10/10-sunny days and sleepless nights; third trimester here we come

[nymphadora]

And off we go again

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Where is the pain in your ribs Hermya? Mine is at the bottom of my rib cage at the back and then in my bump in the corresponding place on the front. It's all on the left hand side. Did anyone say how your baby was lying because that seems to have been the only explanation of my pain. I really sympathise with you. I'm glad that you saw the delivery suite too. It's really reassuring to be able to picture yourself where it will all happen.

Sam It's in the centre and to the right hand side, LO is head down and his back is to the left of my bump and he's sort of in an upside down L shape.

Been for tour of maternity/labour/SCBU. I was finding it v difficult to walk round & kept having to get a chair whilst all these more pg women stood ! Labour ward hasn't changed. Maternity is much smaller & most of the single rooms aren't en suite any more

Hi there - right I really DO have pregnancy brain!! I have sat here reading through posts with a pen and paper because I couldn't remember anything anyone had said by the time I caught up!

Scary news - I have TWO friends in labour today - must be something in the air, I may be 34 wks + but I am keeping my legs crossed for at least 3 more weeks pleeeeeease!

Jesse - hei hei! Good to hear your dd is managing - ds is coming up to 2 yrs so we are only just beginning to see really linguistic comprehension start, but it is accelerating! We have found lots on line (through sling box with Bestemor and through some useful ahem, sites) and ds loves Elias! We were married in Bergen - so beautiful :)

Floozie - goodness, I didn't realise you ds was sn - no wonder you have reservations about the first few months and beyond. Have you chatted to some of the mums on here to get advice/coping stratagies. Dh and I keep saying "we will cope, generations have done" - not much help but stops us going loopy

Elsa - it got pretty wild and wet down here! All still standing though!

Nymph - hope you're feeling ok, sounds horrible.

SamB - goodness, 4 weeks! I hope everything stays settled and you can avoid that and do things in your time.

Sam12 - am currently adding oven, hob etc to my baby purchasing list!

Dilly - congratulations on your appraisal!

Last day at work tomorrow :)

That's it, I have left the building! Scary! Spent the evening in the pub having dinner and drinks with colleagues and very pleasant it was too. Two months and five days to go, I hope.

SamB bit of a shock? Hope the pain goes and you can deliver when you and the baby are ready.

Seashells enjoy your last day. Thanks for your concern too. I'll cope. He's more work bless him but lovely too.

Shieldbug what a lovely woman. How incredibly thoughtful.

Tyson I'm really coming back to wanting a home birth if I get to term. Dp is not keen but I've got time to work on him (as long as I get the time iyswim). How are you feeling about it now? Did you read that article in the Guardian by Sali Harris (?) on home births? Might give you some confidence.

Oh, and in other TMI news, I appear to have piles. Great!!!

Hi All, sorry it has been so long. Was on holiday last week and then have been trying to catch up since :)

Although saying that I cant remember much that has been said

Seashells - thats sooo exciting. My friends are due next week, 2 weeks then me in 6 weeks (I will be induced 2 weeks early) then early December. Let us know when you hear how your friends got on! Hope your last day goes well!

Baby dropped last week I now have a bump round my hips instead of under my ribs - I can breathe at last. Cant walk and constantly need the toilet but I can breathe - yippee!!

Nymph - sorry to hear that you are still having a hard time. Have they given you a date yet?

SamB - 4 weeks... eek!

Mamjo - How are you coping with the Gestational Diabetes? I have an appointment tomorrow with the hospital and have a nasty feeling that they are going to put me on metformin. Just cant control my morning sugars!

Hermya and Nymph - so jealous that you got to look round the labour ward. Our hospital doesnt allow it so I am hoping that it is as nice as yours sounds.

Very impressed with those of you who are bringing up bilingual children - hard worj but so worth it.

Oh bless to the old lady Shieldbug I would have definitely cried! :) I cry at most things. Including the new BT advert when she tells him she's pregnant!!!!

Had a lovely week away in Poole with my mum and dc. Dh stayed at home (got a job - thank goodness ) and sorted the house out so that when we came back he had done all the little things that I wanted to do... catch up with the washing, move the furniture around etc. We went to the beach and built sandcastles and dug holes and things like that - came home exhausted but the dc had a wonderful time.

Sorry for the essay and if I forgot anyone!

Cross posts

Yay Floozie. Glad to hear that you have finished work! But not so good about the piles!

Elsa - can you pay extra for mammas and pappas to build the furniture? If so and you haven't chosen this option you should try and persuade them to do this for free if you're going to have to wait ages. Someone in my antenatal class got them to do this. Although with my baby brain could have been a different company, I get very confused!

34 week check yesterday, all well and she is head down, although mw had trouble feeling her as she was curled up tight in a ball like a hedgehog!

