Due october 2007, sign up here!!!

[lissielou]

hi, im due on the 1st of october with 2nd after 3mcs in the past 18m. anyone else?

Afternoon all! Work has got in the way of MN today!! How dare it! The Miracles of the Womb was amazing, but I fell asleep about a third of the way in, unfortunately... Can you imagine the shock if you found out you were expecting quads without having had any fertility treatment?!?? Very brave woman...

MrsMcJnr - if you have a drink and just pretend to take small sips, people don't really notice. They only notice if you are steering clear of alcohol altogether!

Curly - hope you're back is feeling better today.

To everyone who mentioned home birth, I was going to opt for this first time around, but there were concerns about ds' growth rate so I ended up being induced. I think how far away you are from your local hospital (in case you need medical intervention) should be a factor taken into account. Our hospital is a 5 minute drive away, but if it were 30 minutes, I am not sure I'd consider it...

Must go as I have some stuff to get out this afternoon, but have a good weekend all!!

hiya
been busy at work this week so just caught up. Verso you sound like me I had a third degree tear followed by a heamatoma had some incontinence and 'strangeness' but luckily not actual incontinence phew. i had those horrible internal bum scans - how humiliating is that??! I also had a balloon stuck up there and inflated which was an odd feeling. Mostly I am doing pelvic floors. tHey told me a 50% chance of another 3rd degree or a 4th degree which will mean fecal incontinence. All because of that bloody midwife, her flipping stirrups, meconium, panic and, dare I say it, dh being a wimp.

Rant over. I'm considring my options. If baby is in a good position come 37 weeks I'm going to ask for a home birth. I'm considering a doula or private mw even though a bit skint. If baby is in an odd posiont or there are complications I'll prob go for ecs. I veer between one and the other but on a good day #I'm convinced that a good birth supporter, and a good position will mean I can control it and not tear so badly. Anyway I have some papers some one emailed me when I was ttc about the risks haven't had a chance to read them but could email them on if you are interested?

Sorry rant most definitely over now.

One question is anyone else experiencing increased CM? I'm guessing here what CM is so I might be using in wrong context - lets say consistency of snot. Shoudl I worry?
ta

I've got increased cm... Can't remember whether or not I had it with ds. Probably didn't notice, tbh...

God, how awful Manitz! I think we all need some tips on how to take control don?t we and not let people do things that we are not happy with just because we think they know best. I?ve got quite a lot of CM too.

With all the childbirth horror stories so far, MrsMcJnr is going to start regretting she ever had sex!!!!

I would like to reassure you, MrsMcJnr, that my 8 hour labour with ds was (although induced) perfectly okay. Other than the episiotomy which got slightly infected (because we applied arnica cream directly to the cut following some erroneous advice from a m/w) and the fact that two of the stitches were very tight, I am pleased to say that there were no serious after effects. But I would say - neglect your pelvic floor exercises at your peril!!!

thanks a lot. I can't remember anything from before - not just about pregnancy but that's made me feel better.

Thanks Mumpbump - I do think I am the only one on here expecting my first! Shall do my pelvic floor exercises every day from now on!!

yeah also to echo mumpbump it's not that bad. very small odds for bad stuff. I do think you follow your own body and trust yourself. Course it took me two kids to realise that...

P.S. do bear in mind that those of us who had awful experiences are STILL DOING IT ALL AGAIN! I have nooooo regrets - apart from not being feisty when the monitor wasn't working - but I won't go into that as I think I've said enough already re DDs birth.

All I will say is I'm v v v excited. DD is fantastic and it is all so worth it. Sounds like a terrible cliche, but it's true. Oh, and it's only a very very very tiny minority of women who have these kinds of experiences. One of my friends gave birth to her first in 5 hours straight with only gas and air!

Thanks for the offer of info, Manitz. I'll CAT you my email (when I can work out how the CAT thing works). I had the balloon too . The indignity! Oh, and DH forgot I had the appointment, so I had to go on my own with DD... and keep her entertained. So the ultrasound guy (a man! can you imagine?!) made her a sausage dog out of a spare balloon!

don't listen to the awful stories MrsMc - I found it easier to be ignorant of anything that was going to happen. Now I'm in the difficult position of actually having had a relatively easy birth, so I terrified I won't cope with the next one!! I was induced at 36 weeks as I had obstetric cholestasis, and although it took 4 days to break my waters, once they had the drip up, DD was born in 6 hours (had the drip turned up too high, so I was having very powerful contractions, very close together) but I think it was a good thing as it meant she was born really quickly, with no stitches necessary! Would echo the "do your pelvic floor muscles" from now onwards - having strong muscles down there helps push baby out quicker!! I must get on with mine!!

hope everyone else is going ok?

I'm fine, just a bit tired, quiet and nauseous all afternoon and evening! the joys of pregnancy!

Have to go tidy the house as PILs coming this evening - can't wait for the nesting time to arrive, when I actually enjoy cleaning!!

x

Sorry - I didn't mean to worry anyone... will take my horrible birth exp elsewhere!

PS I DID do pelvic floor exercises...
PPS So sorry to have upset anyone. I didn't mean to. Maybe we should have two threads - one for October mummies who have had previous births and one for newbies?

Feel very down now, and stupid for telling you about what happened to me. Sorry - should have posted on birth trauma website or similar instead of on happy antenatal thread. Will bugger off now!

pelvic floor!?.....whats that!?!

verso - dont be daft! say what you like! i am sure EVERYONE is used to or will get used to hearing horrific birth stories! its normally one of the first things people tell you when they find out you are expecting! dont worry about anything you have said!.........personally i LOVE a gory story!..............but then i am a bit odd!

