Due May '09, a Spangle-tastic start, who will be next....anyone, anyone........?

[Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa]

Starting new thread ladies, in honour of Spangle.

If your waters go you'll know! You'll know wherever you are when they go really. A lot of people feel or even hear a pop followed by a gush, but not everyone (I did twice and flooded the bed). Some people have a constant trickling, as if they're constantly leaking, not much but enough to wet a pad after an hour or so. If it's just trickling then you wont be able to control it and stop it like you can with a wee ,IYKWIM.

Thanks belgian you are the oracle! No seriously, having you to advise helps so much, I for one really appreciate it!

sausuage the concerning thing is I know exactly what you mean by 'drippy' lol, I have been having alot more recently but is changed colour and consistency, what a lovely topic of conversation!

Im amazed at how open we all are, I would never discuss ladie juices with my RL friends or family!

choc keep us posted, but sounds like you need to put your feet up for a bit ( thats my solution to everything!). I had something a wee bit similar last week. For 4 days I was on the toilet much more than normal and also had to check the books for symptoms for early labour! Had a few lower back pains too but they were also pretty constant, so was fairly sure they were nothing to worry about.

hypatia good to see you. Am v jealous of your snow! Am a bit of a snow bunny and would gladly live somewhere cold as long as there was access to some mountains. My brother is now a canadian resident having just been granted his residency in BC. He's been living in Whistler for the last 4 years. He has the best job in the world as far as I am concerned as he works for a British Ski company.

He is due back in the UK for a visit on 3rd May - my due date so no pressure there to get baby here on time as he is only here for 10 days!

Had a fabulous pregnancy massage this afternoon. So lovely to have someone pamper you. Have booked in for an hour and half massage in two weeks it was soooooooo lovely!

As for hospital bags so far mine has maternity pads, nappies, a book and some pants I got in the sale at mothercare. Think more effort is required.

sausage well done on going on ML early

I don't finish till this thurs - 9 days b4 Induction

I've prob asked this already (when all emotional and panicking ) but has anyone on here been induced 2 wks earlt b4? just wondered how you found it? I know everyone is different and I've heard alot of horror stories from family and friends

chocbunnies hope everything is okay and you manage to take it easy

Looby, I was induced with DS at 37 weeks because his heart was racing too quickly when monitored. I don't remember a great deal, apart from having a drip, and being in labour for 12 hours before having the c-section. My labour didn't really progress at all, hence the c-section. It was a really busy night too, so I suspect they wanted to get me out of the way! It was fine, although obviously I have nothing to compare it to.

belgian I can highly recommend the Touchwood Centre Bravissimo, and was there on Friday! You'll need to book a fitting in advance though.

chocolatebunnies take it easy!

looby Ignore the horror stories. They wont help you whatsover. Being induced before your due date is not going to make it more painful or anything. It all depends on what the findings will be when you have your first examination. They might find that, actually, your body was already preparing itself for labour and your cervix is soft and already opening up, in which case your induction should be not too difficult or they might find that it's not the case, and then it might take a bit longer. Still even that doesn't always mean much. Some women react really well to Prostin and others don't react to it at all. You wont know which way you're going to go until you get there. At 38 weeks you will be term and those inductions are nearly always successfull. Be prepared to hanging around the hospital for 2-3 days though, because an induction can be a long slow and boring process. Take good reading material or a some playing cards for entertainment during the long wait. You will be fine.

Oh, and meant to ask, I am feeling movement but baby does seem a bit slower today. Not sure whether it is because I've been in full on nesting mode and have cleaned the house so just haven't noticed, or what! I did see some movement when I got into the bath with DS, so I'm not worried, but I don't remember really what movement was like at this stage with DS.

I've got to prepare lunch this evening for 7 mothers, 7 toddlers and 3 babies who are coming tomorrow. Eeek! I've gone for the easy option of pizza and salad. One of our group (now left for another country) was a very competitive Prue Leith trained cook and used to produce the most amazing lunches when it was her turn. We are far less stressed about how lunches now she has gone! The house is clean but will get wrecked tomorrow with all those toddlers on the rampage. Am hoping for sun so that they can wreck the garden instead!

