September 2021 - Thread 4

[Poppins2016]

Ta da, thread number 4 so that we can keep up the chatting!

Previous thread

@leftitlate37 sounds very similar! Honestly our girl is the most loving dog and she adores everyone. We just had to be careful that she didn’t lick the baby! She licks him now though 🤣 he loves her. Always giving her cuddles and she loves the attention!

I looooove how many doggos are on this thread 😂. And puppy’s aswell, I’m broody for a puppy but I just think my dog would probably have a heart attack if we had 2 under 2 and a new puppy.

@Rach921 it's so hard isn't it! Trying really hard to not let it get me down but I just feel so uncomfortable. I'm going to stop the naughty food I think and I spoke to my coach and going to start working out again now the morning sickness has gone. I want to be really healthy for the baby & me but definitely not finding it easy. I hope this makes you feel like you are not alone anyway!!

Anyone else experiencing an aching vagina/cervix? This is DC3 so not sure if it’s normal. I remember having it later on with DC2. It feels like I’ve been kicked hard!

@mumof23188 yep I have. This is my third too and I had it last time but much later. I mentioned it to my midwife today but she didn't seem concerned.

I had my 16 week check today (although am 17 weeks). Baby had a heart rate of 142, I think it sounded like a horse galloping but dh thinks it sounded more like a train. I'm going to drive myself round the bend trying to guess what this one is.

@mumof23188 my third as well and I had some random aches and twinges a few weeks ago. Midwife didn’t seem concerned and it’s since calmed down. Felt a bit like “lightening crotch” they you get in third trimester.

@Sceptre86 thank you! I was starting to worry something was wrong.

Ah lovely to hear the heartbeat. Will you not be finding out the sex?

@Mamabearwhere yes that’s exactly it! Definitely experienced it in third trimester, just not this early. Had me concerned! It’s not pleasant is it.

For those of you that have had natural births before, is it really that painful? Is it the actual birthing or the contractions that hurt? I was going to opt for a c section but just found out with a c sec I'd be in hospital for four days and OH can only visit an hour a day! If its a normal birth I'll I'll home in two days. I want to do what's what's for the baby, but tbh am freaking out about both options.

@Scotti84 yes it is very painful but as soon as baby is born and in your arms you forget! It’s worth it. I found both contractions and actually pushing baby out equal amounts of pain. I’ve had just gas and air with my two and it was fine.

I second what @mumof23188 said @Scotti84 it was for me anyway the single most painful event of my life. BUT it’s true you just forget, he was out on my chest and it was all gone and worth it.

One thing that struck me, it’s not like any other pain I’ve ever experienced. It’s wasn’t long and lingering and permanent like tooth ache or something, it’s short sharp and over within a minute, every 2-3 minutes, then for the time in between contractions there was absolutely no pain at all, chatting laughing snacks. I ended up with epidural when his head turned sideways so only can confirm what it felt like for me up to 6cm in pool with gas and air.

Those contractions give you your baby so it’s weird to say but I started craving them when I wanted to start trying for DC2🙊.

@mumof23188 thanks. I'm pretty good with pain, it's more the thought of it than the actual pain at the time I think, if i relate it to getting a smear, not in a pain way but like once it's started you just have to carry on to the end but the sitting in the waiting room knowing its going to happen is the worst part, if that makes sense. If you did two both with just gas and air then that makes me feel more relaxed, I think its also the unknown for me. Not knowing what to expect.

@scotti84 I feel the same way as you, not sure what to expect and underprepared. I have endometriosis though which is said to be as painful as labour so I'm hoping that might have sensitised me a bit lol!

@FTEngineerM OK, that's the clearest explanation I've heard, thank you. That sounds better than hours of unending pain I was imagining. And that's that's nice way to look at it too, its the process that brings the baby into the world so it will be worth it.

It also ramped up to a peak and then disappeared in that minute so maybe 30 seconds were the most painful.

@Sceptre86 that’s so nice that you got to hear the heartbeat!

@Scotti84 I’ve had two traumatic labours so I’m dreading this one! However in my NCT baby group last time, there were 8 of us and 6 had great labours that all went smoothly, 3 had water births with no pain relief at all. If I could plan my ideal birth, I’d love to have a water birth this time as it does seem to help with the pain.

It’s like @FTEngineerM says as well, the pain is like waves, it peaks and then fades away for a while.