Oh verso please dont feel bad. Im sure when we were all pg first time round we heard horror stories too, and we are all back doing it again.

I think it is important for any first time mums to be to hear all stories to enable them to make the right decision.

I think it also important to be honest about your experience, not all MW are paragons of maternal warmth, not all births and easy and being in hospital sucks for whatever reason you are there. All of these things will hopefully help MrsMcJnr make up her mind about what will suit her best.

trust me, when I am near the end and having sleepless nights if I go for VBAC I want to know exacly what I am up against.

Hope you feel better {smile}

I don't post very often but when I do its usually a biggy. Sorry.
Verso I agree with the last posts. It is important to be honest and you must not feel bad. We are just sharing a bit of our lives with each other and if people don't want to read it they don't have to.
Just for the record and while we are being honest, I know a lot of people that have had a less than pleasant time because of the standard of midwifery and hospital aftercare, including myself. However, there are steps we can take to prevent this type of experience and I am sure those of us who have had a bad experience will take those steps.

My advice to for the newbies to childbirth would be four things:

1. knowledge is power .Make sure you and your birthing partner know as much as possible about what is going to happen and also what you want to happen and make sure you tell your midwife.
2. If you can afford it, get a doula. I can't but I have heard its wonderful.
3. Consider a home birth. If you are worried about your hospital after you have been on a maternity ward tour or the midwifery, you could opt for a home birth instead. It is usually easy to organise these days and most important only experienced midwives do home births. Also you get two midwives all to yourself which these days is a real luxury. They clean up after too.
4. Get out of hospital as soon as you can as a rule. As long as you have support at home, you will be better looked after there. Even after a c-section it is possible to go after a day or two. I did.

One final positive thought for the newbies. Even if the whole things goes t*ts up and your birth plan gets flushed down the metaphorical toilet, you still get the best thing ever at the end of it. Your baby . Your body and mind may be a bit beaten up but your are a mum and wow what an amazing feeling that is. Your newborn baby cries and you pick them up and they stop crying because they smell you and know your are mum. They somehow know what a boob is and what they are supposed to do. Wow again. And you are not pregnant any more, the joy of which should not be underestimated. Bring on the champagne.
Your body will repair and your mind will forget and then you will no doubt get pg and do it all over again. The birth of my DS was the worst experience of my life but even I am doing it again. The happiness my DS has brought to my life outweighs any difficulty I have gone through physically or mentally in bringing him into the world. Heres hoping we can all be saying this about our new babies come Nov

Sorry verso - I wasn't trying to suggest that people don't share their negative birth experiences - forewarned is forearmed and all that! It's just that you always hear about the horror stories and you can get a pretty distorted idea of childbirth, so I just wanted to let MrsMcJnr know that it can actually be pretty straight-forward as it was for me. And one of the girls in my antenatal group had a 3 hour labour with just gas and air and a couple didn't even tear - how jealous was I after suffering from tight stitches...

Anyway, you need to hear the bad experiences as well so you don't go in with an overly fluffy idea of how it's going to be...

And I was crap at doing my pelvic floor exercises and after realising the immediate after effects of having all your muscles stretched like that, only wish I'd been better at them first time around. I shall be clenching for England this time, that's for sure...

Thanks so much, guys. Your kind msgs are much appreciated. Thought I'd totally put my foot in it!

It goes without saying that I realise I am HUGELY hormonal at the moment. Keep bursting into tears when I see mums w small babies etc. Roll on, second trimester tranquillity and calm!

Hi I won't add my birth experiences here, just on to say I finally have an appointment to see my midwife. Its on the 14th March, 2 days before we go on holiday. I am guessing that my scan date will be late as well as I will be 10 weeks when I see her.

Feeling slightly sick now and again which I think is partly to do with tiredness as DS2 is teething and waking 3/4 times a night. Hope it improves soon as by friday I was so tired that I just sat and cried when DS1 was playing up!!

Yay we are all friends again

In the next 35 odd weeks how many hormone related strops do you think we are all going to have????

Hope everyone is well. I am just considering what to eat. I am hungry but dont know what I want, I just keep opening the cupboard, closing the cupboard, open the fridge, close the fridge. Argh, I bet I end up getting a takeway!

Oh jersey poor you, thank god ds is having a good sleeping phase, I dont know I would cope if he wasnt. I know what it feels like to just be so tired you cant stop crying.

Can I join your gang ? Just got BFP !

I have actually been lurking for about a week. I was too tight to potentially waste the test any sooner, but the signs were becoming increasingly apparent - already bursting out of my jeans ....and bursting into tears.

My EDD is 22 Oct, and this is number 3. I have 2 sons aged 1 1/2 and 4 1/2yrs.

Off now to drink a thimble full of cava to celebrate - yippee do ! (I'll probably start another thread sometime soon to debate pub drinks i.e. warm britvic orange vs low alcohol lager)

Hi ruthydd, congratulations!!! There is also another thread floating around with everyone's stats on ie: who, age, where from, number of children and due date.

Re bursting out of jeans, I showed early with my first son (10wks)but people have started asking already (I am only 5wks) surely this is ridiculously early to be showing!?

Yawning monster - second time round I was spilling out of my jeans the day after I did the test. This time it was several days before. First time round I actually lost weight up until about 3 months. How things change!

rather upsetting when people say
"when are you due" I tell them and they then say
"are you sure you have your dates right? perhaps it's twins!!!"

ps good to see you on the stats thread