Last week or two of pregnancy

[squidkid]

Just a place for advice/suggestions or a place to chat for those of us in the last couple weeks of pregnancy. I am on a brilliant antenatal thread but my due date is the first there and I don't want to bore them all with nonsense about braxton hicks and how to fill my days when lots of them are still at work... and I think they would prefer their babies to stay inside for now! I'm not quite at the "get it out of me" stage yet... but I'm definitely at the "if you came now you'd be very welcome" stage.... :)

I am 38+5 today and this is first baby. I know most first babies come late, so I've been trying to tell myself I'll be late throughout the pregnancy, but now I'm term it's hard not to be excited. In the last three or four days I've had long periods of continuous mild period-like pain, and some painful tightenings (sometimes very close together, but then they stop). Are these imminent signs, do these mean nothing... I don't really know. I haven't had a show.

Baby has been engaged since 34 weeks (uncomfortable!) I'm pretty sure his/her back is on the left side at the front (all the kicks are upper right hand side) which I think is ideal. I'm a little obsessive about keeping baby in a good position - I spend time on all fours, make sure I get plenty of walking/standing, sit on a gym ball when I'm on the computer, sleep on my side, I don't lie back on the sofa. I'm probably overthinking this.

I am doing pretty ok for late pregnancy - still walking at least a few miles a day, or swimming, or walking into town every day. I actually did a charity night hike last night! (Boyfriend carried maternity notes in his backpack through the woods - it was a bit stupid really!) I am slow, but I thought I'd be a lot heavier and more immobile by this stage to be honest. I stopped work a while back - a very busy, stressful, physically and emotionally demanding job - so I've had a lot of time to relax, nest, exercise, see almost all my friends, sort my flat out. Everything is neat and sorted and stocked and ready.

I'm grateful that I've had a troublefree pregnancy and hoping the birth will go fine too. Feeling positive and relaxed about it, just impatient!

How are other people doing? Staying busy, getting anxious, waiting, over-analysing every tiny sign!? Any suggestions for good things to do in the last week or two? Please no one tell me to 'get lots of sleep' as this is the one thing I am completely incapable of at the moment - up every 30-60 mins through the night...

Thanks for the update Polly, well done and congratulations - no stitches too!

My sweep was more of a painful poke and hasn't done anything. 41 weeks today and thinking I'm definitely going to get to induction now (probably next Thurs) and that makes me very sad, just want my body to work for me :(

To all the South Wales ladies, I'm in Bristol, so not far away!

Funchum, I will check that out! xx

Aw Spice17, I am sorry you feel induction is inevitable now :( Do you feel up for trying/have you tried any of the 'natural induction methods'?

My doula did me some reflexology today. It was lovely. I was hoping it might get things going, but nope!

Sorted out a lot of aches and pains though :)

Ugh. Over the las t couple days I have started to retain water big time. My joints are achy, and my wrists are swollen kicking up the carpal tunnel. If I sit wrong my feet go numb annd... when I walk, the top of my feet jiggle ewwwwwww.. So done!

According to class, we will feed, burp, change and swaddle our new babies.... Hmmmmm did I forget something?

pooh beeblebear! swelling is a good sign! :)

*oooh (darn autocorrect)

Did she do induction reflexology Weebl? I'm having that next week. I hope it blinking works!
I have terrible backache but I can't decide if that's our mattress or the start of something. I cannot believe I can't remember how labour starts!

Hope the swelling isn't too bad Beeblebear.
Hope everyone else is ok.
I'm starting to get some horrible anxious moments where the scary thoughts kick in

Lol @ Spice17's "painful poke", sounds like a more natural method of induction in my current state

seabuckthorn, she did use a little bit of clary sage and do those areas, but she was quite restrained as i am only 38+5. i would definitely have a proper one after dates though if needed :)

Awwww seabuckthorn I get those scary thoughts too but we have to trust that when things start, our bodies will get us into a "let's get to it!!' frame of mind. All those hormones, serotonin, adrenaline etc, will kick in and we'll be all about the giving birth :)

Yomping are you really looking forward to it? I know you're waiting for it to happen and obviously want it to but would you say you're actively looking forward to it? I seem to have lost that (lovin') feeling (woa, woa) in the last few days and I want it back :( I almost feel afraid of my baby - oh god, that sounds mental.

weezl the reflexology sounds lovely, definitely going to try that at 41 weeks if I am still here!

How can I say I am afraid and in the same breath talk about more ways to bring on labour??

am not yompingjo but i do understand and feel both the huge excitement and wanting to meet silas ( the baby) bit also being very frightened of him coming and all it might mean.

not sure why i said that as i have no sage words! just hoped it might feel nice to not feel alone in the feeling!

weezl totally right - just nice to know we're not alone in these feelings :) thank you.

Weez have so far tried (lots of) pineapple, bouncing on my ball and had a long walk today, DH says we should try sex tonight and that 'I don't have to enjoy it'

I do have some Raspberry leaf tea but I imagined it would be all fruity and nice but actually smells like mushrooms

Agreed! but socially i think we are all only expected to say and feel the 'yay! a baby' part. so it can be a bit lonely-making sitting with the other bit. hugs anyway, and i hope some of that lovin' feelin re-emerges soon ;)

SPICE! you made me spit out my tea!

how kind of him to permit you not to enjoy it!

I hate to disappoint him but your enjoyment brings forth a useful surge of oxytocin, so he does need to erm.... be attentive shall we say ;)

Ha ha, he just asked me about whether he could, erm, 'do things to me' and I said it might feel weirdly inappropriate but, well if it's necessary then I guess I'll have to let him!

I hope mine isn't too restrained! Weezl sorry my phone changed you to Weebl! Do you feel any different?
Orenishii, thank you, I'm glad it's not just me that has these wobbles. They tend to happen when I'm up in the middle of the night.

