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Meet-ups

When meeting up take sensible precautions. Meet in a public place and let others know where you are going.

Durham / North East Meet Ups - 2012

962 replies

juneybean · 19/12/2011 20:47

Hello hello! Here I am with good intentions to behave and show up to some meet ups since I utterly failed in 2011! Grin

So we need ideas for daytime meets and of course we must not forget our night time meets Wink

[b]Daytime Ideas[/b]
Beamish
Saltwell Park, Gateshead
The Giants Den, Team Valley
Botanic Gardens
Beach (in the summer of course, unless we want airborne children!)

Okay so ideas for January daytime, I think cake is definitely in order so I propose the one that's next to Ebony, the huge place, down some steps, uhh... Slug & Lettuce is it? CAKE!

January night time? Is this something we want to plan? I know we're always poor after Christmas!

OP posts:
hackneyzoo · 05/03/2012 13:18

Congratulations Indith! Lovely name! Smile

spiffysquiffyspiggy · 05/03/2012 13:20

YAY!!!! Welcome to the world little Arthur. Now you have to be nice to mummy after causing her all this stress Grin

VikingLady · 05/03/2012 13:32

Indith congratulations! I shall tell bump that she is now free to get going Wink

Unfortunately dh has an urgent medical appointment tomorrow that I need to go to with him, and it is a long way from home, so I expect my waters to go in the waiting room. At least it would take his mind off it!

House stinks of Clary Sage.

spiffysquiffyspiggy · 05/03/2012 13:39

Viking an urgent appointment tomorrow sounds just the recipe for going into labour tonight Grin

stickyLFDTfingers · 05/03/2012 14:22

Indith congratulations! And welcome to the world Arthur! Wonderful news

juneybean · 05/03/2012 17:41

Yayyyy welcome to the world little Arthur!!

SPB - been at work this afternoon so haven't added any more, going to have to work hard tonight to finish it to hand it in tomorrow! Rawr!

OP posts:
Indith · 05/03/2012 21:08

Viking you have to go into labour with such an important appointment.

My baby is so very snuggly and he smells amazing :)

Hello Pudden :)

We cut it very fine you know. Contractions started 4.15! Had 3 at 10 min intervals, got up intending to potter but they sped right up. Called hospital, spoke to MW on call at 5am, she came straight away. I was 6cm. We ran out of hot water so no pool. I bellowed, got some gas. Broke the mouthpiece (dh found this very amusing due to being sat next to escaping gas Grin). Lots of pressure, resisted pushing until it felt right, delivered on all 4s oiver the birth ball. It was really easy! I was pushing the head out and expecting it to get worse but it was out!

spiffysquiffyspiggy · 05/03/2012 21:25

Grin at DH getting the benefit of the g&a. A has always hankered after trying it but I've never been willing to share Grin

It sounds like a good birth even if the run up to it wasn't so good! He certainly kept us you waiting. Am Envy at your lovely newborn snuggles.

Right Viking, your turn now. Smile Our pompoms are all ready and waiting no pressure

StealthPolarBear · 05/03/2012 22:38

Fantastic birth :o
Did your DCs enjoy meeting him?

LeggyBlondeNE · 06/03/2012 11:50

Oo, am Envy at the two hour labour! Although a shame about the hot water and no pool.

Looking forward to new-baby adoration!

KaraStarbuckThrace · 06/03/2012 15:51

Grr at no hot water, but yey for quick birth!
Enjoy your snuggles.
Now all you need to do is organise cake delivery :D

StealthPolarBear · 07/03/2012 06:48

Quiet thread at the moment, how's eeryone doing?

VikingLady · 07/03/2012 09:51

MW check up yesterday, apparently may now be breech and have scan to check this at 4pm today (earliest they could fit me in). Since I have already started getting a lot of the signs I do not find this reassuring... I won't go into icky details since this is NOT a TMI thread!

So now have crossed legs until 4pm.

But the midwife does seem to be a bit of a moron. She's semi retired and keeps forgetting to do various checks, can never tell which way up it is (though no one else seems to have any trouble), is VERY interventionist and EXTREMELY anti home birth. So not sure I believe her...

