May mamas, it's MAY!!!! - Page 2

[kids'ncows]

Congratulations pottermomma and welcome Kyler!!!! Thanks for giving us our first birth story.

Guess it really is May, isn't it? I whined to dh today that I'm starting weekly app'ts now - he was like big deal, maybe 4 of them? EEEEEEKKKSSS!!!!

Yes, add me to the not ready to be done being pregnant list... Guess we better get back to the name list, and do laundry, and more laundry, and figure out where to put the clean laundry, and decide what to do about my work, and.... (OK, you guessed it - we are procrastinators )

OK - more birth stories! I need the reality check.

[PattyCakes]

Yay! Yay! Yay!
Congratulations Pottermama (and family!) and welcome baby Kyler!
So glad to hear you had a good experience.

I had a dream that I had a baby girl 6.9 lbs on May 19 (one day after new moon) - midwife says anytime - even though I'm not due until the 25th. Who knows? I had a whopper of a contraction today at the mw's while she was measuring my belly. Sounds like my body is starting to get ready. (but I'm not really ready to be done yet).

I've got baby clothes in the wash as I write this, and my pre birth delivery of diapers comes Thursday. Slowly but surely we're getting ready. (my list of things to do is HUGE). Yikes.

[DawnaRose]

Awesome! Congratulations Pottermama and family!!! welcome baby Kyler!

[KKmama]

I think I might be in early, early labor (hope I don't put a curse on myself by telling y'all).

Contrax started after lunch, while lying down with ds for his nap. They've continued ever since. They're not bad, but they're definitely much more painful and intense than any other contrax I've ever had (remember, I'm the woman who has never labored). Anyway, I think if this keeps up, maybe a baby for us tomorrow?

I'm trying not to get too excited about it, but whatever it is, it's *interesting* and I'm sure it's helpful. Something I never got to experience with ds' birth...

[mcsarahb]

Hi Mamas-

Congratulations pottermama!!! Hi, Kyler!

Lillian Dorothy was born at home, in the water, at 6:30 pm May 1st. 7 lbs., 9 oz., 19.25 in. Perfect 10 Apgar at 1 min.!!! (Sorry, had to brag ). She's wonderful, I'm doing fine, dh is the best dad, he's taking care of everything. I'll post the birth story in the next few days...can't focus now. Hope everyone else is doing well.

Sarah

[Defenestrator]

Congratulations Sarah -- I can't wait to hear the whole birth story. Sounds lovely.


GoGOGOGOGOGOGO KKMama!

Now this is what I want to hear!

Stacia

[Sarah'sMama]

Welcome Lilian!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations and great work Sarah! Sounds like you are enjoying your babymoon!

Gooooooooooooooo KKmama! Hope your labor progresses very nicely, and contrax get into a good steady pattern! Yayhoo!!!

[PattyCakes]

Congratulations Sarah and family and WELCOME baby Lilian!!! Sounds like a wonderful birth - can't wait for the details.

Take good care of yourself and your new babe. (ooo... this is sooo dang exciting).


Gooooooo KKMama! We're thinking of ya!

[Mama Faery]

Congrats to the new mamas! Yay!!!
I am getting SO excited!
Yesterday I was sent to the LDR to get a non-stress test (the thing where they check to make sure Baby's moving around like he should be? Yeah) because all weekend I had been feeling really ICK, just like, "off"...BH or something going on all weekend, tummy issues, nausea, all sorts of stuff that I was HOPING was early labor but today I feel fine. And HUGE Go figure. : But I am glad I get some time to get a few more things done around the house! I want to clean but I don't want to clean. :LOL
Baby is absolutely fine, and my OB says any day now too, I see her again Thursday, we're just playing the waiting game now, since my GBS came back negative. No more tests! Whee!

Not much else going on. I'm having serious wrist/hand pain, arms going numb, sleeping becoming really difficult, I feel SO heavy in my belly area, this baby has to come out SOON!

Oh, in other news...DH told his mother we had a "false alarm" and she just about wet herself :LOL sorry, but that's how it seemed to me. She gets REALLY overexcited/overbearing and it's driving me nuts! She told him to expect WEEKLY visits when our baby is born! I just don't know if I can handle this! He told me he was going to gently tell her we need time to ourselves, first of all, especially in the very beginning, and then we can arrange visits and such, but NOT every week!!!
It made me really nervous, and being a private person knowing that her "private time" is about to be chucked out the window, well, I'm sorta freaking out.
I'm expecting a couple of friends a few weeks after Baby comes to help out, but those first few fragile days I just want to cocoon with DH and bond with our son! *sigh*
I think I will go call my husband now. Heh.

