October 2017 #5!

[GimbleInTheWabe]

Hope no one minds me setting up a new thread- we were getting full up on the other one!

Here is the link to the deets sheet, feel free to add or edit your details as you please:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pa8LZMKMLvREYH4kFiNqn1dD7aTb053cT_KHvghwvSM/edit?usp=sharing

Bring on the third trimester aches, midwife appointments and birth plan chat!

Argh potatoes that's so frustrating! What are your plans today? Can you have a super relaxed, oxytocin-boosting day? I'm thinking chilling on sofa/birthing ball watching your favourite movies and eating chocolate

Pingu let's hope it's a different experience for you this time - everything crossed!!

That sounds frustrating potatoes and exhausting! Hopefully all those contractions are at least doing something productive and it'll pay off when labour properly starts?

I think labour symptom spotting is perfectly acceptable at 39+ mummabubs! I've been doing it since about 28 weeks... not really a patient person.

My ankles have suddenly swollen up. Shouldn't complain because it started much earlier with ds but I was hoping it wasn't going to happen this time. The right one is pretty much double the size. Gross.

Sorry to hear that potatoes but hopefully it's at least thinning your cervix ready for labour.

Hope your ankles are just having an off-day, Tippety; that sounds uncomfortable. Can you put them up at all or sit and roll your feet back and forth over a couple of baked bean tins to help the circulation.

This baby is too comfortable resting his head on my unnecessarily long cervix (the sonographers and the lady who fitted my coil found its length worthy of comment). He does not want to come out and I've been here nine days now. Plus two previous stays of one night the week before.

With two days of Propess and one of Prostin, the outside of my cervix is open but the inside is still closed so my waters can't easily be broken, so I had to be rested a day as my poor ancient womb is a veteran of four pregnancies (two unsuccessful and one live birth) none of which left me without medical assistance. Now I'm waiting for the consultant to advise on whether it would be best to try another Prostin, a balloon catheter, more rest or straight for the drip. I think she is very fond of the drip if I remember rightly from when I saw her last week. We'll see though.

Balloon catheter Cineraria! If you were abroad they'd do that as standard before the drip, plus if the outside of your cervix has actually changed a bit it would be the potential equivalent of potting the black with a tap of the cueball vs using a wrecking ball to get it in IYSWIM?

Congrats @wapsmahoney lovely to see the babies start appearing safe and sound.

At last I have a CS date so am counting down to week 39. I'm quite scared and excited all at the same time. Prgnancy is a fragile time: one of the ladies on the TTC after MC board I knew has just lost her baby at 27 weeks. It's really upsetting to read and drives home all of our fears that there's only so much we can see of what's going on. The rest is down to a combination of sound medical care and luck I suppose.

Am booking something in for me to do every damned day until the arrival date. I need to keep distracted and to not start obsessing about baby's movements and convincing myself something will go wrong.

Hope the rest of you have lots of good plans counting down to the new arrivals. X

Ah cineraria I'm impressed by how calm and patient you sound after 9 days! Really hope things get moving soon.

nessalina chocolate and sofa sounds great, would need to walk to the shop first to get the chocolate (which is probably helpful!) but the bigger problem is DS2 (2 years old) who is not a fan of me resting and would steal all my chocolate...

Yes I'm holding on to the thought of a quick, easy labour after all this build up, quite probably wishful thinking but it helps me!

I have avoided swollen ankles / feet so far this time but had them with the last 2 and remember the weirdness of looking down at my feet and thinking 'those can't be mine!'

Hey all, checking in.

thepotatoesofdefiance (love your username, btw) I've been getting similar to you from 36 weeks - what I can only describe as period pains in my back and my stomach area in the middle of the night. Fortunately I am a 5-star sleeper (I will miss this...) so if they wake me up I am back to sleep again in seconds, but it is peculiar that they go in the day! I would love for this baby to arrive ASAP but realistically so far everything about my pregnancy has been totally average (touch wood.) No weirdness, no complications, nada. So I have a feeling I'm in it until around week 40. GAH. I should be thankful as it's my last day at work on Friday and I'm looking forward to doing nothing, but I am also quite fed up of being physically rubbish.

Actually, just to add to this - yesterday I looked up what "due date" even MEANS medically, as I didn't really know. It turns out that on your due date, you have about a 50% average of giving birth or having given birth on/before that due date. So there you go! Maybe this is super obvious but like I said, I didn't know. It's made me feel less optimistic, but also less anxious, about my due date.