LeggyBlondeNE · 07/03/2012 10:57

Oo, Viking who's your midwife? I had a pair of semi-retired MWs during my pregnancy. One was rather scattier than the other!

Good luck with the scan

Indith · 07/03/2012 11:34

Hope the scan goes well. Grr to rubbish MW. Such a shame. Still, when older MWs trained it was very medicalised so not surprising.

Must say, though I was stressed out with the whole waters going lack of contractions, induction thing everyone was very much "this is the guideline, what do you want? Are you happy with X?" which looking back on I'm impressed by. They seem to have changed a lot in the past 5 years, I've noticed things being far more mother centred through this whole pregnancy.

VikingLady · 07/03/2012 12:37

Midwife is Barbara. She was lovely for the first 6 months; she only started being negative when I said I wanted a hb. I'm not surprised that she is very interventionist but it would be nice if I could pick a mw who was in line with what I wanted! If we win the lottery tonight I am paying for a private mw!

Euromillions win: I will set up a fund for independent mws to help with hbs.

spiffysquiffyspiggy · 07/03/2012 13:56

grr to possible breech. Still a scan is reassuring that they are actually pointing the right way if you don't 100% trust the mw. I had one 2 days before T was born (to check his size) and the sonographer talked me through his lie and that the fact that he was in absolutely the best position for birth which was great.

Are you ok for getting to the hospital if you've had loads of signs?

Indith · 07/03/2012 17:22

Soooooo proper details. Hope you are home from your scan now Viking and that the bump is behaving herself!

On Sunday I has lots of mucus coming away whenever I went to the loo then through the day I started going more and more often and eventually put a pad in when I started feeling rather damp between wees too grin. Afternoon started getting later and was getting liquid not just mucus. Never having had my waters go before labour before I mostly ignored it and hoped I could at least get the dcs to bed before anything happened.

Dcs in bed at 7 and was less moist and more constantly dripping so called the hospital who said I had to go in to be checked out and to bring an overnight bag though so long as all was well I would be able to go home. Lovely friend who lives up the road came down, fully expecting to be there all night, luckily Monday is not a work day for her so we knew she would drag the dc up to hers in the morning and deliver them to school/nursery along with hers if need be and off we went to hospital with me getting more and more stressed. Got hooked straight up to monitor, ds bounced around merrily and they were happy with colour of waters so didn't even do an internal. Apparently I had a couple of contractions while on the monitor but I couldn't feel them (MW who did my sweep Friday said I was having a tightening while she was examining me too and was quite surprised I had no idea!). They let me go after sorting out timescale for induction/antibiotics etc. They were lovely about it really, very good at telling us guidelines but asking me what I was happy with and leaving things as long as possible to allow HB. I knew I could have refused induction and ABs and insisted on regular temp checks etc instead but tbh I couldn't be bothered by that point with the logistics of it (going in daily for monitoring, dh notwasting paternity therefore being at work, still having school runs, what if I went in for temp/monitor session and ended up not leaving....) so we agreed on 9am for induction in the hopes that things would be far enough along that we could avoid ABs.

Got home to surprise of friend, sorted out if we needed to we'd throw the dcs at her in the morning then I sat up way too late rolling on ball because I thought I should stay active to have a chance of labour starting and stressing. Neither of us thought about the fire. Ooops! Dh convinced me to come to bed, sensibly pointing out that with the others I had no signs of labour at all then it started while I was asleep. Finally 4.18 I felt a contraction. 4.28 another. 4.38 another. Got up to potter, straight away they got more frequent but still very short so I phoned hospital. Nice lady on phone tried to tell me if they were 10 mins apart, short and I was breathing through them then I probably had a way to go so I rather sharply told her that when I get going I go fast and she needed to call the community MW grin. Spoke to CMW at 5, she was here around 5.30 by which time I was draped over the ball and rocking on all 4s. She called the second and told her I was "contracting like a good'un". Dh who had been setting up pool came and told me there wasn't enough water because we'd not built the fire up earlier. I did not understand what he was trying to tell me. MW merrily got on with getting a sheet and some padding under my knees on the basis I was not moving anywhere and I got on the gas and promptly broke the mouthpiece rocking against the ball so dh shared the benefit grin.

