"hey Mummy! Ready or not, here I come! ;-)" - July 2014 thread

[ZingWhale]

Some of us has weeks to go, some just days and of course another massive Congratulations to all who have already given birth!

pack your pads, tiaras, nappies & Vaseline -HERE WE GO!!!

sorry, I meant coco and MrsB !

Thanks zing thought I'd read that somewhere. typically just after I posted it started hoofing me again so think it was maybe just having a long nap :) Will keep an eye on it all though. So glad your DS ok-what a nasty scare!

Oh and carrot cake plus chill out paddling pool sounds great!! I had a sneaky snickers ice cream earlier which hit my chocolate and ice cream desires all in one! Yummy!

Snickers icecream, I'm so jealous! Personal favourite. Plus I seem to eat way more nuts in pregnancy. Probably some sort of because we're allowed now stubborn thing.

Waiting for news on my cars MOT. I have £50 to last me til Friday, just hoping it's cheap enough to squeeze on the credit card...

Hi all, keep on looking to see if any baby news from Mrsb and coco keep thinking of you both...

Went to the doctors this morning as have a foot infection glad to be sorted. Ended up chatting to a lady with a 3month old in the pharmacy because she has the same pushchair we have chosen! People seem happy to chat when pregnant etc or at least sympathise over the heat! Just been to the gym which has properly woken baby up despite trying to take it easy! Time for banana and ice cream me thinks mmm!

Ha ha Zing you had me worried there! Hp

Oops posted too soon on the phone - hoping for lovely baby news from Coco and MrsB soon

Am so bored! really dull day. Highlight was going to sainsburys and finding cream choc eclairs in the reduced bit.

Had a massive teary bit earlier when my over active imagination started and I was thinking that my baby will die during the birth. Silly really. Stupid hormones.

Congratulations Rozoo and hopefully all has gone well for Coco and MrsB.

Plate I found the uncertainty the hardest to deal with - as I suspect Foxtrot is finding. Once it's decided either way you can start to accept and move on.

I'm curious about something - how can you have an undiagnosed footling breech? You get felt up and palpated enough throughout pregnancy and I'm curious as to what happens. Do the MW completely miss it? Misread it? Does baby flip?

My new addiction, possibly the only pregnancy craving I've had in fact, is for Lilt. Especially in this heat, I'm finding it very refreshing! Finding myself feeling like I can't draw a proper deep breath as there just doesn't seem to be room anymore. 38w 1d today. Madness.

Zing glad your DS seems to be on the mend! I can't imagine how scary it mut have been for all of you with two pints of blood lost!

Hi all, thanks so much to you for your lovely posts about my knitting :) I was up until 1ish knitting another cardigan which oddly left me sleepy so managed to get some sleep. Woke up at 3, 5 and 7 then had something to eat and fell asleep until I had to get up for hospital appt. All went well and only 3 sleeps until I get induced so yay!!! Means I can fit in another new episode of OBEM too :)

Need to paint some non-skid paint on my mums driveway at some point today, it's on a slight incline but can be lethal when wet or if you have non rubber soles. Just waiting for it to get a bit cooler outside.

Hopefully hear some news about coco and mrsb soon.

zing glad to hear DS is on the mend

liquid I had stupid thoughts about baby like that the last couple days and felt quite annoyed with myself. Keep saying I'm being so silly and everything will be absolutely fine, keep thinking positive about it all now and smile about all the little things you're going to experience and you'll feel better. Remember, it's impossible to feel two emotions at the same time, if you feel angry or upset then literally force yourself to smile and you will feel completely different instantly :)

ismarah

if you have breathing hard go on all fours or on your knees and lean against a chair or bed or whatever.
or lie on your side.

I have increasing pain on the top of my belly as the day goes on and those positions relieve the pain a bit.

Thanks everyone for kind words. Ismarah - we knew it was breech at 32 weeks but at that point advice was very much that this was pretty common at that stage and would likely turn itself.

So I'm currently booked in for an ECV to try to turn the baby on Friday. My gut feeling is however that the baby is breech because of obstruction in my lower pelvis caused by the endometriosis/cysts. Consultant agrees this is somewhere between possible and likely, but was unhelpfully noncommittal. Being realistic: is a 10lb baby going to squeeze past two tennis ball sized lumps to make its own way out?

So I can keep on aspiring to a natural birth and hope that all the stars align in my favour (ECV works, cysts don't prevent head engaging, any other complications don't crop up in the next few weeks).

Or I can just decide now that the certainty of ELCS is preferable in the circumstances. Really don't know.

