AUGUST 2022 (Thread 4)

[Beth262]

New thread

@AbiGoLucky that's a good idea. Will be going through scales today to see if have something that will work on him.

@Gettissuesgotissues wishing your little guy a quick recovery. Hang in there.

Congratulations to everyone who has had their babies recently, and hoping for a speedy recovery for yours @Gettissuesgotissues

I'm 38 weeks and I've been having period like cramps since last night - a combination of across my back and front. I wouldn't say they're contractions (though first time mum so wouldn't know!). Not sure if this means something will be starting soon or if it's just normal for this stage?

Congratulations to all new arrivals and hope your little one doesn't have a long nicu stay @Gettissuesgotissues it must be so worrying for you but I'm sure you'll get lots of baby snuggles soon!

Thanks to everyone's responses about the clear outs 😳 sadly it seems it was just a busy day for my digestive system haha. But today is promising! Went for a wee and had a (tmi) large amount of cm that felt like after sex cleanup if you catch my drift (got its all so glamorous, I'm so sorry for oversharing) and a mad need to get the house in order along with a few tightening that were fairly bad last night. So I'm hoping it's the start of something!!

Hehe. After all the drama about him supposedly not gaining yesterday and saying will be weighed again today and sent to hospital AGAIN if not gained, a different midwife showed up who's v religious about calibrating their scales and according to them he gained 120 grams in last 24 hours which isn't possible so thought is the previous midwives scales are the badly calibrated ones.

She may now be getting a phone call asking her to calibrate her scales.

Wow just trying to catch up, congratulations to all the new mums so many of you have had your bundles of joy. I hope everything is going as well as it can you you are all enjoying the journey.

Maddison is nearly 13 weeks old and now weighs 7lb we have been discharged from DOTS which is exciting and scary as we are now technically on our own. She is doing amazingly well and is such a good baby x

@Gettissuesgotissues Congratulations and can sympathise with how much you just want to hold him until he's well. Everything crossed for a speedy recovery.

@beckybloomwood11 do they start low in your back and then come like a wave of pain across your stomach? If so they sound like they could be contractions.

@ToCaden joining you in the frustrating midwife/HV club. Visit from ours today wanting to see where baby sleeps at night. Uhh.. no you're alright thanks.

@Gettissuesgotissues hope your baby is much better soon, it must be really hard being separated. Have they let you stay in too?

@Delight12 she's geting so big! Love the outfits.

Only got a couple of hours until going in for induction so starting to come to terms with it actually happening. Surprised how freaked out I am as the last 2 were both late so being induced at 39weeks was a bit of a shock! If anyone else was induced please do pass on any tips because I know NOTHING 🤣

@Isonthecase i got induced and I found it a really positive experience. Once you are off the monitor and have had the induction method started, just go for walks round the hospital or take magazines. Just take the time to relax and rest! I hope it’s a quick process for you!

Hope everyone who's wee ones have arrived are all doing well and hopefully not too much longer for those who are still waiting! I seem to be going through a stage of getting overwhelmed all of a sudden and burst into tears hoping I'm not the only one that's went through this stage 🙈

@Gem2811 I think it's fair to say you're not alone. My little one was born on 3/8 and this is the second day in a row that I've not cried (there's still time today). Whilst I was able to identify what was causing the emotional outbursts, I'm resigned to the fact that there will be other things along the way that'll trigger me and it's just part and parcel of the emotional rollercoaster that is pregnancy/parenting. Hope it passes for you soon and that you have people to talk to xx

Good luck @Isonthecase I was induced at 39 weeks too. I managed to skip the pessary stage and have my waters broken and then the hormone drip, it was ok and the nicest bit this time is the midwife was really good at monitoring and adjusted the drip accordingly. With my first it was all super fast and more painful and resulted in a nasty tear.

My advice would be to keep as active as your allowed.
Take pain relief early if that's in your plan. This time I had the epidural before we started the drip (I didn't even know that was possible) and I could still feel a pressure but was pain free and that kept me a lot calmer.
Expect some waiting round - it can be long waits for somethings to do their job/get a bed on labour ward/some one to do something.

Most of all look forward to the snuggles after! Hope it's a 'productive' night for you and those snuggles aren't far away

@Beth262 just seen your hv update! Did they say why they wanted to see?! I'd have felt the same tbh.
Why does it feel like some go out of their way to make things hard?

@Gem2811 emotions are such a pain sometimes!
When we went out for our first walk the week dd was born I found myself sat in the middle of the local field, trying to bf the baby and crying my eyes out because it was all too much 🙈 and then feeling silly because I was in public. The dog couldn't understand why we were all sat down, my older dd wanted to go to the skate park and was trying to edge away and Dp looked baffled while trying to hug me and tell me it was all ok.
It's a rollercoaster for sure. I hope you have some support around you, or you have us lot of needed, physically we may not be much help but always feel free to rant/whatever you need.

@KCat82 @PopGoesBang thank you I do have alot of support around me and I think that's what makes me feel so silly sometimes. I had a meltdown 2 days after she was born dh was out with the dog and she woke up needing fed immediately so trying to make up a bottle and calm her down as she's screaming Holy murder by the time dh came back I was feeding her but in floods of tears. I think sometimes when I think how much life has changed it just feels a bit much

@Gem2811 ah yes, they have the ability to make you feel flustered, overwhelmed and completely and utterly incapable in a matter of seconds! Everything needs to be done 30 seconds before they start crying and so of course it all becomes that little bit harder to do and so takes longer. All while you are running thru all the works case scenarios and beating yourself up because surely you should just be able to handle this.
Don't worry, I think most would say they have times like this. And sometimes because we have good support around us we feel it all harder too. You've got this, and are doing great. Whatever the tears are over or all the other intense feels - this too shall pass.