Also, having had a c-section that took a long time to heal I’d never go for one unless I absolutely had to. It obviously doesn’t hurt at the time but after the anaesthetic wore off, I found the pain really intense for a week or so. It’s major surgery which I hadn’t really thought about at the time, but I couldn’t believe how immobile I was afterwards!

@mumof23188 I woupd like to find out rhe sex bit dh has his heart on a surprise. If I end up going to the 20 week scan on my own I might be cheeky and ask.
@Squibble84 I agree with you. From previous experience I would never choose a csection.
@Scotti84 are you in the uk? If you are you will unlikely be in hospital for that long. I stayed in hospital 3 days after my section with my dd and 2 days with ds. Whilst I wasn't in any pain at the time of the section you can still feel them tugging around your insides so still uncomfortable. Once the epidural wore off the pain I was in was unreal, not being able to move for a while after or attend your baby because you have a catheter in is difficult. The recovery is a whole different ball game. I would suggest you talk to your midwife about birthing options closer to your due date and maybe have a look at the pros and cons yourself.

I'm weirdly looking forward to experiencing child birth 🙈 I know it'll hurt, but I look at all the women I know who have had children and I KNOW that if they can do it then I definitely can. As the contractions get more painful, I think the fact that means baby is closer to being in my arms will get me through. This is why I'm going to be doing hypnobirthing, it's all about empowerment for me. We are women and our bodies are AMAZING! 💪🏼

@Sceptre86 nope im in Germany, they do things much differently here, I've given a urine sample, had blood pressure checked and a ultrasound at every check up, they're now every four weeks plus a 20 week intensive scan at a clinic with the best equipment at no extra costs. The health care system is better but everything is planned and quick and what took me some getting used to is in all hospital related things, they don't tell you what they're doing, they just do it with not much explanation. I'm used to it now and trust them but it was unnerving at first.

I think my only thing thing with c section is that it's not on my.body to do it right, so there's less risk of something going wrong with the birth, but the aftermath does worry me more than a natural birth. I guess there's no way to know what will happen until the day, with a natural birth. It could all be fine.

C sections are by no way an easy option o go for, I’ve had an emergency and then had to have a planned c section with my son after having my appendix out at 36 weeks pregnant. The first one I was in so much pain for days after I couldn’t even walk to the toilet at the hospital on my own. Second one, I was out the next day, as soon as my epidural wore off I was up and around but still extremely sore with anything involving you stomach muscles which can even be trying to sit up in bed properly. When I took my bandages off a few days after my section my whole incision in my stomach had come open. I was sat in a & e on Xmas eve with my stomach hanging open it was the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life. Not trying to scare anyone but don’t like to think people think a c sections a walk in the park

@Kirky658 I also have endometriosis and have already had one baby... I think having endometriosis helped on some level, as I'm used to managing high levels of pain anyway.... I managed with just a tens machine at home and got to the hospital at 8.5-9 cm dilated with my first!

@Scotti84 I would echo what the other posters have said, labour isn't constant pain, so you do get a bit of relief in between. I would caveat this with "every woman is different"... for example my contractions were never regular or evenly spaced and it did get to a stage that it felt like they were merging together with little relief... but throwing a birth pool and some gas and air into the mix made me feel like it was still manageable! I wouldn't change anything about last time, I'd say I found it manageable with the birth pool plus gas and air. I also did hypnobirthing which I would say made a huge difference and I would recommend it to every pregnant woman. I'm aiming for the same experience again (hypnobirthing, plus birth pool with gas and air if needed) with this baby so I really do stand by what I'm saying!

@Poppins2016 the tens machine, how much did it help compared to gas and air?

Is it on all the time or just for contractions?

@poppins2016 hello endo sister! ❤️👋 Definitely good to know it helps in some way after suffering the agony for so long! I have found at first I suffered so badly in this pregnancy, tugging pains and at one stage a searing pain like a flare up about 6 weeks in. Thankfully now I'm 15+2 and it just feels like the 'regular' ligament pains. However bit worried as my endo was removed from same ligaments so I'm under a consultant from 25 weeks to keep an eye on that apparently!

Yikes @Maybebaby29 that sounds super tough. Hope it’s not like that for you this time.

don’t like to think people think a c sections a walk in the park

Deffo no easy way to get a baby out, I remember thinking the epidural would solve all my problems and it would be a breeze😂but nah, catheter, episiotomy, uti, weeks of injecting myself with dvt meds.

Me too! I’ll be having another section this time I don’t think I want to risk trying vbac after 2 sections, had anyone else tried?