In other news, having to spend day faffing about with the hospital, I couldn't go into office for the last interview of my epic recruitment marathon. Contacted a colleague who agreed to stand in for me on interview panel, but who then took it upon himself to cancel the interview instead. Understand his reasoning but I was seething - the ONE THING I wanted to do before maternity leave was complete this recruitment and now it won't happen. Still have a mountain of work to do and utterly exhausted even thinking about it.

plate try not to beat yourself up too much! You are doing what you can.

I have been off for two weeks now and I nearly drove myself crazy before that with wanting to get everything done in work. Reality kicked in and although I managed most of it - finishing off some things was just not realistic in the time I had and I had to eventually accept that.

True Im not cured completely as Ive still been answering any pressing emails etc but Im also feeling a lot more relaxed now and have been doing those things on my time and to my own schedule. I also feel almost prepared for baby now too which was a no go before stopping work as I just didnt have the time for anything and Im starting to feel a shift in my priorities now that I didnt think was possible.

My point is - at some point you will be forced to let go and stop worrying about it (meant in the nicest possible way!) - you are only human and can only do what you can do and you also have a lot else going on atm!

plate

the drugs they give you to relax womb muscles made me really ill and I had a 48 hour headache after ECV.
I don't want to discourage you from having it, but if you are prone to headaches please ask more about the drugs and it's side effects!
They forgot to mention that about 10% of people react badly to it - if I had known that I would have declined.

And certainly do not drive afterwards.
we went home and I was so knocked out I slept for hours.

and just so you are prepared the actual manipulation feels like Chinese burns.

(I'm sorry if I made your dilemma worse, but I feel many people are not warned properly of side/after effects!)

Plate do try Acupuncture if you can, I'm sure it helped in my case.

Although regretting it now as I would have been having a CS on 30th June and wouldn't have been so annoyed about the baby not coming naturally.

Currently hiding in the spare bedroom as have major preggo rage. My husband just won't stop breathing. It's extremely annoying...

So at the hospital I had the normal monthly examination done by a medical student. The dr then came into the room and basically said I could have ELCS within 30 seconds of entering the room and was straight on the phone to get it booked! Even though it's what I want (best chance to not repeat what happened last time) and I feel much happier now that I know what is happening, I am shitting myself about it!

Period type pains have come on in the last 30 minutes, so hoping that they go away!!!

I've been struggling to breathe today due to the humidity/hayfever/crying and just cant get comfortable!

DP is back though and doing ok... better than me

Still no flat sheets... I think the shops are conspiring against my need for cream flat sheets!

Also, do I really need a nursing bra? I went and measured/bought one today thinking that the point is that I can get easier access to my breasts for feeding but tbh I'm so big (40J I ended up with!) that the bra doesn't seem to be any easier than a normal bra... I may have to take it back!

pg rage is classified as temporary insanity so you'll get off lightly.

Plate My fear about VB was that I'd go for it and because of my physical limitations, I'd end up with an EMCS. In order for me to actually brave the VB, I'd have had to spent a lot of time and energy investing in that process and persuading my brain it was what I wanted. I didn't think under those circumstances ending up with an EMCS would have been helpful to my psyche. Obviously none of this was guaranteed and it might all have been fine but in the absence of a guaranteed 'gold standard' VB, I chose the consolation prize of an ELCS that was planned and scheduled and relatively relaxed (compared to the cascade of intervention that might end up in an EMCS or even a crash section). For me, the relatively known of surgery, was much less scary than the unknown of a VB.

Without meaning to be harsh, do you think it's likely that you can have the VB of your dreams, even if baby turns? Considering cysts, size of baby and so on? If baby turns and you go for a VB, and you end up with something other than what you've dreamed of, how will that make you feel? About the birth, and possibly about the baby? If you're happy about all the possible endings of going for a VB if baby turns, go for it! Really, truly, go for it.

I'm sorry you're in this position. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I'd have been very very upset if I'd not got my ELCS approved. I wouldn't want to be you right now.

And your colleague is a dick.

Auntie

glad he is back.

breathing - as ever my advice is to take a bit of iron, if only for a week to see if it makes s difference.

I've just Googled "cream flannelette flat sheet" - Amazon popped up.
(I omitted size, but I'm guessing it will be cot size.)

zing that's useful to hear about the ECV as I'll be looking at the same decision if today's chiro hasn't done the trick.

