Due June 08 - Creme egg season is over, summer is now here, so time to tidy the ladygarden before the big day

[bitofadramaqueen]

I wonder how quickly we'll get through this thread?!?!?!?!

Sorry you still feel grotty Sybil - but just think, by getting a cold now by the time baby comes you'll be fit and well!!

Hi Everyone,

What a beautiful day it is here, sounds like everyone is enjoying the good weather. I have nipped in to have lunch and popped ds down for a nap.

Starting to get organised, moved ds to his new room and started cleaning and sorting, still some baby clothes to wash, but not too much. My Tens machine arrived on sat, so have everything I need now - Scary! Well except a name!!

Ernest I think you should suss out the childminder, if playgroup stops so soon maybe it would give you a little more time to yourself (well sort of) If she can't help then I would still go with playgroup, better than nothing. Are there any summer activities that the older ones might want to go to?

Neenz Hope your not too uncomfy and everything goes well with blood results.

Sorry Debs just noticed you suggested summer camps!

what's worse than being stuck indoors studying and heavily pregnant on a scorching hot day? Being stuck indoors studying, heavily pregnant and trying to tune out someone's bloody car alarm. Can hear it from every room in the house. .

Hello all! just had a recovery nap whilst DD has her post lunch sleep. Creeping around like a mouse so as not to wake her, esp as I still feel crap and DH gone into work again. DD is OK and has 2 new tiny sharp white dots in her gums today.

Rolf- sorry you took over then night shift last night, hope your DS has cleared out his system now.

I'm also feeling like I've had enough- too hot, too heavy, clothes threatening to be too tight, hips too loose and vulnerable-feeling... but def not too much sleep.

Love the image of your boys going to circus school, Deb. Would love to see what they get up to!

Ernest- sounds like playgroup is best place to start fro DS3

ahh u swapped to here all this is confusing to me as im new... i didnt sleep agagin last night im running on reserve power lol not long now tho ladies i saw a gorgeous baby girl whos 7 months in the shop and i was talkin to her n she was just smiling the whole time it was so cute i cant wait to have mine now! then ill be able to sleep when shes sleeping lol!! Some woman went on to me about the less movement of the baby the more chance of still birth i wasnt pleased it got me worried.. ne one else feeling there baby less after 33 weeks im 34 weeks now and i just feel moving now n then not kicks much is everyone else the same? x

Hi everyone, officially fed up here! Babies still showing few signs of arriving.

I had some backache during the night again but nothing much since I got up.

Booked in to have my waters broken tomorrow but I will ask to have my bloods done again and if they are normal then I am not going to have my waters broken.

I have just been researching it on the web (dangerous thing!) and despite hoping to find that breaking waters is a wonderful thing unfortunately it seems that it can lead to more painful labours, higher risk of infection and higher chance of c-section.

I am finding it so difficult to walk around now I really want it to be over but might have to wait a while longer!

Neenz, I really feel for you! It's probably sensible not to have your waters broken unless htere is a real need to but it's hard not to be tempted!

DD2 woke me up this morning to tell me she was sick and then threw up all over my pillow! She's been sick a few times since and has had a couple of naps. I'm hoping it doesn't affect all of us. Rolf, I hope you ds is better.

I keep swinging between wanting the baby to come and wanting it to stay in longer as I know life will get much harder when baby arrives. I will book the girls in for a week at a non residential summer camp fairly close to my house though I know I will regret it when I have to pick them up in the heat!

Just shoving my head through the door briefly. Shocking night's sleep (about two hours- had I known you were all up chatting I'd have logged on...)restless, crampy, hungry, hot and cold. Feeling very odd today...and yet to successfully nap. God I am grouchy.

MW did little to make me feel better...more scorn about induction, then she took BP and wanted to admit me as it has sky-rocketed (combined with some swelling, and stars in eyes). Managed to get her to let me stay at home resting, but need to go first thing for bloods and full check-up. Thank God DH is working from home most of this week as I have to bring my hospital bags with me. I may be induced before the induction. Mad mad mad.

Anyhow. Knackered and about to get shouted at (rest means NO interweb) so have to go but wanted to keep you posted.

Sorry to hear you're feeling unwell Makescakes - I certainly sympathise! Even if you can't sleep try to lie down and rest. Let us know how you get on at the hospital and try not to worry too much - all anyone wants is whats best for the baby and although I know it doesn't feel like it sometimes, you and the hospital/mw are in this together.

he makecakes glad you got to stay at home to rest (bound to be more restful than being on a hospital ward) but make sure you do take it easy. Have you got some trashy novels or a dvd box set to keep you occupied? Glad your DH at home to look after you.

