Due March 2008 Surely someone has to pop soon...

[turtle23]

New thread

spugs - is that Penshaw Monument in the background on your picture?

yeah it is penshaw, are you a fellow north eastener?

feedme thanks chick. im very tall so it definitly helps with giving a thinner appearence. after i mced i dropped to 8 half stone so had some catching up to do. i think with the pre ecl that it depends on how severe it is.

had mw check up and little one is sitting right on pelvic brim but still not engaged. both of mine engaged at about 37/38 weeks and i went to term so it doesnt mean theyll be early unfortunatly. been having loads of bhs which i reckon is the raspberry leaf tea taking effect. also have everyone telling me how much bigger i am then i was wih my last 2 pregnancies and how they reckon im the size i was at term with dd2 [eek] my (trainee mw) sister is putting in predictions for a good 8 lber!

have now swapped blood oranges for blue berries [yum]

Argh! My first day of mat leave has to have been my worst day of pregnancy so far. Not only did I have the whole sugar-in-urine thing this morning, but I've just got back from hospital having spent an hour strapped to a CTG. I fell on my way home tonight and although I managed to take the brunt of it on my hands I still landed on my tummy and the baby stopped moving... Anyway hospital were fab and told me to come straight in and saw me straight away. Baby's heartbeat fine and he gradually started moving again. So I'm back at home a bit shaken and likely to be bruised and bashed tomorrow, but at least LO is okay.

I'm going for toast, a hug with DH and then bed. First antenatal class tomorrow at 9.30 and I need some sleep...

oh HQ how frightening. I hope you are OK today. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh HQ...poor you!! Hope you're ok.

HQ - how scary, hope you are feeling better!

HQ, hope you are feeling OK today. You should be at your a/n class as I type, so hope you are having fun there!

Can I just ask, is anyone else having scary dreams? I've had a few about baby that I don't even want to repeat out loud (even in writing!) cos they were so horrible My subconscious has a lot to answer for!

Have finally ordered my Amby Natures nest, which should arrive next week. Plus, having ordered pram at Baby Show in October, I have now called them and arranged for delivery next week. Can't believe things are so close!

HQ, so glad you're both ok and hope the baby's wriggling like mad today to reassure you.
x

hq - glad you and bubs are ok x

feedme - i havent this time (touch wood) but with my last 2 i had some fairly horrific ones. with dd1 i used to wake up franticly searching for her cos i was convinced id crushed her! all perfectly normal

Hello All

HQ - hope you're ok after fall x

I had my last day in office yesterday (although working from home on Monday and Tuesday before officially stopping). Got lots of lovely baby presents so had a really nice send off

All this talk of moody DH's has made me appreciate mine more, I got a gorgeous bouquet on Thursday of 11 red roses and one white rose in the centre with a little sparkly stone (which DH said was for LO)..was very chuffed. Unfortunately for my DH my present to him involved making him giner and white choc flapjacks as he loves them, but they turned out a bit runny and not setting, so we ended up having to eat them out the tin....oh well, it's the thought that counts.

We're in the middle of ripping out our bathroom at the moment, and the new suite has been delayed by another 2 weeks which is really stressing me out!! I really want to get the house spotless, but with all the dust, tools and mess around it's driving me up the wall!!

Feed me - we got our nature's nest a couple of weeks ago and it looks really lovely, just wish they did adult sizes

Hope everyone is enjoying the lovely weather!

HolidaysQueen You poor thing!!! At least LO has a nice big amniotic sac to keep them padded. Glad the hospital were so caring with you an hope you're 100% better now.

monthlymayhem Awwww you so lucky! What a sweet idea having the sparkly stone and the white rost in the centre. Made my heart swell at the thought of such a sweet gesture!!! I don't get flowers from OH cos his Dad never sent his mum flowers until their 25th wedding anniversary so it would be really special when he eventually did?!?!? Oh well, each to their own I suppose. I think after 25 years of never getting flowers, she probably wasn't too impressed!!! Bet she was looking for something sparkly too!!!

As for the horrific nightmares about LO's - I too am having these and can't even tell my best friend what the last one was as it was so horrible. Why do our minds do these kind of things to us? It's blimmin hard enough to get to sleep in a comfy position without being woken by these horrible dreams!!! I always feel guilty.....

Is anyone having extreme BH in the middle of the night? I know I have mentioned before I had what felt like proper contractions but they eased off and stopped. MW not concerned unless they get more intense and close together or if there's a "show" so I am just breathing through them for now....

Last night I had another "episode" where the BH was so painful and LO was kinda wriggling down at the same time which just added to the discomfort. MW at last antenatal said not engaged yet so still a few weeks to go but last night's BH was so convincing and so painful that I am getting pretty worried about how I am gonna cope with the pain!!! It passed eventually though and they just turned back into tightenings then stopped but I am exhausted today as a result!!!

I am starting to think I bet you are all going through this too but you all just deal with it and move on but I must not have as high a pain threshold as I thought!!!