Worried baby is going to make an appearance soon (37 plus 3 today). Have been super nesting all of last 2 weeks but today it was like a switch flipped and Ive been exhausted all day to the point where Ive just needed to sleep. Boobs are also really sore today and have been having painful Braxton Hicks (I think anyway!) on and off for the last week or so and have been losing tmi - snot like jelly for ages (though no bloody show so far).

Someone tell me Ive probably just exhausted myself please! I have loads more sanding/painting/cupboard organising to do!

Thanks zing

Seriously struggling to turn over and stuff now... how the heck have you done this so many times?!

Back to see consultant tomorrow to discuss bp and induction... They were expecting me to be readmitted at least a couple of times in the past two weeks but I've proved them wrong so not sure what tomorrow will bring.

auntie I have serious respect for those doing this multiple times, I've had 3 first trimesters of sickness/acute exhaustion (one ended in MC) and soon to be 2 complete pregnancies which is quite enough for me!!

For all those with difficult decisions re birth choice due to position of baby I spent a lot of time thinking this through before my bean turned from being transverse. My conclusion through it was that whilst the prospect of a CS utterly freaked me out (hate thought of being awake whilst they do that but wouldn't want to miss baby by having a GA) I decided that if it was medically necessary then I would embrace it and try to think of the positives-ie having a set date to work to much easier for planning, childcare etc, not having to do the labour, pushing etc and risk tearing again etc etc. This was the only way I could deal with the prospect of it.

So DM and DSD arrived today to help with DS for a couple of days which is great except DH moaning he hasn't got any space and they are sleeping in the living room which means I can't sleep on the sofa and will have to tiptoe around if I need a midnight snack. Hopefully I will sleep though bump v sore and uncomfortable tonight!

Ips I think you need a quiet day tomorrow for your body to rest and then you can review your to do list.

Night all!

Hiya,
Hoping this is my only wake up tonight - was only asleep for an hour so if I'm awake now and at 4pm I think my body is taking the piss out of me!

Sorry so many of you are struggling with CS decisions and baby's in "wrong" positions i was stressing so much when baby was breech and that was pre 34 weeks (although was convinced /told it was likely this baby would be premature like DS so didn't think I had time).
Don't be falsed into a section if it's really not what you want - plenty of babies are born naturally and are breech back to back etc, I don't doubt it's harder but it's not like it's impossible. Consultants can be a bit quick to write off what our bodies can do and make labour sometimes unnecessarily overly medical.
Also don't be hard on yourselves at the end if the day all our babies one way or another HAVE TO come out. The out bit is the most important part not how they got there.

I had my home birth assessment today. Wasn't as exhausted as I thought but did fall asleep on the sofa whilst reading to DS for 2 1/2 hours after she, and the gardener who I forgot was coming left. (DS fell asleep as well I wasn't awful mum of the year) lol.
Assessment went well midwife was really positive about me homebirthing, only thing I don't like about this MW and I remember this about her with DS, is she speaks and does everything super super fast. I usually like fast and efficient people but i always forget the things I wanted to ask or talk about - even had a list this time so I didn't forget.... But forgot I had the list lol. She dropped off the labour pack - iv been very excited about this but it was an anti climax (don't know what I thought was coming). It has a trillion (almost literally) pairs of sterile gloves, a bucket for the placenta, bed pads, a few maternity pads, baby resuscitation kit, wee sample pots & a postnatal white book. They bring gas and air on the day but don't offer it and leave it in the car unless you ask - not sure why this is, with DS in midwife lead until one of the first things they did was offer G&A! They also bring a delivery pack - no idea what's in that one!
Apart from going through all the stuff I need to know for a home birth I had the usual assessment.
Bump is measuring at 33 weeks - (I'm 36 tomorrow) but she didn't seem at all worried as iv been measuring small for a while and growth scans look fine - also have another growth scan when I'm 38 weeks.
One thing I realised afterwards is that although she had the student nurse find the head non of them told me or recorded in my notes If baby has started to engage or not, but annoying would have like to know.

Is anyone thinking of using clary sage oil? Iv been reading about it and it's supposed to be amazing at getting labour going so much so they say don't even sniff it to see what it smells like before you are full term - must be strong.
Iv bought some, not sure if I'll use it pre labour - unless I'm overdue but it sounds fab for use during. My birthing pool company recommend bathing in it, and sniffing during labour. Who knows if these things work but for me anything that even has a slight possibility of making labour easier and quicker is worth a shot.

Right fan has cooled bedroom down a bit now so hoping to drift off to sleep and not wake up till 7.30am at the earliest . Hopefully I won't be seeing anyone in the 4am club tonight.

Can't wait to hear baby news from coco and MrsB - hope you and babies are both doing well.

Xx