Neenz try not to worry too much about the research (easy said). I get the impression more and more when it comes to interventions that its not the act of things like getting your waters broken that lead to the other consequences - more to do with the reasons that people need to get certain interventions that lead to the other consequences. Does that make sense? I know what I mean in my head .

It is so comforting to know the rest of you are feeling crap too! Honestly - I logged on feeling so uncomfortable and tired and at least now I know I'm not alone. I can barely walk, I'm so huge, and all I want to do is sleep.

Josey - the college student idea is a good one - thanks .

Neenz - sorry you're feeling so crap. Re having your waters broken, IME once you are on an intervention "track" the intervention can escalate solely becuase you are on that track, rather than out of clinical necessity.

Makecakes - hope the check tomorrow is ok. Those symptoms sound scary.

DQ - has the car alarm stopped?

Deb - the circus camp sounds brilliant. What a great idea.

If I book someone in to help with the children I'll have so many more options for lovely activities for them. Usually I'm quite limitied by the age range and by the lack of a car so having a extra pair of adult hands will be brilliant.

DS hasn't thrown up much today and has kept down a few bites of dry toast. He's slept most of the day and is still retching which he finds distressing. But hopefully he's on the mend. I expect I'll need to keep him off school tomorrow just so he can regain his strength. He needs a quiet day with lots of cuddles!

Hope everyone gets a good sleep tonight and feels better in the morning

Hi guys, another busy couple of days on the June thread!

dramaqueen, my dh also does all the cooking and I have also promised to turn into a domestic goddess now I'm on mat leave - I made this announcement at a BBQ last week with lots of old friends and they all thought it was hilarious which didn't do much for my confidence in achieving this aim!

neenz, I would 2nd what dramaqueen said on the 'waters breaking leading to CS' thing. They were talking about it at my NCT class on Saturday and talked about the 'cascade of intervention' (at least I think that's what it was called). This starts off with a sweep, then the prostaglandin gel, then breaking waters then the hormone drip, then CS. It's not that one automatically leads to another, or that it will definitely follow that you will have to have a CS if you have any of the others, but often induction of any kind is done cos baby is overdue and medics won't let you stay overdue or induced for too long. So if your labour has sort of started and they are just breaking your waters to give you a helping hand then you should still be able to deliver naturally - at least that's what I understood, but your consultant will be able to tell you more.

Talking of NCT, the class was great and the other 6 couples were really lovely. Quite a funny moment at one point where we were talking about all the different methods for natural induction and how much truth there was in any of them. Course the men had to bring up sex, and how or whether this would work. A couple of the women (including me) thought it was to do with the prostaglandin in the sperm irritating the cervix and causing labour to start. Well, apparently, according to our NCT teacher, the prostaglandin is far more effective when ingested!!!!

As you can imagine the men were delighted to hear this and one of them particularly couldn't stop going on about it all day - I think he felt he'd got his money's worth from his NCT membership based on that one fact alone!!!

Has anyone else heard this before, cos I certainly haven't, but our NCT teacher seemed deadly serious - much to the horror/amusement of the women in the room!

I've heard that too! I haven't told DH.

hi all - can't keep up with all the post. splodgesmum glad you enjoyed nct (I really enjoyed it too and was a bit about it) - your NCT teacher said direct opposite to ours much to disappointment of dads in there... dh much keener to go with your teacher's view ..maybe should have taken rolf's route and kept my big mouth shut.

sorry to all of those feeling rubbish and hope you feel bit better soon - just feeling dead knackered and stiff (due to long car journey)

splodgesmum - I'll not be passing that on to the DH but can you remind us all if we get to 41 weeks and running out of ideas .

Car alarm has stopped Rolf - thankfully. It went on for about an hour. Soooooo bored of studying now. This time Wednesday it'll all be over (for a week or two at least then I need to get going again to get some work out of the way before the baby comes along).

The effectiveness of ingesting prostaglandin did not get mentioned in our NCT class. TBH DH looked q alarmed at the idea of sex of any sort (given my current girth) so I think I am on safe ground. As far as DH is concerned the best bit of NCT has been me massaging his back and neck. He played squash for first time in ages on Saturday and was such a moaning minnie afterwards that I resorted to NCT massage techniques to shut him up. He has yet to reciprocate.

My first effort at cooking extra for the freezer has ended in failure. We have nothing in the fridge this evening, so we will be eating the spare bolognaise I cooked the other day. Domestic goddess - I think not!

Splodgesmum - I won't be passing on that gem from your nct class,unless I'm really desperate at 42 weeks+!!

