Due Sept 07...The first thing I will do is....... eat Brie, Parma Ham, drink wine and anything else banned... then, I will tie MY OWN shoelaces!'

[MrsFish]

Ok folks here is the new thread. I have put it into ante natal again for now, we can always start a new one in the post natal forum once we have all popped.

:D Could have used that for a thread title.... Once you pop you just can't stop

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT ***

Hello everyone, finally managed to get on the pc.

Our little girl, Anna Elizabeth was born at 10.29am on Wed 19th Sept weighing 6lbs 13.

My waters broke Sunday night and contractions started straight away but never quite managed to get strong enough so I was given induction on Wed morning. An hour and a half later I was pushing. Got my VBAC and a few choice stitches too.

We are over the moon, she has made our family complete.

Will come back soon and read all news, hope you are all doing really well.

Many Congratulations to the both of you

Congratulations to Gils and canadianmum and welcome to Katie and Anna!

I don't know what is going on with me today, I have had what feels like one long gigantic BH contraction for the last hour and a half, accompanied by a dull backache. I don't remember it happening when I had DS or whether it's a sign that something's about to happen. If anyone has any idea, please do let me know.

38+5 and somewhat bemused.

Emj I seem to be having loads of extended BH's too, my bump is constantly rock hard, I haven't had backache, but I have a dull period like pain underneath my bump. Don't think I am anywhere near ready yet though.

Ah! Thank you MrsFish, glad it's not just my bump that's gone crazy then.
I had started to think that it'd all be over by now, at my appt two weeks ago the MW said she doubted I'd get to my due date, and I'm getting very close to it now. Much as I'm dreading giving birth, I just want something to happen now, it feels like I've been this uncomfortable for about four years. It also feels very odd that they don't need to see me again now until I get to 41 weeks - I hope I don't last that long!

I hope everyone's feeling well and happy and not like they want to get hold of some dynamite to put under their chair like I do!

My mw doesn't want to see me till I am 40+4 either, I said I want him out before then I'm off to have a nice soak in the bath now

Mrs Bumblebee - phew glad you don't have to actually enjoy the sex, that takes the pressure off.

Thanks for the caster oil warning - think that would have been the last thing I tried anyway

Still 40 weeks so not offcially overdue!

Mrs BumbleBee - I totally share your excitement about the show, that's fanatstic news - woohoo

Kinki, blimey, 80 pineapples hey? I only bought 1!! forget that I'll go with the hot theme - although not sure hot sex is what I need right now, I get more excited about my waters breaking or having a show!

40 weeks

Mrs BumbleBee - I totally share your excitement about the show, that's fanatstic news - woohoo

Kinki, blimey, 80 pineapples hey? I only bought 1!! forget that I'll go with the hot theme - although not sure hot sex is what I need right now, I get more excited about my waters breaking or having a show!

40 weeks

CONGRATULATIONS to.....

Canadianmum on the birth of your little daughter Anna Elizabeth, so glad you got to have a VBAC

Gils on the birth of baby Katie

Nettee on the birth of you daughter Amy - I hope you recover well after your C-Section

All these lovely girls entering the world

40 weeks and counting

Congratulation nettee, gils and canadianmum on the birth of your lo's.

Gils i had trouble with bowel action after ds1 as i had lots of stitches. After 5 days and with threat of a pessary i shut myself in the bathroom for 30 mins, held a wad of tissue against my stitches and told myself i did need to go i was just putting it off. It was fine and the hastle from the midwifes over! Can try laxatives such as lactulose or natural remedies ie: prune juice sorry if TMI!

