Due March 2008-New thread so we don't miss anything! Bring on the babies!

[turtle23]

Present for Merryberry

Thanks tori and 3madboys, thanks for your support i will heed your words of wisdom!

So not looking forward to tomorrow, but my time has come! Will keep you all informed.

Night night all

good luck jay, will be thinking of you and sending positive labour vibes xxxx

Ooooh it's my induction day! Got to phone the hospital at 10am to check they have space for me and then head in for 1pm. Good luck Jaysthird - will be thinking of you.

Had a lovely meal out last night, Chez Gerard have a fabulous champagne happy hour for those of you who are still fancying an evening out and a little tipple.

Ooooh champagne. I do miss champagne.

Good luck MMH and Jay! Hope to hear about your babies very soon!

good luck jay and missing, hopefully you'll both have your babies really soon

fitfor - your ward experience makes me even more glad we get our own rooms for the whole stay at our hospital. more work for the mws but means you get some peace.

thought things were getting going last night but they stopped after a couple of hours. still 11 days to go anyway (im counting) feels like ages though

Good luck Jaysthird and Missingmyheels!! Won't be long!

MB and M27 - congratulations! Lovely names and great (if painful) birth stories from both of you.

Good luck to MMH, Jaysthird, Fn41, and to all those overdue!

Thank you all for your kind thoughts this past couple of days. DH's nan passed away on Tuesday evening before we got there - in the end it was so much quicker than even the doctors could predict. We're all really sad but after a very sad and sombre Tuesday night had a better day yesterday. She was 95, and we knew she was on a downward spiral, but she got to live largely independently until she got hospitalised for the final time, she was still playing dominoes and eating trifle and hot cross buns on Monday (she had the most legendary sweet tooth!) and she passed away peacefully. You can't really ask for more. And for DH I think it will be better in the long run that his last memory of her is eating cake at her 95th birthday party (sweet tooth again!) rather than being in a hospital bed. Just so sad she doesn't get to meet our baby, but at least it gives the family something wonderful to look forward to.

My only problem now is that because of Easter the funeral is likely to be the week I'm due. So I either need this baby to arrive early or be late as I don't want DH to miss the funeral if at all possible. Anyone got any surefire tips on getting a baby out of your tummy within a week or getting one to stay in for 3?

HQ xx

Jaysthird and MMH - Another set of good luck wishes! Hope all goes well and you are cuddling your babies really soon!

Midwife gave me a 'worksheet' of natural ways to encourage labour, i was reading it last night and apparently sex is only effective if mutually satisfying, as the sperm is required fior the hormone and it is only if the women is satisfied the cervix will move in some way to absorb it.....hmmmm...definately not worth the effort then! At this stage im feel and appear about as sexy as a beached whale!

Will stick to the raspberry leaf tea instead. Feel i should really go for a long walk but am too tired, i think part of me is waiting for my dad to return from abroad for a business trip. I want the baby on monday i think, but then i was in latent stage labour for four days last time so maybe i need some tingling now!

Oh and according to same sheet it is only established labour once tummy changes shape with each contraction, dont remember that happening before so will watch my stomach with great interest this time!

Good luck Jay and MMB hope you see your LO's soon x

Right. Nursery is finished! Woo hoo! So, I figure that mental block is gone and LO can now happily arrive.

Really really want to avoid induction next week, so sending baby lots of "we want to meet you" and "come see your new posh room" messages.

HQ so sorry about DH's nan. It is so very sad for you right now, but I would agree there is comfort in knowing she died peacefully and was very independent up to the end. I hope that LO arrives at convenient time for you. Not that they appear to listen to us!

Hi all,

Wondering if I can join this thread. I'm now 40 + 4 days with DC2.
DS1 was 12 days overdue and the day before his induction date I went for a last-attempt session of reflexology, had a strong thai curry, and then finally an ounce of castor oil washed down with a tall glass of lemonade.

One of those things did the trick cause I went into labour around midnight with strong contractions, and 6 hours later DS1 was born in the birthing pool at the hospital.

I'm finding I'm much more impatient with DC2 - and not wanting to go that long overdue, but not wanting to get induced either...

Anyway, thought I'd introduce myself and say Hello and Congrats to the lucky two who now have their little ones with them.

Bloody NHS are USELESS! They don't have a bed for me until tonight. So I have to go in at 8pm, DP has to go at 8:30pm and then they will begin to induce me but now they don't have time to give me x2 lots of gel before attempting ARM. This is all going wrong wrong wrong, why oh why didn't I just bite the bullet and pay for the Portland??

Hi girls,
MMH- sorry to hear things aren't going as smoothly as you hoped- but you may find one lot of gel is enough- or maybe ARM may do the trick as well. Hope it all goes smoothly tonight!
HQ- so sorry to hear about DH's nan. My great-grandmother passed away in January and we were so sad that she didn't get to meet our LO, but you're right that his arrival does give the family something happy to look forward to.
As for tips on keeping baby in- stick closely to this thread!! Seems to work for most of us so far

Argh, MMH. I can't understand their scheduling of gels and ARM. Can you delay until tomorrow morning? Why would they make DH leave right after induction? If you do go in tonight, could you insist on him staying for duration?

