Due Sept 08: The one where we pack our bags and write our birth plan.

[mamamufin]

I thought I would be brave

Hopefully try French Connection. They have some great stuff that work really well for pregnant women.

Am having very stressful day. Maternity cover person has turned us down (more money elsewhere) so will be interviewing again. Getting lots of extra stuff dumped on me, does no-one realise I'm leaving in 12 days!

Pidge, just read your post and now I understand what you meant about knowing enough not to want to go to hospital !

I guess you can "know" too much from reading loads of books and be expecting labour/birth to be a certain way and then if it isn't you get worried. Will try and go with the flow. Hope your iron levels are ok but I suppose if they are low at least it will explain the tiredness. Holiday sounds great - can't wait for our break (not until August...)

Poor you Sunshine, it seems to be one thing after another for you at the moment.

Just had to wait at MW's for ages as I forgot a urine sample and they wanted to check it after my leakage incident the other day. There's a teensy teensy amount of protein in my urine apparently - which wouldn't have caused the leakage or anything, and isn't something to worry about, I am assured.

Might check FC as well - not that I need more maternity clothes, but maybe I can justify maxi-dress on the basis I'll use it when not pregnant!

I bought a dress from there which fits me now but will be just as good next summer when I'm not pregnant (hopefully). There are some lovely tops as well.

Hi guys . xx

hi everyone,
i went out to get a pedicure so i could wear peep toe shoes tonight but when i got home husband decided he didn't want to go if we wouldn't be drinking or dancing so umm at least i have pretty pregna feet.

ok, heres whats going on with the consultants.

the ob who will be delivering does my blood tests and he's the only one who still has one last opening for september/at the chelsea & westminster. the other ob is in charge of all the scans and any emergency stuff (like random bleeding/weird bodily fluid leakage).
then i have a rheumatologist and a cardiologist who specializes in pregnant woman who develop pre eclampsia...all these doctors weren't my idea.

the doctor who was pushing for an elective c section still thinks i should consider the option but has stopped mentioning it because we started to consider it when pre eclampsia was mentioned to us. the ob who does the scans doesn't think we should worry too much about it all until i hit my 32nd week and then he wants to have a meeting with all the doctors and talk about my options.

i'm getting kinda weary of all the doctors so i'm thinking i'm just going to avoid them next time around if i can.

Everything hurts! Had a really busy day and tonight I'm packing for holiday. But this time tomorrow we'll be on our way...

what have I forgotten to pack?????

Had a midwife appointment today....the bloods they took at my last ante-natal appointment at the hospital on 23rd June showed I am anaemic. The hospital phoned the results through to the GP on the next day (24th - pretty quick IMO) but midwife didnt know anything about it

She is complaining to the practice manager but frankly, whats the point?

No wonder I have been feeling so tired and breathless!!

Then to cap it all, there was no GP available to do a prescription for iron tabs so have got to pick one up on monday...lets hope I dont conk out before then!

Really fed up about this....been very angry with myself lately because of the overwhelming tiredness and all this time its been a preventable!

Then, as I was leaving the midwife said - "we need to sort this out as you wont be allowed a home birth if you are anaemic"

I felt like screaming

She measured my bump and its is 31cms....I am 30 weeks today - is that a good measurement? Didnt ask the midwife as I have very little faith in her or anything she says right now.

Also, I have a question about amniotic fluid....my levels at my last scan were in the normal range but over the 95th centile....anyone else had this??

Sorry for the whinge.....feeling a bit let down and unhappy about my care (again)

becaroo I've known a couple of people who tested positive for anaemia but it took the doc's a few weeks to tell them. Bloody crap treatment I think. Hope you get yourself sorted out soon.

I am having major pre-hopsital traumas. I wanted DP to stay at the hospital to help me post cs and for mum / general family to look after DS at home. But DP is reluctant to stay at the hospital and would prefer(understandably) to look after our DS instead. So mum has offered to stay with me at the hospital so that DS doesn't get freaked out by both of his parents vanishing for a couple of days. As a result I am seriously considering not even bothering to bf as I would rather stick pins in my eyes than have my mum help me . Mum did bf me and my sister for 6 months, I'm just not happy having her assist in something so personal. I am jolly pissed off about it all now.

Rant over. I am going to have an ice cream to cheer myself up.

I believe that up to 32 weeks, your bump should measure the same number of cm as you are weeks pg, so 31cm at 30 weeks is spot on (taking into account human error etc. I happened to notice that my measurement at 28 weeks was written as '28-32' i.e. within the range that is considered normal at this stage). HTH.

ooh!...so im must be "normal" size and not huge as im 31cm at 30 weeks.....

hey!!!

which one sounds more scary??

9 weeks

or

64 days

till birth!!

Oh my goodness they both sound terrifying!!

I don't know if you read the post becaroo, but my m/w told me on monday that the baby is right size but I'm rather large (she didn't use those words, but that's what she meant!).

I am drowning in packing lists, there's the chief printed out list, there's a list downstairs of things I suddenly remember, another list by my bed, and then two 'things to do' lists - one each for me and dh. I feel some colour coded streamlining is in order.