Thanks for those advising re DP. MIL did say to him tonight that he shouldn't go out and he just ignored her! I don't think he'll listen to her. I did say to him that i thought it was unreasonable that he has been out every night and that when MIL is gone he'll need to be here to help me. He said he's going out sun pm to see a friend for a drink and when i said i didn't want to be left with DS1 and DS2 on my own yet he said 'don't be silly you'll be fine'. I have also suggested we visit his grandparents for the day next sunday so they can meet DS2 before his grandads heart operation and he said 'sundays no good i've got plans'! PLANS! DS2 will be just 2 weeks old and i could do with him with me 24/7 besides the fact that i think it's far more important for his grandad to see DS2 before the risky operation! Sorry for the rant, MIL keeps saying she can't believe the way he's acting but to those of you who remember the rough patch a few months back this is giving me serious doubts and worries

love to everyone xx

Mrsbumblebee: I had a similar experience last weekend but ended up going in to hospital as the contractions got very close and strong! I'm now ignoring all contractions (have been having them on and off ever since, especially at night) and it's keeping me going!
I'm being induced on Sunday so until then I've told the LO that I'm not going to believe a single contraction until it actually starts leaking or something down there It's always good to let it know who's in charge!
I've had a total of 9 or 10 shows since my first last Tuesday now! So, don't get your hopes up, especially seeing as you're having a similar experience to mine last weekend!

Willjo: Hang in there, you're only just due, my first was 10 days OD and this one's 10 days OD today, I'll still be here until Sunday (which means everyone else, including you, will probably have their babies between now and then, cos that's my luck, always has been!!)
Contractions feel like period pains (and if you don't know what that feels like, as I didn't until I was in labour the first time round, then it's a bad tummy in the lower part of your bump)!
I've been trying all sorts the past couple of weeks, and the other day was told Cider has been a good call for a load of women round here (not that it worked for me )
So, best thing to do is have a very hot curry, washed down with Cider and RLT, go for a long walk then home for some sex!

MrsFish: I can't believe the October lot have had better luck than us?! That's just not fair!!

Hayley2U: Ah yes they pick the best time to ask you what you want the baby's name to be don't they?! They did that after I had DD, as I was trying to pass the placenta!! Their timing is impeccable eh?!

Mrsmar: Your MW sounds a bit dotty TBH, I don't see what the problem is with having baby sleep in the bedroom, surely he'll sleep better in a restful room with curtains drawn, rather than in the room that everyone else is buzzing in?!
As for routines etc, you will find your own way, I just took a little advice from everyone, and there's a program on soon (Channel4?) that goes through the different routines held in the 50's, 60's and 70's, looking at the advert we did a little of everything! We had bedtime routine (bath than bed, and left DD to just get settled if she was restless, making sure well fed etc) and during the day had naps when she wanted, carried her in a sling/carrier when it was suitable (I didn't find it that comfy to do the housework with her strapped to me!) and the rest of the time just made sure she had things to look at etc, when she wasn't napping.
Personally I think if you're relaxed then LO should settle quite quickly into a good day.

Kinki: In ref to your water's breaking I've always been told that we're not naturally meant to break waters until in late stages of labour, and when they do that it's triggered by stress (as in nature you wouldn't be put under the stress that we face nowadays) so you have full permission to blame DH for this! I have warned my DH on several occasions of this fact, he's been a good boy since then

Congrats Nettee and Gils and welcome to your little ones!

Flossalump: I really feel for you Are they not willing to induce and then you go home at all? Or do you live like a million miles from the hospital? It's a shame, maybe you'll get to do it next time?! Just think though, now there's an imminent date LO might just pop out to muck up all your plans (that's what I reckon for this LO, but mine wouldn't end up being a home birth as we are lucky (?) enough to live less than a minute from the hospital!!

Congratulations Canadianmum: Can you just tell me what an induction involves? My MW made it sound pretty straight forward but I've since been told a bit of a horror story! MW says they'll break my water's first and if that doesn't work it'll be a chemical induction through a drip, someone told me today that her's practically consisted of the doc reaching in and grabbing LO and yanking him/her out! Any truth in this?

Am getting a bit nesty now that I know LO is coming! And now DH is off (off for the wk end and then paternity leave as of Monday, and they're classing those 2 days he had off last week for holiday, very nice of them, what's wrong with them?!! ) I shall be making the most of him being home tomorrow, and DD has gone to his parent's as of tonight so we can get on with housework etc !
I'm feeling a lot happier now I know I will have my LO by the begining of next week and that we're all sorted house-wise and that DD is being looked after!