Take care, everyone!

[Jacqueline]

Congratulations Pottermama & Sarah! And welcome Kyler & Lillian--I love those names! I'm so glad your births went well...what nice positive vibes to start us off with. Let's keep it up.

KKMama-I hope you're in laborland right now...sending lots of positive birthing energy to you.

Renae-I know what you mean about feeling "off." Last night, we merely went out to eat dinner and then to the grocery store and by the time I got to the grocery store, I was totally exhausted and my stomach was bothering me a bit. Had BH most of the time I was walking the aisles to get stuff and was moving soooooo slow. If dh hadn't been with me, I would have gone straight home. Then I was going to go to bed early, but dh had a burst of energy (maybe he's getting my nesting instincts) and wanted to put together the stroller/car seat and baby papasan. I could have gone to bed, but was wanting to be a part of this process in some way, so I read the directions to him. Needless to say, I didn't get to bed till 11:00 and since I'm still working, had to get up early.

I know I still have 3 or 4 weeks to go...I guess my body is just feeling really tired of being pregnant...yet still so much to do that I really need the time remaining! Plus, dh has graduation on the 18th with some family coming. Oh my, too much.

But, hearing those of you with new babies...well, it sounds like it makes it all worth it.

[DawnaRose]

Congrats Sarah! That's wonderful!

Go KKMomma! I hope its time for you! Sending lots of good vibes your way!

Well, my due date is Thursday and I was almost induced Sunday night, but they decided to send me home, I noticed that my hands and feet were swelling up much more than normal and I had a headache that would not go away, so the nurse I spoke to sent me in to be monitored at L&D. I got there and my bp was in the 140's and the OB was concerned but wanted to do some blood work before she induced me, so I sat there being monitored on the BP machine for 4 hours, most of the readings were in the 130's-140's and finally went down to my normal 120/80. Bloodwork and urine came back normal and the OB came in about a dozen times to talk to us about what were would/could do etc. Baby is still not engaged into my pelvis yet, she's floating so inducing me would be risky and could mean a c/s The doctor was very concerned about some of the bp readings so she wanted to do more to make sure the bp was staying normal, I was there for almost 6 hours and my arm is now bruised from all the readings I bruise easy anyway but its still shocking to look down at my arm and see a bruise all around it, heh.

In the end she decided to send us home, we got back here from Denver around 1am. Yesterday I had to go in to see my regular OB for a followup, when I got there my bp was 131/80. It has been 120/80 the entire pregnancy and never anything else so while its not "high" its higher than my normal ya know? Anyway my OB checked me out and said that the hospital did all the right bloodwork and everything came back normal, so I got the usual "your pregnant, nothing we can do" line. He did check my cervix and said its still unfavorable and baby is still floating but he stripped my membranes (omgosh! that sucked! I about fell off the table and my poor DH had this look of pure horror on his face too!) The ob said maybe by stripping them it could send me into labor on my own, we'll see. So far I've had nothing but cramps and the same old headache.

My very good friend is arriving from Canada tomorrow and I can't wait to see her, its been almost a year since she was here last, it will be nice to have someone around the house to talk to and go shopping with, we'll be spending lots of time walking around the Mall I'm sure, heh.

Sorry for writing a book, when I get started its hard to stop, heh.
Hope everyone has a great day and big hugs to the new momma's, enjoy those babies!

[Marco Esquandolas]

Awwww, CONGRATS, mamas!! My 'puter got wormed yet again so I'm trying to catch up. I'm so happy for both of you and your families! You both should post separate threads with your birth stories (and pics if you that sort of thing). Yes, I am nosey, lol. I hope you're both recovering and resting nicely.

Alrighty, I'm not really fit to be around (ummmm, cranky as all get out ) so I'm gonna go walk or nest or something.

[kids'ncows]

Congratulations Sarah and family!

KKmama, don't know if you are still around to read this but I wanted to let you know that I'm sending successful VBAC vibes and prayers your way. And if this isn't it, don't feel bad - you are still a day closer to meeting that little one.

[KKmama]

Well, I'm still here. I don't think I've made any "progress" (according to dh), but I *do* see all of this as very encouraging. I think I'm just going to have a long, slow ramp up, and that doesn't really bother me. Like I said before, I didn't get to experience any of this with ds, so whatever it is, I think it's pretty neat. Saw the "good" ob this morning, and she was very encouraging.

