Due Jan 2010 - the final countdown and singing Auld Lang Syne to our bumps

[CantThinkofFunnyName]

Last thread nearly full - so here goes - our last hurdle....

Thanks for that mistle I'll do it now.

mistletoe just sent you an email now so let me know if you want any more info, i could end up writing far too much so put just what you asked! i am sure you dont want to know my bra size

Hi mistletoe have just emailed let me know if you get it and if youe need more info. ttfn

Congratulations to Claire on the birth of baby Mira and to LLottie on the arrival of Eve and Juliet (superb names, again).

Wow... all these early arrivals are making me nervous, I am holding back on some necessary purchases on the assumption that first babies come late and so therefore I can pick up the bits I need during the post-Xmas sales. Maybe I should bite the bullet and cough up the money for stuff now?

somewhathorrified I can't believe that she seemed so dismissive and judgemental. How horrendous is that - is she going to be the MW who attends your HB or is she one of a pool? (Sorry don't know how HBs work) The MW at my antenatal class the other day said to my class that the squeaky wheel gets oiled first so encouraged us to escalate anything to the relevant supervisor. A bit PITA but at least you know that you tried your part to rectify the situation. That said, yangymac makes a good point re being mentally prepared for any outcome - the statistic that around a third to a quarter of all pregnancies wind up in C-sections really shook me - they reckon only about half to three-quarters of those were planned C-sections.

LOTTIE LOTTIE LOTTIE!!! HUGE CONGRATS! I bet your girls are beautiful...................enjoy!!!

love Greedy
x
x

Hello ladies and thanks so much for all of your good luck and birthing vibes.... but they DIDN'T BLOODY WORK!!! I have no baby yet .

Lottie, Claire - many many congrats, very envious of course!!

So I have a urinary tract infection - thought to be causing an extremely irritable uterus which has had contractions/tightenings with pain coming regularly for several hours at a time and then stopping, mainly when I lie down or sleep. Because baby is breech and back to back and I have SPD every pain is magnified and also because the c/s is due two weeks today anyway, the medics wanted to keep me in just in case full labour got underway and they needed to whisk me to theatre quickly.

No such luck. I begged them to bring c/s forward to this Thursday when I'm 37 wks too - but they wouldn't have a bar of it. Apparently baby still needs to cook some more!!!

Poor Mistletoe was getting texts from me that did appear very miffed. But what a great way of keeping in touch with the thread!!

Many thanks to Mistletoe here for coordinating that and being my text buddy .

Anyway - now I'm back home with antibiotics the contractions have eased off (although do have an upset tummy today ) so I'm hoping that we have an uneventful 2 weeks and just roll up on 29th for the c/s.

WMDO - quiet from you I see... I'll forward you all of the BLOODY USELESS birthing vibes I was sent .....

x

wow Lottie congrats on the arrival of Eve and Juliet beautiful names!

Cant believe i go out for the day and come back to 2 more little ones having been born!

Im suffering with a dull lower back ache right now think its prob down to how i was sat at ante natal class this mornin!

Midwife was great and estimates the baby to be 5 1/2 to 6 pounds right now. She said the baby wont be huge but wont be a tiddler either Oh she also asked if I had felt him drop yep I sure had, although hes still only 4/5 engaged right now i hoped his head would be lower

Ante-natal class very good did breathing excerises, positions and breast feeding all very handy evwn if i did have to point out to the physio I was NOT MY TWIN and NOTHING like my twin after she humiliated me! She wont be doing that again in a hurry

CTFN - welcome back!
You are more than welcome, thank you for your text. You can reciprocate when I am in. Unless we manage to coordinate our LO's arriving! UTI - ouch! Sorry that they didnt pull the section date forward, but should AB's give you some comfort between now and the section date? Hope they do.

Hello to everyone else!

I am feeling incredibly broody thinking about all the mnetters with their LO's!

Have had such a lazy day! Was meant to be meeting a bunch of friends but had to cancel. One is pregnant and the other has a 12 week old bub and DS nursery has had a suspected case of Swine flu. Decided it simply wasnt worth the risk of exposing all and sundry incase he has picked it up also.

DS is perfectly content sitting at home. Is currently watching his first ever Mickey Christmas time and is enchanted! along with emoticon.

I remember it was someone's birthday today - but not whose!! So - whoever it is, many many happy returns!!!

Sorry to hijack ladies but wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS to Lottie . Glad to hear the girls are here safe and sound - such marvellous birth weights! And beautiful names . Hope the four of you are enjoying getting to know each other.

