October 14. thread 11?! Will be see any babies in this thread?

[mrsb87]

Plonk your bums down ladies!

Hope so goats! I'd definitely rather he felt that way of his own accord! He is quite protective of me too just now which is sweet, hopefully that bodes well for what's to come!

Lol Stigz the same thing happened to me yesterday, I confused period type pain with oooh-you-could-really-be-doing-with-a-poop type discomfort . Guess it's easily done since everything is so squished just now!

Hi everyone, I'm due 9 Oct with my first - can I please join you? Went to Mothercare today to try and get hospital bag together and was so overwhelmed by quantity of STUFF available that I walked out with a solitary box of incontinence pads! Anyone else feeling massively under-prepared / massively overwhelmed?!

Just my own experience but I did everything 'right' (according to what I wanted) first time in terms of naturally going into labour, upright/moving around labour, breathing through pain, no epidural, gas and air only pain relief, time spent in the birthing pool - but through nothing I could have anticipated it turned out as spinal block, in theatre, messy forceps birth, third degree tear, horrible healing etc.

Friends of mine who were induced for various reasons or had epidurals etc. ended up having much easier rides...

I suppose my only point is that sometimes so much is out of your hands that the decisions you make or the decisions made for you don't necessarily lead to the outcome you envisage anyway. I realise that this isn't necessarily helpful to hear at the point where you are wanting to make decisions but I think particularly afterwards, if things don't go exactly as you'd hoped, it's useful to remember it's almost certainly nothing to do with any wrong decisions you made.

I've been given the advise to not make a birth "plan" and to just go with the labour and deal with things as they happen. I'm hoping to go natural but if intervention is needed to ensure the safe delivery of baby- baby comes first.
Anyone's belly button popped? Mine's still a shallow inie but when I laugh it pops a little. Pretty gross!

Munday mine is so far out it's insane. I've made two people feel quite sick by showing it to them! Good opportunity to give it a good clean though!

I'm now reading September thread as much as this one. Weird that really I should be on there (as I know a few of us should) and babies are being born as we speak.

Captain I'm due end of Sept too but as it's my first I've assumed it'll be late. My bump is quite flat across the button/ middle but glad it's not an outie

Goats 15% of babies turn up at 8 months - he's taking a real risk he'll miss the birth of his 1st child for another jolly, let alone rubbing your nose in the fact he's still enjoying your favourite hobby. There was a lady on my last thread who's DH kept buggering off on jollies and he missed the birth by having a drunken sailing weekend with pals. They're not together anymore as after the newborn honeymoon he got bored and couldn't hack all of the hobbies / free time he'd lost. [envy Seriously you're not being irrational and I'm sure he'll be fine once baby arrives but its getting very late in the day for long distance trips and you aren't being hormonal pointing it out.

TBH when baby arrives its very hard to have them all day on your own and then all evening too, cook tea, try and do stuff like the washing, do bath time etc. and deal with night wakings without adult company. DH is a keen fisherman but he's only really got back up to fishing one night a week this summer. He's not going to take it up again until next autumn. I'm not forcing this on him but its the reality of herding a small, draining, irrational small person - its hard and it takes team work. I'm v lucky he doesn't have the view (even subconsciously) that he's doing me a 'favour' somehow by looking after his own kid.

Captain that's so true. None of us know if we have a wonky pelvis, a baby with no sense of direction, or a million and one other reasons which means the birth might go off piste. Equally lits of women who think they'll cope really badly are amazing! I thought the comments on the MN page on different types of epidural that someone just linked to - illustrated the reality well. The best made plans of mice and men.

My preference of course is a natural unassisted birth and that glorious feeling when they slither out and are popped on your chest but I'm thinking given GD and breech that really might not be a possibility this time as I'll likely be recommended section or induction. I'm increasingly erring toward elective section rather than induction and no doubt an emergency section - for the shorter recovery time, ability to plan childcare, and massively less stressful experience for me and DH. I also think second time I don't have anything to prove - certainly first time I felt a deep need to try it naturally almost as a test of my womanhood. It was like I needed to experience the challenge as a way of transitioning from woman to mother?