Don't let them tell you they don't "have time" - have confidence in yourself and tell them what you want. Induction is elective, so you run the show!

littleducks - my belly changes shape when i have want strong bhs, it goes pointy!

missing - sorry to here that there messing you about, can you not go in tomorrow instead? hope everything goes well for later

HQ- sorry to hear about dhs nan, have no tips to make baby come out/stayin but generally if you really them to come out they dont! bit of reverse psychology

just made some scones so now scoffing them with strawberry jam and whipped cream, yum at least whilst im still pregnant i dont even need to think about starting a diet.

I'm thinking a bit more clearly now I have stopped sobbing. I'm going to call them when DP gets home from work and tell them that I won't be coming in unless he can stay with me for at least the initial induction stage. It's bloody scary - I don't want to be all by myself! They would make him leave because they induce you on the antenatal ward and visiting hours end at 8:30pm so he would have to go home then, he could come back when I am in established labour and therefore moved to the delivery ward. No exceptions - apparently.

They didn't want to postpone it because then it'll run into the weekend when they have less staff on so don't like to do anything "elective". They were very apologetic and I feel a bit bad as I know they are just understaffed and underfunded and they probably don't need me crying like a baby down the phone!

Hope Jays is having more luck than I am - she might even have her bubba by now! Exciting stuff!

From phone. Mmh! Would not go in tonight honest. You will spend night awake before labour is too much! ...also arm should not be 1st iol activity. You are not there to make nice for them. Do please ask for am tomorrow. Sorry if sound militant. Feel it for you. Much power to you. See NICE 2008 draft guide to iol if you have time x x x

Oh and welcome MarchMama!

HQ - So sorry to hear about your DH's Nan, as for tips to get them to stay in I definitely suggest hanging around here! You would be very unlucky if the baby decided to make an appearance at the time of or just before the funeral, I hope it all goes ok for you both.

Thanks MB - I hadn't even thought about NICE guidelines - preggers brain! Will have a read through now and see what is what.

Congratulations MB (and oww!) and M27 and anyone else I've missed.
Sorry to hear your news HQ, how nice that you had a happy last memory though , I'm sure that will be a comfort as time goes on.
MMH - good luck, can you insist on dp staying? It does seem a bit tough to make him leave you . Perhaps you'd better take a laptop! But maybe this time tomorrow you'll have a baby and you won't care about anything else!
Emily is doing well and getting used to being out in the world. I had my first visit from the health visitor yesterday and she had 2 startling pieces of information:

1. when bf you should eat 3000 calories a day! I don't have a massive appetite and that will be a pretty much full time job. It's the equivalent of more than 6 packets of pringles!
2. babies learn all language by the time they are 3 and lots by the time they are one so it is important to stop swearing now. Oh S**T!

3000 calories???!!!

Wow! I was looking forward to going on a diet!

Emily is such a pretty name, it's on our short list but I'll feel like such a copycat if I use it now, hehe I am going to try and ask for DP to stay a while, fingers crossed.

mmh-if they won't let dh stay be thankfu; its at bthe beggining - sorry bout typos- millie feeding!!

when they give you the gel its not the most dignified thing ever tbh- and yoku have to stay put for a while to stop gravity taking its toll and will have ctg monitoring- i found having dh there annoying- he was wandering aroiund like a lost sheep!

but ask! also will they be giving you gel overnight? usually they start ezrly in the morn- less staff at night!

JFly - thanks for the cervix wishes I too am hoping for a quick change in circumstances.

I've been rotten sick for over a week with an upper respiratory virus and a cough so bad it made me vomit once so I sort of passed my due date in no fit state to go into labour. Didn't stop me being cranky and impatient though ;)

jaysthird good luck and hope your induction is going well, or has gone well and you're now holding a lovely baby.

Anyone else getting super broody? Every time I see a little baby I just want run off with it (not really, but ykwim). I guess I just can't wait to me my LO.

3mb - I'm trying to use your patience as an inspiration. You seem so unflappable in this whole waiting game.

MMH - you poor thing having psyched yourself up for the induction. I'm quite at the idea that your DP would have to leave at 8.30! WTF? I'm to go in next week at 4pm and afaik the induction will take place over the evening. I've always been assuming that DH will be there. I would hate, HATE it if they made him leave.

Best, best of luck whatever you decide. Soon you'll have your lovely baby and you'll barely remember the rest of us still in the waiting room ;)

spugs @ pointy BH tummy. I STILL have no BH and I'm 5 days overdue. sometimes I get really mild cramping but that's it. I swear this baby is just not getting the message that it's time to come into the world.

HQ so sorry about your DH's nan. She sounds a formidable woman and so lovely that she was able to enjoy hot cross buns on Monday

littleducks sex might make my cervix move? Right, I'd really better get my act together then. I have the intention to do it, but I never seem to quite feel like it.

welcome marchmama

LMAO @ "piggyp* 3000 = 6 packets of pringles. I wonder what it is in cornettos?

Doh! forgot that the shock and grin smileys work weirdly on this site. Obviously I didn't think it was at all funny that MMH's DP would have to leave at 8.30. I meant

All other grins stand.