And good luck to all the rest of you

[caitni wanders back off to her own antenatal thread]

Just a quick note to say that apparently Lloyds Pharmacy are having a Christmas promotion whereby they give you 20% off if you spend over £10 so I got my TENS machine from them for less than the cost of rental from MamaTENS (unless you got a good discount).

Not sure when it ends as the promo posters are v. vague and the staff are not too sure themselves. But they did phone around and confirm that the TENS machine is eligible for the 20% off.

jsut thoguht i would pop on to see if there are anymore surprise babies!sorry CTOFN that you have not had baby yet as i know you must be in a lot of discomfort and even 2 weeks will feel like forever! but hopefully the ABs for the UTI may ease things for you.
i have cleaned non stop tonight! wish i had this nesting thing al the time!

Congratulations lottie CTFN I hope you are feeling better soon and the baby gets settled in a better/less painful position, also that those abs kick in soon. Is it worth drinking cranberry juice too? It can help with utis.

Hi all,

have just been lurking and barely keeping up with all the happenings!

Many congratulations to all who've had their babies... is there another, postnatal thread now??

somewhat yangy definitely makes good point re mentally being adjusted to idea of being in hospital even if not for birth itself then possibly postnatally.
I have a friend who is also hospital-averse, and she has had three very eventless, straightforward HBs, last one being this sept; so- really great!

I also do not do well with hospitals... I've had one (dd1) HB (not great sadly), ending up being transferred to hospital postnatally; and one hospital birth, which was very unexpectedly a fairly positive experience.

I think there's abit of NHS geographical lottery involved too - I'm in Tower Hamlets; my friend in Cambridgeshire.

Congratulations Lottie and ClareDB! Great news! Juliet and Eve share their birthday with my DP.

Sockmonkey, I had a moment on Sunday when I suddenly couldn't remember last time I'd had any movement - 5 mins on the bed with a cup of tea and the wiggles started. I do think baby is overall less thumpy and wriggly, so I suppose there's just less room. I think I'm also busier in the run up to christmas, which means I don't notice so much I think.

somewhat, sorry your hb home visit didn't go well. I was bullied out of my homebirth with dd, due to a slightly low heartrate reading at 37 weeks. But I had a really good experience in the hospital. Am planning hb again this time though, and am expecting my home visit between christmas and new year.

I saw MW yesterday. I haven't seen the same MW twice (though I've only had 4 appointments, not counting scans), but I don't mind - if I birth in hospital I won't see any of them, and if I birth at home it could be any of them. I think if I had any issues I may appreciate some continuity, but in a so far uncomplicated pregnancy, I've enjoyed meeting lots of different MWs. I have been having some 'visual disturbance' (i.e. seeing stars), but it turns out my blood pressure is a bit on the low side, so probably down to that, though MW did send bloods off to check for pre-eclampsia, though she thinks it highly unlikely as I have no other symptons. I looked up low blood pressure in pregnancy and read that it can contribute to low birth weight and pre-term labour, so this thread is starting to scare me! Still, blood pressure was normal 6 weeks ago, so it's only recently that it's dropped, and I'm measuring 35cm at 34 weeks and feel totally full of baby, so I don't think I need to worry.

I have started a 'hospital drawer' - didn't think it was worth packing a bag as I'm planning hb, but thought if it's all in one drawer it will be easy to scoop up if we do go to hospital. Have finally got the pads, dispoable knickers, nappies and a few bits for the baby, and my mum is arriving on Saturday with vests and babygros, so having been in total disorgaland, I'm about there now...

Anyway, have been averaging 5 hours sleep the last 4 nights, so off to bed now for me I think.

Hi all

Welcome back cant sorry its not with lo in arms but even though its becoming a struggle with the pain and all, a couple more weeks cooking will do bubs good.

I think its mama2b birthday but think its tomorrow. I'm sure she'll put us right.

Nothing more from me, a very uneventful day, with only occasional tightenings, but only one this evening has been breathtakingly painful, so more waiting I feel.

Any way going to try and get some sleep, so night all, speak tomorrow.

hi all -
Congrats x 2 -Londonlottie - lovely names - before you know it Juliet and Eve will be home and you'll all be having a wonderful christmas!

Sazlocks - DH job situation i agree he should document all the issues and maybe seek some legal advice bullying in any shape or form is damned out of order!

Ali- 8th dec - betted londonlottie & twins would be first then CTOFN, but no you got there first!

