Easter is approaching, and the PESH are laying all over the place!

[maamalady]

Antenatal fred fun for BESH graduates

CRESH

Faith - pinky faithlet arrived 14th April 2013
Pinkr - suitably pinky one arrived 25th August 2013
Jethro - blue one arrived 23rd September 2013
Noks - pink one arrived 12th January 2014

PESH

Frankel - EDD 4th March ANY TIME NOW
Sinky - EDD 18th March
Merks - EDD 21st March
Driz - EDD 7th June
Draf - EDD 19th June
Kat - EDD 20th June
Winks - EDD 26th June
Dor - EDD 18th August
Ginger - 20th August
Euro - 28th August

PESH-in-hiding
Bugs - EDD approx 21st October

Euro, yes I was considering a home birth as our MLU hadn't opened. It opened last Monday so we were the 6th birth there! Was told I should home birth next time due to the speed I laid. I am the last person who would ever say this but it was reassuring knowing I was within hospital walls
Sinks sorry it wasn't the birth you wanted, FX you can get home soon. Congratulations on grumpy sinklet though, and surviving such a loooong protracted labour

I was told I should home birth as I laid so fast last time - fortunately the hospital is really not very far away over here though!

I too was told to plan a home birth 'next time' due to speed. I luff the idea of that. I even know which room I'd be in!

I don't think I have room to home birth!

I'm not leaving bugs! I'm just not posting every day. Oh I do hope MSB changes his mind. He would go ape if I 'accidentally' dropped the butter dish, I'd never do that. However the pill is the only contraception that suits me and I'm not brilliant at taking it!!!

Oh well accidents definitely do happen faithy

chance would be a fine thing at the moment!

Congratulations Sinks. Hope you're getting some rest.

Congratulations sinky, glad he is here safe and sound now. Hope you are both doing well now.

bugs don't even worry about symptoms. Once the overwhelming tiredness of the first weeks subsided i had pretty much none except for a couple of food aversions. Didn't last long though! Your placenta will have kicked in by now and your body has done the hardest bit of building a person from scratch already. You may be lucky and get an easy couple of months ahead of you now.

Congrats Sinky! Sorry it was so long and horrible! Hurrah for the safe and sound little man. Get some sleep and look after yourself!

More reassured by Merk's story. Glad to hear of a sneeze birth. Good luck with getting settled!

No symptoms is fine, bugs! Mine have mostly been exhaustion and hunger. Enjoy the reprieve if you can. When is the next scan? Hurrah for better pup!

Oh wow, sinks, that does sound rather unpleasant. Glad you're both okay, though, that's the main thing :) And congratulations!

Merk, you have pretty much described the birth I'm hoping for :) I am rather doubtful it will go that way, though, as I know my mum had a horrendous time with me (she has never gone into details bar "ventouse", and I'm scared to ask...). I figure hoping for a nice calm water birth but accepting that instrumental/caesarean may well happen anyway is not a bad outlook.

Did anyone see that thread about "looking forward to childbirth"? The OP basically said she was keeping an open and positive mind about birth. She was promptly jumped for being naive, and I thought it was a real shame. Thinking positively is surely only ever a good thing? Sure it won't make any difference to what happens, but trying to feel positive about birth has got to be a better experience than feeling shit scared for weeks and weeks? I dunno, it just made me a bit sad.

I had very few symptoms, bugs. Tiredness was really the only noticeable one, but I'm a bit dozy anyway. Try not to think in terms of what "should" be happening at any one time, it will only fuel the menkul. The PESH have had pretty much the whole range of diffage symptoms, but as far as I can remember, no two people have had the same ones at the same time.

The GTT on Monday went fine, by the way! though it confirmed that lucozade is beyond revolting (top tip: do NOT brush your teeth beforehand or you'll get that toothpaste/orange juice rankness) but they took all three samples plus my 28-week bloods alright. Just waiting for results now and eating cake like it's going out of fashion in the meantime, just in case I'm not allowed after the results come through... Have you had your results yet, Kat? Fingers crossed we're both fine :)

The next thing on my list is a bonus scan at 30 weeks. I signed up for a study comparing ultrasound and MRI, so I get one of each in a couple of weeks. I mostly did it so I have an excuse for another look at baybee - having a trouble-free pregnancy is lovely, but it's an awful long time from 20 weeks to birth without getting another peek! Even if she is kicking quite a lot these days, it'll be nice to see her as well. And I've never had an MRI but love medical science, so I'm quite looking forward to finding out about that without the worry of there being something wrong to frighten me.

Sorry for the essay, I'm clearly in a verbose mood this morning

Congrats again Sinks, and sorry you had a tough time of it. Get as much rest as you can and take all the help you can get for feeding.