Hope everyone having good weekend anyways

paranoid- pain thresholds in labour differ from your normal pain threshold anyway- in labour i am fairly good at coping however give me constipation and i'm crying like a baby

so much going on but no time to read. Just to say notice wishes for HQ so I did read to check you're ok - take it easy my love - no falls please! And sorry to hear about the sugar thign - you have my full unabounded sympathy. I can highly recommend buying some sugar free jam and layering that on everything to make it taste sweet- if I ate any more oat cakes I would have turned into one.

love to all and sorry for dashing by visit. I hope everyone is ok.

Paranoid, you seem to be dealing with it well. I haven't had anything like that yet really, just the wrigglings that keep me awake!

HQ How horrible for you, hope LO is reassuring you lots today. He/She'll be well padded in there.

Paranoid Preggers is right, in labour your body releases different chemicals so the pain is a bit more bearable. But if it is more than you can bear shout for pain relief.

I find that those with quite detailed birth plans end up deviating from it for all sorts of reasons. There seems to so much pressure to go natural and drug free. Which is wonderful if you can do it but is not the be all and end all. What's important is that you have a healthy baby and mum at the end and it really doesn't matter how that happens. If I hadn't been booked in for a CS this time (and if he does turn) I will be yelling for the drug trolley as soon as I get in the hospital doors. That's my choice and I know it's not for everyone but as I maintain, most people wouldn't have any other procedure/condition/injury without some help so why should this be different. And to those that say well, the body is designed to cope with childbirth, it's natural.I say, well, so is toothache or worse things and you wouldn't deny anyone pain medication then.
Phew, sorry for the rant but I really want to make sure no-one feels under pressure to go (and remain) drug free. Pain relief is there for a reason and if you need it, take it. You might not need it but there are no medals for those that remain drug free.

I was planning on remaining as drug free as possible with DD but there were issues with the birth and I ended up having all the drugs going. For me the pethidine was the most wonderful thing on the earth and then later when I had the epidural it allowed me to rest. I had a mobile epidural so could feel DD crowning so I knew when to push. She came out in 2 pushes.And I did not tear or have to be cut. After a 30 hour labour I think that was a pretty good outcome. I think that the drugs allowed me to rest so by the time I needed to push I had gathered all my strength. I understand that all labours are unique and this was just my experience. But the drugs definitely improved what for me was a qute harrowing experience. I really hope I'm not scaring anyone but it can be an ordeal, but the important thing to remember it is time limited, there is support, people do it again and you get a baby at the end!!!

Sorry, don't know what came over me. DP has run me a bath (without being asked!!!) so I'm going to wallow and then get stuck and need assistance to get out. I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. Tomorrow I'm going to Allied Carpets , woohoo.

Hello all - thanks for all your good wishes! I'm feeling much better today - grazes on hands and knees and a slightly sore belly but recovered from the shock and just feeling a bit clumsy really. The baby is absolutely fine - he was really active today throughout the antenatal class (which was great). As some of you have said, that amniotic fluid is amazing at protecting them!

The hospital were great which is really reassuring in advance of the big day (whenever it arrives!) I called really expecting them to tell me to stay at home but they told me to come straight in and when I got there they were expecting me. The midwife checked the baby and hooked me up to CTG. Once she was happy the baby's heartbeat seemed normal she left us alone for a while to calm down and relax and then the doctor came in at the end of the hour to check the read-out and sign me off. There was no waiting around, and they also didn't make me feel at all daft, even though my notes at the end listed the diagnosis as "Minor fall"!!!

The other good thing was it gave us chance to try two different routes to the hospital at night and I can report that both can be achieved in under 20 mins! In rush hour it would be more like 1hr...

I'm having a funny couple of days - I suddenly feel really pregnant - as this evening I have finally twigged that the slightly odd feeling I occasionally get in my tummy is actually Braxton Hicks!!!

Right, lovely DH is making me Thai food for dinner so I'm off to eat.

Take care all!

HQ xx

P.S. Glam - thanks for sharing your birth story. I find it really helpful reading other people's stories, particularly when they say what did and didn't work for them, as it just helps give me ideas of the different types of situations I may find myself in. I'm kind of with you on not having too detailed a birth plan - I'm going to be quite detailed on things like immediate skin-to-skin and whether DH wants to cut cord, but think I'll be a bit less dogmatic about pain relief etc.

Spugs, thanks for the reassurance on the dream front. I'm sure I didn't get them with dd or ds, but have such a shockingly bad memory that I couldn't actually say for sure!

Monthly, my dd (nearly 9yo) keeps asking if she'll fit in the nest or if they do one her size! We haven't even got it yet, but she's seen the pictures and just loves the idea!