I continued with my contrax until I went to bed last night, slept *so* soundly. They seem to have started up again about 1/2 an hour ago. At this point, I'm seeing that I need to keep myself busy but get plenty of rest, too (because even though I didn't "do" anything yesterday, I was sooooo tired last night).

Oh, Dawn, doesn't sound your experience was any fun. I hope your bp stays where it should (bp vibes to anyone else who needs them, too). Try to get some rest!

I'm going to update the roll call with the new people (babies included! ) later on.

[mittendrin]

: : :

yeah!!! we have our first babies!! congrats pottermama and sarah!! welcome little ones, i looove the names you guys picked! brought tears to my eyes when i read all this.
it is finally starting to kick in: i'm gonna have another baby! sure, she's moving and kicking like crazy, i'm huge and tired and it hurts, but now i finally realize that there's actually sth coming out of it...thanks to our first two may babies...keep it rolling, mamas!
kkmama, sending labor vibes your way, can't wait to hear your story. go have some sex :ignore :

[Defenestrator]

Dawn -- I hope your bp stays low enough to buy you some time until your body is ready to go into labor. I will be thinking of you.

KKMama -- I wanted to tell you the story of my first baby (for inspiration). I left work on a Friday after having not a single BH contraction the whole pregnancy and started labor Saturday morning. I had contractions in groups on Saturday afternoon, then things slowed down, was able to sleep pretty well on Saturday night, got up on Sunday, had contractions that were sometimes closer together, say, every 8 minutes, sometimes further apart, like every 15 minutes, but petered out again at bedtime. On Monday the same thing happened except by this time the contractions were painful enough that I would have to stop, breathe through them, sway, concentrate, etc. I was getting impatient and started thinking of things I could do to move things along, and had a rather spicy dinner and put my dh into service a la sex about 11pm. At 12:30 am I woke up with contrax that were more intense and closer together, climbed into the bathtub, made enough noise to wake up dh, who called the midwife about half an hour later and had the baby within three hours.

When I tell my labor story, I was either in labor for 3.5 hours, or three days, depending on the version I am telling. But I do think that all of that slow ramping up did a lot for moving baby into position, thinning out cervix, etc. If I have another labor just like that this time, I would be happy.

You are not a first-time mama, but this is your first labor, and a lot of times when I see first time mamas, it takes a whole day for the contrax to move the baby into the right position, even if they are pretty close together, but then there will be an uptick in intensity (maybe contrax go from lasting 45 secs to a minute or something like that) and the dilation will progress rapidly. It can be pretty discouraging to go through that 24 hours, though, especially if the contrax are close together. It sounds like you are doing great! What you gotta avoid are thoughts like "Well, it took me 18 hours to get to 3 cm, so its going to take 36 hours to get to complete . . .EEEEEEKKKK!" You can never predict how fast labor will be based on the progress you have made already.

Sounds like you are doing absolutely fabulously, though. Good luck!

Stacia

[merpk]

Welcome to the new wee ones ...




Looking forward to the birth stories ...










Stacia, we've currently got 3 kids in the family bed. Futons on the floor, wall2wall. The oldest is 6 and is chomping at the bit to get out of the family bed, so we put a small futon frame here in the computer room, and he loves to sit in here during the day and feel alone and grown-up, but as soon as bedtime comes he only wants to cuddle with everyone else. When he's ready ...

Anyway, point being that if you've got enough futon/bed space, there isn't a problem with a bunch of kids in the bed. Just make sure that your body is between the newborn and everyone else. Even if DS likes to cuddle next to you, that's okay, but it'll just have to be on the opposite side from the baby. And if you're nursing the baby, he'll just have to cuddle your back. May take a few days, but he'll get the hang.

If there's tandem nursing going to be happening, then check out some of the tandem support threads for advice on night-time family bed tandem nursing. Again, it's not always easy in the beginning getting used to it, but once you get it going, it's worth it.

Only thing I'm not looking forward to in re the bed and the logistics of 6 of us in the bed is that DD is very attached to sleeping next to the wall, which is where I want the new one to go (with me next to baby, of course). Have been reminding her daily that the baby will go there in "her" space, but until it happens ...

Anyway, I wouldn't push your bigger one out before he's ready. Sleeping in the same general area as the little one (though *not* next to each other) is good bonding stuff.