I meant whatsoever not whatsover!

llare thanks for recommending them. Good to know that I'll have to book an appointment. I think I'll go when the dcs are back at school some time.

Right. DH is still away circuit training. The DCs are in bed. I can see that it's now the perfect moment for my birth preparation CD. With a bit of luck I'll stay awake during it at this time of night

looby they started inducing me at 38.5wks due to pe last time. after prostin pessaries and gel and stretch n sweeps my labour still hadn't begun! ds liked where he was lol that's why I ended up with a cs.. 4 days later. I spent the time before the cs in a private side room watching telly, reading, talking to dh and fellow induction ladies and eating!

thanks belgian and others - it's just the fear of the unknown I know it is the best thing for me and LO to be here early just trying to focus on how nice it will be once he/she is in my arms

looby I was induced with DS, although only 2 days before his EDD but my cervix was not really "ripe". I have to say it was all in all a very positive experience, well managed and so I would not be worried if this happened to me again. It was high BP that led to it.

The worst part was the first prostin gel bit. Because my cervix was still quite far back, it took a fair bit of rummaging from the MW to get it in the right place. It was quite uncomfortable and painful if I'm honest, but with the second one they suggested I had gas and air which helped enormously. As Belgian said it can be long and drawn out. It took over 24 hours to get going and were just about to try the third and final bit of gel when they managed to get in and break my waters which did the trick. After that they waited till I could have an epidural before giving me the drip that brought on the next stage. All in all 8 hours of active labour, pain free and as I said well mananged. So its certainly not all horror stories!

with all this talk of waters going.. got dh to help me put on the hippy chick mattress protector that arrived this morning so memory foam mattress is now safe from surprise gushes

loobylou- hope the messages here have made you feel better about your induction. try not to worry.

just a quick gaviscon question. I have managed without taking it so far, but was getting fed up of having wind (don't suffer from heartburn- am very lucky i know). It says to take 2-4 tablets, so i took 2, but no obvious impact after 10 mins- how long does it take to work? should it work on just plain old burpy wind?

pulapula I've not had heart burn either.. not sure if gaviscon helps wind or not.. I did get v bad trapped wind in early months and all the wind products in boots said not to take while pregnant grrr. ended up eating buckets of peppermints instead!

Hi all

Glad to hear of early ML (I'm a big fan) and redbush tea drinking. Only managed to catch up on a day - that was 4 pages! Choc hope that things settle down for you and that you can rest this evening.

Re: bras, if you can't get to somewhere decent for fitting (and I think a bad fitting i.e. pretty much any high st. or dept. store is almost worse than no fitting at all, I like to buy a selection of bras from figleaves and try on at home. I have a good idea of how to make sure things fit now from learning from fittings at Rigby & Pellar where I buy regular bras and figleaves also have a couple of pages about how to tell if your bra fits and how to improve the fit. They are also good for buying difficult to find sizes, which someone said they needed.

Hospital bags - I've got 2 packed, one quite small with things for me and the first set of clothes for the babies, and a second one with more clothes for babies and me more nappies, more pads etc. The idea being that DH can bring in the second one from the car once admitted to post natal ward but we have enough for the labour, birth and immediate needs in the 1st one.

I had a great appointment at the hospital yesterday. I am 34+5, the babies are growing really well, both head down, I have great blood pressure and feel really well. The registrar told me I was the example of a 'perfect' twin pregnancy and had an 'excellent' change of a natural delivery with little intervention. Hurrah! We talked some more about what that meant for twins and the things they would insist on would be continuous monitoring and a managed 3rd stage, but they would let me labour in a regular delivery room, no routine epidural etc. I'm so pleased, you might remember that I thought I'd have a bit more of a fight on my hands to achieve this from what others had been told.

