July 2016 Babies (8) - 3rd trimester here we come

[Ellizardo]

Hoping this works as total techno-luddite! Happy Saturdays all.

Juflin, there were just too many awkward moments when I used pants rather than trousers. Like when I was complaining about everyone wearing leggings by asking (loudly, as there was alcohol involved) why no one wears pants anymore. Also, I'm a bit clumsy and tend to spill on myself, so I learned quickly that saying "ah no, there's crap all over my pants" leads to some very horrified coworkers.

Pulpi. You made me chuckle. I have neveret you but I can imagine those akward moments in a true British style.

I failed to mention that in my chiropractor appt yesterday she looked at my shoulder which also gives me grief and explained because my pelvis is twisted my shoulder is put of line too causing me pain. While she was doing her stuff I suddenly got a stitch and indigestion and she did soem weird stretchy thing with me and explained that with my pelvis doing one thing and my shoulder doing another, the bit in the middle where I had my stitch and indigestion, is very confused and responds with a stitch and indigestion. I have to say thw weird stretchy thing did help almost immediately. She also explained that heartburn and indigestion are very common in pregnancy because of that particular pressure point/sensitive area below the bra line is thrpqn out of kilter and responds by stropping with heartburn and indigestion. Makes me think it would be good to visit a chiropractor for any ailments!

Hey ladies, all good here. Been having a quiet few days. Had my check up and we are booked in for 4 weeks time for growth scan. I'm 26 weeks today so I'll be getting my whooping cough vaccine as well then (hate needles).

Feel the need to get more organised now we are nearing the final trimester, but I'm too lazy/tired to do it!

I'm already on maternity leave well, on holiday at the moment and maternity leave starts at 32 weeks! I was meant to wait until 37 weeks but I work until 2am then up at 6/7 with ds. The tiredness was making me ill and the week I decided to leave I was in hospital for a night with dehydration caused by sickness!

Since I've left, the sickness has started to go. Now it's been replaced by spd, restless legs and heartburn!

Did anyone else have high blood pressure in a previous pregnancy? My consultant has said the condition of me having a vbac is that I have to have weekly blood pressure readings at the doctors. Does that seem like a lot?

becky I have high blood pressure this time, and last time. I had an EMCS last time, so I'm hoping for a VBAC this time. I've had several discussions about birth choices with consultants, and at every discussion it was made clear that there were very few circumstances where a planned section would be offered. If my BP goes higher and can't be controlled with medication they would induce and only do a section if I wasn't progressing.

Weekly BP checks are what I had towards the end last time, so I don't think it's too frequent. The risks of pre eclampsia and so on are high so they do need to keep a check on it. Are you on any medication at the moment?

Welcome (back) Grockle! Hope the appointment with the new midwife goes well.

Thanks Mini for explaining about the red book - looks like it will just replace the maternity notes then, in terms of carting it about in bag.

Pulpi, in Ireland, people also say pants for trousers - I've had to adjust too over the years...

Becks and Julfin, thanks for your sympathies about the blood test saga - I feel a lot better today, will ring the midwife to check results. Julfin - your experience sounds much much worse, puts things in perspective!

Anna, thanks for the lady garden tip off! Will make sure to avoid delivery room comments and rusty razors by taking apppropriate action before D-day! Fantastic news about mortgage, hope everything goes through with exchange and moving, and very soon you will be in lovely new house

Goingloopy, that is fascinating about the shoulder/pelvis/digestion link. My heartburn has suddenly got much worse again in the past two weeks - about one week after my back and hips got worse. Interesting! I might research chiropractors in my area.

Becky, lucky you on leave already, sounds like the right decision! Glad the sickness has abated.

Nice and sunny where I am this morning. If only it would last till the weekend!

It does seem quite a lot becky, but I suppose towards the end of pregnancy things can change quite rapidly, and if you had high blood pressure last time they must feel you are at significant risk of it happening again, so best to keep a close eye.

Had my first diabetic antenatal clinic yesterday. A lot of hanging around for not much gain really. I've been told that when I get a third morning reading over target I have to start taking metformin. I can accept that as there isn't really anything I can do with diet to control those. All the others are absolutely fine. No idea about birth options or anything - I was hussled out of the office almost before my arse hit the chair! Have to go back next week though so will try and be more assertive then. The diabetes consultant did all the talking - the obstetrician's only contribution was to weirdly ask why I'd been referred for a GTT in the first place, in a manner that seemed to suggest I might have been trying to con the NHS out of a test I wasn't strictly entitled to have. Odd.

In other news, baby is head down, which is something at least. Let's hope he/she stays that way!

30+3

Speaknowords, your consultant sounds almost opposite of mine! She seemed really keen for the csection and when I said I want to try vbac has said its dependent on bp, going overdue and any other risks. Can't have an induction with the drip. Not into tablets yet but blood pressure had gone up this week :(

Youandmearegoingtofallout, my friend had gd but her daily tests were always okay so she didn't need meds. When it came to delivery they said she would be allowed to go one week over her due date. She had lots of extra scans/measurements done though so if she was measuring bigger they would have induced earlier, it all depends on how the pregnancy is going

It seems to vary enormously from hospital to hospital as to what they will "allow" becky. I think I am very likely to end up on meds, but even what that means very much depends on lots of factors. Mind you, I suppose it's never predictable!

becky it is really strange how different the advice is in different hospitals. I've had a specific appointment at the "birth choices" clinic, where I could ask all these questions about what would be recommended/advised in different scenarios. The midwife at that appointment said that high bp on its own would not mean advising a C section, neither would going overdue or having a bigger baby (my DC1 was fairly large). She also said that they would induce if overdue, and that they would have to use the drip, as the pessary was not advised due to being associated with a higher risk of uterine rupture. She had a page of statistics to show me about the different risks of all the options.