Anywhoop, I'm a tired bunny right now so am going to go and relax a bit before those contractions start up again (that's right, they're still coming but it seems to be just when I try to sleep!!)
Night night all
xxx
41+3

Morning all

Another epic post there Kyala, I hope your lo decides to make an appearance soon.

Well I feel like my bump has dropped a bit, but not sure if thats wishful thinking or not. I had period pain type aches all yesterday eveing right under my bump, so went and had a hot bath and took a couple of paracetemol and went to bed, woke up a few times (about 5) but went back to sleep pretty quickly after each time. I am now torn between wanting Ben out and wanting him to stay put, not sure I am now ready for all the nightime feeds

Also worried about how it will effect ds1 during the night... we live out in the country so it is very quiet at night and as a consequence Sam is quite a light sleeper, I am so used to him sleeping a full 12 hours rarely waking that I don;t want to suddenly start having problems with him too. Now 'D' Day (drop day) is getting closer I'm starting to worry about the effect Ben is going to have on Sam

Do they adapt quickly? I am hoping so

Good morning all!
Big Congrats to those who have had bubs recently and for those whoare still waiting.... hang on in there
Well, we are begining to settle down i think, seems to be a little calmer in our house tho still having probs settling him if his last feed goes beyond 11.30pm- we are usually up until bout 1am after that!! We give him a bottle for his 4am feed which he usually takes about 180mls , does seem like an awful lot but he then usually sleeps til 8am. DH does this feed if he isn't working, lets me sleep thru.
We are trying to keep the bedroom for night time only aswell, nice and dark, quiet and cosy, condusive with a good nights sleep. thankfully noises during the day dont seem to bother him at all, sleeps thru anything, just like his mother!
pineapples - all i had to do was buy one, that was enough to put me into labour, would highly recommend them a good walk around the supermarket at 10pm did it for me and the time constaints of my parents holiday! Arben really is a clever chappy!
Anyway - hope you all have a great weekend with a couple of babies thrown in there aswell. Birth vibes coming your way, and night sleepy vibes for all the babies xx

Hi everyone

Got another text from Holly yesterday. They have named their lovely baby boy George Maxwell...and is very loved up. She sounds as though she is doing really well.

Have managed to read a couple of the posts and am glad to see that I am not the only one totally confused by all the conflicting advice out there. Did anyone see the times the other day? article about the programme that starts this tues...bringing up baby. Three different experts - all totally different views. Am tempted to follow my mums advice and throw all the books in the bin! Why are we stressing about routines/ dummies etc when our babies are only a few weeks old? We should just be enjoying our bubs - not stressing whether we are doing the right things or not.

Whoeever said about sleeping on the chest, Ryan has been doing the same the last few nights. If I put him down....he starts crying (sometimes). you are not meant to let a baby get distressed, so i pick him up. and nothing calms him til i soothe him to sleep on my chest...including a dummy which he spits out after a few sucks. But then you are told not to put a baby into cot etc when they are asleep, but do it while they are awake. so I ask the question - if you arent meant to let them cry and they dont settle whilst still awake...which piece of advice do you follow???

I keep telling myself to forget any thought of routine right now...he is too young and still too small...but had a fab day yesterday (followed by a not so fab night, very restless baby)...had lunch at one of my fave restuarants and he was very well behaved whilst mummy had bellinis and prawns for the first time in 9 months! yum yum!

Hope everyone else is doing well! Hugs for those coping with restless babies and night feeds (and subsequent feeling like a zombie)..i keep getting assured it will get easier.
For those still waiting, birthing vibes coming your way!

Also received a text from Loopy Lou (I am pretty sure, is signed off LLL, so am pretty sure I am right).
She says she is pretty pooped and any spare 5 mins she gets is spent sleeping, says she is thinking of us all!

