nickelbabe is resigned to never giving birth

[nickelbabe]

there.
part 2 of the "not-live-birth-thread"

How come I can conceive and carry through a pregnancy but I can't finish one?

No posting until the original thread has ended.
first thread

I am now officially 40+10.

Nickel, with my first I had a sweep at 41 weeks. My cervix was high and shut according to the MW. My ds1 was born by the next morning. You could dilate really quickly...in fact you could be dilating now hence the period type pains. That happened to me, one minute dithering in Tesco Extra the next giving birth.

Agree with Flisspaps, the cervix can move pretty fast.

(There's a sentence I never thought I'd write.)

Mine was high, closed, 'unfavourable' and 'almost unreachable' (to be fair, it points in on itself, which makes smear tests much fun). I waddled home weeping for my lost chance at a homebirth. Next day, I had DS (in the front room).

Fingers crossed that today's the day for you and ISBN.

Blardy hell. We are all still here! 40+8 today.

Saw consultant yesterday, she was lovely. Am on the list for IOL as soon as they have a slot free. They will ARM in theatre with someone pushing his head on to the cervix so no repeat of ARM with high head and deep transverse arrest like dc no.6. I am also feeling a ot better about the fact she pushed his head in to my pelvis (gently ) to show me it still fitted.

Pseudo hope the consultant is gentle with you this morning.

Nickel i think you are waiting for your mate to arrive and your body will relax. It is amazing what you can do. When i had dc5 i was 10 days late when dc4 went to hospital with pneumonia. I TOLD the baby very firmly he could not come out until his brother was home safe and well. The mat ward had been trying to induce since 10 days over and i kept refusing.

Dc4 was discharged at 6pm, i walked down the stairs to the mat ward for a sweep and promised to come back the next day for IOL. Was 5cm. Demanded my notes back and crawled back to the car with exh carrying dc4. Crawled in front door having been driven back home at 80mph, called the midwife en route. She met us 10 minutes later and dc5 appeared at 820pm. A 45 minute labour. I mean he listened but by GEORGE there was no need to be quite so speedy. Dc4 watched the whole thing totally unfazed.

There. That is my little story to keep you all occupied Am going to dry my hair now as i WILL be giving birth later < firm >

My laptop died 2 days ago so I've been without the internet - I've now managed to borrow a pc now and was fully expecting ISBN to have put in an appearance in my absence!

Haven't had time to read the whole thread but have any other babies appeared yet? (apart from the Stripelet)

Morning pregnant ladies, good luck to you all today.

Have been lurking on your threads nickel although obviously getting regular updates from the December thread. As I'm north Kent I will be able to pop in and find the famous Isbn nestled up in your bookshop!

Hope things start happening, but everyone on our thread seems to be attempting world records for latent/stop-start/delayed labour, of which you are queen (not a title you particularly want though...)

Let's hope you end up on the advent calendar today!

Nickel, just want to add to the reassurance. I had period type pains on the Wed Morning. Had a failed sweep in the afternoon. Cervix was high and closed so she couldn't do anything. Period type pains intensified and I was 2cm by 10pm on the Thursday night. 10cm by midnight.

Got a busy day today, but will try to keep lurking. Good luck.

Gin pleased it went well with the consultant, i love your story. My yoga teacher keeps telling me I need to invite the baby to come i thought that's what i had been doing with all my swearing .

Fingers crossed that today's the day for ISBN.

I've just had a sweep, no pain - apparently she touched the baby's head (not really what I wanted to know..) and am a whole cm dilated. Woo.

Listen lady - no MW can find my sodding cervix, thats why I warned my (lovely) MW with DC5 if she came near me with a rubber glove it would be her being scraped off the celing, not me this time.

A MW, however lovely, rummaging about in your fanjo saying 'just hang on a bit longer I just....need....to...feel... a....bit....higher.....' Is NOT fun.

With the last two babies I had to say 'er scuse me but this baby is coming NOW!'
as they all sat around chatting.

We are all different and so are our fanjos

Been lurking and in awe at your long gestations! I have just returned from a beautiful carol service at my daughter's school and listening to the girls singing Silent Night I got that lovely holy Christmasssy baby feeling and tried to direct it all into positive vibes for the women on this thread.
IYSWIM.

A quick bit of reassurance here about induction/epidurals in case it comes to that.

I had to be induced at 40+9 because DS was distressed (meconium and heartbeat issues), but was convinced that I didn't want an epidural because of a fear of the cascade of intervention. But it all got a bit too sore and after 18 hours of contractions I changed my mind, despite my concerns.

Pre-epidural those contractions had taken me to 3cm dilated, so pretty slow progress. Post-epidural, I went to 10cm in about 3 hours, so my progress was much quicker. I actually snoozed through most of those contractions too, had civilised conversations with DH and the medical staff, and generally felt more in control as a result of the intervention. VEs were much more pleasant too. I think my body took advantage of my more relaxed state to get on with things.

When it came to pushing, the epidural had worn off a bit, so I could feel discomfort/pressure (but not masses of pain) but still had to be given direction about when a contraction was coming so I could push.

