Hello all!
Been too busy to post for a while what with one thing and another. Main one being that yesterday I had to go and pick DS up early from nursery as he wasn't well. He threw up violently three times over a couple of hours, poor mite (all over the sofa, natch, and he'd been drinking blackcurrent smoothie. ) Anyway, thankfully he seems all better now, but it was all a bit grim at the time.
I did skim the thread, though I doubt I have a chance of catching everything up, so I'll just have to pick out a few things.
First, welcome to the newbies, from a nearly-newbie.
Heffa that's awful the way that midwife talked, sounds to me like she feels a bit insecure in her position relative to the higher status doctors have; I don't think if she felt really confident and happy about being a midwife she would have felt the need to put the hospital down so much. But that's no excuse for making you feel bad, or indeed the other mothers who may end up in the hospital after all.
Various people have mentioned estimated weights of their babies; I had a scan last week and no-one was willing to estimate a weight at all. I do understand such estimations can be fairly wildly out, but since part of the point of the scan was to see whether baby was looking like being big or not it's a bit annoying not to be given any idea! (DS1 was 9lb 5 and I had a 3rd degree tear, which is what I want to avoid this time; I feel like I've been sent round the houses with all sorts of conflicting advice, but that's a rant for another time...)
Someone, sorry I forget whom (oh, I just checked, it was Libra), was asking about nappy wrapper bins. Contrary to most of the responses here, I have to say I think ours is great (the old style Tommee Tippee one), no smells at all and very convenient. It's particularly good for me since I have ME, like anything that cuts down on any extra effort, as it is right by the changing mat etc, much better than having to go out to an outside bin. (Ideally I'd have wanted to do washable nappies, and we did seriously look into that and do the research, but at the end of the day it just wasn't a viable option for me in terms of the extra effort. )
Minkus was asking whether I'd done anything to try to encourage baby out; I haven't at all. There are practical reasons - still not quite got everything ready yet, oops, and I have a friend visiting this week and a wedding in London on Saturday I'd really like to go to. But more than that, emotionally I have mixed feelings about approaching the end of the pregnancy. On the one hand, yep, I'd love all the pain and general discomfort and exhaustion to be over. But on the other, I am really rather nervous about how I'll cope with a newborn as well as a toddler, and I'm rather dreading the birth itself (see above re 3rd degree tear. ) Also, we aren't planning to have any more children, so I have an odd sort of feeling that I really ought to appreciate being pregnant for the last time, rather than wishing it away, it's a bit irrational really.
Having said all that, I would also rather not go overdue this time (was 10 days over last time) - from the tearing point of view it would be better not to let baby get extra big, and to have the head softer rather than harder, so I will be asking for a sweep at least once I reach my due date (consultant has said this would be good idea.) I have been wondering whether I should start on RLT, but I'm not sure whether this is a good thing? Part of my problem last time was that labour and esp delivery were rather quick and uncontrollable, so maybe something that encourages contractions (I'm not sure I really understand how it's supposed to work, though) isn't what I want? Does anyone have any ideas/advice on this?
Pardon epic post! Right, I'd better attempt to get some sleep, as looking like another busy day tomorrow...
Polly xx