Morning ,
Mrsfish: I'm having the same feelings about DD, all I can think is that she's going to be upset by night time feeds etc but it shouldn't be too bad as I'll be in the same room as LO for a bit to start with anyway (and the moses basket is set up right next to my bed so I should be able to get there as quick as I can) but will this mean that LO gets used to me being too quick off the mark? And then will I have troubles with a clingy baby? It can go either way really in this situation can't it?! I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope this LO settles into a routine as quickly as DD did, and if not then it might be a life of tiptoeing round!

Also, now I know my LO's coming tomorrow (as long as they're not too busy on the ward) I'm all nervous! I, obviously, didn't know the day before DD came along and so didn't have this nervousness, and DH has decided that today he's going to swap the furniture round in the front room too! I know it's got to be done to give us more space and give DD more space to play in etc but she's at my IL's and so when she does finally come home there will not only be a little baby to get used to but the furniture will all be different Not totally sure if she'll be happy about all the changes?! She is quite resilient when it comes down to it but she's still a little fragile sometimes (and very clingy lately so maybe the imminence of LO is affecting her more than we think )

Kelmcd: Thanks for the vibes, going to need those sleep vibes tonight (due to still having contractions at night not getting a heck of a lot of sleep lately, and I know I'm going to need to go to bed early tonight too, but will I sleep? )

Dal: Sounds like you're having great fun?! I agree with your mum, throw the books away and find your own routine, every baby is different (as is every pregnancy as I have found out!) so it'll take a little getting used to.
Also, can't remember who said it but have you tried a hot water bottle in the cot/crib before putting him down? Sounds like a good idea to me! It might mimic your body heat etc and help to keep him asleep when you put him down.
Also, try sleeping with/carrying a little blanket with yourself and then using that to cover him, that way he'll smell you and might sleep a bit easier knowing that you're there (sort of )

Ah, it's only 11:20 and I'm going for a record on how much advice I can give not that I'm any sort of expert LOL also I think I was very very lucky with DD so I probably have no clue as to what it's really like going through the harder side of having a baby eh?! Well, I'm sure this LO will help me out on that one and I'll be back on within a day once s/he's out asking for advice and baby-sitters!

Anywho, must get on, am going to make some lasagne for freezing (finally!!) and bake some bread for when I'm in hospital for a couple of days (for DH, not myself, I do believe they feed you in hospital nowadays! DH sounded genuinely shocked when I said I'd had breakfast last Saturday LOL did he think they'd just let me go without?! Strange man!)

Later ladies
xxx
41+3
(haha LO you are coming out soon, whether you like it or not!! )

hi everyone, another post with no capitals again, this mnetting and holding baby plays havoc with my grammar!

congratulations canadianmum, well done on getting your vbac... hope the stitches aren't too sore. were you in the new birthing centre at st georges or did they insist you were in the delivery suite as you were a vbac? i still haven't found anyone who's used the birthing centre!

congratulations too to nettee and gils, more lovely girls! we must to a final count to see once everyone's born if there are more girls than boys, definitely feels like it!

dal - i'm so glad i'm not alone but sorry to hear you're as confused about all the conflicting advice as i am! so frustrating isn't it?

my sister had told me about kyala's trick with the hot water bottle so i tried that last night and it worked a dream. we had our 10.30 feed finished at 11, i cuddled hikm until he was 90% asleep and then put him in his cot. before feeding him i'd put the hot water bottle in his bed so when it came to put him down i just double checked his bed wasn't too hot and put him in it. not a whimper, he did open his eyes so he wasn't totally asleep but he drifted off almost immediately. now granted that's only one night, and my sister did say what works this week probably won't work next week, but it's worth a try. he went to sleep really quickly after his night time feeds too, so hopefully it'll work for you too.

