Due Sept '08: Bring on the babies!

[LittleConnie]

Well that was cutting it a bit fine...

Hi Z! Have you been to Notting Hill Carnival b4? It does get ridiculously crowded but you can just stay on the edges if its getting a bit claustrophobic... Thinking of going tomorrow and will be doing that if we do - thing is there is no where to go to the loo, and last year local residents were charging a few quid to go use their loos, but if you were desperate it was the only option! It can also be LOUD - so loud you can feel your chest vibrating... not sure how my bump would react to that! DD who is nearly 2 had enough of a shock at a fireworks display in Shoreditch last night and I'm still recovering from spending the evening sat in a field... so we'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow...

morning all

comgrats crabby gald to see things are working out and hope you can realt enjoy lilah

have been given another new way to bring labour on yesterday and it was to eat a full fresh pinapple in one sitting!! might have to giv it a try

Hi Nelly how are you? i love your fb pic. it's really cute.

yeah... i went last year and the year before, to be honest i don't remember what i did as far as bathrooms were concerned the last two times but thinking about it now, it seems like a very good point. what will i do? i don't trust other people's bathrooms unless i know them.

mustsleep

would you care to have a pineapple eating contest?

Hello again

I used to post on this forum and I used to be called AHLH. Then life got really busy and I started to use my married name (albeit being marrie dfor 8 years!) so I'm now bikerunski.

Finished work on Friday - yay ! - for 54 weeks - double yay! so have some spare time for a few weeks (in theory!).

Anyway, I won't even attempt to catch up on what's been going on for the last few months on here, but congrats to everyone who'se had their bubbas. .

Dc (we think DS from 20 week scan) due 16 Sept and is very wiggly! I'm beginning to think that pg should be 6 months long - 2 months to find out, 2 months to get used to it, 2 months to get ready!

EandZ - I'll be with you on the pineapple eating contest (not sure about the chillis!) - not sure it does much good though - I ate huge quantities last time round and dd was born at 40+11 . Have raspberry leaf tea ready to go too but am going to wait until 37 weeks for that as dh and my mother will be around more from then.

mummytoOnefornow
it's a date. i'll eat chillis and gulp down rasberry leaf tea between mouth fulls of pineapple.

now we just need a time keeper and a pineapple carver so we aren't wasting eating time on pineapple cutting.

I love pineapples and I love chilis but I have no interest in raspberry leaf tea, thank you.

Would love a chilli eating competition. I eat hot sauce every single day. I don't really believe it does much for labour if you are used to it. All those women in Mexico are not all early, I bet.

ok kiskidee you don't have to drink it. but i take it you'd be in on the competition ?

Phew! It's taken me two sessions to catch up on all the posts I've missed since Wednesday.

First of all CONGRATULATIONS to crabby!! And welcome to Lilah - who's literally kicked her way into this world. What a little fighter! Glad to hear she's settling after a few scary moments.

eandz I'm waiting to hit 37 weeks before I start on the pineapple.

mustsleep I think there's been some good advice on here re: your money situation. The beginning of the month I didn't get paid on time by work because they're having cash flow problems. Hence, got charged £30 for going overdrawn on direct debits I thought the bank was supposed to decline if there aren't enough funds in your account. Anyway - I rang up the bank and had a go at them for allowing me to go overdrawn in the first place...they reimbursed the charges and increased my overdraft.

womb hope your DP hasn't taken your hormone-fuelled anger to heart and has given you a big cuddle to apologise for being so unappreciative of your efforts over the last month. Can't be easy looking after 3 young kids, whilst PG and under the weather.

kiskidee I get those tightenings whenever my bladder thinks it's full. Occasionally they're accompanied by a period-like cramp...but more recently they're just really uncomfortable and I'm forced to go and empty my bladder to relieve the pressure.

biplips my bits are also feeling a bit bulgy, again - toilet related. when I sit on the loo it feels as though all the blood has rushed to that area - not in a nice way either.

Am too dry to enjoy sex at the mo (probably from all the loo-trips and excessive wiping), although we have been using lube for the first time. Initially bought it for perineal massage, but can't actually be bothered to do it and I sort of thought sex would be just as good, except that's not happening as much it probably should, poor DH.

Who was it that had stiff hands? I've got that too! And stiff knees if I sit with my feet up on the sofa for too long, which I have to do because of the swelling.

