June is approaching, the end is in sight, time to sort our lady gardens so the midwives don't get a fright - Due June 2010

[ConservativesShouldWinSurely]

30/05 GoodName, 31, #1 BOY
31/05 RnB, 31, #3
31/05 dinosaurinmybelly (DIMB), 37, #3 GIRL
31/05 - mampam, 30 #3
31/05 - minimoonumbertwo, 33, #2, BOY
1st - Appu, #1 Girl
1st - ELM, 29, #2
1st - whenwillisleepagain, 42 #2
1st - PogueMahone, 36, #3 SURPRISE
1st - madamefreckle, 34,#2 GIRL
2nd - meggymegmegs, 31, #1 SURPRISE
2nd - Justbeme , 41 #3
2nd - AlwaysHopeful, 35, #2 SURPRISE
2nd - roundabout1, no 2,
3rd - nickytwotimes, 35, #2
3rd - Jenba, ?, #3
3rd - Flossysmum, #4
3rd - marmiteaddict, 31, #1 SURPRISE
7th - MrsC09, 29 #1 SURPRISE
7th - perkster, no 1, SURPRISE
7th - Zeel, #1
8th - LittleRobbo, 35, #3 GIRL
8th - Saucepanman, 31, #4
8th - MrsAlwaysRight 31, #2
9th - greensnail, 28, #2 SURPRISE
9th - Boobz, 30, #2 SURPRISE
9th - Petitfilou, ?, 1
11th - shipsladyg GIRL
11th - woofie, 33, # 2 BOY
12th - Georgee, 38, #1 GIRL
12th - Elena67, 43 #1
13th - sobloodystupid, 34, #3
13th - WaiteH, no 1
14th - Fillybuster, 36, #3 - NOT TELLING!
15th - Ponymum, 41, # 2
15th - Millymollymoo, ?, #4 BOY
16th - NizzyNoodles, 35, #3 BOY
16th - Flossie69, 40,#2
17th - Bluesnowfalcon 28 #1 BOY
17th - Summerhols, 31, #1
17th - Barbeasty, 31, #1 GIRL
17th - chestnut100,30 #1 GIRL
17th - LateforWork,#1, SURPRISE
17th - Plum100, #3, SURPRISE
18th - Virgo1979, SURPRISE
18th - theperfectbaguette 34 #1
21st - Gizmo, 40, #3 GIRL
21st - Bubs1,?,SURPRISE
21st - Sunworshipper, 36, #1
22nd - gaelicsheep, 33, #2 - NOT TELLING
23rd - Bobolana, 29 #1 GIRL
24th - GibberingGinger 34 #2+3 BOYS
24th - lifeinthesun #2 BOY
25th - Ilovemyterrier, 38 #1 BOY
26th - herewegrow 31 #2 GIRL
26th - imkeepingmum, #1, SURPRISE
27th - muchchocolate, #2
28th - Wheredidmyfeetgo 32 #3
29th - CantSleepWontSleep, 36, #3, SURPRISE
29th - MrsDmamee #3
29th - playftseforme, 36, #2+3 BOYS
30th - MonkeyMargot, 36, #2+3 SURPRISE
30th - LaTrucha, 36, #2 BOY
30th - NotGrownUpEnough, 29, # 1, SURPRISE
30th - EssieM, 37, #1, SURPRISE
30th - Monthlymayhem, No.2, BOY

Saucepanman and Mampam - How very annoying with your h/v's. Saucepanman - yours sounds like a total fruitloop! I have to say, I have yet to meet a good, switched on one, although am sure they must exist.

GG - V. pleased to hear you're all home! Sounds like the boys are doing well. Shame about the b/f but you have done a good job getting the first bit into them and I'm sure they will thrive on formula. Although I'm v. pro breastfeeding, I was never breastfed and as my mum's always pointing out, I don't appear to have suffered at all as a result!

Littlerobbo - Congratulations - Summer Dawn is a lovely, evocative name. V. much looking forward to hearing the whole tale!

The midwife attempted to perform a sweep on me this morning (term +10) but it wasn't possible - my cervix is apparently still totally hard and closed. Looks like this baby just is not interested in entering the big wide world. i'm eating pineapple til I'm sick to the back teeth with it and even did 'it' this morning which was quite a turn up for the books and not entirely awful!! I am getting really pretty fed up with it now and am increasingly concerned about the prospect of an induction on Tuesday - the midwife said she just doesn't think this baby's ready but they definitely haven't got the dates wrong so i'm not sure what's going on.

Thanks for the comments on est. birth weights. I was guessing it would be bollox and not something to take too seriously. Why do they do it I wonder if it is possible to be that wrong about it?

Grrr - for thise who are having bad hv experiences. My first hv with Boy GB was great. She was just like an old fashioned no-nonsense aunt we would have all had 50 odd years ago when extended families lived closer together. She never once gave me bad advice, and if anything wasn't working she would be quite happy to try something else before things got bad. I was soon reallocated someone else who wasn't as good, but still fairly sensible. What is it with dodgy hvs who give out bad advice when a woman is feeling at her most vulnerable?! Grrr - again.