Bugs symptoms definitely come and go at this stage. Tiredness and background nausea (as opposed to morning sickness) were my main staples till about 14 weeks.

Gtt result negative so I can carry on scoffing cake!! Saw yet another different midwife today who had no idea regarding my history. How hard would it be to spend two minutes skim reading notes before I come in?? Why do they need me to tell them what medication I am on and why!? It is all written in my fucking notes!!!!!! Gaaaaah!

Hi folks. Glad GTT went ok. Glad everyone is progressing well. Don't stress bugs- lack of symptoms is really common (suspect if you were a certain personality type, you'd find symptoms whatever iyswim).

We're getting ok. Will be maybe getting home tomorrow. Opinion seems varied here, but at least one obs consultant has recommends I never attempt a vaginal birth, due to the band (did I mention that? Obstructed labour due to uterine band/stricture preventing progression). Not really sure how I feel about that. And confirmed I had preeclampsia. Any future pregnancies will be consultant led. And they'd like to see me preconception... Bit scary really.

Draf I saw that thread and only just managed to stop myself posting. IMO the OP is doing the right thing by thinking positively, it is great that she is looking forward to birth. And in her own words she was certainly prepared that it may not go as she planned so I don't think she was naive. Perhaps positive thinking and preparation do help for some women, nobody knows. It was disappointing so many women were desperate to jump in and tell her she was stupid/wrong and throw their birth stories around.
In my case I believe it was part luck, but also part mental preparation and a hefty chunk of it was down to my chiropractor's magic. I know that I wouldn't have survived more than an hour at home if I hadn't been prepared with coping techniques thanks to all of the reading I had done

I would stay away from most of the childbirth threads. They do seem to attract doom and gloom merchants sometimes.

sinks what a marathon! You must have been unbelievably exhausted. I can't believe they didn't even speak to you before sending you down to theatre. I'm glad both you and the minimr are well at the end of all that. He is a gorgeous little grumpster.

Hurrah for cake kat! I hope you are as lucky draf.

merk that was fortuitous timing! My plan is to start at home and see how I get on. My local hospital has a MLU (which is supposed to be good) and a CLU (which has a terrible reputation), so knowing my luck I will probably end up in the CLU with every intervention going! As an elderly first timer I don't have high hopes for a sneeze birth at home, although I know my mw will give me the best shot at that. Her patient intervention rates are very low.

bugs I didn't have particularly strong symptoms. Some tiredness, some food aversions, nausea from about nine and a half weeks to 14, but no puking. Just consider yourself lucky if you manage to avoid some of the more evil ones!

AFM, I am on day 11 of this bloody irritating gastric bug. I've had enough of it now. I was going to go to the GP on Monday (when I would have had it for a week) but it seemed to improve and I managed one normal poo . But then I relapsed yesterday and feel rough today. Meh. KFZK is the same. I went to the GP this morning as I was worried about centime but he said unless I am vomming/pooing about 4 times an hour, centime will be fine. Which is reassuring. But I just want to feel well. I feel so wiped out, probably because what few nutrients I am absorbing at the moment, centime is swiping!

Exactly, merk and Kat, I had a cheerful hurrah when I saw the thread title, but was disappointed by the replies - it's a huge shame that some people just like to be negative. I quite like reading birth stories, whether simple or complicated, calm or terrifying. The unknown frightens me more than anything else, so having an idea of what can go wrong and what interventions may happen is really helpful. I'm still hoping for a calm water birth with no tearing, but knowing that forceps, episiotomy, and caesarean (amongst other things) are all possibilities is definitely useful.

Glad you got a negative on the GTT too! I'm supposed to get my results "within a week", so today is probably the first day they might possibly come through...

That all sounds like overwhelming information overload, sinks. At least you don't need to think about it for now - you've got plenty of time to rest and let your brain get back up to speed before it's an issue. Everything crossed that you get home ASAP :)

sinks many many congratulations on the birth of wee Sinks. Sorry the birth was such a colossal bag of shite. You are a Vag Warrior

merks great news on your lay too. I adore your name for her - really original. One of each for the ESH - luffly.

A pseudo lesbian arm wrestle to everyone else. I don't post much here for the same reasons as faif but am keeping an eye on you lot. Oh yes. Am very much looking forward to the cluster lays from now on (and scans etc).

Had my 20 week scan and all looks fine - everything in the right place etc...

And it's a PINK ONE!!!

I cried when she told me.

Ooooh hooray! So pleased for you, I know you were also hoping for one of each. We have both been very lucky in that respect. Enjoy shopping for little pink things :)

Awww dor. That's amazing. Hurrah!

draf I feel the same. I think all information is helpful. The "good" stories give me something positive to focus on. The "bad" stories help me to mentally prepare for the things that might happen and remind me that people come out the other side and most of the time all is well.