Anyone due in April 2004 - part 2

[Fennel]

here we are, new thread so we can keep up to date with all the labour pains.

My very clever dh asked me the other day if I hda swimming costume to wera in the swimming pool during my hoped for water-birth.
It bit mean of me maybe, but I didn't even answer!

hello all,

I've just discovered mumsnet and am due to have my second child on saturday (no 1 is 26 months and currently installed in front of an andypandy video). I've been scanning your messages and am glad to hear i'm not the only one feeling crap. Went to the midwife this morning who advised me all was ready to go and to eat some fresh pineapple. Can anyone tell me why eating pineapple would bring on labour ? and can she really tell without doing any sort of internal ? i really want to believe her as i've had enough !!!

Welcome peppergirl! Afraid I don't know why pineapple is meant to bring on labour but I have heard it can. I don't see why you have to have an internal for the midwife to know that you are "ready to go". Did she feel your bump and tell you the baby was fully engaged?

There's some mnetion of pineapple on this thread

Someone on my birth thread tried loads of pineapples. Just got sick of pineapple, I'm afraid.

It will, ahem, all come out in the end.

yes, she felt about just above my groin ( very tender) and told me the head was fully engaged and the pressure just above my pelvic bone was caused by the baby's shoulders. Anyway, i've been to buy a pineapple. Any idea how long it takes to work ? DH is a 2 hour drive away at work but i'm so fed up i feel like eating the thing now. The effects would hardly be instantaneous would they ?

Dot1 is very quiet today - do you think something may be going on?

ooooo I hope so , bless her
re nakedness , i do not think that I will be ! will wear a t-shirt in the bath thing !
seems pinapples have an enzime in them ?
i just think that when u r taking fotos for a book then at least they can cover a ladys modesty , i realy do not want to see it that up front so to speak !

But there's nothing wrong with nakedness, surely? You are, of course, entitled to wear, or not wear, what you want - but if the women in the pics chose not to wear anything when they gave birth, then it would have been unrealistic to ask them to put something on for the sake of the photos... they preumably gave permission for the pics to be used, too!

No offence meant though, dolbear

Fennel, I guess what I was driving at was that it's not very dignified giving birth, but to be honest, you really aren't going to be thinking of your dignity. Also you shouldn't have to have 'loads of medics', if it's all going smoothly it'll just be you, your partner and a midwife, and often the midwife leaves you alone if it's the early stages.

The time where I was surprised by the number of people, was when I went into theatre for my second child, there seemed to be a line of staff against one wall, orderlies, theatre assistants etc - my husband still refers to it as 'the bus queue', all facing the most delightful view of me flat on my back, legs in stirrups, with everything on full view whilst the consultant gave me an episiotomy and ventouse and then stiched me up! But frankly by then I was drugged up, dripped up, in shock and wishing I was at home! and I had to tell myself that they had probably seen worse - but not much!

Just noticed that Dot1 had her appointment this morning - maybe there's nothing going on after all. Hope she hurries up - I am on leave next week!! I have been 'following' her story since her ttc threads.

I was only making a trivial point that it would be a bit difficult to drop a baby wearing a swimming costume - unless I cut a huge hole in the bottom.
On the nakedness front, I had not really considered it, as pain is my greatest worry. Maybe I'll start off in a t-shirt and throw it of in a fit of anger and harrassment. Dunno!
Dh thinks he is going to be taking lots of photos - I don't!!!

Emmagee - yes I've had a similar ventouse + episiotomy experience. I somehow do still mind the loss of dignity (it's not so much the being naked but the being totally out of control).

Incidentally, this baby was conceived during a fortnight's holiday in a spanish naturist village (hippy organic vegan sort of place). Have no problem with that, it's the symbolism of being naked and out of control in horrible hospital environment I hate.

MrsD, I thought your dh's comment was funny
Peppergirl, have you eaten your pineapple yet? Let us know if anything happens!

Peppergirl - if you DO eat that pineapple and find that the efects are instantaneous.............then before you call your partner at work or the ambulance, be sure to log on here and tell us right away. The shops around here close at 5pm..............

Ok Everyone. I am SERIOUSLY fed up now (bit like dot1) and I suspect dot1 might be having/have had her baby so I am extrememly envious.
I WANT THIS BABY OUT!!!!!!
I am 3 days overdue and as I really thought it was coming two weeks ago, now is a long time since!!
Had a sweep yesterday afternoon and was told I have a huge amniotic sack, and a big hairy head. This only resulted, very unfortunately, in some quite uncomfortable period pain and a sorry dh (cos I made him!). Even Mr. I-can't-be-any-more-laid-back Doolittle is getting impatient now.
I know I ought to sort out my winter from my summer clothes to make some space in my drawers but I really can't be arsed now.
I have even stepped up the raspberry leaf tablets to 3 at a time instead of 2!! OOOOOh!

Have asked dh to come home with a pineapple.

Mrs D - on that thread HD posted earlier, Mears says that basically sex is the only way...

Though as you know it didn't work for me.

Didn't do much for me either. And I don't feel attractive now, which kind of ruins it really.

I know this is probably a stupid question ...............but how can they possibly tell that your baby has a "huge hairy head" (not very tactful IMHO) just by doing a sweep??? I thought a sweep was when they did something to the membranes on your cervix? How can they see the baby's head ?

oooo-er
no ofence taken by the way , i understand that in the great scheme of things my pre-ocupation with my dignity may seem v trivial and bizar to most , but as with others I am more worried about 'loosing it ' than i am with how much it is going to hurt , odd i know but there you go
I can 'talk' myself round to dealing with most things on a ration level , but everytime I tell myself it will be ok and i will cope , the panic then sets in , I JUST WANT OUT now its the unkown

And while i'm here - the sex isn't working for me either IYKWIM!!! Unless we're doing it wrong ( I know, I hear you all laughing, if we didn't know what we were doing, how come I'm in this state in the first place????!!!). How can i put it, is it just conventional sex that's meant to bring on labour??????

Poor long suffereing DH is shattered from working extremely hard at the office to try to catch up , so he can take time off when the baby comes. He is also nesting in a big way, doing lots of stuff in the house, wiring lights, crawling around the attic, shifting furniture, putting up curtain poles etc etc. All with me standing around doing not a lot except give orders/instuctions.

Then, to cap it all, when he just wants to have a drink & watch boys own Tv and fall into bed, I am harassing him for RS.............

By the way - don't read the Bad Birth thread anyone. I just did - Mistake!!!!!
I should also add I was warned.

Lesley, the head is well down and just on top of my cervix. I was told it felt lumpy and the assumption was because it was hairy.
I hope that is the case.