Head came down really suddenly and I started grunting but knew I wasn't ready to push so held off a bit. Few more contractions, 2nd MW arrived to the relief of the first and I got a little more upright to push. Felt myself start to stretch round the head, had moment of panic about tearing (not needed stitches before but with dd had a tiny tear towatds the rear and things not been quite the same since) but asked MW to apply pressure and it made a huge difference. They told me he was getting tired and I needed to get him out straight away and they got the oxygen ready and told me if needed then we couldn't delay cord clamping etc. I nodded but didn't pay much attention because the same happened with the others, I must do something odd in labour grin. Head came out really easily, I honestly though I had at least twice as much to stretch! The rest of him followed next contraction, he yelled, I scooped him up and no oxygen was needed. It was 6.05 smile

I rubbed him down a bit then we went onto the sofa and snuggled up and fed for an hour. The dcs woke up and came to peer at him then at 7 the afyerpains were killing all enjoyment so we cut the cord and I had the injection to evict the placenta which helped take some of the intensity off. He was weighed, I had a shower, everyone left and somehow dh got the big ones off to school and nursery.

So far so good. He is feeding well and now my milk is in he seems a bit happier between feeds. He is a velcro baby like his brother. You could put dd down and she would stay asleep but definitely not this one!

spiffysquiffyspiggy · 07/03/2012 18:38

oooh lovely story. Good job they listened to you and sent a mw as you wouldn't have wanted to cut it any finer Grin

How are the afterpains now? I found they were worse than labour. How are the other DCs with him? Enjoying life as a family of 5?

VikingLady · 07/03/2012 19:19

So glad yours went well, Indith!

Am breech. Appointment tomorrow to try and turn it, but the bum is well down and they are not optimistic. Not a happy bunny tonight. Off now to invert myself off the edge of the sofa.

Indith · 07/03/2012 19:35

Oh no! What are your options? Are they happy to do vaginal delivery at all or is it section?

There is a fair bit on the campaign for normal birth about reclaiming breech as an alternative presentation rather than a problem but of course the skills are lacking and need to be relearned.

spiffysquiffyspiggy · 07/03/2012 19:49

oh bugger. Have you been on spinningbabies.com/ yet? They have tips for helping shift unco-operative blighters. What is the plan if turning doesn't work? I sent you a text before- if you do have to go in and need any help with getting to hospital then give me a shout.

VikingLady · 07/03/2012 20:17

If turning doesn't work, then its c-section. They don't have any staff who are comfortable with breech vaginal births. I was quite surprised at that, since I know a lot of people do manage it! I have to take my hospital bag in tomorrow when they do the turning in case the process distresses the baby - that would be an emergency c-section.

The consultant was very positive about turning it, but said success depends on how far down the birth canal it is (he can't unwedge it if it is well wedged in) and how relaxed I am. So easy to be relaxed... Making up massage oil with essential oils for relaxing, but not much I can do about the constant bhs!

And no food tomorrow until after they've finished with me, in case of caesarian.

I've been on spinningbabies. I'll be doing some inversion before bed, then again several times tomorrow to try and lift it back up again. Unfortunately it feels pretty far down to me...

spiffysquiffyspiggy · 07/03/2012 20:39

On the positive side- at least they spotted it and it didn't come as a surprise during the birth. And if it does turn out to be a planned c-section then you will be able to tell your mum so she can get up here.

I hope it all works, will keep my fingers tightly crossed for you- what time is the appointment tomorrow?

VikingLady · 07/03/2012 21:07

1pm. And I don't see how she didn't spot it several weeks ago! The bump is exactly the same shape as it has been for at least a month, with the only hard round bit directly under my ribs. What exactly was she meant to be checking when she palpated my tummy? Everyone I saw today said it was obvious! And if it had been spotted a few weeks ago, turning it would be more likely to be successful. Attempting to remain calm.

When I have the next one I am NOT having her as a midwife. She's massively negative anyway.

I want a gin!