Due March 2008 - for our early arrivals and the loooooong 3rd trimesters

[merryberry]

Hello all.

PS Check up was fine and baby is head down with back to left - let's hope he stays that way after spending all but the last 2 weeks in a nice breech position.

merry - when can I start on the hideous sounding raspberyy leaf tea? I'm assuming I shouldn't start yet (i'm almost 31 weeks)

A few shout outs:
preggers - hope you and the girls are doing well, and thanks for the tip on washing nappies
imjin - i know you said you didn't have much to say at the moment but hope you are still reading us and doing okay and not missing sugar too much
yardette - just wondered if anyone had heard from her and if the twins are showing any signs of an early appearance

Student think the dates thread went a little wonky recently (I disappeared too). If someone feels strong, they could tweak it. I may even have a go.

HQ I'm glad I'm not the only one who's planning/starting building work at this late date. (Although wait, you're about 3 weeks behind me! Doh!) We're still trying to get a bleeding quote from our builder for a new window in the nursery. At this rate, I'm quite certain it won't be finished in time. Ho hum.

When I told my doula that I was starting to panic about not having things ready, she said, 'the shops don't shut when you have a baby. Concentrate on getting mentally/emotionally prepared.' Good point, I thought! How long will that take, then?

However, I'm going to encourage this little one to get out sooner rather than later, as said doula is planning half-term holiday with her kids, so if my baby is late, I could be without her for two weeks. Noooooo!

Both my previous labours have been in 'traditional' position - on my back on the bed, resulting in major back pain for wks afterwards. Anyone tried it on all fours? Or in a pool? Is it better?

hello girls- just dropping by to see how you lot are! Are you all fat and bored yet?? the girls are doing really well- i've brought them into work for a few hours this morning before they have a check-up at 11 with the health visitor- hopefully they have put on a fair bit of weight- they must be drinking some milk as i managed to express 7oz yesterday and i left them with dh for the evening and spent some quality time with a friend in labour- being shouted at! i didn't have the heart to tell her that the reason i was with her instead of her dh was that he was trying to dry out their (only slightly- thankfully!) flooded house!! She'll get a surprise when she gets home good job her dh is loaded- he's ordered new sofas etc and arranged cleaning company- just got to persuade her to have a few nights in hosp!! Anyway- she had at 1.09am a baby boy called Iorwerth Gari Trevelian (a mouthful but they are a very welsh family ) 9lb3 [ouch] He's gorgeous but i have to say i'd rather give birth all over again than watch someone else go through it! I'm shattered and my shoulders are killing me

E14 Yes I am an RLer but not a very happy one. Things are looking up though, as I think I am going to get a private midwife.
I live in E18, Snaresbrook/South Woodford area.

e14, doup what is RLer? something Londoner I'm guessing.

preggers - great to hear the girls are doing so well and well done for helping your friend through labour I love Welsh names, they're beautiful although I'm wary of choosing one for my baby in case I spell or pronounce it incorrectly and sound like an eejit.

JFly our building work got so late that it's had to be indefinitely postponed as there was no way we could get it done before the baby arrived. My sister is an architect and is doing our drawings and now she's pregnant too (which I'm super excited about) so it's not really an ideal time for her to be doing a nixer.

So we're going to have the baby arrive in a house without a proper bathroom. The main problem is the horrible downstairs toilet though, and although I'm planning to have a gifted and talented child I think we'll leave toilet training until it's about 6 months old

HQ I had an appointment this morning and my baby is head down with back maybe towards the back and a foot over on my right side, or so the doctor seemed to think. I'm not sure what this means at this stage (33 weeks).

OK time to go to work. Have to stay late tonight grrr.

i think raspberry leaf tea from 32 weeks in toning amounts (3 cups a day). you can take littler amounts from earlier on if you are that masochistic...

preggersagain that sounds like a rocking night out . glad to hear you are doing so well.

doup, welcome to the wonderful world of independent midwives. we hired one last night, and i've been feeling so much more optimistic since i knew that was going to happen (a few days now, since i've known).
can do that getting positively prepapred thing!

i know there's stacks of evidence about being on all fours/active birth and water birth making ofr less hassle than on the back...it's because your pelvis can't open as easily when you are lying down (the tail bone can't lift out of the way) and also you are then pushing the baby upwards out of the vagina, rather than having gravity on your side.

erm, RL = Royal London Hospital I think?

oh, RL is just the Royal London in East London. I know glammama and doup are going there. I'm going to the birthing centre in Tower Hamelts, but I'm technically still under RL care.
Glam and doup, I got a letter yesterday about Thursday night antenatal classes starting on the 7th Feb. Either of you going to be at them?

