June 08 - 79 days (and counting) til Christmas, has Deb started her shopping yet?!

[KnittingisbetterthanTherapy]

Thought we should update the thread!

Oh Spider , William is lovely, made me quite broody, shame I couldn't have had another Birthday buddy for you!!

Abdn, any inspiration for an easy Fireman's outfit for Ethan, I don;t like the ones I've seen online. ELC used to do fabric printed tabards for Dr, police etc but I can't see them anymore. I haven't the time but my Mum is great at sewing!

Rolf, great news about your friend

Bicuits, hope you don't have to wait too long to meet your baby.

Spider he's gorgeous . I love love his name, too.

Biscuits hope you meet your baby soon. This is all so exciting! I have my lovely baby name book handy (with the list of "of you like ... you might like..." if anyone wants anything looking up.

Abdn v helpful, thanks. Does my DH read? Do we buy houses specifically with bookcases in mind? Abebooks is his favourite website in the whole world!

deb DS1's outfit was bought in Canada and is definitely not a homemade job (pic on fb). I think it's the reflective stripes that identify it as a fireman costume though... so if you had a hardwearing jacket and trousers you could simply sew (or iron - ask the bondaweb queen!) them on.

deb are you still a wee bit broody? Mine has totally disappeared...

Thanks Abdn, it looks a lovely costume.I don't really want a baby, well we probably would if I was 5 years younger!!I just love newborn babies and I always will

Wow Spider congratulations! Lovely name, he is so gorgeous (as is Peter so no surprise there!). hope he is doing well on his ABs and that you are not feeling too bruised and battered. Well done on the birth, so pleased you got the VBAC you wanted and that hypnobirthing worked so well (I am jealous cos I still found my labour mega-painful even with HB!). I would have loved to have seen the MWs' faces when they thought nothing much was happening and out popped a baby

We are having a week indoors this week with no nappies on, just to see if they can crack it (or at least one of them). It would be so much easier for me if they were trained cos I have 3 in cloth atm. E managed 2 wees on the potty and T did 1 yest (but they had nappies in for a few hours in aft when they went for their nap and we went to my mum's). We are not going out again this week so no nappies apart from at sleep time. Esther seems very pleased with her "pretty knickers" but everytime I say to Theo 'are you going to have a wee on the potty" he says "No!"

Rolf look up Charlotte for me in your book will you - we're still struggling a bit with girls names....

Maybe you should retrain as a midwife Deb? I was thinking yesterday how all the mw's manage to enthuse about all the babies I assume it's genuine not just put on out of obligation. However the downside of the job did occur to me whilst one mw was mopping up round me as I was "paddling" (her words) in amniotic fluid. .

Here's what happened: Thursday had the sweep was 2-3cm and had a bit of show on and off. Saturday walked to fireworks display, got home, more show probably from the walk. Sunday: DH asks for the a lie in. P and I watch Strictly on replay, I feel one or two twinges, DH gets up at 9, we finally erect the Amby hammock. We go for another walk in glorious Autumn weather. Driving back I feel a few twinges and wonder whether I should be driving or not. At home we have lunch and I start counting contractions and realise they are lasting 40 seconds and I am getting 3 in 10 mins. DH thinks I should call hospital but they aren't painful so I hold off. About 2pm I call hospital and they say to come in but only because I say I haven't felt any fetal movements. Slowly head to the hospital, get sent to the day assessment centre, wait for 30 mins to be seen. Beginning to find contractions too strong to sit through. Get a bed and get on the monitor and my waters go everywhere . MW tells me that she will only check my dilation when I request some pain relief . I decline but wonder what happens when people don't want pain relief. At about 6pm mw announces that they are closing the ante natal ward for the night and moving everyone on antenatal to post natal, but because I am not an inpatient I can stay on the day assessment unit overnight with DH. I ask what would need to happen for me to go to delivery suite. She say I would have to be in active labour and she reluctantly offers to examine me to see if I qualify. At 7pm I am examined and she is surprised that I am 5-6cm but "let's call it 5" and yes I can go to the delivery suite. Get to delivery suite just before shift handover so lots of coming and going of registrars, mw's etc who are all v keen to offer pain relief, discuss using syntocin if things don't progress. The mw going off duty puts me on the monitor as "that's part of the deal" (for a VBAC) and strongly encourages me to lie down. I am a bit pissed off as they seem intent on medicalising the whole process at te earliest opportunity. Meanwhile the contractions are still every 2-3 minutes and pretty intense but I am breathing through them and trying to remember all the stuff from the hypno CDs about relaxing the rest of your body etc. The registrar decides to "give me" till 11pm before checking my dilation again and continues to mutter about augmentation. DH and I are a bit as we think that's quite a long time off given how things have moved so far. New much nicer mw comes on shift and I manage to zone out between contractions even feeling a bit sleepy at times. Still lying down on my side as everytime I try to get active we lose the trace. Probably at about 10ish the contractions start to feel different with a downward sensation, they also start to get a whole lot more painful. I am trying really hard to grasp onto the phrase from the hypno CD "power, pressure and warmth" but really I am thinking "fuckity fuck this is excruciating". I tell the mw that I am having downward (pushing) sensations. She says it is a good sign but doesn't seem overly phased or interested. A bit later she does check and I am 10cm. She then gets me to lie back on my side and I am wonder if it is possible to give birth in this position.