Captain makes a fine point. With DD I did hypnobirthing course & yoga & prepped for natural birth. First I developed preeclampsia & then anaemia, so MLU & water birth were out! I CRIED a lot & felt like I'd failed already. Then I recovered my composure & thought that I could at least have an active birth but my preeclampsia had other plans & I ended up having a EMC. I remember insisting over & over in the operating room, put the baby straight on my skin, do not weigh her first, "GET HER ON ME!"
I had a jumbo birthing plan, including all the hypnobirthing language about not mentioning being in pain & only talking about surges, not labour etc but I had to realise whatever was best for DD & I was the best decision to make.
Although I would say, I like a good birth plan, just don't make it too prescriptive & don't get too hung up if it doesn't happen as you want it!

I ventured into the city today & my DH took the Boba 4G carrier for a spin with our 2st 7lb(? I think, don't weigh her very often) 3 1/2 year old DD, they looked mega cute & both of them were really comfy.
I did a super dooper TK Maxx shop today & bought 2 beautiful designer cardigans for £50 which will be fantastic for BFing in, they are waterfall style & will be cosy over a breastfeeding vest & a nice chambray or denim shirt. I'm trying to think of outfits for after as that depressed me a little with DD. I felt all yucky & didn't feel like my body was my own for ages as I didn't have any nice clothes.

Evening all, lots to catch up on today! George I was going to post about perennial oil as I have a bottle and it says to start at 34 weeks. Was wondering if it actually helped or not as tearing and delivering the placenta are the two bits of birth that scare me the most

Spent this afternoon in the Highlands, miserable weather but it was lovely being at Glencoe and getting excited about going skiing/ hill walking with our baby. We have friends that did both with their new born, he's two now so we're planning on all going to the hills together. we've already decided we can't miss another ski season so we'll be tag teaming a few runs each baby sitting/ snowboarding this winter .

eek just read how to massage, I naively thought you just rubbed oil on the outside I have some from a boutique baby shop I got in the sale, I'm a bit scared now!

On dressing gowns, Mothercare do a black nursing nightie and matching lightweight dressing gown for £30 which I'm planning on getting for post birth.

Excited that's such a good idea! I loved BF but I hated having to wear the same accessible clothes and dull nursing bras. It made me feel really plain and mumsy whereas my style is normally a bit more punk / alternative. I think I'm sorted on the nice clothing front now (have subconsciously been choosing cardis and nice vests and avoiding high necklines since I had J) but as a birthday pressie from DH I'm going to ask for some really nice (BF friendly) underwear sets from Hot milk. There's no reason my boobs can't feed and be sexy - the rest of me has to multitask every day!

As for perineal massage - I thought that had been proved to have no statistical link to reduced tearing / intervention?

Ok whoever has stolen my reasonably slim legs and replaced them with these tree trunks give them the fuck back

Also whoever decided that I would look better with long chin and nipple hairs the jokes bloody over!

Sorry just needed to get that out of my system!

I just won 11 nursing tops and vests on eBay for £12.50! Once I find a nice cosy onesie that's me all done

I have a red onesie, DH says I look like Santa in it

I have a horse onesie (bought from a charity bed push!) but a. it was too small pre pregnancy and b. I'm not sure I'd sit round the house in it just in case someone called round

Yellow where/ what is the research about the massage? Would like a read to decide whether it's worth it or not before subjecting myself to it, now I know exactly what it entails!

Here you go Binky http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20010524/massage-not-effective-for-preventing-tearing-during-labor

Thanks Yellow

Just read my hospital notes from yesterday, baby is head down facing backwards and was the same at 28 weeks (now 32 + 2) is it normal for them to stay this way once they're upside down or is there still a chance she could turn another way?

Binky j turned to back to back when my waters broke after being perfectly positioned for 7 weeks so baby could rotate but once head down its pretty unusual for them to go breech again.

Got a growth scan in morning, can't wait to find out how big she's got. I don't think she will be a big baby at all.

Binky, where do you live as we are thinking of moving to highlands next year, the weather defo puts me off though.

We live in Perthshire so just an hours drive from the Highlands. We get a lot less rain here than the west coast, but I do prefer being in Glencoe ! Weather isn't too bad, and I love the snow in winter.

I have just finished doing my lavender drawer liners & filling up the chest of drawers with all the newly washed baby clothes.
Will hire NCT bednest at end of this month. Footmuff for car seat due 3rd week in Sept & apart from that I have some Percy pigs & a few extra vests & some baby socks to pick up & I'm done. :)
I did perineal massage last time & ended up having a EMCS, perhaps if I don't do it this time, I'll have a natural birth??