Hi ladies,just found a small window to fill you all in,good lord i forgot how crazy these first few days are! Well,when i say hilarious i was being ironic,however i can laugh now,but not at the time lol!! Waters broke during emmerdale and eating a very mild masala on my due date,phoned hospital,they said not to rush in as they were very busy so we left it til 9.30 by which time my contractions were coming every 5 mins and quite painful. We got there and were left in a waiting room for some time,then a midwife came and said 'right then,we are going to put you on a ward,keep you in overnight,hubby will have to go home then we'll probably just said you back home in the morning' Dh and i looked at each other then i said,very calmly 'i need to be examined,i am in labour.' Apparently,she hadn't been given that information WTF! So,she STIll took us to a ward,we were shown to a prison cell room,and i was told because delivery suite was full,i would have to birth in there it contained a bed and a sink,thats it! Anyway,i calmly again said please,i cant do it here,so they then took me to Triage,to another ward there,with 4 beds,3 of them taken up with ladies watching t.v! So,i said noooo,i cant bloody do it here either,now by this time i am in agony and desperate for gas & air,so,they managed to set up a side room with all the essentials needed,jsut in the nick of time because i was only in there around 20 mins and Summer arrived!!! I have missed out some small details but basically it was a comedy of errors!! But the main thing is,baby is perfect and healthy and thats really all i care. DS2 is not adjusting too well to his new sister,any advice would be greatly appreciated. Hope you are all ok, madamefreckle i was told the same about cervix but still went into labour the same day. CSWS no i am more of a Corrie girl myself,its a northern thing We chose the name because of a film DH and i both love called 500 Days of Summer,and Dawn is after my beloved sister

OMG Little Robbo! The way you were treated is outrageous. I always thought that if your waters go you are advised to go to hospital asap. And they told you to stay home! After you got to hospital things just got worse for you. I can't believe you were shown to a ward with other people in there. Whatever happened to privacy?! I can't say anything else, I'm so outraged for you. At least you can laugh about it now.

Thankfully little Summer Dawn arrived safele and is gorgeous and lovely and you get to squish her all day long.

Robbo - what an awful story, I know that you had a good outcome & everything but that treatment is really bad, no matter how busy they were. Dread to think of giving birth on a side ward with people in.

madame freckle - I tried for a sweep on tues but mw couldn't do it as I just wasn't ready. Am 9 days over now & am booked in for an induction on tues. Dd was born following an induction & was hoping to avoid it this time round, it just makes the whole thing so long winded being at the hospital all the time plus the monitoring, drip etc. Mind you by Tues will be so desperate to have this baby I probably won't care so much! Fingers crossed we both get to avoid the induction.

I've put a few photos on my profile ladies of us and Summer if you'd like to have a look Right,i'm off for a long salty soak in the bath then bed i think,so exhausted,but happy {grin]

littleRobbo Baby Summer is beautiful.
cant believe the treatment you recieved in hospital.
Thank goodness your little Summer Dawn arrived safe and well.

littlerobbo Summer is beautiful and you look very well in those photos too. There was a lady in the bed next to me in hospital who seemed to be having a similar experience to you as I heard her in labour behind the curtains and she seemed to have been chucked out of the delivery suite. Lovely ward midwife very quickly decided she needed to go back to delivery suite though but there were no beds available so she got moved to the MLU so hopefully she ended up having a better experience.

roundabout You may find a second induction not to be such a long winded experience as the first one. My second induction was very straight forward and I just needed the gel and then my waters breaking - no drip at all. If it hadn't been for my other medical issues I probably could have avoided staying overnight at all. Will keep my fingers crossed that anyone else on the thread who gets induced has a similarly easy experience.

dinosaur Hope you're feeling a bit better today. I also have a bit of the baby blues at the moment, feeling quite tearful at times. I'm hoping I'll feel a bit brighter in a couple of days - my in-laws will be leaving tomorrow after being here for a week and I have a feeling that might help a bit

Glad to hear that you and the boys are home Ginger.

Am sorry that the birth wasn't quite as planned LittleRobbo. Lovely photos though .
Am interested in all the comments from others about how awful your treatment was, and would genuinely like to know what you all think the hospital should do when there isn't a delivery suite available. It is a sadly common occurrence. There was more than one woman who didn't make it to a delivery suite to give birth when I was in being induced with ds. It was also the reason that I also had to wait over 36 hours extra to have my waters broken. I don't think that there is an easy solution.

The day before I had DD, 6 women went into labour in our small provincial hospital. Some gave birth in side rooms, others laboured in the antenatal ward. It was pretty chaotic but eevryone seemed to muddle through. I never actually got onto the postnatal ward even though I was in there a week after DD arrived. Our town has had such a population explosion recently that we had, before the election, been given money to expand the ward. I don't know what will happen now, but they used to deliver 400 babies a year; when I had DD it was 600 and today I have been told not to go overdue on any account as there are 70 babies due in July alone.