Kinki - thanks so much for your kind words. i feel so silly because i do at least have the support of my mum even if her child rearing days are nearly 40 years ago. you are right, it's important to say "i can do this" and not get too consumed by doubt.

well, i must go and get dressed!! my midwife recommended i have two baths a day to help my cs scar heal but god knows how i'm supposed to achieve that, i struggle to get time to do one! still, it's kinda nice still being in pjs at midday

have a lovely day everyone xxx

Hi all. Still having contractions, and they're pretty full on now - up to every 5 mins, and bloody painful. I'm not quite at the shrieking stage yet, but definitely a lot of very heavy breathing and moaning . Went up to the hospital this morning because LO wasn't moving very much, so they did a heart trace (turns out he was fine). MW put a contraction monitor on me as well, and was quick to point out that the contractions were only up to about 60-70% strength, 'and they do go up to 100%, you know'. She told me I was far too 'composed' to be in serious labour yet, and to come back when contractions were 2-3 mins apart and I can't speak at all during them. Kyala, I'm so glad to know it's not just me going through this! Although I don't want to be induced, I'm now quite glad that I'm booked in for Tuesday morning - at least these contractions can't go on any longer than that!

Hope everyone's doing well. Very jealous of you all with your bubs. By the way, my baby book says not to worry about cuddling babies to sleep when they're still tiny - that they can't 'learn' to depend on it until they're at least a couple of months old. Don't know if it's true, but thought I'd chuck it in the mix.

Good luck tomorrow Kyala . At my hospital, induction consists of two doses of prostin gel (in the fanjo, I think), about 12 hours apart. They give you the first one at night, on the basis that it doesn't usually work, so you can get some sleep before the second dose (that might be just first timers, though )? Then, if things aren't getting going, they move on to giving you the drip, which is a stronger drug I think, and usually requires you to be continuously monitored afterwards. They haven't mentioned anything about breaking waters, but I guess that's something they might do at some stage. HTH

Hi mrsmar, I was actually in the birthing centre but only because they are using it as a spillover postnatal ward! It is not open for births yet, typical eh?

kyala - my waters had already broken so they didn't do that. The induction was just the drugs being dripped into me, they upped the dosage every half hour and monitored the contractions on the trace machine. I had an epidural as induction can cause pretty heavy duty contractions, although of course the epidural wore off when it was time to push and that was BRUTAL!!! but so worth it

dal and others - The conflicting advice is so hard isn't it? Especially for first timers. Shall I add some more to the mix? You cannot spoil a tiny baby, if co-sleeping, chest sleeping, carrying them around all day, dummies, etc... work for you then do it. Do whatever you need to do to get some rest and keep your bubba happy. They will not be needing to do that when they are 2 years old, whatever your MIL may tell you! Spoil spoil spoil your baby, save the discipline for the terrible twos .

Speaking of which, can hear a little baby girl calling me, she is an angel, I am still in blissed out babyland and hope you all are too.

Come on other babies, your mummies are waiting for you.............

thanks guys - will try the hot water bottle and the blanket - will try anything. also - thanks for the reassuring words about not worrying about getting this LO into bad habits now. Think you guys are right and if co sleeping is what it takes to make me feel normal and human then it has to be better than Ryan having a grumpy, tired and unhappy mummy during the day!
I officially hate all the baby rearing books.

so is anyone doing/ considering doing the Gina Ford school of parenting? Juts curious, havent read any of her stuff, but have heard tons about it!

All i can say to gina ford is..........PAH!!!! Just read one chapter and you will think, how on earth is it possible??!! Thats my opinion anyhow!
Candianmum - Arben likes to sleep on his side too, i just make sure he is more towards his back.
I must admit that i am to scared to let him sleep in our bed tho, we are such heavy sleepers that we are afraid we will squash him .
mush alert - but i cant wait until Arben starts smiling for proper, not windy ones, he is going melt so many hearts aswell as my own, just gorgeous

just wanted to warn i think we're not aloud to talk about this person because of prior law suit?

OOOOOOOOOOpppppppppppppssssssssss
Sorry, wsn't aware of that!

Hello all.

Anyone else who is due in the next week or so suddenly had the discomfort factor go up a few notches. My BH's today seem to have got stronger, so much so that I am having to breathe through some of them, and The past two days I have been having period type aches under my bump... is it a sign things could be getting close, or is it wishful thinking??

Mrs F (39 weeks tomorrow)