Oh, not to freak you all out or anything, but a woman at NCT told us last night that her friend just had her baby 6.5 weeks early (same due date as me! 6th). Apparently in NICU as you would expect, but should be fine. Not sure why so early, but was C section.

All together now, "stay in there, baby!"

legs tightly crossed!

Mrs H- i gave birth to dd in a birth centre, so there were no beds, but as i was exhausted after days of latent stage labour i was tired and so gave birth reclined on a bean bag on my left side so i wasnt lying down but still felt relaxed (well as much as you can while pushing).

In the labour i was active and in all the positions shown in the books and i think it worked well, to my mums surprise i was jumping up and into the shower all by myself about an hour or two after baby born so although sore was not in agony by any means,
I didnt tear either.

Thanks for reminding me about rasp leaf tea i had been wondering when to start that, i just gulp it down when it cools slightly with honey as it is yuck!

been for my 34 wk check and am "normal" (heh!)

Got given my little pot back so asked about washing techniques and she said just to rinse, no need to sterilise. At least she emptied it out before handing it back to me this time!

All of the m/ws seem fascinated by the hypnobirthing thing, can't believe none of them locally have heard of it, obviously south wales is more of a backwater than i'd imagined

Got to go back to work now, dammit. 10 1/4 working days to go

Hi there!

I'm 32+4 weeks and new to the Haggerston area of Hackney (baby due 17th March at Homerton). Am looking to meet other new mums who may be interested in getting together for coffee (decaf of course!) and chats before D-Day
Also, is anyone an experienced Homerton-er? Am booked into the 'home from home' birthing unit but am yet to look around properly.........

Jo

Hi all - It was great to meet so many of you on Saturday.
I have now turned my attentions to my birthing plan. All it says so far is that I want a water birth, I want to avoid delivering on my back and I don't want any juniors/interns stitching up my nether regions.
I'm starting to get more apprehensive about labour now that my due date is just over two months away (gulp) but I hope my NCT classes will help to quell some of my fears - mainly that i have no idea what to expect.

I'm booked in at the Brent Birthing Centre in north-west London.

PQ - your birth plan sounds pretty much the same as mine - I have a real fear of being forced to lie on my back on the bed, and being in a pool of warm water sounds nice but beyond that I have very little clue... I'm off for a tour of the Queen Charlotte's birth centre on Thurs evening (I can choose between there and the QC delivery suite on the day apparently) so hoping that will trigger some more thoughts! I don't start NCT until I'm 34 weeks so just want to have a few ideas before then in case things happen sooner.

Hope everyone is doing okay, definately keen to keep LO inside for quite a bit longer!

Niave first-timer question - what is raspberry leaf tea for?

I'm keen on the idea of a pool for the birth too - although it rules out using a TENS machine! It means you have to have two midwives too, which I like the sound of! Hadn't even thought about interns doing stitiches! Imagine if it was their first time! I had a drip put in by someone who hadn't done it before once. It was awful - but I came over all polite and said it was fine!

Thanks for the dog advice - all sounds very sensible!

raspberry leaf tea is believed to tone uterine muscles to shorten the pushing stage of labour, it is also sometimes used (in very large amounts) to bring on labour, but dont panic it is like pineapple not going to bring on premature labour but may encourage things if they are favourable.

Hi Adelaide Jo - welcome to march madness! We are a very chatty bunch and have regular meet ups, including a tentative one planned for late Feb. Stay tuned!

Not sure who is in Homerton or actually where it is, so will let someone else speak up if applicable.

Just got back from pain management course where mw told us story of woman who was in latent/first stage for 5 days. Sheesh! For the second timers, can I have some more data points - how long were you contracting before 3cm/second stage/going to hospital.

There was a lot of talk about how we should CHOOSE based on what we know about our pain threasholds. I am sorry but I think that's really hard to tell as a first timer - bc a) I've never really had any serious pain experiences to compare to (mw suggested if I was weak at pricking my finger, I would have a high threashold. What??? Hardly comparable, I should think) and b) nobody can describe the type of pain. Again, second timers, any thoughts?

Am admiring those of you knitting - the closest I got to that was calling my aunt in Canada and telling her to find and send the knitted number my godmother made for me 30 years ago! Bless her, she found it! Am going to use for the coming home outfit.

