Hello, hope you're all doing well and coping with the heat. I had my 38 week midwife appointment this morning and she was 95% sure the baby is in head down position but wanted to check that it was a head she was feeling and not a bum, so she sent me to triage for a presentation scan. I definitely feel like I'm feeling more pressure lower down over the last week or two. The midwife did explain that the baby is lying on her side with her back facing my left side at the moment, and she said that's the cause of my left hip pain because her weight is concentrated on that side. It makes sense now because I only seem to see limbs moving in the middle and right hand sides of my stomach at the moment. It's good to have an explanation for the hip pain and that it isn't sciatica...I had thought it was just because I've been lying on my sides but then wasn't sure why the right side wasn't affected, but it's the baby's position. Which gives me hope that my hip will feel normal again after she's born 🙂 So I went to triage and had to wait ages in a stuffy waiting room so I feel the pain of others who have had to do that recently! I finally got the scan which confirmed that the baby is head down, not fully engaged yet but getting closer I suppose. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see her face properly as her chin was tucked down and she seemed quite cosy...just a few weeks until I'll see her in real life though which of course will be better 🙂
Congratulations @annie1994 and @TheseAreMyGoodPants on the births of your beautiful boys! I hope you're all doing well x
@Lianna93 Yes I'm in Scotland aswell, thanks for the reminder, I found the hand expressing guide in the baby box 😊It sounds like your Solihull course was really good, and it makes sense to bottle feed expressed milk, I'm sure DH would enjoy doing that from time to time...we'll see how it goes. I bought a bottle just so that I have one ready incase.
@KizboBaggins @strawberrysummer19 My midwife was saying today that they don't routinely offer sweeps and things in my area before you reach 42 weeks unless there's a specific reason for it...they seem quite happy to leave nature to take its course between 38-42 weeks, and she said after that if the baby hasn't arrived they'll look at options to move things along. I have my next appointment with her at 40 weeks so she said she'll discuss more options then if baby still isn't here. I suppose I could ask for one earlier if I really wanted to but I kind of hope that things will happen naturally. @Lianna93 @NamelessBaby1 I also feel the same about invasive procedures, more because I was a bit of a late developer when it comes to intimacy, but I just never met my partner until a bit later in life so never really bothered about it too much...hope I don't sound too strange! I had issues with tensing up and sex being quite painful, although it's not as bad as it used to be. I had to see a therapist to get over some barriers years ago, not that anything bad had happened, I just always imagined it to be so straightforward but when you encounter unexpected issues it can be quite challenging. DH has always been amazingly supportive though and we're in a good place. Anyway, I feel the same about smears aswell and certain checks being done, but as you say if I go overdue or they really need to check, I would just need to try to go with it and hopefully it would be ok. My midwife told me that they are quite hands off in general in the midwifery unit anyway, with invasive checks....obviously sometimes they need to do them but she said that the checks don't actually tell them that much anyway, and they tend to go by the contractions and how the woman is responding to them, to tell them how things are progressing. I wanted to try a water birth too @Lianna93 , or at least see how I feel in the water and take it from there. It seems a bit more private and discreet...I've heard about catching the baby aswell, which would be amazing if it happened that way! I'm sure that whatever happens, you'll be well supported afterwards. It's great that you've asked your best friend to be one of your birthing partners and having her there will hopefully make you feel more reassured during the birth.
@ShellUK09 Oh wow it sounds like you've been through so many ups and downs in hospital over the last few days, I feel for you. It must be a shock to learn that you'll be having an induction sooner than you had expected, but hopefully it will all go fine and you won't need to spend time in hospital for too much longer! Try to find some time to relax this weekend if you can x