Due November 06 - the home waddle

[mygirllolipop]

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Delia, I hope it all works out OK for you tonight

Mygirl, I think it was the pethadine that sent me doolally last time, I remember only tiny fragments of things after I had it, I know (in some weird way without remembering) that I was just screaming with every contraction, but then I remember thinking mid-scream, why am I screaming? I don't need to scream. It isn't that bad. But I just couldn't stop myself screaming again with the next contraction. DH says they did keep giving me more pethadine, so I know that it was in effect for the whole of the labour. With the gas and air, I don't remember when I started on it, I think it was when we went down to the delivery suite when I was about 6cm, only guessing though, but it was when I put the mask down so I could start pushing that I can remember anything clearly and by then my waters had gone, I'd had an epidural which I don't remember having, I'd fully dialated, I'd had lines put in for fluids... goodness knows what else!! But when I was talking to DH about this home birth I have got him to promise me that if I start on the gas and air and I start going mental again to take it off me, even if I swear very loudly if he comes anywhere near me, he has promised to take it away!! LOL Bless him

Ooops sorry for long post!

MAMB's I am still not managing to think of yours and WelshGal's new babies with out a silly grin!

Is Sam al settled in at home and feeding well?

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Well, there is no way I am risking the pethadine again, at least the gas and air, you can put it down and it is finished with! I also didn't like what the pethadine did to DS, although he has never suffered any major side effects from it, he was so limp and quiet when he came out, I was scared stiff!! LOL I'd watched months worth of Discovery birthing programs, and all of the babies came out screaming and screeching, but DS just did nothing! He actually didn't cry until they put him on the cold scales about an hour later!

Well im awkward! Im not having G&A or Pethadine! Im heading strieght for my epidural asap!

I had gas and air with ds and it made me so ill i was sick literally every 6-7 minutes with every contraction. Nobody told us i had to stop breathing it in between contractions so i just kept it in untill i eventually poisend myself. I was in and out of conciousness alot of the time although i could hear everything going on it was like i was floating above watching us all. I had a similar experience with pethadine when i had my tonsils out and again when they whipped my apendix out just was so sick and not with it, it was like being pissed and i can't stand that feeling of not bieng in control.

I love the epidural though as soon as i had that i started to recover and could lay back, chill out and enjoy the rest of ds's birth.
I figure i would rather scream the place down in the bath and walk through the pain untill im 4cm for my epidural than have gas and air or pethadine, but that's me saying that now when it comes to it i may be demanding all the drugs under the sun in which case i will go for gas and air and make sure DP rips it out my mouth after each contraction.

I do unfortunatly have the weakest stomach when it comes to medicine if the possible side effects are sickness it will happen! Especailly painkillers, codine has the same effect i go loopy and throw up.

Same here contractions coming and going randomly, no more leakage or anything so doesn't look like anything exciting happening although ds did try to unscrew my belly button to get baby out.

Aha Charlee, no epidurals at home Bless your DS though, really made me chuckle Have you had the results from his brain scan thing yet? Didn't you say they would be due back mid-Oct?

More contractions tonight, I am starting to get really hacked off with them now. Still can't get my head around another couple of weeks of this, let alone anything up to 7 weeks

Wonderful to hear that our first babies have arrived! Congratulations Welshgal and Meandmyboys on your babies - great names too. Enjoy!

Nothing much happening here, apart from a load of nesting on Saturday - I roped DH in to do a joint effort on the cleaning Sat am as it had got to the point of being too much for me do the big bits alone during the week with 2 DCs to look after. Then we finished off in the evening after a break taking DS and DD to a playground in the aft. He finished off by shampooing the living room carpet so it all looks a bit more respectable for when we bring the LO home and people start coming to the house (in laws to look after the DCs, then community midwives and other visitors!).

When I think about going into labour, I'm absolutely bricking it!!! in a way I want to have the LO soon but not right now (want this cold to clear up completely first)!! The baby's gone quieter and slowed down, I get a bit of period-type pain at around 5am some mornings, diarrhoea sometimes (sorry tmi). I feel my hormones are changing, even the carpal tunnel is a bit better, and DS is playing up - think he senses it's going to kick off soon, tho I think it won't be till early next week at least!

