June 2014: New Year, new trimester, new thread! June bugs no 7!!

[hackneybird]

Ding dong!

I have been really lucky that despite being high risk (overweight) and two previous CS my midwife is all for me having VBAC but only on main maternity ward. I have appointment with the VBAC midwives at the beginning of April and am adamant that I will not be continually monitored as I believe this was a strong factor in EMCS with DD1 as she was back to back and therefore not able to move down the BC or put pressure on my cervix when I was flat on my back. Not sure how this will be received by the midwifery team but at the end of the day it is my choice so fingers crossed.

Ah great news mitchell glad all is well. MW sounds more than clueless though!

Wondering what mine will be like tomorrow, she sounded about 12 on the phone

Mitchell The midwife last week kept insisting I was further along than I was. I kept correcting her and she refused to believe me. Obviously I wouldn't know my dates better than her!

She also insisted that I book my next appointment with the Midwife, whereas I'd been told at my booking-in it would be with the GP.

I've gone with it for now.

But if she hadn't let me listen to the baby's heartbeat I would've wondered why I had see her.

Speaking of all this VBAC and birth options I can highly recommend for both newbies and anyone really the following book:

Inna May Gaskin

disclaimer - I am not a peddler of VB is best, doing at all natural etc etc I am considering an ELMCS for various reasons myself BUT this being a newbie has been eye opening in terms of everything. It does have a bit of a slant towards US medical care but still a very worth while read.

Biffle that's good - they are very pro VBAC in my area too. The lovely midwide-led Unit and waterbirths are completely out of the question after a c-sec apparently. So from the conversation I had at booking my choices are continuous monitoring, intermittent monitoring or I would guess elective c-sec. Like you, I think the C-Sec was probably a direct consequence of the continuous monitoring. I wish I had known at the time that I could at least have asked for intermittent monitoring and with hindsight wonder if it could have been offered.

Bumblebeesmum I wouldn't say it's something I feel I've come to terms with as such, I still feel very emotional/tearful when I think about it but am waiting till after the 20 week scan to start really getting my head around it and working out how to approach it this time. As I say, the care I received in the high risk unit from the midwives was outstanding (the dr's not so much!) and it wasn't that it was a traumatic birth as such... as I was largely anaesthetised! I have an appointment with the VBAC lady at some point and want to get a copy of my notes prior to that so hopefully that will help.

I hope I am not making anyone feel anxious, I really can't emphasise enough how great many of the staff were in difficult circumstances. I also know far more people who have had positive, empowering experiences! One of my friends even says she 'loves giving birth'!! :) :) There's always one......

Got my MW's appointment in a couple of hours and looking forward to it! I know not much happens at any of them but feels good to get a bit of a check up every now and then.

Can't believe how quickly it's going and we are getting in to the 20 week scans! June does still seem a long way away though..

nosey It's crazy how the time shifts, isn't it?!

I remember the two week wait being the longest two weeks in my whole life. Then the weeks after waiting for appointments, scans etc just dragged and dragged. But then the scan happpened AND NOW we're all knocking on the door of the half-way mark! Blink and we'll miss it.

Christmas and new year have been a good distraction as well and I really enjoyed my pg last time after the 20 week scan as felt I could relax a bit and didn't feel too knackered/heavy till near the end. It is a lovely time if you're fortunate enough to get a straightforward pregnancy! Fingers crossed every single one of us does! :)

I'm touch wood starting to resemble a regular human again. If I make it to the end of the day, that will be 5 days without being sick or having horrible heartburn.

Really hope I've not jinxed myself there.

Well, I've already spoken to DH about it and if the birth is progressing as it should I will insist in intermittent monitoring - no point in not getting all the help you can, and gravity has let me fall on my arse so often, it might as well do something useful for once!

nosey I feel like that, as well, especially with the health problems and bleeds I've had - I had my 20 week scan, baby looked absolutely fine, I can actually relax, enjoy it, and plan for baby things!

Nosey I'd really recommend you consider talking it through - having them take it more seriously than I did (I did the same 'I know others have had it worse' etc) can be an eye opener & really help - apart from anything else it can take a month for them to help you if it's decided necessary but you know best how confident you feel about it all

And I agree lots have a far more positive experience: my Aunt when I got pregnant said "oh you're so lucky, I'd love to do labour again, both times the most magical experience of my life' !! Even a friend who had water birth took dumps in the pool & tore badly said she'd loved it. Crazy people :)

My mom had an episiotomy and still tore, all with no painkillers, and she was as happy as Larry with her birth experience! She told me the stitching up afterwards was worse (no numbing/anaesthetic, doctor left three times in the middle of stitching to attend to other things), because in her mind the painful bit was over and done with and she didn't expect the aftermath to be so horrid.

Right thanks to Riblet, and a relatively positive MW appointment have hit up Asda for their maternity stuff (to be honest never have brought George clothes and never even occurred to me that Asda did maternity!) Two dresses and two pairs of leggings.... also brought some stuff from Seraphine for work and some jeans and a couple of dresses from GAP. Keeping away from the Isabella Oliver website at the moment....

The only thing I am now missing is a couple of nice tops but will hold out as long as I can with those as I cant seem to find anything that I like or that wont look silly with my minuscule fatty bump!

George is definitely cheaper than Isabella Oliver!

I still don't need new tops, I can wear my regular non-maternity skater dresses over leggings or my maternity jeans with regular jumpers, so that's quite good. I'll have to get some maternity t-shirts once the weather gets warmer but I think my mom is putting together another care package for me - I already have a lovely maternity house-suit twice because I bought it for me and she sent the same one over, too.

Me best friend is flying over for a visit at the beginning of my maternity leave at the beginning of April, I'm so excited!

