Anyone else very fed up of being pregnant now?

[RoseberryTopping]

I'm 35 weeks and driving myself crazy! I'm so uncomfortable and this heat isn't helping. I'm constantly expanding, my jeans are getting too tight but it seems silly to buy anymore now.

I just want him out, he must be just about big enough by now!

Anyone else feeling the same?

Drama: Good luck today. Can you let your emotions out and have a bit of a cry? That should get their attention on the fact that you most certainly do NOT feel fine!

drama I do hope that you get somewhere today with the MW, I am amazed that the MW has said that you feel fine in your notes. I think sometimes that they see women in the run up to giving birth so often that they sometimes forget how the woman about to give birth feels. I am sure you will tell them how these on/off contractions are making you feel.

Hopefully when you do give birth all of these lead up pains, will make the actual event quick and easy.

Glad your SIL loves her car. The garage says we will not be able to pick it up until Friday.

In more fun news I saw a woman walking down the road with a hedgehog this morning, on the way back from the school run. She said she was helping to rehabilitate it before it would be released to the wild again. It was so sweet.

Good luck drama, I agree, do kick up a bit of a stink if you need to.

All fine here, nearly at full term so I can start willing this baby out (except not until after I get my hair done on Friday afternoon :) ) The pain in my pelvis last night was something else, and a horrible man shouted at me for moving too slowly going up the stairs at a tube station - it was literally all I could do to trail myself up hanging off the railing so he can fuck off with his heavy bag

Good luck drama, let us know how it goes!

Ohhh I want a baby hedgehog! They are such cute animals :) how kind of her to be helping it.

I'm absolutely knackered today, up loads of the night with DS coughing himself silly and then we've both been grumpy and tired this morning. Roll on nursery so I can go back to bed!

Hello all - was hoping to come on and hear lovely news about lots of new babies over the last day or two but they all seem to be v comfy inside!!! I'm 40+5 now and SOOOOOOO impatient - had had both my boys by this stage before. Was horribly uncomfortable last week after a sweep, with loads of mild contractions, pressure, and heavy heavy bump but thankfully that's all subsided now and I feel great….which is probably a sign that I'm nowhere near actual bloody labour yet and that I've ages to go to meet this baby! After being convinced it's a boy the whole way through, everyone now is saying that maybe it's a very unpunctual girl, so will be interesting to see. Doing everything you're meant to be doing at this stage - loads of walking, chillis, sex, even driving down as many bumpy roads as poss but NOTHING!!!

On the car front, we got a Qashqai+2 to accommodate the extra seat and grandparents when we're out with them. My two boys will go in the mini seats in the back, and the baby will go in the maxi cosi in the middle row. We absolutely love it - great to drive, economical etc, v good sound system too :-) I say 'we' love it, I'm sure my husband would rather something sexier and more fun to drive, but as a practical choice it's a really good one…..

Come on these babies!!!!!!

Blow blow blow, have carefully planned DD2's birthday party, given out some but not all of the invitations (as had to get DD to sit down down and tell me who). I have just finished all of the invites, booked somewhere to have it and someone to run it, and just found out that there is a little boy in her class who is leaving and having a party at the SAME TIME as DD's. People have started to turn her party down in preference for his as he is leaving. I could cry, this has got to be hormones, I am not sure if I should try moving the party, or just let it be. Some people have just not replied. Darn it am due to give birth next week, I don't want to rearrange her party, but a disco with 5 children at it, is not going to be good is it?

We just got a Zafira, but so far will only have 2 kids to accommodate. If we do have another then one of them is just going to have to go in the back row if we can't fit them side by side. Car seats are such a giant pain in the neck (for older kids - obviously for babies they're essential). I don't see why they can't be made to actually fit cars instead of the other way around.

too extra yes I know what you mean. Right have calmed down I guess. I think what I shall do is ask the other mum to tell me who is going to her party and see exactly how many of those invited to ours are going to theirs. If there are loads will have to rearrange.

Iwill - how annoying! Glad you have a plan though - hope the answer is not many, so you don't have to reorganise.

I have just got out of the bath after a "where did the day go? I did nothing" sort of day. I dropped DS off at school while DH took DD to nursery, then went for a cuppa with a friend, walked home and then have emptied the dishwasher, sorted one lot of laundry and done one minor admin task. The rest of the day has been a haze of napping, eating, reading, watching telly and Internet gawping. Lazy as a sloth on its laziest day! DS and DD are collected by and have tea at GPs on Weds, so I have another 30 mins to myself. Going to start another book I think and revel in the peaceful bliss!

I haven't felt as good as previous days, very tired and spaced out, so it has been good to do nothing. No further twinges to report.