Hi all,
Charleysunnysun - your description of gas and air sounds just like my experience but thats exactly why i liked it! (except i wasn't sick). But the floating above everything is what i felt and helped me through the pain.

NJ glad to see you've opted for home birth, i'm booked for one also and so looking forward to it, just knowing i don't have to make that horrible journey to hospital in labour is pleasant enough!

I knew it was dangerous of me to finally believe i was having another baby (ok i know i have to believe it by 36 weeks!) because i'm obsessed now with getting it out, despite my dd1 being two weeks late, i'm praying that this one will come any day now (or at least from 37wks when i'm allowed to deliver at home).

I had no show or waters break with dd so these things are unknown to me. But whereas my discharge has been pure white up until now, just this evening i have been getting discoloured discharge (sorry tmi). I know its been discusssed lots before, but what are the rules with this? e.g. will it continue if its a show? how long can pg continue after a show without being a risk of infection etc? And at what point is it necessary to tell midwife?
Obviously i realise it may not even be a show, but definitely a change from my ordinary discharge.

TIA.

Good luck everyone!!

Hi Hattie

I think as Chubley says at the moment all of the hormones are gearing up towards labour so discharge will change. I have heard people describing their shows as everything - clear, jelly, bloody, creamy, snotty, greeny, what I have been loosing is greeny snotty like once or twice with a tiny weeny bit of brown blood kind of marbled through it, and then this mornings addition was creamy liquid, still don't know what the hell that was....!

I am sorry to say as well, that I don't know if I can hold off the sex thing for much longer LOL Everytime DH comes anywhere near me I feel like ripping his clothes off again, he of course is finding it hilarious and I think he is feeling quite smug that it is him turning me down for a change!! LOL Oh well, another 11 days to go till I hit the all important 37 weeks mark. Then I will probably dissapear from MN for the foreseeable while I'm making up for lost time!! LOL

Completely different subject but my mum gets back from holiday tomorrow (well today really) so I can finally talk to her I can't believe how much I have almost pined just to speak to her on the phone since all of this kicked off!

Hi all,

Hope you slept well! I was up at least every half hour for the loo!!!! Soon to be over I guess, - and amazing to know that we've already started dropping!

You lot are soooo chatty at the moment we'll probably need a new thread soon! Given the current topic of conversation, how about 'Did you miss the show?', or even 'How was the show?!

Perhaps we could just have 'For sale: second hand gaviscon, available from end Nov, collection only!'

Morning all

Babies have been born in the few days I have been away lucky ladies !

Had instructions to rest up by the doctor cos of swollen ankle and foot but nothing too much to worry about, now back at work til Friday then finally go on mat leave.

Feeling very restless and uncomfortable, SPD giving me major jip hopefully things will start progressing ! Been getting very mild period pains on and off for the last few days but nothing to write home about.

Hope you all have a good day !

Morning everyone

Well yet another night of strong contractions, getting closer together and then further apart again. I am getting really really fed up of this now. I'm getting annoyed as well that no one gives a shit, I know me and the baby aren't in any danger so there is no emergency, but at the same time, surely it can't be healthy for me or the baby to carry on only getting a couple of hours sleep each night? And I know the consultant has given me painkillers for the pain, and I haven't even tried them, but I don't want to be taking them every night until he is born, I'd be hard pushed to get myself to take them once or twice in that time, let alone every night and probably more than once a night as she said to do.

Sorry for the moan again, seems to be all I am good for at the moment.

Morning. As ever can't believe the amount of chat but glad everyone seems well enough.

On the pain relief front I've always been at home to birth so have had limited options (we use diamorphine instead of pethadine in the hospital but the community mw don't carry it). I have used a TENS (borrowed from mw 1st 2 x and then hired from Lloyds Chemists or Boots last time) and the pool. Had gas and air avaliable - but I hated the out of it feeling and didn't think it worked for labour (although 1st time round I do think it helped by distracting me and regulating my breathing and certainly helped while I was being stiched). Last time I went without and didn't actually miss it. This time I'll just jump in the pool, sneeze and babes will pop out - if only!!
Can't remember much about my "show" other than I had loads of it for weeks last time and kept thinking things were happening but DS3 had other ideas and was 16 days late. I was 11 days over 1st time but amazingly only 1 with DS2 (thankfully as at 10lb 2oz I wouldn't have wanted him to have grown too much bigger).