Lets hope they stay where they are (can't imagine they have any room to move now, but they only turned at 33+3!) and also that they come in the next few weeks so that I can avoid induction. So now we wait...

Looby - I was induced less than a week early last time for medical reasons.

My understanding is that there is quite a big difference in induction by gel/prostaglantin (on the cervix) and induction by oxytocin/Pitocin (IV drip).

If they manage to bring on labour through only the gel they put on your cervix, I hear that is fairly close to a natural labour. This, I wouldn't worry about.

Mine was the IV drip. When cervix opened a little bit, midwife then broke my waters. That is when contractions started coming hard & fast and I was screaming for the anesthetist in no time.

Maybe you can do it a different way, but my impression was that when induced with oxytocin in IV drip, it is very hard to refuse epidural, stay upright, not be constantly monitored, etc.

chocbunnies - hope things are ok with you. My waters went quite late with DD (a couple of hours before she was born), with a very dramatic pop and gush when I was sat on the toilet! Must get a mattress protector for my bed though, just in case.

Looby - a friend of mine was induced at 37.5 weeks as she had cholestasis, it was a dream labour! Better than her first, and better than most other people's we know. About 6 hours from start to finish and no problems at all with her or baby. So it can be good.

What is it with DCs today?! DD was good for most of the day, but bed time was a disaster! She normally goes to bed about 7ish, and settles herslef within about 10 minutes after stories/songs etc. Tonight she was chatting to herself for over an hour, then got cross and wouldn't settle with either of us. Finally went to sleep about about 15 minutes ago!

I'me feeling sorry for myself too, got a cold. Nothiong major, just could really do without it!

1stmrsf that's great news both head down too.. i'm hoping my one is back to head down at my 36 wk app next wk. seeing the consultant on tue to discuss birth plan / options and mw on wed.

looby, i was induced with DD1 at just before 38 wks and defn not what i wanted but had 'suspected' cholestasis so did what we thought was best for baby. cervix wasn't ready but couple applications of prostin gel, waters broke naturally, got drip later in the day and had epidural to cope with it. DD1 came out small but very well with help of ventouse. had great care with the whole induction/birth. best part about it was that I was already at hospital when i went into labour, when waters broke, etc. they even provided a TENS for me which I'd not had time to sort. it was a much better experience than i expected. hth.

Forgot to ask - Blotted - how are you feeling this evening?

1stMrsF - that's really good news! Hope things continue to go smoothly.

1stMrsf, that is good news! I'm so impressed by your determination and am happy babies in right position, etc.

Fi, mine only just turned head down at wk 36 check last Fri. hope it's remained that way!

really must make the time to actually write my birth plan before next wk eh?!

Hi Gals - haven't been here for a few days and had 14 pages to try to catch up with. I only took time to skim through, so hope I haven't missed anything out!

Momino - I went to H&BArrett today to get rasp leaf tea tablets and was told they haven't been able to get them in weeks - the warehouse is out of them! MAnanged to get some elsewhere. And I couldnt rememeber the 'other' ones - kept saying 'sounds like chloroform'!!! Should have rememebered it sounds more like 'cauliflower'!! And Jennster I was told not to start them until AFTER 36 weeks - so not too sure about your bottle that says 'after 30 weeks' - anybody advise??

What is Redbush tea for???

Chocbunnies glad you're keeping your dress cos I think it looks great - once you get hair and makeup done, some gorgeous bling, beautiful perfume and flowers, nails done etc etc etc you will feel lovely! Its sometimes hard to try on a glam dress when the rest of you isn't too glam, and see the potential! Hope you're OK at the moment...

And Blotted - hopefully its not PE - but good that you're being closely monitored. If anything changes or you get more symptoms phone the hospital immediately.

I too am getting fed up - really sore andfeeling frumpy.. DH and I had a walk around the city this afternoon, and I was in agony - my hips were in bits - so sore and felt on fire. So from now on, I'll be buying on line. Need to get a colourful cot mobile... any ideas??? Will be browising later on...