Banging my head against a wall

[ThePolishWombat]

Been in slow, latent labour for 8 days.
8 fucking days.
Baby number 3, and I’ve never experienced any form of slow labour before. DC1 was an induction, so straight in with full force contractions. DC2 I must have slept through the latent phase, woke up early in the morning with regular contractions and baby was born that afternoon with little difficulty.
But this baby is something else entirely
I have a few hours of pretty regular contractions - stronger than Braxton Hicks but not quite what I’d call painful, then nothing. Not even a twinge. And this has been over a week now.
Don’t even know what I want from this thread - just a whinge I guess. I’m just so deflated, frustrated, tired, about ready to strangle DC1 (thank god she goes back to school tomorrow!!) and DH isn’t remotely helpful or sympathetic.

UURRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.

This starty-stoppy labour is really common for third babies if that makes you feel any better OP. I had around 10 days of on and off twinges, exactly as you describe, but when labour finally got going it was absolutely fine and DS3 was delivered within 2 hours of contractions properly starting. Nothing at all I did could get him moving earlier, tried it ALL! I’d had two straightforward labours before so I’d been completely blasé about birthing #3, but midwives warned me weeks in advance that the thirds can be slow to get going. ‘When the apple is ripe, it will fall from the tree’ was quoted at me time and time again. Funny now but INFURIATING at the time.

Keep us updated, best of luck

I’m still pregnant.
Still losing the will to live

Baby boy born here yesterday

Come on op you can do it

Have you tried those capsules? Raspberry leaf or similar?

@IVEgottheDECAF omg congratulations hope you’re both doing well!!

I’m making enchiladas for dinner, as spicy as possible in the hope that it at least gives me a bit of the trots and irritates my stubborn uterus into some sort of activity

Another fucking false start early this morning.
Pretty painful contractions every 5ish mins, lasting around 50 seconds each. Did the school run, came home and it tapered off into nothing again

How many weeks are you now, op?

Any sign of that baby yet op? I hope so!

Nope IVEGot.
Another episode of pretty gnarly contractions, 4ish mins apart last night but that fizzled into nothing again.

How’s your new addition settling into the family?!

Oh op this was me with my last ... I made it to 42+ 3 before I got on the trampoline and bounced a few gentle bounces (Midwife's suggestion) it did the trick - a gentler option though is to watch a film that makes you feel happy, get that oxytocin flowing.
Good luck!

Might be worth getting a private ultrasound, OP. They'll check blood flow through the cord which is important as you get later on. Also hopefully pick up any problems before they develop.

She’s still moving around as normal and there’s been no concerns about blood flow etc from her growth scans - she’s just small. So I guess she just needs a little longer to cook than her siblings did!
I figure that as frustrating as this is, I’m probably hindering the process by letting myself stress about it

When was your due date op

Update: baby born this morning, on her due date (little weirdo!), at home perfectly uncomplicated.
Have had to take a trip to the hospital though after as her oxygen levels were a little low, but she’s doing great

Congratulations, baby is finally here, not early or late. Just on time!

Yay! Congratulations!

Aww congratulations!! I'm sure she's worth the wait after all of that teasing she did!

Congratulations OP!!! Wow what a process, well done, I bet she's just beautiful.

Congratulations