Went for a tour of the labour ward yesterday and ended up staying in hospital for another 4 hours. Mentioned I'd had a few headaches and wondered if they'd take my blood pressure to make sure it wasn't related. So they decided to find me a bed, take my blood presure, bloods and do a urine test. Then I had to wait for the blood test results, where my urates and liver deposits had gone up again, protein in my urine again, and BP is creeping up. Consultant was very good at explaining what it all meant. They're basically on the lookout for Pre-eclampsia.

So, supposedly a week more of work to go and I'm trying to finish up some bits today so that all I have to do is handover next week and maybe finish by Wednesday, then I can say I've done everything to keep my BP down...the rest is down to my body.

Has anyone here been induced due to pre-eclampsia worries?

I was induced due to pre-ec. If you want to talk about it, I don't mind. It was an awful experience though. knowing what I know now, there are some vital questions to ask wrt induction vs a straight c/s in my jaundiced view of the whole experience.

I was eating whole pineapples to myself earlier this pg. I'd by 2 and eat them in a week. Would we have to meet up to eat the peppers and pineapples?

we don't have to meet up to eat pineapples. we can do it in spirit if you'd like.

but anyone interested in meeting up to have a real life eating contest. i'd be interested.

hey you guys, i'm having weird vaginal soreness and flashes (only last for like a second) of pain. they've been happening for the last two days. (i know what a contraction feels like and this is no contraction) but i'm wondering if i should worry? the flashing pains are gettingkinda constant and are in my perineal area.....any hints?

Could it be the babys head engaging possibly? . Or maybe a urine infection? any pain on passing water? Or just your bodys way of preparing for the birth? Sorry I cant be of much help eandz If you are worried I would defo get it checked out.
I am so ready to have my baby now. Bring it on .
Oh I cant seem to keep my legs still. I just have to move them abit like you have to scratch an itch. Its so irritating.

Well done star for organising us once again. I am lovin the "pop goes the waters" one. .

Hi all - very quick one from me on my parent's ropey computer! We've come to Wales for a week to get away from the building chaos in our house, and to have fantastic childcare on tap from my folks, who are brilliant with our girls. Dp and I are even going to get a night away in a B&B (early birthday present, as we have mid-September birthdays, and that is getting very close to the due date).

crabby - congratulations - enjoy getting to know your little dd.

enadz I am getting those pains too, not sure what they are, though.

My mum said today that my bump is lower than before, but I cant tell. I still look like a hippo who's overdosed on the haagen daaz

Have a good bank hol x

kiskidee I would like to know what the risks/benefits are of induction vs planned CS...as I've not really considered this before. I assumed if I was advised to go for an induction (whether pre-ec or overdue) that I would, opting for a mobile epidural before they pump me full of the hormone that brings on painful contractions. I know that you're more likely to end up having an EMCS as opposed to an instrumental delivery, but that more than half of induced women still go on to have a normal vaginal birth.

"2) Half of us are having a Son! Half of us will have Daughters! Whatever way our birthing goes....Pop goes the Waters!!"

it is shorter and possibly catchier with:

'half are having sons! half are having daughters! Whatever way birthing goes...pop goes the waters!"

becaroo
i'm sorry your going through it too, it's horrible!

Before I was induced, with the benefit of hindsight, I would have liked to know the state of my cervix.

From an internal, they can tell by the condition of the cervix if your body was already preparing for labour. I think it is more reliable a gauge if it is your first baby too which i notice it is. Also, is the baby's head anywhere near engaged. If the head is engaged deeply, it starts to move the cervix into a more 'accessible' position for childbirth and it also starts to thin the cervix.

In my case, neither of these things had begun to occur.

Another thing to find out is the presentation of the baby. My dd was OP which means 'back to back' and this sort of labour is notoriously longer and more painful even without induction. Guess what, my dd was back to back.

Mobile epidurals, from what I have heard, is a misnomer. You can't really be mobile with them what with trying to walk around with a drip and the little bag trolley thing and the longer one is in, the more it affects your coordination so you end up not being mobile anyway.

The outcome of my induction was epidural then ventouse but they were actively preparing for a emcs. They tried the ventouse because I was going into an eclamptic fit and had to get dd out asap. I think it is more common to have an emcs for 'failure to progess' caused by the epidural itself, really, not your body.

I don't haven't gone into the details of my actual labour because it was so bad, in my opinion that I would hate you to make a decision based on my own horror story. I'd rather you make a decision based on information rather than my impressions.