pool but as it gets soaked it starts weighing you down a bit and ends up just getting whipped off!

I'm taking my pregnancy tankini for the pool...
I also have a plain black strappy maternity vest which comes down to my upper thighs which I'll probably wear if I end up on dry land in the end stages instead of the pool.

jennimoo I'd definitely get a case which flipped up into a stand for tablet.

In terms of a bikini- do you really need both halves? I'd imagine the bottom half gets whipped off every few minutes for inspections etc?

I flip between being terrified of baby arriving and not being pregnant any more as I am enjoying it despite everything.... and the utter excitement that in a few weeks I might not feel sick any more!

Forgot to put the bin out last night and had to dash out in my pjs when i heard the rubbish lorry rumbling up the street. The bin men were a bit ! Annoyingly I managed to tip it over in my haste and nearly knackered myself righting it (massive wheelie bin). It was NOT the best start to the day. Now super grumpy. On the bright side, only 2 more weeks of the school holidays to go, at least for DS1. For reasons known only to themselves the school nursery for DS2 doesn't start for 2 more weeks, on the day after my due date.
Also, starting to have a wobble on the baby's name, which I've been sorted on for months and have finallly persuaded DH about (I think). Argh!

Ooops accidentally getting lost in googling myself some shiny baby diamonds. Canary Yellow diamonds..... drool

I wore my pregnancy tankini in the pool last time, or at least the top, I stopped putting the bottoms back on after a few loo visits. DH and the midwife gently laughed at me for wearing anything but it did help me feel more comfortable. This time round assuming I'm at home I won't wear anything - another advantage of feeling more comfortable on home turf.

Hmmm I know there's no option really, but even fully clothed and non pregnant I always pull my top down over my bum and I just can't imagine sitting there with nothing on the bottom! I expect it to be different in a pool but on 'dry land' it'll have to be a nightie I think.

Flo - my antenatal classes have talked about doing 'examinations' to see how dilated you are about every four hours... not every few minutes.. unless you mean in the pushing bit?
As you only dilate 0.5cm-1cm per hour a midwife would have to have pretty accurate measuring fingers if she was going to examine you more than every couple of hours at most.

This is all just so exciting! We're really getting down to the nitty gritty as we get closer aren't we :-) I'm so jealous of people at 37 weeks already....I'm only 33 today but just can't wait to meet my baby!

ready im 33 weeks on Wednesday, Im totally petrefied of the whole birth bit and also having a newbie to care for, but I am also fed up with being pregnant!!

I have my parent craft class tonight with dh. They sent a dvd for us to watch before so we watched it loast night, it basically took you a tour around the maternity (that I cant remember hopefully dh will!) then a bit about pain relief and some about the neo-natal ward.

It showed you some implements they would be using, and seemed very driven towards natural/breath your baby out/happy clappy birth! With only a wee bit about drugs! It concentrated on the use of essentail oils etc. So now my DH reckons that the baby just slides out, and all I'll need is gas and air. If he compares me to a cow or sheep again (hes a farmer) I might actually stab him!!

Hopefully this evenings class will be a bit of an eye openner for him, or do you ladies have any suggestions?

badguider I might have been exaggerating- but yes I'd imagine that depending on how long you're in the pool the bikini bottoms will be off for a lot of that time!

I'm about to book an away weekend with the husband for our wedding anniversary at a swanky spa... but as it's a deal it's pay on booking, non refundable and non transferrable. Would they really know if we transferred it to someone else if baby arrived early?!

Emma the class will hopefully be an eye opener for your DH. I know they have certainly helped my OH.

I am feeling really quite emotional today and I am not an emotional person at all - even so far in this pregnancy! Yesterday was my sisters birthday and I put so much thought into her present. I text her in the morning to say happy birthday - she'd usually phone later to say thanks for the present. Anyway in the evening I had not heard anything so text to see if she liked the present to have a 'yeah thanks' back. I then phoned my Mom and Dad and they were saying how she'd called and that she'd also phoned my other sister. I said I was surprised she hadn't phoned me and that I'd had to ask if she'd liked the present and was told by my Dad that she was hungover. Still she was able to thank everyone else bar me.
I know I am just being overly emotional but I do think it's rude.

Sorry rant over.

Sorry flo - I guess it's just that some people keep imyimg that somebody or other will have their hands up inside me for most if my labour and actually I don't think that's true or conducive to the relaxation and hormones necessary for labouring well and efficiently.
I know they're exaggerating and I'm not expecting any dignity in the pushing hours but MWs assure me the first phase of active labour isn't like that and I can do what I need to in peace mostly.

I have no idea what it will be like but I'm not expecting to have any dignity any more!

Talking of dignity- time to loose mine entirely. I'm producing so much discharge (sorry seriously TMI) that I don't think I'd notice if I lost my mucus plug. Also, whats the ettiquette on panty liners and examinations? I feel I should remove the current one before an examination

I was hardly examined at all last time. Labouring in water helps, they try to stay hands off.

I wore a big sleeveless long top thing and kept it on for a while in the pool then happily stripped it off and was naked the rest of the time.

I think you're right badguider - I don't really remember how many exams I had with previous labours, but DS1's labour was 53 hours from first contraction to emcs and I'm pretty sure the number of internals was v small - maybe 5?

There's an etiquette? Oh my, u can bet if there is one I won't know about it! Why don't I think of these things?

Emma, you made me crack up. Like CharlW1 says, I hope the class will be a help. Though my DH spent much of our antenatal prep course mentally checked out... he claimed it focused too much on the anatomy of labour, but he now keeps coming up with questions to which my replies start with "well, as we learnt in the antenatal class..."

The midwife does check the baby's heartbeat every 15 mins with a waterproof heartrate monitor, but I would think they can do that through a swimming costume if necessary?

I think according to MN the etiquette for any kind of internal examination is to hide your knickers in your clothes! It's one thing for them to see your fanjo but another altogether for them to see your knickers, of course...

I am being properly beaten up by this baby... rib kicks are now being combined with pelvic floor explorations. I have no doubt that at next Monday's MW appt (38w!!) I will be more engaged. Nmight times are bloody agony - up to the loo definitely once, if not twice, weird dreams and not all that nice, and because I can't turn over in my sleep at all I wake up with a dead arm and frozen hip on the side I've been lying on, while I heave myself over. Then the pins and needles as the arm re-inflates with blood keep me from getting back to sleep!

I'd be happy to pop any time from tomorrow but also I just have a couple of little things to do at work on Mon/Tues I also sort of want to hold on until then. Going out for last team drinks on Tues after work, which I think will feel quite 'final'.

Got my birth pool this morning, tried inflating it and it's fine, now need a liner, lots selling on ebay so hopefully will secure one from there. Looks ridiculously big in our back room but there is enough space for the MWs to get all the way around it, which is the only requirement. DHs current contribution to 'nesting' is taking stuff to the charity shop to make space. Mine is filling the dishwasher and putting all the scalextric pieces in a box rather than piled up under the dining table...

as far as what to wear in the pool/giving birth goes, big t-shirts or nighties are probably the most versatile. If you aim for skin-to-skin straight away you either need to be naked so baby can be put on your tummy without even needing the cord cut, or a nightie that opens down from the top so baby can be slotted down inside after cord cut (or if you have an amazingly long cord!!!) pants/bikini bottoms are definitely out once you are in the second stage.