Hope the other mum won't think I'm some weird stalker, especially as DD has not actually been invited to this party. It's rotten for DD, we always planned a large first year at school party (did the same for her sister). Looks like I may be doing a whole new lot of invitations, still provided the baby does not come before I have finished sorting it out, I do have time on my hands to do it with both girls being at school.

I will-what bad luck re the party, especially when you'd been so organised! Hope can get it sorted.

Everton, I've had one of the use days too! Other than getting a pedicure, I really can't tell you what I've done! Just lots if pottering at home & small nesting things whilst grandparents took dd to see peppa pig at the theatre!
Still nothing exciting to report, sigh....surely we're due another baby on this thread soon!

Did you get sorted with the party IWill? Could you do a tea party at home or trip to the cinema or something if lots of other children are going to the other party?

Anyone that's got 2+ children, can I ask what it was like in the early days when the 2nd DC came along? DS is so loud and doesn't have an off button, I'm getting really worried about how the poor baby will cope with his loudness. I know they have to get used to it but we struggle enough with the way he comes bounding in to our room in the morning, god knows how a newborn will react!

Roseberry - the second baby knows no different: noise is their normal! :)

I wouldn't worry too much about general noise. You might want to focus on being quieter when the baby naps, but usually that is when you want to do calm activities like reading with the older one anyway.

I still know that feeling of them being too loud in the morning, even from a 6 year old!

Hi no party not sorted, we hired a hall and a person to do a disco. We have been speaking about this since January. My house is way too small (think London terrace) for a birthday tea, and I could not face the mess from after the event either since we have just done it up). DH has helpfully suggested we could invite all the kids from his side of the family, but I do not see an 11 year old for example dancing with 5 year old

I hope you're right Everton cos I'm sat here crying over a cup of raspberry leaf tea, how tragic! He's just such a typical 3 year old boy and I'm sooo tired :( don't know if it's just hormones but it's getting me so panicky about how to cope with them both.

Roseberry, we're at the same place today-I'm crying & worried over dd1 who rules the roost this house (or tries to) she's just left with nanna for nursery (thank god) but everything was a fight & a battle this morning. I have no patience or tolerance & feel terrible for getting cross with her. How can I cope with 2??!!

Hi roseberry and seasalt it will be fine! I remember feeling exactly the same in the lead up to giving birth to number two. I am now feeling the same about how my younger one is going to cope and how I am going to cope too!

When DD2 was born things were much more fluid than with the first one, as she had to fit in with the other things we were doing. When I was breast feeding, I had a large craft box for DD1 to do, I read her stories, and she watched way too much tv. She did have some points when she acted younger than she had been, and I let her do it, and treated her in the way that she was obviously asking to be treated, I used to tell her that I did all the same things for her when she was little, and if she still wanted me to do them then this was fine, but the reason I no longer did them for her was because she had learned to do them herself. So when DD2 stopped breast feeding and had a bottle, DD1 had one too (but only a few times).

The times I found most difficult were bedtime, as baby had to come too, and trying to explain why the baby was staying up later than she was. Also at the time DD1 was getting up at 5.30 to 6am every day, which was a trial when I had been up half the night with DD2.

It's busy, and constant, but you will both find ways to make it work for you. I quite often put DD2 in the pram when it was time to sleep, and pushed her to the play park, once she was asleep, this left DD1 and I with time to do things together, so nap times became her outdoor times if you see what I mean.

Yes I did get annoyed, and had to do a fair amount of apologising and tell DD1 that I got annoyed because I was tired, and that I should not have done.

One of the main things I found was that DD1 looked huge to DD2 and it was very easy to forget she was also small (not that small as she was 3.8 years when DD2 was born) and still needed things done for her.

Nowadays I feel quite lost if I just have one child with me, and it seems more difficult than with both of them there.

I'm the same seasalt, I'm usually really good with him but my patience is so low at the moment that I'm snapping at everything and then he's snapping back too.

Thanks IWill, that does make me feel a bit better tbh. I suppose it's just a matter of dealing with it when it comes to it and no amount of worrying will change things. DS will be 4 in 2 weeks so I might have to try and find a few more quiet crafty type toys for him. Nothing that makes too much noise though!!

Permission to whinge, ladies? I've now been in early labour for 26 hours, and what's happening? Sweet FA!! I was seen at the hospital twice yesterday: the first time, the lovely midwife said everything looked really looked: cervix 100% effaced and 3cm dilated and I was definitely having 'proper' contractions. As I live quite a way from the hospital, she wanted to keep me in, but we decided to go home for a bit as I was tired and hungry. She told us to expect to be back in to have DD that night. Unfortunately, things slowed off a lot at home. I don't understand what's happening: we went for a walk twice and that really got the contractions coming; both times, by the time we got back home, I was having painful contractions lasting 1-2 mins with only a gap of 45 seconds inbetween, but they slowed off and became pretty irregular again once I'd stopped moving so much. I did (finally) have a bloody show though.