Have a good night everybody - am off to have my raspberry tablets and to take to the couch for some TV!

ps raspberry tablets even SMELL bad

Hi everyone,

Just home from work now at 9.15, pretty whacked but 2 good pieces of news:

1. my niece had an operation today and it went well and she should be fine, so that's great. She's only about 18 months and this was an operation on her head, so it was kind of a big deal even though it was fairly routine.

1. A guy I know in work was telling me a friend of his gave birth in the home-from-home birthing centre I'm going to (presuming all is well and that's what I choose on the day etc., but that is the plan) and apparently it was FANTASTIC , I believe the words "like a hotel" were used, and you get your own room with a key and she had plenty of midwife support during the birth and had a really positive experience. I'm new to the area so I hadn't previously heard of anyone who'd gone to this hospital and the unit only opened officially in October or November time. So that's good news.

My ante-natal classes start next week so I guess I'll find out more.

welcome AdelaideJo

Thanks everyone who filled me in on Royal London. I had been thinking you were "real" Londoners or something because you lived in the east end

hello everyone. what's the cheapest place to get rasberry leaf tea? On maternity leave now which is wonderful and have realised today that we have been given or bought everything that we need for the baby bar a few little bits eg vests, muslins. My family rules OK! slightly terrified that countdown to birth now in weeks rather than months...

don't know how long contracting for before 3 cm, as was induced. don't recall my notes that well, sorry. i wouldn't know this time round tbh, so very glad to have a mw i can ask to come and assess me rather than second guess it. i think you need to look at how you are coping rather than where on your own personal scale of 1-10 you think the pain is on the day. it's not what you feel, it's how you feel about it i think i'm trying to say. if you want to go in and be supported, you should insist!

now the thing that made me choke on my raspberry leaf potion this weekend was the lovely woman at my yoga class who came in to tell her birth story. she never went to 'every 3 minutes' contractions as her place advised beofre calling in. she had contractiosn every 5 minutes right to delivery! it was just that they were lasting nearly 5 minutes by the end. she nearly gave birth unassisted...

[gulp]

and as for pain, again, i can't say so much. i really didn't think the contractions were painful for the first couple of days of induction. they were interesting, had a distinct shape, were strong for sure and got stronger and longer but never scary. they were just like super wavy and strong period pains. but i was lucky in that ds1 was well positioned throughout and fitted well, so i had no extra issues with back:back labour or such like.

the contractions i had once the syntocin drip was running were much harder to go along with, as they were more irregular and somehow spikier and grabbier than more natural ones. they were very tiring after half a day, which is when i asked for an epidural, it was so good to rest until it wore off again. i can't say it was pain though, it wasn't like the writhing ouch of pelvic inflammatory disease, or the weird pain and contractions i had at 20 weeks when that ovarian cyst popped. and again, the pain of the pleurisy before xmas was worse than childbirth i think. and IMHO root canal surgery is worse than childbirth. i mean it!

Hi,

re: rasberry leaf tea - the instructor at an antenatal yoga class that I went to a couple of times said that you should have 1 cup a day from 25 weeks, 2 cups from 30 weeks and 3 cups a day from 35 weeks. UGH! Think possibly was because she sold her own mixture at around £5 per bag (or something like ). I just get some from Holland and Barret.

AdelaideJo - I had my first baby at Homerton. Wanted to use the birth pool but unfortunately when my waters broke they were brown so had to be specially monitored. Found the pre-birth team absolutely fantastic and there is a brilliant breast-feeding lady there who gave me some great advice. It wasn't so great afterwards - the other nurses/midwives on the ward were rushed off their feet and everyone just kept their curtains closed. I was in from Tue to Sat and hardly spoke to anyone! But you're probably not at your friendliest when you've just given birth - I definitely just wanted to go home. For this one I'm booked in to Whipps (Leytonstone) but just because it is nearer and parking was hard round Homerton. I would be fine with going there again if I had to.

Question for you all: what do Braxton Hicks feel like?
I had a sudden pain in my tummy tonight like I'd pulled a muscle and it didn't really go away for about an hour although eased off and came back a few times during that time. It was mainly towards the top of my tummy so was particularly bad when I was breathing in and trying to expand my tummy. Eventually went while practising squats at yoga. It didn't feel how I expected - really felt like a pulled muscle and I was expecting more a rumbling period-like pain. Does that sound like a Braxton Hicks?

HQ - that doesn;t sound like my BH but I suppose all could be different. Mine were period like, wavy and would be 'on' (tight tummy) for and then 'off' for 5-10 mins. Maybe your muscles are just stratining? I get that on the very top front of my stomach sometimes if I reach or lift something I am not supposed to :.)