My DK book quotes that 25% of babies come before their due date, 5% on the day and 75% afterwards, but that's not taking whether it's a first child into account! (I'm still hoping to go any time from now to due date, sod that 75%!)

DH has finally gone mad I've decided- his mates from our hometown (150 miles away) are throwing a celebration near the end of October and he's actually asking if we can go, with Bubbabean!! (Who will either be a maximum of 2 weeks old... or horror horror if I go 2 weeks over they might not even be out by then) 😩😩 I'm trying to delicately explain to him that 2 weeks is very young to make a 300 mile round trip when we're both probably going to be exhausted and I'm planning to breastfeed, so don't really want to be in a pub surrounded by loud drunk people. He's asking if we can just "pop in for 30 minutes". I know he's just very excited to show Bubbabean to his friends (as am I, in good time!) and I've said he can go if he was wants but he's acting like it's completely normal to want to go to a drunken night out with a very newborn child...mummabubs says no!!! (I'm staying calm as I suspect reality will hit him and he won't be up for going when the time comes!!) 😂😂

Mummabubs aside from the fact that tiny babies needing feeding very frequently, a baby shouldn't spend more than 2 hours in a car seat, so the idea of 300 miles to just pop in for 30 minutes is beyond crazy. Even for a wedding or something special I'd be erring against it. You will have to pull over so many times, and just for a drunken night in a pub?! If you have an easy birth you will both be exhausted and driving when that tired isn't a good idea anyhow, never mind if you have any complications and end up with a CS. Your DH needs to rethink....

Not quite up to date, but I'm going to post this before my phone dies!

Oh Legend that's awful 27 weeks you can't help but start to settle in a bit and feel a bit more secure... do they know what caused it? Thankfully late issues like that are rare, but it's so hard not to be scared of the worst, it's just human nature. We must all try not to worry!! Glad you have a date booked in

Sympathy on the ankles Tippety, hope you can rest them up a bit?

Sorry to have you repeat yourself, but why are they inducing again Cineraria? Sounds like your cervix is very against the idea 😆 Nine days is ages, you must be climbing the walls!

Ha! Yeah, toddlers do make for less relaxing days potatoes!! I'm currently sat with three, one of mine, and two of a friends, so I'm definitely not relaxed

I know this loopy! It's coming from excitement/ possibly unrealistic expectations. He's home now and I've said I feel it's unfair to expect that of me, never mind our tiny child and I've said we'll see how we feel closer to the time (knowing full well that I'll still think it's a ridiculous idea!) We were told max of 90 minutes for the car seat and it's a 3 hour drive without stops. I suspect part of it is that two of his friends have said they're going and taking what will be a 3.5 week old with them, but they are very local and in fairness I still think they're mad!!

Had my midwife appointment, Bubbabean appears to have finally engaged, which does feel like a bit of progress, although my midwife was not terrifically sympathetic to my feelings of impatience. (Said there's no way I can even request a sweep until 40+5 and I just need to accept that I'm not due yet). I might have had a little cry on the way home! 😩

mummabubs I found making a sandwich to be fairly ambitious in the first two weeks so your dh's plans did make me laugh. But I know people who take tiny babies on planes etc and visiting relatives all over the country so maybe I'm just a wimp! Does all depend though, ds was in hospital for the first week then nearly got readmitted at two weeks for jaundice. It's impossible to know what's going to happen.

Sorry to hear about the sweep. I keep reading that they only work if you're practically on the edge of labour and can be a slight infection risk so maybe midwife is reluctant to try until it's got more chance of working. Totally understand the impatience though. I'm fed up and only 38 weeks this weekend.

cineraria poor you, can't believe it's been 9 days! Hope you can get home with baby to the rest of your family soon. Must be so hard being away from your ds.

Ankles still deformed. Blergh. Really just want my body back now!

What you say makes a lot of sense Tippety, and I know before getting to this stage I'd been dead against having a sweep. I think I'm just so keen not to end up being induced (which my mum had to have with two of us!) Hopefully neither of us will be kept waiting too much longer! X

Good grief mummabubs he really doesn't have a clue does he! My health visitor actually said at under 6 weeks old they strongly advise no more than 30 mins in a car seat, moving to 90 mins after that. If you were staying for a couple of days it might just be worth the drive, but sooo unlikely either of you will want to do it, and it may not even be physically possible!

