Starlight! you had that baby yet?

[DameHermione]

Ducks and runs...........

25th???? What have you got in there Star - an elephant?

I thought you would have delivered before I went on holiday, so you have exactly 19 hours left

Tomorrow I tell ya!

It'll come tomorrow.

Okeydokey 9th June @ 13.01 8lbs 12oz :)

I'm going to creep and say that it will definitely be tomorrow, because Starlight says so and she is never wrong.

Weight? Hmm, 8lb 4oz, I reckon.

Sorry. I had a dream about you last night.

Tomorrow. Boy. 8lb14.

Honestly, - there is NO ROOM in my house to have a baby atm. We are STILL bringing stuff over from old big house with garage and shed and loft into our now TINY new house with none.

Okay, so most things will need to go, but they still need to be sorted. My tribunal stuff alone takes up four shelves and a bin bag.

My MNSN section book recommendations takes up a square footage of floor when stacked. And just WHERE are we supposed to put all the 'educational rip off toys'?

And we need to be out of old property by Sat.........(of course we've been out of it for ages but couldn't very well move the stuff into the Premier Inn!

Could you do what we did and organise a storage unit for a month while you shift it across bit by bit. Well realistically while dh shifts it across, given that you will have a newborn.

It really took the pressure off when we moved to do it that way.

It's either that or start digging a new cellar/storage room.

Nice midwife today but bit of a problem about a)disagreement of dates, b)refusal of a sweep, c)missing scan notes due to moving and lack of joined-up-ness, d)missing bloods for sexually transmitted diseases for same reason as c, e)inability to find mutually possible date for next appointment due to the school run.

Which meant the whole time taken up with that stuff so didn't need to talk about birth plan, which was a relief as it ain't conventional, - so doula and DH can deal with that on the day!

Good idea about storage. Might investigate. TBH, what we need the most storage for is the stuff we want to throw out or recycle. The local tip/recycling places aren't open outside of working hours.

You know the more I read about ante-natal care these days the gladder I am that I had DS back in the Dark Ages when you had your first (and only scan at about 17 weeks), one fortnightly trip to the midwife, no bloods, no sweeps, no birth plans.... they just let you get on with it until you showed up at the Maternity Hospital in labour.

As someone who really resents 'interference' of any kind I'd have told them to..........

We did the same as you, moved from a nice spacious house with massive loft, built in cupboards and garage, to one with no loft space, no storage and no garage. Ironically, we did it to ensure our dcs would go to good schools - of course they are only good schools if your child doesn't have any SENs, but it's too late now ....

Most of the stuff we stored was stuff we needed to sort through and either recycle or dump etc, but it meant it was out of our hair while we settled in and we could go over to the unit whenever we had a free hour and deal with it one car load at a time.

Need to hire another one now so we can shift things to decorate. We are so tightly packed in there's nowhere to put things from each room while we decorate - hence dd, now 3 years old, still being in our room, as her bedroom is still primarily a study/store room.

You're unconventional birth plan sounds interesting. I had one of those, right up until they realised madam was breech with low movement. Even had the home delivery pack and birth pool all ready, but apparently dd wanted to be born in hospital. Ah well, at least I managed to avoid a section.

I wish you better luck and a much more compliant baby.

First she wanted me to go right now to the hospital for a scan as the last hospital hadn't sent the 20 week one over. I declined.

She said 'you're refusing a scan?'

I said 'no, I'm declining one. The logistics are a nightmare to arrange for me when for you it is simply a phonecall, and besides scans aren't very accurate at this stage'.

She was blimmin obsessed with giving me a sweep too. 'If not today then when?' she said.

'Erm, never'

'But you're overdue'

'No I'm due tomorrow'

'The early scan date says you were due 3 days ago'

'That's why I don't like unnecessary scans. They're not accurate. If we go with that date you'll have to explain to my DH that I must have slept with someone whilst he was abroad'.

'Well we have to go with the Ultrasound date'

'Why?'