I am incredibly tired from work, putting kitchen back to rights after new one was fitted, and lack of sleep, but only 7 working days to go now!

Morning all!! Hope all is well in Bumpland today!!

Floozie Congrats on finishing work!!

Jenimoo Not long to go now!

Lilmiss Congrats on DH's new job, bet thats a bit of a relief.

Morning all!

Congrats to your DH Lilmiss how relieving.

Hermya that must have been scary for you, but a good opportunity for toast sampling!

Jennimoo Yes M&P do that service, but we'll be happy to do it ourselves as my DH is very pernickety with that kind of thing and I can guarantee he'll find fault with the way the people would have put it together! It makes him sound bad- he's not, he's an engineer and we've been building our own house by ourselves for the last 4 years so his high standards have been great!

We're off to do the maternity tour as well this evening. Its all becoming very real...

SamB scary thinking about how close it all is, but exciting too.
Jennimoo and abfab not long for you two either. Can't believe that our next thread could well be the one with arrivals.

lilmiss so pleased to hear your dh has a job. Congrats. Has your baby dropped early or is that normal timing? (Excuse my ignorance of such things!).

well, we have finally bought a sensible family car (Ford C-max), but I couldn't ask dh to give up his lovely convertible so we still have that too. We are now a 2-car, 1 driver family (I've never learnt and dh is scared about the idea of me driving, and tbh I can't say I blame him!!). There's loads of boot space and it seems good safety-wise, so I'm happy.

Had my first antenatal class yesterday, although I didn't learn much that was new. There were so many bored looking men in the room, I wonder how many will be persuaded to turn up next week. Unfortunately they are refurbishing the mat ward at the mo so we won't get our tour, which is a shame as I thought that would be the best bit about the classes. Still, if I can hold on for long enough until they are finished, it should mean nice conditons for the birth.

Gosh I can't believe some of you are finishing work already - I've got another 6 weeks but then I'm only 31 weeks today. It's feeling very real and close now - especially for you SamB!

Finally got registered with my new doctors and got in touch with the midwife so that's all good. She told me that it's their busiest time of year around now - has anyopne else heard that? Are more babies born around now? Maybe it's because there's nothing else to do 9 months before now in the cold winter

Dilly I have had the same problemw ith white vest tops and crumbs! I thought I'd come out in some kind of rash with raised bumps all over my belly. Oops!

Hope everyone else is doing ok today!

I am finishing in 2 days... yay! finishing a lot earlier than last time due to delivering early, guessing you're the same floozie.

floozie me too on the piles .... think they happened due to the pressure during labour last time and they have popped out again in the last few weeks. Apparently delivering upright should help lessen the effect during labour. I'm slightly terrified of it being really bad and DH seeing. I had to go into a pharmacy while on holiday in france and ask a very severe looking pharmacist 'avez-vous quelque chose pour les hemorrhoids?' tres embarrassant

Hi all

I'll try to come back later for a proper post, but I've just seen this on the pregnancy board and was going to post about it anyway, so thought I'd do a quick likn:

here - GroupB Strep

Hello all

Feeling particularly 'stretched' today - feel like I'm always going through a stretchy 'can't grow anymore' on Wednesdays at work - think the baby has a growth spurt every week and then my body has to stretch to compensate!

Seashells - I feel the same, so difficult to keep up & I think I need to write notes before replying... congrats on last day at work - will be me next Friday!

lilmiss - great your h got job AND sorted the house - mine is freelance and has no work booked for september yet. although the money side is worrying i fully intend to get him onto the DIY - want the house spick and span before the arrival! we're still opening our back door with a screw driver after the kitchen builder people threw half our door handle away last year by mistake - i mean, a year opening a door with a screw driver???

sorry to hear that you're still feeling rotten Nymph - i guess the end is in sight re: this pregnancy and you can put it behind you.

certainly feel loads more pregnancy niggles this time around & not enjoying it as much. had two looks around the maternity unit where i'm booked in - compared to my last place - lewisham, where i had a rotten experience - it feels much more relaxed. BUT they don't have ensuites (perhaps one or two) & as many single rooms so we'll see how it'll work out on the day... (that's if it doesn't end up being a cs due to the low placenta)...

oh, baby hiccupping. was it the strawberries i just ate?

Thanks moonstorm for the group B strep thing. I'll mention it to the mw at 34 weeks just in case I've been tested without knowing it and if not then get it done.

Hmm...jessebelle not the only bad review I have heard of Lewisham hospital... used to do some work there and thought it was ok! But understaffed...Where are you now? I'm having a stretchy day too! Had a leg wax on Mon and my SPD hasn't recovered from all the legs akimbo bit (and damn it's sore to get a bikini wax when you're pg!)