DS1 & 2 are back at school today and DS3 is at nursery until 5 so need to make the most of it and go sleep! Been waking at 4:30/5am the last few mornings and been unable to get back over. Can't wait for baby to be here and at least have a proper reason for being awake at silly times of the night.

Have a good day.

I have just rang the midwife to see about this home birth, she wants me to go in to see her tomorrow to get 'all the details' she says. She didn't seem as though it was an annoyance or at all negative, so hopefully it won't be a problem. I think that is the first time I have mentioned midwives and not moaned LOL

Morning NJ sorry to hear you are still suffering with these contractions. I would say the same as you it can't be good you just getting a couple of hours a night you will have no energy for the big day ! Can I sugggest you try the pain killers once and see if they really do have any effect, if they don't, you can then say to the doctor you're fed up and not sleeping ect etc and it might push them into doing something else for you.

Meant to ask - didn't see the Trevor McDonald show last night - how was it?

I have taped it Catty not watched it yet!

NJ - I know you don't like the idea of taking the painkillers but even if you took them for 1 night and had 1 decent nights sleep you would feel a little better? Or have you tried aromatherapy/massage for the pain and to help you sleep?

I did ask my consultant about lack of sleep harming me and the baby but she said that although it may make me exhausted the good thing is it doesn't effect the baby at all as it's encased in a snuggly warm womb so can sleep as and when it feels like it and your body will still give it everything it needs.

Same here this morning, i have a house full of kids again doing my head in so will post later.

I watched it (at about 2 o'clock this morning!) it was pretty shocking TBH, they had comments from ex-midwives along the lines of that womens and babaies lives were being put at risk on a nearly daily basis all over the country because of staff shortages, or ultimately money shortages. One of the midwives compared the average womans care to that which you would recieve in a third world country. They looked at a college (can't remember which) but out of the 35 (or 36) people who had qualified last year as a fully trained midwife, 12 had gotten jobs in the NHS. The trusts and everything else blame it solely on lack of funds, but they are paying out 136 billion pounds a year in compensation to people who have sue them, and they manage to pay them.

They featured I think 3 different couples two of which had severely brain damaged children because of the lack of care given during birth (the babies were perfectly healthy up until the birth, and were disabled due to lack of oxygen that had gone unnoticed because midwives were too busy elsewhere) and another couple who actually lost their little boy during the birth, again down to being left to labour too long on their own.

It was an eye opener!

Ooh - i have nice things to say about midwives.

I've decided to go down to stay with my mum until christmas, for help with lo 1&2.

So I phone up midwives near my mum, and appointments start from 2nd week in Nov to get me booked in to new hospital.... But then I got a phone number of the midwives office in the next town, and she said that even though she's booked solid she'll see me before her surgery starts first thing monday morning. What a sweetie!

I made a point of avoiding the TMcD - I could tell it would be very frightening.

Debz and Charlee, I think I have gone way past the point of one nights sleep helping TBH! I actually fell asleep last night on the sofa about 6-ish I slept for about an hour and a half, didn't have a clue that DH had done dinner, hoovered, bathed and got DS ready for bed. But I didn't feel rested, DH said I was moaning and breathing hard with contractions every 5 minutes, so even when I am asleep, I am still not getting any proper rest.

Kif, that is nice of her, I should say that I don't have a hatred of all midwives or anything, and I will be forever grateful to the poor soul who had me pushing and panting at all the right times to avoid a tear last time, it is just the way that it is so difficult to get hold of one that pisses me off!

NJ - Have you got floatation tanks near you? Never tried them and don't even know if you can use them during pg but they do say an hour inside is equal to 6 hours sleep - you'll just have to spend all this babies inheritance and rest up! Alternatively you could try reflexology - I had it the other week to try and get babe to turn (it didn't) but was blissful and might help as might accupunture - folk use these therapies to help start contractions so they might be some help in stopping them?

Seeing as I have never done this baby lark before and am not sure what a braxton Hicks is either, what does a contraction feel like ???