April 2015 Thread 14: We've got the fanny daggers and the babies aren't keen on waiting till April!

[TheBooMonster]

Welcome to the 13th April 2015 babies thread!

The stats thread is here and we have a handy spreadsheet here

If anyone wants to join the FB group who hasn’t already, PM me your email address and I’ll send you an invite!

We’re in the home stretch ladies, we've had six babies, how many more threads can we manage before the last baby is here?

Lucky me getting to spend the night on a ward due to bp just posting for ladies who are not in fb group! Must try to get some sleep midwife made me come in as it was over 100 it has been all over the place from 80s to the 100s. If it stays down I can go hone in morning fingers crossed as madam not ment to be hear untill April!!

I cannot keep up with this thread business at all
Hope all you ladies are doing okay!?

Baby was being very quiet today, so i went to hosp with MIL about 8pm. Apparently my little boy is fully engaged, but because its the third time i've gone in with reduced movement, they wanted to be thorough. Offered me a sweep based on me being 38 weeks, and back pain/contant braxton hicks that solidify my tum over 12 hours. Turns out im 2cm dilated! .
Had a bloody show, and now im having a lot of aches.
Jesus!

So, could be soon, could be next week. Terrrrrrified haha.
Could hear some poor woman in the next room in the throws of labour bless her!

Oh wow can't keep up today! Sorry not to reply to everyone as my middle of the night memory is poor.

Daholster... Hugs and so sorry you're having such a bad time. All your worries are completely justified. I wish I had an answer but I do suspect there isn't really one. But you deserve the chance to talk it all over with your consultant. In ANC I asked every time to see the consultant. I think it helped that we knew each other from when I worked there though. Hope your DH is home looking after you.

Cavetroll any way out of you going to the wedding? Sounds like a bit much to be dealing with at the moment. Hope you get some respite from the sickness.

Siarie and Obelia hope things are either happening or have settled to let you get some rest.

I am seriously sleep deprived. Too many visitors yesterday. Nervous about DDs weight later on. Still struggling with bf but don't know where else to turn for practical support. Will ask mw before she discharges me today. Will probably cry on her again! I want it so much for my dd but it still hurts at times and she can be so fussy on and off the breast constantly for ages without seeming to achieve much!

Good luck with the weighing Penguin. Hope you can get some help from the MW or if not your local LLL/NCT. I have been contacting my LLL on FB, they seem q knowledgable. My DD does that awful on off thing at night. It's demoralising. Is she doing lots of wees and poohs? How nervous are we-we time her feeds and note how many nappies etc

Oh Penguin, I hope you can get some support. One thing we have down here through NCT is a breastfeeding cafe with people there to help - might there be one near you?

Lauren- awesome work with the knitting. The sleeping bag sounds good too!

Sairie and Obelia - hope things are going okay for you both. Can't more potential April babies that might make a March appearance.

Last Friday at work before baby now... wahoo!

Morning Ladies,

I've been trying unsuccessfully to catch up before I post only on page 17 but I'll get there

I've got another baby that couldn't wait until April. Baby girl arrived on Saturday 'spontaneously' as it says in my notes.

Delivery was smooth, 3rd stage was not - story for postnatal thread. We are both home and breastfeedings going well

Thanks cinnamon. Am now the opposite of you with all your activity - I've wound right back in order to keep baby in until section date. Slow walking and plenty of lying down and sitting.

Lucy and daholster - just to say you both deserve proper treatment and recognition for dealing so well with your more complicated pregnancies. Hope you both get what you need.

RL - provided the baby doesn't come while your DH away, try to use this weekend as a positive experience of precious time to yourself that you're not going to have basically ever again! I say this as someone who used to hate her own company and always liked to be around people but now massively values some quiet time.

Cave troll they're not stupid worries, if I were you I would be saying no to the wedding with your symptoms.

Skyra hope the BP gets under control and you can go home.

Gosh obelia for the dilation! As a previous sectioner who is expecting another one this time around I find all this talk of cervixes fascinating!

Penguin I think someone said it yesterday but once BF established it's so easy for the rest of the year... If it's safe for your DD to continue gaining at current rate, for your own sake keep trying and get rid of the visitors. I know there are BF people who you can pay to come to your house, check on positioning and latch as so on, might be worth it for some very individual attention?

Fingers congratulations!

