April 2021 - The Last Stretch

[drumst1ck]

Made a new thread for us as we were coming to the end of the previous one!

Good luck @Inkpaperstars x

Sorry you're having a crappy day @drumst1ck, sounds like baby could be making an appearance sooner rather than later though, fingers crossed for you.

Hope all goes well tomorrow @Inkpaperstars, very exciting!

I've been expressing colostrum this eve, ten minutes on each boob and got 5ml which I'm happy with. Took me 20 mins to get 1ml last week!

Getting a lot of comments from family being excited for baby's arrival. Which is lovely, but it does cause me a bit of anxiety getting the "can't wait for loads of newborn cuddles and kisses" texts. Am I being overcautious by not wanting my baby to be passed around to everyone given the current covid situation? I had presumed we would see my parents and in-laws, who will all take a rapid flow test before coming over, just in case, but everyone else could wait a bit?! At least until we don't have to sit in the garden shivering (meant to snow here next week!) I was kind of looking forward to a couple of weeks without anyone visiting, giving me, DH and our 3yo a chance to adapt to the new baby. What's everyone else's plans? Are you sticking rigidly to social distancing and not passing baby around or are you being more flexible with your nearest and dearest? I know we can bubble up with one other household once we have a baby, and don't have to socially distance from them, but if that's my parents, what about the in-laws? I feel bad saying we have to socially distance in the garden and have them not hold baby, but honestly if DH or I got covid it could be just awful trying to manage with a newborn and a 3yo. Is that unbelievably selfish?!

@TheViewOutsideMyWindow I don't think
That's selfish at all!
most of our family live far away (phew 😂) so I don't need to worry about loads of visits right away, otherwise I would feel the same as you!

Thanks everyone, had a nice bath this evening and then some more house cleaning, hoping some floor scrubbing might get something going!

Ah good luck @Inkpaperstars! Hope all goes well!

@TheViewOutsideMyWindow I think we will be passing around just immediate family and very close friends but with a 'no kissing and wash your hands' type attitude. But you have to do what you are comfortable with and if they don't like it then tough! Your baby, your choice!

Good luck @inkpaperstars hope you are well looked after in hospital

@theviewoutsidemywindow I think you just have to do what you feel comfortable with, if you don't want visitors just say no. I don't think we will get many visitors as most people aren't bothered by a second baby, I'm certainly not!

Thank you everyone x

@TheViewOutsideMyWindow that's not selfish at all, it's your baby and your family's health after all. I would send out a generic and polite message to announce the birth and kindly ask for no visitors for the first 'x' days/weeks, anyone who takes offence- tough! I'm lucky though I dont have to worry about ppl visiting, we havent much family, and friends are few and understanding

I saw midwife today, she said baby is 2/5 or 3/5 engaged (cant remember which!) and agreed to a membrane sweep at my appt next week. I'm 38 weeks tmrw and dont want to be Indian in week 39 so I'm hoping that'll do the trick

@Inkpaperstars best of luck!

@TheViewOutsideMyWindow I've been stressing about those to! I honestly don't know what to do/think. Definitely going to have some chats with the midwives. If it helps I read that babies are more vulnerable when less than one month old, so I've said to them family only our parents can come visit and hold baby then. Luckily our siblings don't live near so it's not going to be too much of a problem.
I've been told my side will all visit at once in the middle of summer ....which I'm pretty sure I said I didn't want but equally I do want if it wasn't covid... I have nightmares about them passing baby round for the whole day and well you can know what... When my sister suggested she could take baby out for a walk and I sleep I was like WTAF you're not getting your grubby hands on my baby whilst covid is still around and more taking them away from me when I have no idea where you'd go, what you'd do etc... She's trustworthy but this just freaked me out!

@TheViewOutsideMyWindow are you gonna breastfeed? In which case you can take the baby away for as long as you want and sit in a quiet room with the baby while your partner has to deal with your guests!

Btw in my last post spell check changed 'induced' to 'Indian' so it says I dont want to be INDIAN at week 39 😂😂

Thank you everyone! It all still feels so surreal and like a dream...although definitely feeling the sleep deprivation and sore nipples! But it’s certainly hard to believe this little one grew inside me!

