Overdue

[starlight125]

Any other mums out there who are overdue?

Im 40+4 with my 2nd. Only went 2 days over with my DD. Had loads of twinges and braxton hicks last week which have now settled. Feeling like I just need a moan! lol

[Newboots86]

Ouch Butterfly! Wishing you a speedy recovery and hope you've got plenty of people to pamper you at home.
Thank you for your kind words manhowdy I am much more at ease with how things ended up this time and it is nice to know the reason behind it.
I hope everyone is doing ok and enjoying their little scrumptious babes xx

[manhowdy]

Newboots86 great to hear of your safe arrival. At least you now know, if you have any more, that a CS is what you need. Nothing you do can change that. That should take the pressure off massively

AButterflyLightsBesideUs 'not in proper labour'.....yup, exactly what they said to me, also back to back baby. And baby was born a couple of hours after that sentence was uttered! I nearly burst into tears when she told me that. She was a wonderful midwife though and I understand it's impossible to predict how fast things will move.

So sorry to read about your tear and I hope you heal quickly. Fab to read he's a great feeder though. You lose some, and win others. And of course, massive congrats! Xx

[AButterflyLightsBesideUs]

Lovely to hear of all these babies arriving but I'm so sorry that folk have had scary and difficult times of it. Birth is an amazing thing but god its a big physical deal too.

My boy finally arrived just before midnight on weds after a long latent stage (began Mon morning and contracted regularly and painfully from then til the end) so was pretty knackered. I had two sweeps in those days but by weds 3pm was still only 1cm and thoroughly disheartened and sent home and cried. Then waters went at 6pm, contractions ramped up a gear so we went back to hospital where they assessed me at 8.30pm as 3cm. I was in agony and couldn't believe it (turns out the little bugger turned back to back that day hence the excruciating experience from very early on).
Luckily they weren't busy so we were allowed to stay and I was fobbed off with a bath for two hours as "not in proper labour", by the end of which I was roaring and not coping.
At 10.30pm got in the pool and started the gas and the boy shot out 45 mins later. Early labour my arse.
Unfortunately I have terrible tearing (2nd degree internal tear and labial reconstruction... Yes that is as awful as it sounds but at least he narrowly missed my clit ! ) so am very immobile and in a lot of pain still but hopefully that will start improving soon.

I have a champion feeder this time though which is just fabulous after a real struggle to establish feeding with DD. He's a gorgeous little chunk, 8lb4.

Good luck to any still waiting x

[Newboots86]

You are so right mum, time to enjoy our little bundles and be thankful

[Mumchatting]

Thanks manhowdy and
Newboots congratulations to you! Enjoy your new baby. I'm also after 2 emergency cesareans which means for me that my body is not really meant to give vaginal birth. I tried hard both times but every time I ended up with emergency.
The most important is that our babies are safe here with us.
Speedy recovery to everyone :-)

[Newboots86]

Hello ladies, I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post. mum I'm so sorry to hear that you ended up with a crash section, how scary for you. Sending a huge get well soon to you and your LO. Congratulations to everyone else who's babes have arrived.
Well I ended up going into labour a couple of hours after I posted my first message, you must have been a good luck charm for me! I didn't get my VBAC, instead our little chap arrived on Sunday morning by emergency caesarean due to his head getting stuck in occiput transverse position. Exactly what happened last time. Apparently it is a structural problem with my pelvis that stops baby from turning on the way down so a vaginal birth was never going to happen for me. I'm now glad that one of my birth affirmations was that birth is beautiful no matter how it happens...

[manhowdy]

Congratulations Mumchatting ~ very pleased to read of your safe arrival and that you're well too. Enjoy xx

[Mumchatting]

Thanks SJ we are recovering well.

[sj257]

Oh mum that must have been scary, take care of yourself congratulations x

[Mumchatting]

Hi ladies congrats to all of you now who had their babies safely! We ended up with crash cesarean on Monday after I got very strong contractions 4-5 min aparts i had placental abruption and crash cesarean followed. Baby is fine now although she spent first 2 days in neonatal unit. I'm still in trauma but happy we both doing good now.
That was my attempted vbac story. Not always goes the way we wish.