Although I couldn't feel the contractions it didn't affect the pushing mechanism - which is very much like going for the most enormous poo which frankly is something we've all been practising our entire lives! So even though I was a bit detached from the process, I did it perfectly effectively and the pushing stage lasted only 15mins before DS was out.

So in my case, the induction/epidural really wasn't a bad outcome. Hopefully this will all be completely irrelevant for you but it's worth bearing in mind that actually a bit of medical help can improve the situation and give you back some control if it comes down to it.

I dilated form 1cm to 10cm in minutes so it does happen and catch out the midwifewho thought she knew it all.

saffron I went to my dds nativity yesterday, she had a solo singing away in a manger and i sobbed the whole way through, really want to have this baby before next week as my 4yo ds has his first nativity next week he has been singing away all week and he said yesterday that I needed to bring my tissues.

Just phoned lovely MW who is going to see me in an hour for another sweep and then Dh doesn't know it yet but we shall be getting down to business.

< hopes MW has long fingers>

having fun with Midwives and appointments.

right, full story from today.

I was supposed to ring Medway delivery suite "after 9" to tell them I was refusing the induction.
I completely forgot until I was wandering down to the shop at just after 10
anyway, was going to ring, they'd left a message on the shop's answerphone.
I rang, said "hi it's me, I'm refusing induction" etc, and thus starts a huge fuss "why are you refusing, you've got to come in today for CTG etc etc" and some advice to have sex ( even though NICE says they're not supposed to say that! ) (tempted to ring DH at work and tell him to come and service me )
anyway, so I explained that I couldn't come in today, that I was at work and I couldn't leave (this while there were about 8 people in the shop - an all-time record number of people in the shop while I'm trying to fob off midwives), but that I was told by Memorial that I had to ring them for the next step, and that NICE said i had till 42 weeks (that didn't wash with this woman, she was not impressed, kept going on about NICE might say 42 weeks, but you need to be monitored etc - even though NICE says 42 weeks before you need to be monitored).
anyway, I said that I could get time off tomorrow (sorry, DH you're missing another "day off" to look after the shop), and they booked me in for the ctg at lunchtime tomorrow.
Then they said that if I wasn't going in today, that I had to go into Memorial today to get the heartbeat monitored.

Anyway, so I rang Memorial and they were "why? Is the baby moving?" "yes" "well, it's alive then isn't it?"
Basically, they couldn't understand why Medway thought that a quick listen into the heartbeat would tell them anything more than the baby moving around all day inside me, and that they also couldn't see why it was a problem waiting for the CTG.
However, lovely MW said that she would ring Medway to see if I could go in for the CTG tonight after the shop shuts (which I hadn't realised they did for outpatients, I thought it had to be a daytime one, otherwise I would have said it myself!)
So, she rang, and they said that's fine, as long as I ring before I set off to make sure they can fit me in.

And they spent all that time trying to panic me into going in immediately (this is why we have maternirty leave, so that we can drop everything at a second's notice to appease them )

It also shows, i think, how medicalised hospitals make births - local community midwives are "yep, that's fine" hospital midwives go "what do you mean you don't want induction? your baby will diiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee today !!!! "

Nickel -please take this in the caring way it is meant.

I felt baby move (the day after limited movements, 2 in fact) and went in for a booked scan at 38 weeks. A problem was picked up and baby was got out PDQ. He wouldn't have survived a vaginal delivery.

If they want you monitored, please go. They are not asking you to have anything invasive or an operation. Just monitoring.

Glad your CMW is being helpful.

Now you just have to be prepared for the HMWs to 'encourage' you to stay in for induction tonight, seeing as you're there, and will have a chat with a consultant anyway who will probably be even more of a doomsayer than the MW about what will happen if you don't agree to induction RIGHT NOW!

Best of luck - besides, you could go into labour this afternoon and not even 'need' the CTG

Agree with Fab - sorry. I know it must have annoyed you when I suggested you should have daily monitoring, and I didn't mean to suggest you wouldn't put your baby's needs first, of course you would, but they do advise it for a reason, not just to inconvenience you.

But not all trusts advise daily monitoring - some don't advise it after 42 weeks but offer it twice weekly instead.

The first time I was offered a CTG was when I was admitted for induction at 42+1, and nickel hasn't got that far (yet) .

I am not saying she shouldn't go in, and I don't think nickelbabe has said that she wouldn't go in, but I do think that in some cases it's used as a bit of a stick to beat women with by causing so much inconvenience to them that it's almost 'easier' to just go in once for induction and be done with it.

And FAB - anyone with reduced (or changes in) movement should be ringing the MW anyway for monitoring whether they're overdue or not. But nickelbabe hasn't reported any changes in movement (that I've read of anyway!)

It's also worth bearing in mind that the monitoring can give more information than feeling the baby kick.

It can give an idea of whether the baby is distressed or not - so when I was in labour with DS, I felt him moving around, but the monitors picked up decelerations in his heartbeat which I would have had no clue about.

Best to be safe. Even if you have to close the shop, there won't be many more times you have to do this now, so the inconvenience is limited.