Jan 2015 #10 - the babies are coming thick and fast

[Elizadoesdolittle]

Couldn't see a new thread so thought I'd make one. Congratulations to all the mummies so far. Looking forward to hearing lots more birth stories. Good luck for those still to go.

madrigals What a wonderful birth story. It sounds amazing. I'm hoping my home birth with will be similar. The main thing I am nervous about is calling the midwife. Which is ridiculous I know. I would be fine if I was going into hospital but the fact that I will be telling her to come to my house just makes me nervous for some reason. Anyway congratulations once again.

Yay to all the new babies! Congrats to all the mums! And so many dramatic stories!

xxx

Oh wow thank you for sharing your story.
What a story! What an experience and i love that you were 'relaxed' in your own home.
Defo something your dm and dh will remember!!!
Enjoy your baby cuddles x

Sounds like a really good birth Madrigals. It must be so nice just to be abe to get into your own bed after.

I've been looking for nursing bras recently and have really struggled as I have a small back size that has not increased during pregnancy and quite large breasts and all the usual places like M&S and Mothercare are just useless, for size and anything that I'd want to wear in a few months time when feeding is really established. I found a website called nursing bra-shop and ordered a couple of soft multi size ones to use until I (hopefully!) can just pop to Bravisimo to get measured properly after the birth. I emailed them to track my order as it was over New Years and got an update and an email from them asking if they can be very cheeky and ask if I could give them a mention if I was on any site like this. I agree that it is a bit of a cheeky ask for me to be an advert for them but I was struggling so much with trying to find something that I would want someone to tell me about this website. So there it is! Perhaps I should charge them a fee!

I've been offered a sweep in two weeks time, is it wrong to be getting more anxious over it than the idea of actual labour?

Congrats madrigals! Xx

Congrats madrigals! What an inspiring birth story.

39+6 today so due date tomorrow doesn't feel like baby is going to make an effort to come. Have another sweep tomorrow. I was very nervous to have a sweep because I'm not very good with pain (great when I'll be giving birth soon) but the one I had last week wasn't bad at all but I was 2cm dilated so maybe that's why it was only a slight discomfort. Things did feel quite sore for the rest of the day though. Trying to be positive and get through this last week before induction but I'm not sure how much more of the pain of this big bump I can take

Wow I forgot to post! Baby Dylan was born 3rd January at 10.02am weighing 9lbs 11. We're still in hospital as he's on antibiotics. Birth story below but not the best so maybe not intended for everyone to read!

My waters went and I didn't go into labour so had to be induced. Contractions started straight away every 2 to 3 minutes for a minute at a time. After 6 hours of this and 2 paracetamol they finally decided to check me after I begged them. I was still only 1 cm dilated. They wanted to put me on a hormone drip to get this moving quicker so they sent me to the delivery room. I was a bit more dilated but not much. At this point I started on gas and air which didn't really help the pain but more gave me something to focus on. Two hours later I had dilated another cm which they said is fine so no drip yet. Kept having my 2-3 minute contractions all night until they said they would try the drip. At this point I was going crazy so said yes to the offered epidural. Bliss! For about an hour! As soon as they started the hormone drip the epidural stopped working. So I tried gas and air again and it made me sick. So I was there with the worst contractions and no pain relief while being sick into a paper bowl. Finally at around 8am I got the urge to push. So intense! But they said I had to not push for another hour! Eek! Impossible! After a while they checked me and said those amazing words "fully dilated"! So they let me push! I'd say it was a relief but you already know how big baby was haha. So at 10.02 he finally arrived, unfortunately with a temperature which is why we're still in hospital on antibiotics. He's my perfect little monkey and worth it all but it wasnt the active hypnobirthing experience I was hoping for haha!

Jo thanks for the link. I've struggled too... I found a couple in my size in H&M which weren't expensive so got those to start with. Once baby is here I will do the same re Bravissimo or similar I think.

Belated but huge congratulations Mad!

Aww Kate, that sounds quite similar to my first labour. Only I couldn't have an epidural due to blood clotting problems so had to soldier on with the synto and just g & a. Well I did have pethidine at one point but it didn't do much. Just made me hallucinate and knocked me out inbetween contractions. I only ever made it to 8cm though before I was taken for an emcs. Anyway that's all by the by now. A big well done for doing it and getting through it. Congratulations on baby Dylan's arrival!

Mads- lovely birth story. glad it all went well.