@PopGoesBang thank you for the kind words makes me feel better that I'm not the only one!

@PopGoesBang She didn't seem to have a convincing reason - well to me anyway! She asked where he slept and I said we have a next to me crib. She said as he's in one of those, they like to look them over and please could I show her. That was the extent of her reasoning. When I said no she said "can I ask you why not?" Cheeky mare! Needless to say the rest of the appointment was a bit frosty from then on in. And she's coming back again Monday 🙄 So I shall also be refusing her any request to use my loo Monday in case she's planning on sneaking across the landing for a sly look! Honestly, why do they make things so difficult 💁‍♀️

@Gem2811 day 12 today and I've not cried all day! Every other day at least one thing has set me off and I even had my first panic attack. I hate it, I'm usually such a rational person and it's horrible for my hormones to be so in charge!

@Isonthecase you're probably well on with it now but just in case, I was adamant that I didn't want to be induced, ended up having the drip as my waters broke and nothing else happened and it was actually really positive. Totally not the birth I expected, I intended to be really active and ended up most comfortable lying on my back, but I managed it with gas and air and just ended up with a small tear. My advice would be just go with it, take it a step at a time and nap in the early stages if you can!

Thanks everyone, baby is slowly improving but will be in NICU for a couple more days at least. Cannot wait to get my hands on him properly, and feed him into his mouth instead of by a tube!

Good luck to those who are yet to meet their little ones, and for those with the newborns, know that life does settle back down in time

Has anyone else noticed a total absence of size 0 nappies in their area? We've managed to order some from Amazon but all the supermarkets have big spaces where the size 0 should be but fully stocked with other sizes. We're in Kent.

@Gettissuesgotissues I'm glad baby is improving, I hope you get to hold him soon.

The health visitor that came to see us was so lovely but then she said she's just cover and we'll get someone else next time.

@Beth262 seems likes the poorest reason ever! One assumes whatever your reply would have been she would have had the same motive. But with no good reason for it! I'd far rather they be honest and say whatever their agenda is. If one said to me, we need to check the room baby sleeps in, it's a tick box, I'm really not looking at anything other than them having a safe place to sleep. I'd probably still moan about it later but I'd go along with it far more than a lot of what they do say!
I'm yet to meet our HV - I get that joy next week. I'm hoping I'm pleasantly surprised and she's lovely. And I'll feel bad for ever having thought otherwise.
I can't really remember the one from my other dd. But professionally used to deal with a lot, I'm sure that's made my opinion so negative of them.

@Gem2811 I hope today is a little brighter again. Your never alone on this ride. And never be afraid of saying some days are rough. It's easy to say it's all ok or fine when actually it feels far from that.

It's just me and baby today. My other dd is out with her Dad. It's quite quiet and strange - not sure I want dd to go back to school when summers over if it's this quiet 🤣 likewise, it's been nice not to have a constant stream of YouTube prank videos as the theme sound to the day. Or the mummy look at this, while changing a nappy and trying to stop the dog running off with the nappy! Parenthood is a mix of emotions - I think the baby is also confused at how quiet it is.

Thank you @PopGoesBang the emotions are fleeting I will be fine all day then just all of a sudden out if nowhere. 😂😂 definitely sounds like a lively household I struggle with just the newborn and the dog 😂

So this morning I had the slightest bloody tinged show and got my hopes up that it was all going to start....nothing since. No more show, no contractions, no nothing (apart from going to the toilet more often). Disappointing and frustrating. We've got a wedding to go to on Saturday so I can guarantee baby is going to hang around until Saturday and stop us from going 🙃. Any other day and we won't have to miss it, so it's sods law it'll be the exact timing we were hoping to avoid!

@ToCaden sorry to hear about your midwife/health visitor experiences. A midwife friend of mine did say you can discharge/de register yourself, and do all the postnatal monitoring yourself. After a lot of thinking and feeling into it, I decided to stay registered but to decline further antenatal appointments, and I've bought all the things I'll need to do most of the post natal checks myself. This isn't for everyone but I feel confident and educated in taking control of making sure baby is okay and healthy, and I'd rather not be disturbed any more! I want to enjoy our baby bubble starting now till he's born. So I just wanted to mention this to you in case it's something you want to explore. You don't have to agree to all the appointments. Especially the weight ones in your case!
Best of luck and happy cuddling with your baba x

@Celyn22 that's really good to know. Thank you. I'd really like to enjoy a newborn bubble, but hard to do so when midwives are coming literally every day or two for something the hospital themselves have even told us isn't an issue!

Next visit is tomorrow. Don't think I've gone longer than 48 hours without seeing a midwife or doctor since being discharged, and so hard to relax with constant threats of more hospital visits. Especially since so many use their visits to be opinionated about the oddest and conflicting things. I'd understand if it was advising on nice guidelines, but it's all purely opinion. One hated nipple sheilds and on the first day I was attempting breastfeeding she belittled me into trying to get baby to latch without them in front of her with lots of barked orders. Another insisted all the other medical professionals, consultant, were wrong and he had jaundice which has been ruled out totally by tests (and only suspected because of his mixed race giving his skin a more olive tone than mine). She also hated breast pumps. And the list goes on. It's just overwhelming.

Did you opt out of visits by telling midwife face to face or via another format? What equiptment did you have to get to be able to do post natal checks yourself?