Eandz, it sounds rather confusing with all the doctors. I would have thought you'd be ok to hold off on c-section as long as they monitor you very carefully to make sure you are not developing preeclampsia. Can they have a mw come home to you to do daily checks on bloodpressure perhaps?

I've got kinda the opposite problem with consultants who won't commit to anything. At my last scan my consultant asked me if I had made a decision regarding the birth, I said I would prefer a natural birth and she just hmmd and ahhd. She then wouldn't commit to if the scan showed foetal vessels or just the cord over the cervix. Pretty infuriating. I've got a meeting in two weeks to decide on c-section or vbac and the day after another scan to check for foetal vessels again. Wish they would do it in the opposite order.

Meglet, could you get a lactation consultant/someone from a bf group to come in after the birth to help you? I wouldnt want my mum to help with that either, but only because she is not very supportive of bf

On the childcare front, if I have to stay in hospital for whatever reason, my dh is going to ask to do flexitime whilst I am in so he can be there for our ds.

Carrieon, when the midwife tried to listen to babys heart with the doppler he kicked it away He doesnt like her either! Am currently looking at the 4 lists I printed off yesterday and wondering how the hell I am going to get it all done

eandz and sassafrass, your situations sound really complicated and must be so worrying and frustrating for you - hope you both get the birth you want and a healthy baby at the end of all this hassle.

Hi
I've been lurking for ages but finally getting round to contributing !

I am 32 weeks pg with DC2 - EDD 3rd Sept .
Am now getting a bit concerned about how quickly these last few weeks are going !

Becaroo - on the subject of iron levels - you can get a great Iron supplement called SPATONE - they sell it in Boots - it's very effective and much nicer to take than iron tabletS . Also avoids the constipation that iron tablets often cause .It's basically Welsh water that happens to be extremely high in Iron - you add a couple of sachets of it to fruit juice (the vit C helps iron absorbsion). Maybe it's worth getting hold of some if you don't want to wait til Monday for your prescription.
I've been taking it for the last month and it's made a huge difference to my energy levels .

HTH

hi Monekycat glad you could join us.

I have my Obs appointment next week to book in my CS. Am really excited to have an actual day when it will all happen. DP's DF and DSM are coming down to look after DS, who will carry on going to nursery as normal, so all sorted out.

Really don't feel ready yet though - DP only got the bags out of the loft for me to go through yesterday and we still need to decorate our room and the nursery as well as put the Ambi cot up! Starting to feel quite panicked by it all!

Only 11 days left in the office as well and still no cover. Got more interviews today and Tuesday.

How strange sunshine and those others of you having c-sections - you'll actually know what date you'll be meeting your baby on!

becaroo if you've got the spare cash to get some spatone (I have also heard good things about it), or even some cheapie iron pills to start taking before monday, it might be worth it - at least you can feel you're tackling any potential objections to HB.

I measured 30 cm at 31 weeks yesterday, and MW said that was absolutely fine too - I think as long as you're within a few cm of the right measurement they're not that concerned, as it's such a rough thing.

Hopefully - This 2nd pg i noticed that my midwife had not said "this is gonna be a big baby!" as it used to scare the s**t out of me but my consultant said that this one is an average size baby...phew for now!

welcome to Monkeycat

(my dd still wants me to give birth to a cat!!)

becaroo i have had the same thing i had my gtt when i was 26 weeks and they took a full blood count then

went back for my anti d and she said that if my blood count was not ok they would have contacted me but she didnlt have any results so it was prob ok

she took more bloods at my antoi d appt which was when i was 28 weeks

i then got to see the midwife last week when i was 29 weeks to be toldi am anaemic and need iron tabs but had to go back the following week to pcik up the precription

but she never said anything about not being allowed a homebirth if you are anaemic i hope this isn;t the case as i have not been able to take the iron as it makes me feel really sick (plus it doens't do the old piles any favours either )

starlight,
all four are covered by insurance..but i'm pretty sure they aren't screwing with me too much because i have poor liver and kidney function because of my ongoing condition (stills) and i did gain 7 stones in a 6 month period plus i have a leaky heart valve...

although i do think they are blowing things out of proportion with regards to the pre eclampsia stuff, because my blood pressure is always either normal or 'borderline' but never high. and they only found protein in my urine once.

as far as expense, if i didn't have a full coverage medical insurance i wouldn't even consider going private.

ooh, jennylindinh!
i wana see a picture of your maxi dress! i love them for pregnancy for some reason....i think it has to do with how big my legs have gotten...not to mention hairy.

Hello monkeycat and welcome...righto, off to boots to get some spatone....really dont want to be any more constipated than I am already from my stomach acid inhibitor tablets

mustsleep, think I might have piles too Managed to avoid all this stuff in first pregnancy, so am a bit surprised to be finding it so tough this time.

Starlight...strangely enough, midwife has been fairly positive about my plans for a hb...but she told me yesterday that the community midwife team that will actually deliver me (from a differnet county) wont be contacting me til I am 36 weeks...as I gave birth to ds at 37 weeks this makes me a bit nervous...arent I more likely to go into labour early again this time???

Feeling very low and unsure about everything today ....am going to tell hospital at my next ante-natal appointment in 2 weeks about the delay in getting me the iron meds.....I assume they will re-test my blood then? I hate feeling like this, its so pathetic!

So very glad I have all of you to whinge to!