Happy Birthday - Liskey & twin-sis - hope you had a wonderful day!

welcome back CTOFN - i know your pain must be hard, but hang on i there it will be over soon and youll be holding LO in yah arms and your be pain free!

Sore throat coming on its so cold-
may stay in bed tomo!

No news from Devo - hope all is well??

oooh showmethemummy whereabouts in tower hamlets are you? i'm here too - E14 (poplar). are you also planning a homebirth then? they seemed quite into it when i asked them for one.

congrats lottie and clare! can't believe i have to wait a whole month for mine. then again, it's probably for the best... feeling v. unprepared.

somewhathorrified sorry about your bad homebirth midwife experience. what a downer. i had something slightly similar last MW visit - she read my notes, saw that i'd had retained placenta / post-partum hemhorrage last time and pulled a face and said 'and you still want a homebirth this time?'

i told her that it was just as safe as hospital birth, and you could get to the royal london from anywhere in this borough in 7 minutes, e.g. less time than it takes to prep the emergency room. but she just said 'well, we don't want you to bleed to death, do we', and kept on pulling a cat's bum face.

i was a bit surprised after how keen they'd been to give me a homebirth initially (even knowing about the PPH - different midwife you see).

hope it all works out ok for you!

Morning lovely ladies. Clock the time!! Have been awake since 3.30am and just couldn't get back to sleep. Baby awake and wiggling, plus heartburn etc. This has happened a lot the past few days and I put down to being in hospital, noise etc. But I actually think my body is now prepping itself for baby coming, the feed times etc. Quite exciting! So a quick catch up on our thread, kids lunches already made and will make a start on the ironing in a minute!

One thing I just wanted to throw into the mix for those planning homebirths, and I know it really does depend on your local hospital, but when I was discharged yesterday, the Doctors pointed out something that i had already witnessed over the previous couple of days, that it was far far quicker to be dealt with in an emergency when coming in from outside the hospital than when already an in-patient perhaps in the ante/post natal ward! This was actually one of the reasons they discharged me. They felt more comfortable that as I only lived 5 minutes down the road if I had a problem, waters go etc I could be at the delivery suite and on the operating table quicker than a transfer from the ward I was on!!

So should you need to be transferred to hospital for complications, you're probably in a better position than already being in there!!

A lady was opposite me was induced Monday morning, second bout of prostin Monday night, started labour at 3am Tuesday morning, by 6am she was 5cm and on gas and air, still opposite me (very noisy), her husband was made to wait in the corridor outside because of "ward visiting hours", the labour ward wouldn't take her because they were too busy, the night staff on our ward kept telling her not to have the baby yet (!), I held her hand and rubbed her back, told her to breath etc, I finally kicked up a stink with the staff to allow her husband in despite lots of arguments back about "rules and regulations". FFS - if the labour ward had been able to take her, her DH would have been with her. Do you know, she finally got transferred (and I mean out of one door into another - opposite corridor) at 11am when she screamed she needed to push. At that point, they decided they had better transfer her into a wheelchair and take the gas and air off of her. It was her 3rd DC!

I was absolutely appalled. That poor lady. And she was desperate for an epidural too as part of her "plan".

So - moral of the story is, HB transfer in is probably miles better than being in for the duration!

Hi everyone.
Biccy I also have been seeing stars or silver glitter as I described it and also have low blood pressure.
CTOFN I was also told that about transferring into hospital and being seen more quickly etc when I was having ds.

Have been having tightenings but I guess this one is waiting for the csection, I was hoping he would turn up naturally before then. But I guess there's nothing to be done.

that's good to know CTOFN - homebirth is really starting to look like the first-class option! two midwives and super-speedy entry in an emergency. why doesn't everyone go for it?

(having said this is do hope i don't bleed to death on my living-room floor, as that lovely midwife suggested i might last week. )

gosh CTOFN that birth sounded hideous, this is my third and hope to god my labour is not like that!
my baby is still moving though rather painfully, not so much as kicking but in moving from one side of my stomach to the other! on a night when in bed i can feel body parts protruding out the side!
i looked in the mirror sideways last night {not a good idea} and knock me down wiht a feather i am HUGE!
i have low blood pressure i think as it is usually something like 90/60.
hope everyone is fine and babies that are here are doing well and new mums are adapting nicely
last night in bed my thighs were tight and i felt pressure on my fanjo, anyone else had this? i swear since i am on my own i am convinced i am going ot go into labour alone and end up having the baby in bed alone!