I'm not a fan of sweeps, as tippety says they only really help if you're already slightly dilated, and if that's the case then it's likely things will get going soon anyway, so it's doubtful if they do a whole lot of good. I'm happy to wait until she's ready... but I bloody hope it's sooner rather than later!!

@mummabubs that sucks about the sweep, my MW has booked me in on due date and said she will do a sweep that day if he doesn't arrive. However I have to see her 8.30 tomorrow morning and she may admit me to be induced tomorrow as blood pressure too high on Wednesday

Hope they do though now as otherwise I need to see them twice a week and I'm going to spend most of my time at that surgery! Desperate to meet him too now, bored witless!!

Had my 38w appt today (at 39+3 ) and he’s 3/5 engaged so moving in the right direction. Then had to really rush back for this pampers photo shoot which basically involved me having to eat cupcakes whilst lounging on the sofa- ideal!

@mummabubs I think that your DH will realise as soon as baby is here how barmy his plan is! Also I was told only 20 mins in a car seat apparently is the new guidelines, which is no time at all. And as @TippetyTapWriter says you can never tell what will happen after, even if you or baby wake up with a cold that day the last thing anyone will want is a long drive, never mind having to be social.

@Cineraria you’re being a bloody trooper! Bet you’ve got a lot of knitting done!

Interesting to hear the new advice on time in car seats, given our hospital is a 40 minute drive! I'm guessing it'll be ok for a one-off journey...

gimble a photo shoot sounds very glam! Will we get to see you on any advertising? I think if they took pics of me right now it could be used to warn underage people about the wisdom of using contraception

In fairness probably should have mentioned that both our parents still live in hometown, so we would stay a couple of nights but I still think we're unlikely to be up for it at that stage!

I agree re sweeps @Nessalina, think my desperation/ impatience got the better of me. I think it doesn't help that after my spot of drama 2 weeks ago I genuinely got my head around needing a c sec at 39 weeks so I feel like I should be meeting Bubbabean this weekend, not having to wait it out again!

@TheLionQueen1 sorry to hear about your blood pressure and hope tomorrow morning goes ok for you.

@tippetytapwriter

What's the latest re car seats?! I hope it's not going to be something like no more than 30mins at any one time else I'll never go to Tesco again

legend just what gimble and nessalina said above - apparently it has been reduced for very young babies to 30 mins or so. Not sure that's going to be practical for lots of people!

I can understand that mummabubs if you were expecting the section. I had my section with ds at 39 weeks exactly and I was just saying to dh today that it would only be just over a week from now. Hard to imagine another 3+ weeks potentially.

Had a quick Google and couldn't find much more than this: www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-37947841/car-seat-warning-for-infants-on-long-journeys

Oh my god I should really RTFT/pay attention to posts, eh?

Oh blimey. I find it such a headmelt when guidance changes between babies; and I only have 20months between the (what will be) two

@TippetyTapWriter the photos will be on the pampers twitter and Instagram apparently. I look v un-glam in it so don’t be expecting some great beauty! The idea of the campaign is to show what ‘normal’ pregnancy is like, rather than the edited view we see inline. Hence the cake eating on the sofa. Will be interesting to see if they edit out my stretch marks haha!

@mummabubs def try and keep yourself as busy as poss. Having DP around the last few weeks has made the time go by so quickly but if I were you I’d be arranging for my friends to come round to mine (cos I’m not moving!) for a coffee or watching all the crappy films that DP won’t watch with me to pass the time. That’s how I’ve got to 39weeks relatively sane without symptom spotting too much.

Talking of which there have been none ** seriously this baby must be very cosy in there cos I’ve not had one tiny little labour sign at all!!

Yeah I agree Legend, they can't expect me to learn new things for baby two, I've lost a lot of brain cells in the last couple of years!!
My HV was saying that they've changed the guidelines due to a big increase in car-seat related SIDS. Apparently the guidance on safe sleeping in cots has got through and SIDS in a cot is very rare now, but they see it a lot more with babies left to nap in a car seat. It'll still be rare, but I guess that's their new focus to cut the figures down further.

I have had burning stabby cervix pains all afternoon, sooo uncomfortable!!

It still sounds very glam to be doing a photo shoot @GimbleInTheWabe , I hope they gave you the cake for free!

I'm starting to get lots of fluid retention. I've developed huge cankles and when I weighed myself this morning I'd put on 5 lbs in a week! Nearly fell off the scales in shock