Don't leave is in suspense - I am gripped!

The contractions continue like this. MW keep commenting on how this is the most serene labour she has seen in a long time. I am feeling the opposite of serene and find this comment a bit implausible. DH starts getting his hand gripped very very hard indeed. MW says that the heartbeat is decelerating during contractions because I am lying on my side and there is no space... Err yes. I get up on my knees and drape over the head board. I can really feel the head getting close now, and then suddenly the head is out. Cue much amazement and exclamation from the midwife who gets a colleague in just in time. I suspect they weren't gloved up or ready. There is then quite a long gap before a final contraction and out comes William. I am told to keep still and all I can see are a pair of feet wriggling between my knees. I have to ask whether it is a girl or a boy. There is a gush of blood as DH cuts the cord and I needed stitching up which took forever. I am eventually allowed to turn over and have a cuddle, and I find myself asking the mw if she is ok .
Generally it was staggering how normal I felt almost immediately after the birth. Getting up, having a shower, walking to the ward, still having the ability to sit up using my tummy muscles. Such a contrast to last time.

What a great labour Spider. Well done . How is William today?

Biscuits will get the book...

What a fab birth story - I'm very jealous that i'll never get to experience a VB myself but I'm sure I could never be as calm and 'serene' as you were Spider even if you didn;'t feel it on the inside - well done that girl!!

Oh how lovely Spider!! tears in my eyes here. And LOL at the midwives!!

Biscuits:

"If you like Charlotte, you might love...
Arabella
Caroline
Celia
Clementine
Colette
Georgina
Jane
Juliet
Lucy
Madeline
Margaret
Nora
Rosa
Sophia
Susannah"

Oh Spider, tears in my eyes too!! Love the fuckity fuck bit!!!How's William today and what does Peter think of his baby brother?Are your parents with him?

I did consider retraining as a MW but I really don't think I'm cut out for when things go wrong, also a bit squeamish too so that wouldn't help!!Which other job could I do that involves cuddling newborns?

Sore back here today which is very bad news when packing!!!

Deb - a maternity nanny!

"Clunky but cool names:

Agatha
Agnes
Augusta
Edith
Eleonora
Eudora
Florence
Frances
Frederica
Harriet
Helen
Henrietta
Ida
Imogen
Iris
Isadora
Josephine
Mabel
Margaret
Matilda
Myrtle
Olive
Pearl
Phoebe
Prudence
Rosamund
Theodora"

I hope you appreciate my restraint in not adding my own comments after these names

I can't believe they didn't put Emily as name that goes with Charlotte.

Really lovely birth story spider.

Debs you could be a healthcare assitant on a post natal ward but you would also have to work on labour ward cleaning up after women who had given birth - not for the squemish. I got a place on a midwifery couse but had to give up the place when I fell pregnant the first time, now it's just to hard to pay for/arrange childcare.

I like Clementine on one of your lists Rolf but not sure I could actually use it on a child. Less pretty versions of both of my girls names are on the clunky list.

You did so well Spider! It sounds like an amazing and positive experience. I had ds1 on my side, with one leg on the midwife's shoulder - tres elegant!

I think Emily or Emilia goes beautifully with Charlotte.

Agree about Emily

I LOVE the clunky list. We've used or thought about lots of the names on there. There's an "if you love Emily" list, too if you want, Biscuits? Or am I scaring you?

Going just checked your girls' names on fb - yes, much prettier .

It may be obvious that I am avoiding doing anything today. We had a bottle of champagne last night which was lovely but I feel terrible .

We have another reason for not having another child. We've gone up by a syllable each time - so DS1's name is 1 syllable,etc, leading up to DD1's 4-syllable mouthful. The only 5-syllable name we could think of were Agrippinilla. So 4 children it is.

I'm supposed to be going to a meeting at school in a few minutes and I really don't feel like it. I had a major brain-fog at the last meeting and denied all knowledge of a committee and all its meetings, when in fact I was the chairman .

Right, must get cleaned up...

spider, that's awesome! Well done you .

Rolf that makes me laugh and is also reassuring - there are large chunks of the last several years that I have no memory of. In fact I found email records of a research project I was working on when pregnant with ds and had to find the actual papers to remember anything about the project at all

Spider re. fuckity fuck - my strongest memory of the 'pushing' stage was the phrase going through my head over and over again 'get her out and the pain will stop' - this was not on my hypnobirthing CDs either, I had gone way beyond 'go to your special place' by this point!

Lol Rolf, that is fab !! Dying to know what DD1's name is now and I'm going to be really embarrassed if you've mentioned it and I've forgotten .

I am now going mad trying to think of 5 syllabled names!! Can ony get 4s - how annoying!!

Aha - Alexandria!