Jo- try not to be anxious about the sweep. It takes a minute or two. It might be uncomfortable but mine last week was fine and mildly uncomfortable for about 2 seconds. I'm having another today.

40+3 here now. This baby isn't shifting. todays not the day for me I know it.

How are the other over dueies getting on? In better spirits than me I hope!!!

Kate sounds like you managed amazingly under tough circumstances - go, you! And look at that adorable human you made.

Mad, I love your story so much. Esp with my planned homebirth - yours sounds amazing!

I am currently sniffing clary sage, sipping raspberry leaf tea & bouncing the heck out of my birth ball in an attempt to get things going again after falling into another lull. Been contracting on & off again since last night. Thought things were really picking up for a couple hours this morning, but... all calm again. Going for a walk soon to try to get it going again.

Jobrum the idea of getting fisted by a midwife seems plenty anxious-making to me. Hopefully you won't come to that.

Congrats Kate! He's a wee cutie.
Jobrum, try not to stress too much about the sweep. Mine wasn't too bad, just like weird periody-type pain. Take some deep breaths and you'll be fine.
I usually wear Bravissimo bras in a small-ish back size. I got a maternity bra from Debenhams which is comfy enough. Got a matching nursing bra in a cup size bigger than the maternity bra (which itself is a cup size bigger than my usual) and I'll probably get sized properly in Bravissimo once breastfeeding is established. Spending quite a lot of time in sports bras just now, though, as they're so comfy!
Today is a box-sets on the couch type day. Bump's dropped a bit but no other signs of my activity.

Kate, sounds like a gruelling birth but from the photo looks like it was completely worth it.

The only reason I can think of for being so freaked out by the idea of the sweep is that I had a coil fitted years ago and it was a horrendous experience. I was never brave enough to have another one even though it suited me so well. Something coming out from my cervix, fine, something going up it, terrifying! But I have no problem with smear tests and know it's highly unlikely to be worse than labour! And I want this baby out! The doctors is a couple of minutes walk from my house so at least there's no travelling back on buses if it is uncomfortable after.

Noooo, my back garden fence has nearly fell down!

If it helps I drove home from mine with no discomfort whatsoever! TMI alert, but I didn't really feel like something 'going up', just felt like lots of pressure around my cervix. The midwife could apparently poke baby's head! I began to feel very dizzy, which isn't unusual for me, so she had to stop. If I hadn't felt dizzy I would have easily been able to continue, though.

rum, just saw your comment about the midwife and it made me giggle sitting here in Starbucks. Where they have given me a free cookie! I decided that despite the crappy whether I had to get out for a walk. And hopefully when I return home it will be too dark to see the state of the fence.

Nice to hear alright things about sweeps, the midwife I saw on monday didnt help by telling me that some woman find they are worse than they expect and she likes to do them vigorously otherwise she dosent see the point! Maybe its just her patients who find them worse than the expected!

I have heard the whole 'no pain no gain' thing about sweeps. Certainly mine was done by a rather timid student midwife and it didn't actually acheive anything (yet)! I think I would be happy to put up with a vigorous sweep by an experienced midwife even if it hurt more as it's more likely to work.
Is yours tomorrow? I have my second one booked for 9.15 tomorrow morning

All these lovely birth stories! So nice to read!
On Monday the mw came out and weighed Ellie - she had lost 9.4% of her birth weight.
Since then we've been on poo watch as she hadn't done one since mw there on Monday... Had a small mustard poo this morning and this afternoon she's let rip and done a huge poo... Obviously everything is settling down for her so should start to regulate herself.
Mw came again to weigh her and she's stopped losing weight and has put on 20g! It's only a tiny increase but we are really pleased as it shows my milk must be increasing for her and we are now heading in the right direction.
DH took this picture this morning of her in a gift bag so can't resist sharing! Too cute!

Hope everyone else is doing well and looking forward to hearing about more babies soon!

Chiuri- a student midwife attempted mine. I know they've all got to learn but I was gutted as she was first year and I really want this to work and to my relief she couldn't do it as she couldn't find my cervix so the midwife did it and got it straight away and did a good old sweep so much so ive had quite a bit of pink show. It didn't hurt at all this time but I wouldn't have cared if it did, I want this baby out now!!

40+3

I think I was relatively lucky in that she did manage to find my cervix, but she had such short wee fingers. I think she did as much as she could have, though, so I don't blame her. Maybe tomorrow I'll get one of the more experienced ones and maybe get some sort of show or something. I really hope things start happening relatively naturally before I go in for my induction on Sunday.
38+2