[manhowdy]

Congrats MrsH87! It's funny how we all get so wound up about the potential birth and then none of it really matters when they're here (well, in most cases). Glad you're both well

[MrsH87]

Baby H born this morning at 11am. Waters broke Monday eve. Contractions started 24 hrs later and helped along with drip (was booked in to be induced because of infection risk). Forceps and spinal block after 2 hours of pushing when she was in a funny position. Basically everything I didn't want to happen happened and I really don't care. So besotted. Congratulations Lela (and I hope Butterfly). X

[sj257]

Congratulations lela xxx

[manhowdy]

Oh that's wonderful news lelapaletute ~ congratulations!!

AButterflyLightsBesideUs I hope you are now cuddling your bundle of joy too.

[lelapaletute]

Butterfly, that's great! Hope its going well.

Baby eventually came by c section this afternoon after failure to progress. It all just meant nothing once I saw her. she is perfect (and huge - 9lb2!!!) I've never loved anyone so much or been so happy, even with a nine inch abdominal wound! :)

Thank you all for bearing with me through my hellish labour - it really made a difference. You're wonderful women xxc

[sj257]

Lela, I'm pretty sure you'll have gone into labour by now, I totally get you I was left waiting 12 hours for a second gel after the pessary didn't work. Luckily I had started contracting without the need for a second one. I totally understand your frustration I was the same. I went in to be induced Wednesday morning, started getting mild contractions Thurs tea time, went to birth suite early hours of Fri morning and had him Fri afternoon xxx and now he's here I don't care about the crap induction I'm just so in love! Xxxx

[AButterflyLightsBesideUs]

I have started! Rocking around on my birth ball now, I've been contracting since this morning after a revolting start involving lots of diarrhoea and vomit. Praying this is the real thing, they do actually hurt and have been every 3-6 mins for most of the day.

[manhowdy]

Mumchatting ~ from your gestation we were due on the same day. Hopefully you've gone into labour by now! Good luck either way, as I am guessing you may now be sat waiting to be induced.

[manhowdy]

Hooray wonder! Huge congrats on your safe arrival, I am so pleased to read your update

lelapaletute sounds absolutely fucking grim and I am not surprised you are feeling the way you do. Very much like sj's induction experience at the start, and her baby came without the need of a C section, so please focus on that if you can.

Can you go for a walk? Just tell them you're going. Surely the best thing is going to be staying as active as poss and not being strapped for monitoring. My contractions definitely slowed every time I tried to relax on Weds, if I kept pottering they kept coming.

[MrsH87]

lelapaletute - not sure I have anything to make you feel better, but I'm awake and didn't want to leave your message unresponded! I'm not surprised by how you feel (all of what you write sounds like a certain way to put an end to any natural oxytocin you were producing!), but this has nothing to do with your ability - you've carried a human and kept her safe for 9 months, which is no mean feat!! This is just a small hurdle at the end of that journey. Even if it turns into days, it is still such a short amount of time compared with what you have already achieved and will achieve as a parent.

Try not to clock-watch. If you can't sleep then don't try in vain. Is there anything else you can do to relax? Do you have some music to listen to, or any relaxation techniques that might work? IPlayer or Netflix to hand - watch something mindless?

Please talk through exactly how you feel with your partner when you see him. It's really important that he knows.

Most importantly - there will be an end, you will take your baby home! x

[lelapaletute]

Congrats Wonder! I'm in overnight now halfway through 18 hours of prostin gel attempts. Sent my partner home to get some sleep - hes stressed because of how slow everything is in the ward - an hour waiting to be admitted, 2 hours before they hook me up to monitoring, keep repeating the monitoring because the machine was broken, then because it was baby's main moving time so her heart rate kept going up and down. We came in at 5 and I didn't get the first dose of prostin until 9.30 (each dose is left to work for 6 hours. Tried to sleep, but they woke me to move me to a different bay as a woman had left the crowded one and the one I was in had only me in it. Can't sleep as it is so hot.