I'm definitely getting the vibe that the consultant would rather I went for a VBAC over a planned c-section.

Agree with speak it seems to differ. I thought I was going to be pushed into VBAC as heard that seems to be what drs push at the mo. My consultant didn't even mention it. He said I'm not going to be allowed to go more than a day overdue or be induced and will only have a natural birth if I go into labour naturally and thinks move incredibly quickly. I guess it all depends on your situation and what happened previously ( if relevant) I would say there are so many great sources f info to read on the internet if like me you like to be informed on it all.

It's interesting the way we all talk about what we will be "allowed" to do. Actually you can't really be made to do anything. I'm in a gestational diabetes Facebook group now, and this a very controversial topic there!

My feeling is that I'm not inclined to go against medical advice necessarily, and I'm not wedded to the idea of any specific type of birth, but I don't want to end up funnelled down a "one size fits all" care path on the grounds that "this is what we allow for GD mothers".

To be far I don't think he said allowed that's my para phrasing more we wouldn't want you to is more accurate. The most important thing for me is my baby is healthy and I'm the same you I go with the experts. That said I do believe women are very intuitive with their bodies so you have to go on your gut too. Having a VBAC just isn't important to me so I'm happy to have a ELCS but I understand for some it's very important.

At the end of the day, everyone just wants the same thing really - we want the babies out safely! I started off pregnancy really wanting a natural hypnobirth, and I am increasingly not giving a shit any more! I am sad that I probably won't be able to have a waterbirth now though, as I thought it might be good pain relief for me.

I really want a water birth, or at least labour in water.. However I have a choice of two hospitals Royal Bournemouth Hospital or Poole Hospital, if something were to go wrong RBH dont have the facilities to be able to deal with something going wrong so Id be sent to Poole anyway, and I dont know whether to take the risk as its my first something to speak with the midwife about but she seems very pro RBH so think itd be a biased opinion..

I forgot to yesterday.. Sooo heres a bumpie to celebrate entering the 3rd trimester!! I compared to a photo last week and blimey he has grown a lot!!

Hi im due 25th July with my second. Already have a little girl who will be almost exactly 2 when this one is born! Are most people on here first timers?

Hi kangaroo i am expecting DC2 on 28 July. DS will be 2years 7 months when this one comes back.

you totally agree. Safe is the best. You may still get your water birth. I was in the pool last time for part of labour having been induced and I was told that wasn't possible before so you never know.

Welcome Kangaroothis is my second too. DD will have just turned 19 months when 2 arrives. Excited/ terrified

I'm mostly terrified. Was not in our plans to have another just yet as DD1 was a terrible sleeper and only started sleeping through the night at 12 months of age! I'm dreading going through all that again

Hi all,

So, I had my 28 week MW appointment on Monday and nearly fainted in her office! Ironically I was just telling her that I'd had a couple of dizzy spells and had been feeling breathless even just sitting down. She took my BP and a minute later, I came over all faint...she got me to the bed and lay me down which made things worse so she sat me up again, took my blood pressure which had halved in 2 minutes and went to get a doctor by which time I'd recovered. Probably a case of baby putting pressure on Vena Cava , although this is unusual unless you're lying on your back apparently. So she took bloods and from results this morning I am border-line anaemic. They wouldn't normally give iron with my counts (108) but since I'm symptomatic they're sending a prescription. So still not really sure what's causing it!

I have 2 questions:

• How do you tell what position you baby is in? i.e. head down? Can you tell by having a prod?
• And what's with growth scans? I read about them all the time but I've not been offered anything. I just get my bump measured (28cm normal?)...and was weighed this week too - have put on over a stone!

27+6! God I wish I was on mat leave already...2 months to go...

Welcome kangaroo.

Slightly envious of those on/nearly on mat leave at the moment. Not sleeping well so am really tired at work. Only 10 weeks left though and I know I'll get used to less sleep again soon (before it gets even worse).

becky this is my first so no real experience of the bp side of things. Guessing it depends on why it's high. I get white coat syndrome so bp skyrockets the minute I step into the surgery/hospital. I knew about that already though so midwives are accepting my home readings and say that as long as they're fine my bp can be high when I see them if there's no protein in urine and they won't worry.

Has anybody who is mw led spoken about birth options to midwife? The only time it was mentioned to me was at my 8-10 week booking appointment when I said I wanted to be mw led. Nothing has been mentioned since but I've also never seen the same midwife twice as "mine" is never there at my appointment. Wondering now whether I've missed something we should have spoken about or if she might say something at my 28 week appointment tomorrow. If she's there...

thegreatergood I read somewhere that measurements usually line up roughly with the number of weeks you are. That said, I was told I measured small at my last appointment. I then went to the hospital for reduced movement the week after and was measured at 4cm larger than at the appointment. Definitely hadn't grown that much in a week so taking measurements with a pinch of salt now.

thegreatergood, you would only have growth scans if there was a reason to worry that the baby might be too small or too large. So, my high blood pressure and some other factors meant I have growth scans at 28, 32 and 36 weeks. Gestational diabetes would also mean having those scans as well. They can detect issues with your placenta and placental blood supply at the 20 week scan which might mean having further scans. Otherwise you just have the 12 and 20 week ones as standard.

In terms of whether the baby is head down or not, sometimes you can tell by where you get kicked and by seeing the shape of the bump. The midwives can often tell by having a prod around, and they'll write it on your notes.

tams I think they don't ask about birth choices until later appointments, although if you want a home birth I would mention it soon, as they need to get you in the system.