Went to the hospital earlier to visit my SIL. Poor her, all puffy and bored, and v tired cos they wake her every 2 hours to check BP, etc. She also said that they had to re-shuffle the ward at about 4am this morning, so everyone had to move beds! She was also worringly telling me that at her first a/n class the mw was writing on the board about Branston Hicks!!! How could a mw get that wrong! Lets just hope she was just hungry and thinking of lunch

HQ - glad you are both ok!
Glamma - thanks for writing about your experiences, it's good to hear the opposite argument from the 'other side'. For a first timer it's just such an unkown, I just want to be open minded.
Feedme - LOL Branston Hicks! I get awful dreams too - wook up crying the other day - luckily couldn't remember that dream!

I can't believe there aren't any more babies yet! Must be too cold for them. I put the baby thermometer in our room yesterday and it was 10 degrees (cold not sad!) - not quite sure how we're going to keep PFB warm. We've got 2 duvets which add up to 26 tog - but can't really do that for LO. Might have to get an electric heater!

I had loads of BH yesterday that went round the back, really quite painful and much stronger than normal - I was convinced it was the start of things but then after a few hours it stopped. V glad because I have become an cumpulsive washer and not everything is clean yet!

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a nice weekend. My folks were up to visit for the first time since we moved here. It was nice to see them and we got our pram and they seemed as excited about it as I was.

HQ sorry to hear about your fall, it sounds very scary. glad to hear all's well and you're feeling better now. sorry also about the high sugar level. I've also been drinking a lot of cordial because of the weird water taste so perhaps I'd better cut back a little. I have so far found it good and I've been having way more fluids but obviously need to be a bit more careful.

thanks everyone for pain relief advice. it's so useful to know how other people found things.

glam I totally agree with you about the pain relief thing. I'm really, really hoping for no epidural because I'm terrified by the idea, not out of any sense of bravery. I figure if I need one that will overcome my fear of needles near my spine.

I'm 37 weeks now, so I guess the baby could come at any time, but I've still had no BH that I know of. I guess it's probably time to pack a hospital bag though. I'll have to go back and look at all the advice on what to bring from the last thread.

Evening ladies

My mw was supposed to come over tomorrow or Tues to bring the homebirth stuff, and after that I'd be ready to go. But she phoned this morning to say she was in the area with everything in the car, so she popped in, dropped it off and gave me a check-up. So, all is well, and I'm ready for my baby to show up! Baby is only 4/5 engaged but that's better than nothing. I also have 4 cylinders of gas and air in the living room - very tempting to crack it open now and spend the evening 'toking' it on the sofa!!!

DH is very happy cos he's been on a nookie ban since I had those contractions the other week - I didn't want things starting off early. But now I'm all set for the home birth he's off the ban .

HQ - ouch! Glad you and the bump are OK!

Piggy - ooh, those sound like proper contractions to me! But I had mine 2 weeks ago and nothing since so it might not really mean anything. But I reckon everyone should have their hospital bags packed!

Feedme - luckily I haven't had many scary dreams yet, just the one. But very scary dreams are common in pregnancy, especially at the end. I guess it's our subconciousnesses dealing with the big changes to come and all our fears.

lol@ Branston Hicks! I bet she was hungry. I used to run science workshops for school kids in my uni days and a collegue of mine wrote "spaceshit" on the board once when he was having a bad day...!
Baby allowed to come anytime now as we've hit 37 weeks! No BH really, but my legs feel like they're going to fall off! This week I WILL pack my hospital bag. And take naps every day.

By the way, this thread has had me fascinated - makes me very glad we didn't have to have a baby in the past. Even though maternity services can be pretty crap, they've defnintely improved!!!

I have this great image of derah like the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland, sitting on her sofa and breathing G&A through a giant hookah pipe.

e14 - good to hear I'm not the only one at "term" that hasn't packed yet for the hospital. I really must get that together this week.

I just found out my great uncle died last night His funeral is about 2.5 hours away on Tuesday evening/Weds morning. I feel I should go but my Dad thinks it would be silly to travel all that way so late in pregnancy. Selfishly I can't really spare the time off work so soon before ML and also am supposed to have a TENS machine "class" at the hospital on Wednesday afternoon. DH not sure about going either. I really don't know what I should do.

I've been having very vivid dreams. The scariest was the night before last where I dreamt I got pregnant again while I was still pregnant, so even after the baby came I would still be pregnant for another 6 months and then would have 2 babies

For the piles brigade: it turns out I had a THROMBOSED pile and that was why it was so sore. The doctor seemed to think I was terrified by the diagnosis, but actually I was just kind of proud to have suffered through something so scary sounding. Apparently it's actually quite common for pregnant ladies, but it still sounds like a big deal. thrombooooosed.

Having 'oh no, two weeks til due date' panic and can't sleep so am up catching up on weekend posts - lots of chat! Feel like I have much to do before arrival - hospital bag, naps, more sex, etc - before LO arrives and so hope it's more like three weeks. LO still pretty high so I am hoping that's the case!

Had a good weekend - no flowers/card but lovely weekend away in posh hotel with good food. Our last, I reckon, for awhile!

No weird dreams for me but TMI alert...horridly painful constipation/bowel movements. Anybody else? Apparently is normal but so painful and puts me in such a foul mood (just ask dh!!).