Rolf - glad your ds sounds a little better, a day at home cuddling tomorrow sounds the ideal medicine!Good luck with your plans for the summer holidays.

Makecakes - think you've been lucky there not to be admitted to hospital, rest as much as you can tonight - could all be happening for you tomorrow!!

Gemma - I don't feel baby kick out as often now as I did, but I still got lots of movement this afternoon after my worry this morning.

Neenz - fingers crossed for tomorrow, When the mw was approaching me to break my waters with the crochet hook thing, my waters popped on their own and soaked her - maybe the same will happen to you!

Dramaqueen - roll on wed night for you, then you can have a little rest before baby!!

Boys are in bed, and I am aching, and coming out in spots on my legs, soooo attractive!!Going to veg out on the settee.

LOL Allipalli - eating the bolognaise you cooked to freeze!!

Everyone has gone, most of washing up done, DD in bed and I won't be long after her, no one in now until Friday unless soemone walks in off the street or phones up. Bliss.

poppy, looks like we'll all be keeping our big mouths shut!!

I have to say the idea doesn't really appeal, but desperate times . . . (I'm only 33 weeks at the moment so not in any rush!).

The other thing they said was about eating pineapple - we have a pineapple in the house that needs eating up and dh was concerned that I shouldn't have any in case I went into labour now. Bless him. Had to point out that all of these techniques are only effective when your body's nearly ready anyway - otherwise sex in pg would be banned! (as would eating curry, walking, driving over bumpy roads, etc, etc!).

alli, yes dh loved the massage too. Need to remind him of that one - think he's forgotten he can give me lots of massages now!

Where did the sun go? It's gone all dark here!

Hope you've all had good weekends and DCs are all feeling better now.

Dinner's served - must go!

PMSL, Poppy should, like Rolf, have kept her big mouth shut re ingesting prostaglandins orally. Or am I the only filthy-minded person who noticed that?

Neenz, I had a 'cascade of intervention' last time - it didn't lead to CS but I did have whole episiotomy / forceps / hitting scissor doc in the chest with flying placenta.

Makecakes, I'm so sorry about you having to spend all your time in hospital. Stress won't help your BP either. Do you have protein in your urine and are you having platelets done tomorrow? I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Very scary.

Debs, do you have pregnancy ezcema too? Mine comes and goes but it really depends what I wear. Seem to spend my life now in yoga pants / shorts.

Dramaqueen, good luck for weds.

Splodge, glad you enjoyed NCT. Where are you based btw?

LOL at keeping our mouths shut!

Knew you'd all come round to yoga pants. I was just ahead of the game

I've never heard of pregnancy eczema. Is that what the revolting red patch above my eyelid is, I wonder?

I had such a pregnabrain today. I saw a plastic carrier bag (giftshop-style) in DH's work bag and as DH has a habit of sneaky shopping I was fretting about what he'd bought and hidden from me. When I asked him about it he told me to look closer at the bag - it was from HM Prison Service! And no, they don't have a gift shop.

Evening all, just checking in before I do a little bit more studying. I so hope that the weather is nice next weekend when I can enjoy it!

Forgot to say earlier, was merrily scrubbing away in the shower this morning and found a whole new batch of stretch marks on my hips . They definitely weren't there yesterday. V annoyed as they are just on that bit that would normally peep out above my jeans waistband (back when I had a waist). It's not that I wear cut off tops or anything, but if a top rolls up or anything they'll be there for the world to see.

Someone tell me they dont stay all red/purple and angry looking for long? I know they'll fade eventually (I got them in puberty and have to really look to find them now) but I dont know how long it takes.

Oh, another question for those that have done all this before - how long does it actually take to bf a newborn? Have got this vision of visitors turning up at hospital when baby needs feeding, and either having to feed baby under their watchful eye or sending them away for most of visiting time. I know it might take some practice to get the hang of bf discreetly/feel comfortable bf in front of FIL/BIL etc. Sorry, probably seems a bit silly but its been on my mind.

DQ - can't remmber how long it takes but they do eventually go silvery and are much less noticeable.

Newborns can have bfeeding marathons and stay on for as long as an hour, IME. If they fall asleep you can take them off (stick you finger inside the corner of the baby's mouth to break the suction, otherwise it hurts) but tbh I've generally just let mine stay on. It helps get your milk supply established and helps your uterus contract down. It also forces you to sit down.

When I was getting the hang of it I didn't want people in the room with me. It can be difficult enough to sort out what you're doing without worrying about covering yourself up as well. Muslins, cardies or pashminas are all good for keeping things covered up if you are happy to have people in the room with you. Once you've got the hang of it it's no trouble to feed the baby with people around.