LittleRobbo You've made me feel a lot more positive. The midwife gave me to believe that my cervix was still in total denial! Lovely photos. Your older dc's look so cute with her!

I've been told that there is a bit of a baby explosion here in Gloucestershire as well. Maybe it would actually be beneficial to be induced - more likely to get a room that way! [freckle looks smug about her half-glass-full attitude]

Congratulations on the new arrivals! LittleRobbo, shocking story!

Well I was in labour after all! I had a baby that day. He's a boy, he's so beautiful I keep wanting to cry and he smells divine. We've called him Magnus Gabriel.

We're home now, getting settled in, letting the other DC get to know him. DD (3) is besotted and won't leave "Baby Magnet"s side. DS (2) is taking his time.

It was a great birth and I now have 2 things to be evangelical about:

• sweeps: I went in for a sweep at 9am, and gave birth 12 hours later
• hypnobirthing: this really bloody worked! What a difference between this and my previous 2 births, despite the fact that Magnus is a biggie (8lb 14.5oz). I didn't even need G&A (disclaimer: not available anyway ) The effect of not tensing with a contraction, and not expecting it to hurt was nothing short of miraculous.

A few hours of twinges followed my sweep. I didn't know if they were real contractions or not. I was so keen to go into labour I thought I might have imagined them. I was doing my hypnobirthing stuff anyway just in case.

I was 8cm dilated on arrival at the hospital a few hours later. The hypnobirthing relaxation exercises are still working really well, I was relaxed and pretty comfortable. My doctor kept trying to talk to me when I was having contractions as he couldn't tell. At 9cm he broke my waters saying I was in transition anyway, so this would speed things up without intensifying the contractions. Not true about the intensity! I think i called him a mother f#cker. (Raised eyebrows all round. Did I tell you guys I'm in the Bible Belt? And that doctors here are worshipped like gods?) I felt overwhelmed for the first time and lost my 'peace and calm' mojo. But after about 15 mins and 4 or 5 pushes our little baby boy was in my arms! That was 12 hours from the sweep, and 1.5 hours from arrival at hospital.

It's all still a bit unreal and it's hard to believe that I actually get to keep this beautiful little creature. He's feeding well and sleeping some. DM is here for a few more days and she and DH have been brilliant.

Pogue many congrats on arrival of Magnus and am literally PMSL at you calling the consultant a mofo !!!!!
Love your "transition" from Hypno-calm to crazed lady. Just brilliant!

Also congrats gibbering on getting your boys back home.
And littlerobbo lovely pics of Summer!

Nothing happening here. DH has instructed me not to drink any more raspberry leaf tea until half-time during the England match .

Ginger glad to hear you and the boys are home

greensnail having IL's to stay would have that effect on most people, let alone when you have a newborn! Hope you are feeling a bit better today.

poguemahone congratulations on the arrival of Magnus Sounds like you had a fab labour apart from the run in with the doctor!!

I'm also under instruction not to go into labour today because of the football! Really don't want baby to arrive today anyway as it would have been MIL's birthday (no longer with us).

TMI warning: Gave myself some DIY surgery on an ingrown hair on my bikini line which was rather unsuccessful due to my Carpal Tunnel affecting my usually excellent surgery skills! Looks a right mess now so hope it heals quickly so I don't have to explain it was self inflicted!!

congrats poguemahone
and welcome Baby Magnus.

Also not "allowed" to go into labour due to England playing. Hmmmmm, I am hoping that the unconscious obstinate side of me will lead to me going into labour?

also not allowed to go into labour today or tomorrow - DH is australian and they are playing tomorrow night! and i assume all hospital staff on shift tonight will call in sick to watch england....

I suppose I have never thought of the delivery suite being too full so someone needs to be turned away - CSWS. Although it does seem quite horrible that LittleRobbo was shown to two rooms she found unsuitable before a side room was put together for her. Why couldn't that side room have been the first option? Anyway everything ended well, which is the main thing.

Am now hoping I don't have a similar experience - a population explosion here as well.

Mr GB has also forbid me from going into labour during any England matches. Not because he will be watching them - not that into football, but because he thinks the medical staff will call in sick. I did try explaining that hospital staff are probably more dedicated to their jobs than the people he works with...he isn't convinced.

Congrats to poguemahone. Good on you for swearing at the doc. If you can't swear when in labour, when can you?!

Wow congrats Pogue! And I adore the name Magnus. I'm doing hypnobirthing too, I hope I have the same kind of birth as you.

My induction is in the morning . Am feeling quite negative about the whole thing, and feel like this will end in CS for me. Thread here

RnB I will be thinking of you tomorrow. Hope things work out better than you are expecting.

To those worrying about NHS staff calling in sick because of the football, I wouldn't worry about it at all. Have never known this to be a problem where I've worked.

rnB have posted on your other thread.

RnB sending you positive vibes for your induction tomorrow. Hope all goes to plan.

Congratulations poguemahone - what a fabulous birth story!