I have never felt less like I'm about to go in to labour. It's like it's been getting further and further away since Saturday, and is now so remote a possibility all this seems completely futile. I've been crying and crying, and now I just feel completely numb and hopeless. I just want this to be over, I've stopped caring how. I'm scared by how remote I feel, I am usually so happy to hear baby's heartbeat, but I've been on monitoring so long now I can't actually bear the noise. For the last couple of weeks I've been excited, frustrated, nervous - now I just feel dead, and useless. I want my partner, but there's just no sense him being here when nothing is happening for hours on end, and it makes me feel guilty. He's meant to be on pat leave from today as we were sure we'd have a baby by now. But I could still be at this by tomorrow night without success. The idea of that seems so awful I can't quite let it in my head because it makes me wish I was dead.

Don't have an induction if you can help it - get the baby checked regularly and as long as they're not in distress or at risk, don't go down this route. I thought it was the quickest way to my baby, but it just traps you in this godawful limbo where you can't have a baby but can't do anything else except TRY to have a baby, THINK about having a baby and why you can't do it when so many women can.

I keep seeing myself as part of this smaller and smaller percentage of women - first the 1/5 who have to be induced, then the 27% of that 20% for whom Propess doesn't work, then the whatever tiny percent for whom prostin doesn't work, and so on until they FINALLY just cut the baby out of me because my body can't birth her.

All I want right now is to go to sleep and not wake up again until the baby is born and I can take her home. But I don't see myself getting the chance to sleep for possibly days.

Is this what PND feels like? Can you get PND without even having had a baby? I don't know. I just can't see anything positive to hang on to, it all looks grim and hopeless.

[Mumchatting]

Congratulations Wonder !!
42+1 that's impressive :-)

[sj257]

Congratulations wonder, my first was 42+1! You sound like you did amazingly xxxx

I feel like I've been hit by a bus today, had such a bad night with my little one, at 7 this morning I'd had 45 minutes sleep. Managed to sleep 7-9.15, 3 hours total, I'm running on empty. I was ready to give up breastfeeding. I'm feeling more positive now but kind of dreading tonight!

[Wonderflonium]

Hello my darlings! She's here! 42+1

In Denmark, they give you oral prostaglandins first before they try the pessary and send you home. I took 6 of them and the contractions started to actually come regularly and stay. They were more than manageable but arriving really close together, so we called the midwife. I was supposed to get my "own" team of three with an 80% chance of getting one of them.
The Law of Sod smiled on me and I was in the 20%.

Showed up to the labour ward and had a CTG, the contractions well and truly petered out, my cervix was no different from the morning and I was grumpy as hell. They sent me home. They instructed me to get some sleep but with contractions every 3 minutes this was more aspirational. I was just drifting in a doze when I felt this bizarre 'pop' inside me (not waters but the bloody show made its appearance) and then shit got real.

Got a lovely midwife who examined me and found my cervix was mostly effaced but not really dilated. This changed really quickly and I dilated all the way in a few hours. This was way more than I could handle with a bath and some mantras, so I worked my way up to the epidural. It meant they needed to do a continuous CTG and once I fully dilated around the midwife change of shift, there were signs that the baby was having a horrible time so they needed to do even more monitoring.

The deal had been that I'd get a named midwife and she'd be the one with me, maybe a student... In the event, I got two midwives I had never met, a student midwife, and once the extra monitoring began, a doctor, a midwife supervisor and a healthcare assistant.

I was sort of hoping the epidural would make pushing, you know, not painful. But no, it was. Also my PGP was horrific. The pushing phase lasted a lot longer than I thought it would and they were talking about vacuum extraction... and then she came out and everything was lovely suddenly. PGP gone.

What surprised me was, having seen births like this on OBEM, I thought I'd be more distressed but I'm actually fine with how it went. They were respectful and kind, and that made all the difference.

Super congrats SJ, hope your husband is ok. I'm sorry the epidural didn't work, that sucks.

Fingers crossed for you Lelapaletue