'Hospital policy'

No answer from me. No point really. Learned to focus on the outcome which is that they can't make me have a scan, nor a sweep, nor a hospital birth EVEN IF I WAS high risk, which I'm not. I can have a row about it first, or not, but the outcome remains the same.

But actually, I kinda liked her tbh. She was policy led, but a thinker too, and a doer, - and I heard her on the phone to my old hospital getting hold of my scan details without internet, headed paper, id or consent by a polite determination and climbing the ranks of seniority until it was accomplished.

I'd like to have a row with her on the day have her attend to me on the day. She's very thorough.

TBH Moose my birth ISN'T very unconventional at all, but it might be to someone jobsworth policy-sticker.

I just want the midwives to come and leave me the hell alone unless there is any indication of medical emergency. Strangly this requirement needs to be written assertively because it just isn't the norm. Prodding and poking, jabbing and talking is the norm.

Same here Starlight - just a home waterbirth with minimal intervention when I am obviously far too old (I was 38) and too fat (I was thinner than I was for both my previous births) for it to be safe.

Fortunately I had one good midwife on my side and she even sorted the pool out for me - until dd scuppered all our good efforts.

I didn't do so well at declining the sweep, mainly because I was desperate for her to be born so I could get some sleep. Unfortunately there's no point in doing a sweep on me as I have a posterior cervix that, as they kindly pointed out in hospital, not even their midwife with the extra long fingers could reach. Yes, well that'll be because if labour was imminent it would no longer be that posterior, so you shouldn't actually be doing a sweep should you.

I agree with zzzzz you sound incredibly calm and in control. You do know that that sort of calmness is often the first sign of labour don't you? For this reason alone I stand by my bet and predict an imminent arrival.

I have a posterior cervix too.

So, the meany midwife declared that my baby was 'nearly back to back'! wtf that means. I think she was just trying to get one over on me - lol.

Even more reason not to have a sweep, if the baby isn't in a very good position imo.

Back to back means baby's back is lying against yours (P.O.P.) Normally baby's lie with their back to left or right. It will probably mean a slightly longer labour (25th December ) Good luck

Well my cervix was very posterior with dd and she was breech, bottom first!

I was told after I had ds1 that it's actually related to my having a retroverted uterus, so nothing to do with how the baby is lying. All the women in my family are the same and we've all been told at some point in our lives that we happen to have retroverted uteruses.

Thanks. I know all about back to back as DS was, - I was just wondering what the feck 'nearly' back to back was and thought the mw was just being a bit mean in stating that.

In any case, it's a gyrating baby. Sometimes he is back to back, sometimes he isn't. A midwife last pg showed me how to feel myself. (sounds a bit rude -

DS came with me and asked me was the baby going to come out of my vulva today when the mw was on the phone . The student mw didn't really know where to look.

zzzzz, I know that being calm is a sense of imminent birth, but tbh, with everything that has happened recently, a baby being born is quite frankly the least scary/panicky/stressful thing, and it doesn't require my head to hurt. Oh the relief!

She was trying to pull an 'LEA' on you Star - obviously doesn't know who she's dealing with.

Dd was a third baby and she was super wriggly too. I had a tiny bump with her (unlike the lovely beached whale impression I did with both her brothers) and have no idea how she managed to keep turning from breech to cephalic and then back again right up to almost 42 weeks. She had the medics all totally befuddled about it as well.

at your ds and his anatomical knowledge. Ds1 didn't give a fig for how dd was going to get out - as long as it didn't interrupt my being able to pick him up from school.

Cervixes (cervii?) are always posterior before you are ready for labour. Doesn't mean anything. You could be posterior in the morning and fully dilated and pushing by teatime. Or 4 cm dilated for 3 weeks.

Most people fall somewhere in between.

Fitto an 'OP' baby. Most move befire or during labour. Some don't and come out tother way up.

He will come out eventually. You cannot stay pregnant forever. Probably.