DH just came upstairs and pretended that he has brought himself a coffee but no tea for me. Why doesn't he understand that his jokes aren't funny

Penguin sounds like you aren't getting a good latch. I would recommend sitting in a chair with a pillow behind you, one or two pillows on your lap to bring her to the right height and something under your feet so they're a bit off the ground. She needs to be in a straight line so turn the whole baby not just her head towards you, they say 'tummy to mummy'. Put one arm behind her head so that her head is resting on your forearm and your hand is on her back then support her bum and legs with the other hand and get her into position. You want her body pressed in to you and her head with 'nose to nipple'. Then hold your breast and stroke your nipple down her nose and on to her lips. Keep doing it until her mouth opens wide then push the nipple in to her mouth so it's pointing to the roof of her mouth. You need to get as much breast tissue in as possible as she will use her tongue and lips to massage the milk ducts in the areole to get the milk to flow. If she just sucks on your nipple she will get a small amount of milk but it will hurt you. If she isn't on properly put your little finger into the corner of her mouth to break the suction and try again. If she isn't keen squeeze out a drop of milk and rub your nipple on her lips so she gets a taste of it to encourage her to root for the nipple. When she is on and sucking her cheeks should be full not hollowing in with every suck and you will see her jaw muscles moving and her throat moving when she swallows. If you're having difficulty ask if there is a specialist midwife that can help you. Both you and baby need to learn together and it can be difficult when you're under pressure. It can be difficult to get good advice as well, you may be told you have a good latch when you actually don't. My DS3 would latch on fine but I was in pain feeding him and it took a lactation specialist health visitor to spot that he was latching on fine but then slipping down and just sucking the nipple. This is my fourth time breastfeeding and we have still had difficulties because my baby is prem and very sleepy. On day 2 I expressed 5 ml of colostrum (which took half an hour on the pump) and fed it with a syringe then the next time he was hungry he was a bit more alert and managed to latch on by himself.

Morning all! Congratulations fingers!!!

Dh has got up with dd to get her ready and take her to nursery since he has a day of annual leave! He is going to buy me breakfast on the way home and I am allowed to stay in bed We are yezt driving a car at 10.30 though so he'd best get a move on feeding dd and taking her and getting back otherwise I will get no breakfast in bed!!!

Feeling more positive today. Lovely lovely stoma nurse who has left (and is super angry at hospital for leaving her "amazing patients" with no one) offered her number. She has still been seeing patients in her own time after work etc (since she has a new job) because she can't bear for them to be left with no-one. How amazing is she. She's also busy fostering her granddaughter as well as doing her new job. I think she deserves an OBE or something just for her services to patients. She set up a group too that used to meet. Its such a loss to the hospital, I bet management have no idea what a treasure they had.

I am going to write to my surgeon just for advice, and ring PALS, and write a letter to the chief exec about the gap in service. I'm not going to complain about obstetrics at the moment though. Although it frustrates me its going to be rather individual to the doctor and unless there is a big failing I'm not into complaining about particular people. My concern is that no-one seems to be able to offer support or tell me where to get it and that needs addressing. A patient should not be allowed to leave a clinic tearful because she feels her worries haven't been addressed. And I'm someone who works in medicine and it happens to us all it seems!!!

Not sure when I'll do all these things but I'll certainly email my surgeon now and try to book a midwife appt for 38 weeks... Maybe she will S&S...?

Oh and skyra I hope you can go home today!!!

Morning everyone! It's my last day of work today - hurray!! I have a midwife appointment at lunchtime and am hoping to agree a stretch and sweep for next week, because that's what got things going with DD at 40w last time.

So sorry things are still tough with the feeding, Penguin. I hope that the weigh-in goes well this afternoon. But if not, you need to be really forceful about accessing the support you need - don't let the mw just discharge you without making sure you know what you're doing. stunt is right that you need someone knowledgeable to look at your latch. Are there Baby Cafes in your area? Or you could google La Leche ([https://www.laleche.org.uk/lll-groups/find-lll-group/]) and put your postcode in to find out where your nearest support is. These people will be very willing to talk through your situation with you and give very practical advice. You must be totally exhausted and fed up, which is when it gets hard to be proactive about getting support but it is really important you do - if the latch isn't right it is really hard to correct this yourself.

Congratulations Fingers! How exciting to have an early arrival! Look forward to hearing more about it soon...

Sorry - trying again to make that a clickable link:

([www.laleche.org.uk/lll-groups/find-lll-group/])

Congratulations fingers

daholster I hope you have a better day and I would definitely be complaining if you find the time that is in your already busy life!

stuntnun I've just took a screen shot of your bf advice because that is far clearer than what the health visitor told us at antenatal classes

I was in bed for 8pm yesterday I felt rubbish when I got home from work, I had spent 6 hours in the car due to the weather and traffic jams I could have cried at one point because I just wanted to get home I feel a lot better this morning after a good nights sleep.

I also woke to a message that my friend has had a baby girl a week early in the early hours.