After the second walk, we rang the hospital and tried to speak to the midwife I'd seen earlier on (as she'd suggested), but she was busy. The one I did speak to was a bit crap and just said "Well you're obviously concerned enough to ring us, so come in." We did - only to find that I'd made no progress whatsoever: still only 3cm so they wouldn't keep me in or anything and we were packed off home with instructions to return if/when my waters break or the contractions get really bad. No idea AT ALL how long that will take . All the midwife could tell me was that once it's happened, the rest will probably be pretty quick as her head's extremely low.

I went to bed when we eventually got in and I'd eaten something, so about 2230, and got woken up by contractions somewhere between 0200 and 0230. They kept me awake for a good three hours, but didn't seem to be getting any worse, so I took some codeine to enable me to get back to sleep. This morning, I'm crampy and having contractions, but nothing 'bad' and no sign of my waters going - if you get signs! Seriously fed up now. Yesterday was exhausting and I'm terrified I'm gonna have days of this. I also have a wedding on Saturday and an exam on Tuesday and, whilst I don't mind cancelling either, I'd like some bloody warning!

Thanks Iwill, that is really helpful-the wisdom of hindsight! Most time dd is so good & lovely but she's also a typical 2.5 year old & her emotions can be all over the place. Sometimes I think I expect too much of he as she seems so grown up already-also expecting some regression when baby comes & bedtime battles to recommence! I think at the moment with my parents staying she's getting a lot of attention & playing up to it. Feeling bit better about it all now thank you

Wow darkside, please whinge as much as poss-you have every right!! This sounds so hard & frustrating!! I'm surprised things slowed down at home, baby still not quite ready yet. Is this your first? Not sure what else to suggest other than rest, eat, gentle activity, rest some more. Surely baby cannot be that far away though. Keep us posted!

Yeah, she's my first. I thought it was third labours that were supposed to be stoppy-starty! Contractions every 5mins atm, but they're not particularly bad and certainly no worse than anything yesterday so I'm not getting my hopes up. Plan for today is housework (get me moving/bending/lifting/etc), bit of pilates in the house (wondered if I could squeeze her out...), walk in the woods (with me mam!) and, if all else fails, go to the gym - got me going yesterday. Aaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhh.

Oh darkside! I had a 36 hour latent stage with DC1 with 1 min on, 1 min off contractions for about 6 hours of that which did nothing, and then stopped. I was in hospital the whole time as had very high BP but wish I could have been at home. Things that can help:

• please try not to stress about it. Live in the moment as much as you can - stressing about how long it might take can really slow things up, as I know from experience!
• keep eating and drinking to keep your strength up. Doesn't need to be full meals, just keep your energy levels up with snacks if that suits you better
• keep upright to get her head pressing down on your cervix. So walking up and down stairs, bouncing on a gym ball works.
• when you're tired find a comfy but upright position if you can - I laboured with DC2 kneeling and leaning on a birthing ball. Would be upright, swaying during contraction but then slump upper body over it between contractions and lightly rock. Kept me upright but didn't require much effort so gave me a chance to rest.
• Nap when you can, on your side rather than back to keep your baby in the best position
• Bath or shower to help keep you relaxed

You will get through this, promise! And you will forget quite how awful it is too, promise again!

I went in last night after over a week of stop-start painful irregular contractions. Yesterday evening they were getting to 4 minutes apart and really sore, I tried lying down, having a bath but they kept going. I really thought this was it. It wasn't. Some of the contractions were really big on the machine but they just disappeared after about 3 hours.
However, the mw was really dismissive of me and said, I should know the difference between real pain and just Braxton hicks. I felt stupid and very sore. I wasn't examined, just told to go home. I was examined a few days ago and told I was between 2-3cm dilated.
This could go on for weeks. I've barely slept since last week. I'm exhausted and in pain. I'm having to take paracetamol and hot water bottles. It is just so frustrating and I am loathed to go back in unless I'm sure because last night made me feel like an idiot. This baby will born en route at this rate.

Poor you Dark, I am so sorry that you are going through such a prolonged latent stage. This is very tough on you, I hope that things move soon.

drama that MW should not have said this to you, that must have been truly upsetting. Do not even worry about feeling stupid, when you call / or go in again, tell them exactly how you feel, and how worried you are about how things are going. Tell them how exhausted this is making you and how you are not able to sleep. Would you like them to intervene in any way to try to get labour to progress? If you do, try mentioning it to them. If you are concerned that you just won't cope with the birth when it comes due to the lead up, tell them. They are there to help you and to keep you and your baby safe, and their care of you at this time is all part of this. You need to make sure they are aware of how much this is affecting you.