I see some of you are concerned about going into labour before your c section date. I was booked in for a c section at exactly 39 weeks. My waters broke overnight at exactly 38 weeks. I called the labour ward as soon as I realised and told them I am meant to be having a c section the following week. They told me to head straight in and 7 hours later, he was born. There was no discussion as to whether or not the baby is coming out that day. They didn’t even examine me my cervix and only hooked me to the fetal monitor machine! Because my waters were broken and I was due to have a c section, they decided I was having one that day as soon as I arrived. It was classified as an emergency c section because it was unplanned for that day, but there was no emergency to it, as I didn’t have any contractions, and baby’s heartbeat was completely fine. I hope that gives you some reassurance that even if your c section is booked for later than it should be, you will still get it if you go into labour beforehand.

Also, my waters broke whilst I was sleeping. It was a small trickle so I didn’t even realise until I woke up in the morning (although when I got up for a pee halfway through the night, all was fine so I know it definitely happened during a 4 hour window). The bedsheets were completely soaked when I woke up but the mattress protector, which is only from IKEA, did it’s job and completely protected the mattress. Hopefully using a mattress protector will help you feel comfortable using your bed when you’re worried about your waters breaking!

@Inkpaperstars Good luck! Hope you’re feeling ok!

@Handsoffstrikesagain. Covid or not, NO ONE should be kissing your newborn babies. I cannot stress this enough. The herpes virus that causes cold sores is deadly to newborns

I'm screwed then as I've got it 😉 I know there's lots of stuff online about it but after having it since the age of 7 the real danger really is when the person is showing symptoms. That's not to say it's impossible to catch when the person has no symptoms but they're very unlikely to Xxx

@Inkpaperstars good luck!!

@TheViewOutsideMyWindow nobody has met Ollie yet, we decided to isolate for the first 10 days to be on the safe side as my dad is CEV even having had his jab. Grandparents and our siblings are coming to meet baby this weekend and taking lateral flow tests before hand, as are we. Nobody else is meeting baby for a long time!

I have had relatives turn up on the doorstep expecting to be let in, but I’ve answered the door in a mask and stood right back and in convo said “it’s such a shame we can’t invite you in what with COVID and everything”... they’ve left pretty quick after that!

Thanks for the reassurance ladies.

I am hoping to breastfeed again but I don't really want to shut myself away to do it, although I can see the benefit of we have a whole load of uninvited guests descend!

Point noted about the herpes virus too. Will have to be careful as I know my mum ocassionally has them.

Hope you are doing ok @inkpaperstars !

Hope everyone is doing alright!
Has anyone’s baby engaged without it being super obvious? I’ve been worried as I’m 39 weeks and at my last appointment he wasn’t engaged. I went for a walk today and feel like he might have dropped down a bit. It’s not visibly noticeable but I feel like there’s a bit more of a gap between bump and boobs, it’s feels slightly easier to breathe and I’m feeling a little more pressure in my pelvis. But it’s all quite slight so not sure if it’s just wishful thinking. Google seems to suggest that the baby dropping is very obvious so wondering if it has happened to anyone else quite subtly?

I think mine has, only because I am not getting any heartburn now whereas before I was getting it all the time.. only 37 weeks though but gave birth at 38 last time so anything can happen I guess!

@LuckyFlash I wouldnt worry, it can be gradual, mine is 3/5 engaged but I thought bump was still quite high so was surprised when midwife told me. Also I still get heartburn. Go figure

Mine has been fully engaged for about 3 weeks now, and still no signs 😂

I think mine is 3/5 but sometimes they don't engage until labour is established

I'm 3/5ths engaged and getting acid reflux and heartburn and no one can tell he's dropped. The thing I noticed was that my pelvic area seems heavier and I get some sharp ish pains sometimes - so I guessed he'd dropped from that.

From what I've read the baby being engaged doesn't mean that much in the sense that he/she can be in that position for weeks. Also for some people as a PP has said they may not drop until labour is established (certainly the case for second plus babies).