5 more days to work
37 + 3

Morning everyone

Well other half has left for the stag do now . So got to keep myself occupied until Sunday now.

Obeliaboo wow, sounds like it all happened very quickly for you! Did they say why you had possibly felt like there was reduced movements? Or was it because baby's head was engaged? Exciting times, good luck

Hope you're ok Skyra!

IvegotaCaveTroll - Oh no, wedding doesn't sound like a good idea for you! But I suspect you will probably go anyway especially if it is at such short notice to not! Rest as much as you can, make sure you've always got a drink to hand etc!

Ooh Siarie, could baby be well on the way then!

Daholster it sounds like you have a lovely friend in the ex stoma nurse. How lovely of her to keep in touch with people like yourself. Hope you have a better day today.

Fingerscrossed36 congratulations!

Smog thank you, will do my best!

36+4

Oh and roastpots - I can't seem to get the hang of posting links either! It should be relatively simple but I have the app, which means I also can't see or post photos!

penguin I'm quite shocked by how happy the midwives are to discharge people when they can see they're struggling, with DD the midwives attitude seemed to be that day 10 meant my breastfeeding difficulties were no longer her responsibility, the health visitor could deal with it have you looked at the breastfeeding network? I don't have a LLL group here but there's a weekly session run by some breastfeeding supporters here which I find on the bfn website. It might also be worth contacting your health visitor to see if you have a breastfeeding support woman in the sure start team as my closest teams both have them. Good luck for the weigh in, we've got our 5 day one today and they've said that they're expecting Evie to have gained weight which I'm pretty dubious about!

congratulations, fingers

good luck, siarie

Good luck with it all Obeliaboo, I had three s&s with ds2 and was 2cm dilated with all of them but still didn't go into labour so doesn't necessarily mean it's impending.

Hope that all of your discomfort is leading to something soon Sairie.

IveGotACaveTroll, I don't think any of your worries are silly. Being in a strange place far from home feeling crap is awful whether pregnant or not! With your visitors could you perhaps not make plans and then stall them by phone once baby is here?

Congratulations Fingerscrossed36!

On the plus side for all those earlies you'll get your early years childcare funding earlier as currently the cut off for the Easter term is 31st March. Those born in April won't get funded childcare hours until the September .

www.laleche.org.uk/lll-groups/find-lll-group/ there you go roastpots

Last day of school, yay! Shame I have three pick ups today at 11.30, 1.15 and 3.30. Ds2 is going to be knackered just got him and my friends little girl this morning and they are playing happily so I'm relaxing before the madness this afternoon. Ds1 got a party invite at 7.30 this morning as someone dropped out butt neighbour is taking him as her girls are going and I will have a house full. Again I think ds2 will not be happy and after a day of walking to school and back may well have a tantrum or two!

good luck, Obeliaboo

Yep that would be the case here too TheBooMonster, there has to be reasonably serious problems for them not to discharge you at 10 days. Although it was a hv who spotted that ds1 wasn't latching properly when the mw had said all was fine so if I hadn't been discharged may not have sorted it before I gave up!

Those struggling with bf it may be worth contacting an independent lactation consultant/specialist. When I had ds2 we had one visit our yoga class and I think she charged £120 for the whole process from beginning to help you to you feeding well and her leaving you to it. It sounds like a lot but she did visits phone calls etc and if bf is very important to you it could be the way to go.

ha ha - thanks cinnamon - how did you do that?!

Just finished sewing up the cardigan at work Need some thread now to sew on the buttons and I'm done finally!

Last day of work for me too. Pretty excited to be finished and can't wait for our long walk in the lakes on Monday. I'm hoping it will set things going, as I'm completely fed up. Not that I'm going to be getting any lie in's or anything as I'll still have to take DD to nursery. Least I won't have to get dressed properly for that. Throw on some clothes over my pjs and brush my hair should be enough.

I've just seen a bumble bee outside so spring must be here or they wouldn't be out yet.

It's with your link in the middle and at the end, no spaces between double square bracket and link

genius - thanks!

Morning everyone,

My Priton pill didn't seem to cut it last night, I was still itchy and still had my sleep disturbed. I suppose I did sleep a bit, so that's something and yesterday afternoon I took one and fell asleep for two hours .

So after noticing my gross plug stuff yesterday evening I've got some regular BH this morning. Quite unusual for me as normally the BH kick in the afternoon and evenings. Going to start timing them now, so far they are 6 mins apart. I hold out no hope though, started and stopped so many times now. Correction while writing this the last one was five mins apart, interesting!

Congratulations Fingers! It's crazy how many babies aren't staying put until April.