Yay for your DH lilmiss

love to all, sorry for not enough name checking... (o sooooo unmumsnetty...I don't know if they approve of love and smushiness here!)
xx

DillyDora - I did have an absolutely torrid experience at Lewisham. Not sure how much was just my bad luck and how much was Lewisham's fault. I'm glad they've apparently improved things there - they've got a new birth centre now and advocate home births etc. Too late for us as we've moved now. I could go into details re: my first birth experience but I don't want to put anyone on this thread off.

I've been booked into Queen Mary's in Sidcup - it's a bit of a trek as we're actually closer to Queen Elizabeth in Woolwich but it felt smaller & less stressy. All the midwives just seem so smiley and lots of staff just seem helpful in general. Bit worried as think it's had its fair share of negative reviews too... but my experience so far has been positive. I'm just a bit sad that it looks more and more likely that I'll be facing an elective CS rather than the natural VBAC birth I wanted...

jessebelle I know all those hospitals - worked in the cardiac unit of all of them! How funny! Tow of my friends may have had ELCS at QM in Sidcup - want me to check? Remind me for heaven's sake if you do....

Don't be too sad Jessebelle you'll have done a tremendous job growing your baby over the previous 9 months and labour is only a part of it. I strongly believe there is this fairly modern phenomenum of pressure on women to feel like they've failed if they have not experienced a vaginal birth. The safety of you and your baby is top. From what I can gather, it does seem that recovery from a planned CS is so much better than an EMCS. I hope I practise what I preach if this happens to me .

What I wouldn't be a fan of is failed forceps followed by a CS- screwed 2 ways, stiches down below and major abdominal surgery to boot. Am going to stop thinking about it.....

I know what you mean about the stretching thing- it seems to happen at weekends for me!

Does anyone have stretchmarks? I have one vivid one on a boob and the other boob is becoming a bit marbled on the underside but not specific stretchmarks yet.

Ooh! I meant to say the other day I was reading about AbFabT's baby getting hiccups and I thought to myself that I hadn't felt anything like that and lo and behold later on that day I felt this really rhythmic beat that felt just like mini-hiccups- very cute.

Dilly I did not realise it was not mumsnetty to hug, kiss etc! I've been doing the kiss hting for a while- have people been secretly going ?!

XXXXX

Yeah, well, Elsa bear in mind we already went at you cos you're a spy and everything... no, honestly seriously I don't really know it's just that I often see people post about hugs and then say they are unmumsnetty so I said the same thing now that's just odd... but there it is.

No stretch marks yet...yet....

It's hard about the birth, you plan one thing but life plans another, I am trying to get my head round CS just so that I can, like Elsa says it's the mangling around in the fanjo followed by the surgery I wouldn't fancy - or... days and days of labour with no dilation followed by EMCS when you're knackered (having said that I know someone who had this last week and recovered in 2 days and is fine now so....)

I did that dilly 42 hours of labour then em section.

I am covered in stretchmarks from the first time but doesn't seem to be any new ones yet although majority came in the last 2 weeks that time,

Last day done- all a bit strange but the new person felt well handed over so I guess job done!

2 little boys were born yesterday to my 2 friends- everyone doing well, one very successful homebirth (i am getting tempted again!) and one lovely hosp birth for the first timer...

...it's soon going to be us

Thanks Elsa! So is that what happened to you? Sounds awful!!!

Dilly - That's what happened to me basically - in summary i had two days of labour - was at home until contractions got regular (so 12 hrs at home?), then all night in hospital on gas and air but no 'progress' (soul destroying) then synctocin & epidural for next day ending in emcs as they lost the baby's heartbeat by 11pm or something (and i was still only 7cm). There were loads of factors though that could have come into play - for one, they realised only at the end that the baby's head was 'deflexed' (my dd was pushing on her forehead with her face upwards which is really not helpful). plus i'd been induced with a 'sweep' after going 10 days over - and the 'sweep' was done really badly (in my notes it says "difficult manipulation") and i was in a lot of pain after. But my main complaint with Lewisham was really the night staff and the accompanying aftercare which was really shoddy.

But I have heard that ELCS is a completely different kettle of fish.

I really don't want to put people off though - I have had so many friends have completely straightforward births, wonderful waterbirths too and even EMCS that have been far less traumatic!

Jessebelle I've known people that went to Lewishham and they didn't get on well there at all. I'm not surprised you're not going back.

Elsa No stretchmarks as of yet, but I'm not counting my chickens just yet. I'm just going to keep basting myself like a Christmas Turkey and hope for the best.

Dilly I keep wondering if I should be looking into getting a wax. I know it sounds daft, but given how lots of people are going to be staring at my bits when I'm in labour I don't want to look like an untidy slattern in the Ladygarden dept. I'm sure though that they will have seen the best and worst of it though given what they do for a living. Do you think some people are more ladygarden conscious than others?