How is everyone this afternoon? I'm about to have a decaf coffee and a mince pie (yes, yes judge away!)

Lol spice! How did I miss that post!

Orenishii, I fluctuate between looking forward to it and dreading it, if I'm honest. I'm still very much looking forward to it in a "when the fuck will this be over?" kind of way, but that's not what you meant.

For a while, I was really genuinely excited about labour, for lots of different reasons - a totally new experience, a chance to find out how I'd do, a chance to put my body through something really intense after such a long time of not doing this (mountaineering, rock climbing and running have had to be postponed and I'm really, really missing the physical challenge, and I think labour will be a bit like that - a real physical challenge, like a race or a mountain I'm slogging my way up, getting more and more tired as I get close to the top), the start of something utterly new, , sheer curiosity about this amazing thing I have never done...

I don't know what happened to all that positivity though. Confusion over due dates has meant that I have felt like the baby could come at any minute for 4 weeks now, with a possible 2-and-a-bit more weeks to go before I am properly overdue. That's a long time to be "ready", and my symptoms (BH, achy feeling of baby being engaged) fluctuate daily rather than gradually increasing. Loads of people who were due before me or at a similar time to my original due date have now given birth (on here, in NCT group, in real life) so I'm starting to feel like this will never happen. Having read other people's birth stories, I'm starting to doubt myself and whether I'll be able to do this the way I thought I would (home, water, hypnosis and relaxation as my pain relief), - I guess the stories give me a more realistic view but it does dampen my enthusiasm as it makes me feel the experience that I was enthusiastic for was just a stupid unrealistic dream - so I no longer have such a solid view in my head of how I think it will be and I can't get enthusiastic about uncertainty. I actually feel really sad typing this, because it was nice, and really liberating, to be looking forward to labour and I don't feel that I am any more . I think the threat of having to fight off induction soon is making me feel negative too.

Perhaps it is just a hormonal thing and this is just a bad day. I'm really fed up with the physical discomforts of late pregnancy, the difficulty moving around in bed, the inability to bend over or sit comfortably, the heartburn if I dare to eat a normal sized portion of food, the discomfort of the baby moving around as it is running out of room - all these things are putting a real dampener on these last few weeks, and I know that is very self indulgent of me because compared to most people at this stage I am actually having it really easy and have very little to complain about. There's just not much to distract me from it at the moment. DH works shift, 5 days off, 5 days on, and I'm pretty lonely at the moment when he's at work, but equally too lazy to actually get off my butt and do anything. Today is his last day in this set of shifts so I'll have him around for the next 5 days and I'm sure they'll fly by and I'll feel more positive.

Wow, that was a bit of an epic post. Guess the answer to your question was quite complex . I'm not scared of the baby (although I do know what you mean), but I am scared of not doing myself proud and feeling like I let myself down by not being strong enough to have the birth I want, and the more time goes by, the less confidence I have in myself in that respect .

YompingJo, that's a really insightful post. I really like and relate to this phrase 'I can't get enthusiastic about uncertainty'.

Can I ask why using other coping methods than the ones you mentioned would make you feel less good about the experience of labour? Please feel free to ignore if you'd rather not say :)

We spent the morning in the assessment unit as the baby hadn't moved for 14 hrs, where usually he somersaults like mad. He's fine though, so that's good. I was frightened, but mostly because of my 2 older sons.

Yomping I coud have written your post word for word. Swap out the rockclimbing/mountaineering for running around the forest, parkour, climbing trees, martial arts, open water swimming challenges - and I'm 100% identical to you. I was so into this idea of seeing what my body could do - so into this getting down with the primal thing of childbirth. DH and I are really into primal movement, we eat a paleo diet, we're barefoot runners, everything we do is about getting back to our primal selves...what on earth could possibly be more primal than surrendering your body to the transition your body makes during childbirth?

But now...like you, maybe I've read too much and I'm really doubting my ability and my choices. I also opted for a hypnobirth in the pool at home - for my first! I had so much trust in my body just doing its thing but now I've read too much, realised anything can and will happen and it just makes me doubt myself. I know hypnobirthing really just means we could give birth on the high street and it doesn't matter - what matters is the head space. But your last paragraph is exactly where I am right now. Maybe it's just last minute jitters. I still have faith that in that moment, when it's all happening - regardless of what happens - there'll be some inner-ness that pulls through. But my previous resolve is going. I was downright excited to give birth - and not just to see my baby but to also just get an animalistic, and now a very modern, very unwanted Orenishii is taking over and I don't like it :)

weezl hope you're OK, that must have been very stressful! Glad to hear the baby is OK.

Yomping, I can relate to how you are feeling. With my first I feel similar in terms of the physical challenge and new experience.
I can also relate in all 3 of pregnancies to the last few weeks uncomfort, I seem to be generally annoyed a lot of the time. Everything is an effort and my brain is suddenly refusing to function. I no longer can make even simple blinking decisions!
Hormones play a big part and having a shifted due date must be so annoying.
Your OH is off for the week so hopefully that will help you will feel more perky, fingers crossed!
In the mean time please pass the gaviscon.
I'm not sure I've helped in any way but you are not alone!

P.s piles, oh my word help me!

Yomping, labour will be unlike any other extreme challenge you have undertaken, ever. That's not to say it will be the stuff of nightmares, but your body will have to endure an experience it's never known before. If you were told you were about to climb a mountain or a cliff face more challenging than you had ever known, could you be persuaded to alter your perception of the equipment you may need? Try to look at labour like this. You may well have to accept all kinds of help and equipment to get you through but that just means your mountain was extra specially hard. I think you'll do a marvellous job.