I've just ordered a couple of Isabella Oliver dresses in the sale . I had one of her wrap tops the first time around and wore it LOADS (the stupidly sold it on ebay). I have bought a couple of pairs of mat jeans and so am going to try really hard to make that everything I buy mat wear wise. I have some things left over from before, but DS was an October baby so in totally the wrong season.

I have to go to a VBAC clinic as I had am EMCS last time. My body just wouldn't go into labour despite lots of induction attempts over the course of two very long days, (pessary, then tablets, waters being broken manually) so ended up being induced with the drip, which entailed an epidural and the dreaded constant monitoring, so if that is what a VBAC will mean for me this time then no thanks!

I'll do the ELCS if they'll let me. I took arnica tablets during the procedure last time and healed very quickly, so I'm not concerned about recovering from the surgery this time. DH can do everything for the first two weeks after the birth and we'll have family visiting to lend a hand too.

Glad you got some good stuff Mitchell - I get a lot of my clothes from Asda, partly because it's easy and I can't be bothered with going into town a lot of the time, and also because they're pretty cheap. I've never done the click and collect before but was really handy to call in on the way home from work and pick them up along with some milk! Tops are one thing I haven't really bought either, although did get one in Matalan which is now half price in the sale (£4) so might get another in a different colour. It's not maternity but a good length so just got a bigger size.

Had an interesting conversation with DH at lunchtime - his sister is still in hospital after being readmitted with an infection and apparently the staff aren't very good (this is MIL talking though so not expecting impartiality). We got to talking about forceps/ventouse delivery and he said that if anyone suggested that for ours he'd be be saying "no chance, cut her open". I was like, "er, hang on, unless I'm out cold if anyone's going to be saying that it'll be me!". Whether I agree with him or not isn't the point, even though he should have an opinion on principle he's not deciding for me what will happen! The good thing is we agree we need to discuss it and agree on things, so may well even end up with the beginnings of some kind of birth plan!

Just got a call from GPs as well- apparently they want another urine sample as first one (assuming from booking app in early Nov) showed cells. Am assuming white cells and due to some sort of low level infection but will need to drop another in tomorrow and see what happens. Shouldn't be anything to worry about, hopefully.

Damn you hackney have just gone onto their website and seen that the stuff I was eyeing is a lot cheaper now.... off to get the credit card out

I bought a few baby clothes from ASDA in the sale, baby now has a snazzy Rolling Stones set of jammies.

I'm just back from the practise nurse, everybody and my new GP practise is really nice and my bp is now really low, even with the regular cuff, so that's pleasing. I'm seeing a doctor next week to talk about longer term plans of me returning to work or going back part-time.

Bee, they used to do episiotomies routinely apparently, but people still tore, so it was stopped. Your poor mom, I don't see how she could still consider it a good experience.

I'm fully expecting birth to be horrendous, long, painful, frustrating, and although I will be making a bit plan, I'm under no delusions that it will go how I plan. I figure if I expect he worst I can't be overly surprised if it happens, and have a good chance of being pleasantly surprised when it's not as bad as it could have been.

So much to catch up! :)
Glad to hear mw appointments went well!
And Isabella Oliver.... oh dear, such a temptation. Mitchell and Hackney I am going to blame you for my credit card's balance this month

Phew, quite a lot of scary stuff on here at the moment! Perhaps we need to get back to talk of prams and maternity clothes
I bought a few Isabella Oliver tops from eBay. They look lovely but I think I need a much bigger bump! I struggled big time finding something to wear for fitness last night! My sports bra was straining and I have no t shirts long enough as most of my t shirts for gym were short tops! Dh is tiny too so no help. I meant to pop to Gap for a cheap t shirt at lunch but instead stuffed myself with chicken!

marlena many apologies really don't mean to post the scary stuff.

wispa it's a good idea to plan and be be informed in all of the options in case things don't go to plan, but don't assume it'll be long or frustrating! Most of my friends had very straightforward births either at home or in MLU units and some had water births, which I've always been envious about.

Lots of stories of labour where things have been difficult and drawn out, so sorry for you ladies and hope that things go better labour wise this time around.
Fwiw I've had 2 labours that have been relatively smooth (if you can go call labour that at all)
First I was insistent I wanted an epidural when I arrived and I got it and although it definitely slowed the whole process down it was completely pain free and resulted in one beautiful, healthy little girl. They did need to use ventouse and forceps and I needed stitches but due to the epidural didn't feel a thing. I've often wondered though if I had proceeded as I was without epidural if I would of needed all the intervention.
Second child came very quickly, arrived at hospital at 4am and he was born at 4:20am, definitely no time for epidural but if I could of had one I would of took it.
Much, much quicker to dd and much more intense as only gas and air on offer!
I do think without the epidural my body knew what to do whereas I remember not knowing what to do when they said push when I had the epidural as the urge wasn't there iyswim?

I am thinking of a home birth - am pretty near a hospital if I need to move quickly. Need to do some more research though - does anyone have any recommendations ?

I wore my new maternity trousers from next today - they look huge but are pretty comfy. I think one pair of jeans and I will be there ( although might just have a look at the Isabelle site that's been mentioned - just in case. Love the Rolling Stones PJs - sound adorable.

im trying to prepare myself for pain, but just cant imagine how painful it will be...any suggestions?)

redcliff a friend gave me this website a few years ago for research purposes. www.homebirth.org.uk/

mylittlel the good news is you won't remember. I know it was pretty painful as I remember being annoyed with DH for not rubbing in the right spot instantly, but the actual pain memories go. I also think it is good to remember most people take a while of quite mild pain to warm up initially and you get some breaks between contractions where you feel fine. The water is a great help too. I know I am a freak but I am looking forward to doing it again. Hopefully a bit more naturally this time though!