As far as rolling over on each other ... the first six months or so, that's a big issue for the baby. After that ... my kids are all over each other all night, it's actually kind of cute, and if someone is too heavy on someone else's limb or gets on someone's head, the screams get everyone moving again till the problem is usually solved on its own, IYKWIM ... and almost always everyone sleeps through the whole process, too ...

/rantbyfamilybedfanatic

[Defenestrator]

Amy --

Thank you so much for your help with the family bed stuff. It is actually my biggest worry right now. I have a strong feeling that if I had made the bed transition a few months ago, everything would be ok, but now is just not a good time and that I need to wait at least six months or so before trying to transition ds out of the bed again. He is actually quite a deep sleeper, so I guess I can probably just move him when I move the baby and always keep him at my back. I struggle with low milk supply and need to nurse on both sides at night and always found it easiest to just flip over from side to side with him when he was a baby, so I was struggling with the logistics of where to put him, as a now super-sturdy preschooler who doesn't have a real sense of squishing other people, as I moved the baby around. I hope I am making sense. . . .I think I might just try moving both of them when we wake up, if necessary, or staying awake for the feedings when baby is close to him and then flipping back over.

We weaned in the early spring, after about a month of no milk and nursing being excruciatingly painful for me. I basically just limited the duration to what I could stand and it got shorter and shorter. It was a pretty gentle process and I was happy with how it went. Not entirely child-led, but no tears either. By coincidence, it was around his birthday. I haven't decided 100% what I will do if he wants to start up again. Part of me wants to just leave preschooler nursing in the past for a while. Regardless, it shouldn't be much of an issue in the middle of the night because right before he weaned he was down to just bedtime and morning and was not asking for nursing in the middle of the night.

Thank you again for your help. Most of my friends have co-slept, but they either spaced their kids closer than I or only have one child. I love having the family bed and am in no hurry to give it up. I just want everyone to be safe and sleep well.

Take care!

Stacia

[KKmama]

I added Emmalola and Jennifer3141 and Ananicole (sounds like you have a rough date now) to the "status" list. Welcome! And I added Kyler and Lillian! Woo hoo! Can't remember who's doing the qualifying exam or orals or whichever shortly before due date... man, I never could have done that with mine... you are brave!

Renae, dh told his mom my dilation/effacement status this weekend, and I just about killed him. I haven't even told *my* mom, and remember, we've misled our parents about when the baby is due, because they were so annoying with calls last time! She remembers more of the "having a baby" stuff than my mom, and I'm afraid she'll figure out I'm further along than she thinks... it wouldn't be a stretch for her to call me during the day to pester me about further progress. I tend to think she sees me as a "grandchild vessel" anyway...

Stacia, I really appreciated the story of your firstborn. That is actually kind of the way I've thought it would go all along... And I *do* see myself as being the equivalent of a 1st-time mom when it comes to labor (and I think my ob and doula do, too)... my uterus has *held* a baby before, but it sure hasn't pushed a baby out (or even tried to! ). This time, though, it seems like I have baby who wants to exit the traditional way. All my vitals are still excellent, and I still have a ton of time left on the calendar, so I'm totally willing to just wait and see what happens.

Also, on the family bed... Stacia, you might want to learn the mechanics of nursing side-lying with the "top" boob (if that makes any sense to you). If you've never done it, get an experienced mom, or LLL leader, or LC to show you. I don't think I was "able" to do it with ds until he was ~a month old, but boy, it was nice to not have to move him. And we're going to be co-sleeping much the way Amy describes (all of us together, with an adult between new baby and ds), so I'll definitely have to implement the top boob thing sooner. I'm about where you're at in terms of #1 and weaning... he keeps checking to see if there's any milk there, and I wonder if he's going to start nursing again full-force after the baby arrives.

[emmalola]

thanks for adding me to the list, kkmama. I think I am the one you were thinking of in terms of the preliminary exams... erg. Thanks for thinking me brave, but in fact I just have no choice in the matter. The Committee Of Important People Who Decide These Things is just being very inflexible with the dates and they won't allow me to take the test early. I told them that if I don't show up for the exams, they know where I am. heh.

yay babies! I just went through our inventory of baby clothes and am curious how much other moms invested in before the baby came. We have about 10 little newborn-sized onesies, all of which pull over the head. I heard that you're better off with the snappy onesies, but we don't have any of those. Does anyone have any advice about this? I am such a first time mom, I have no idea what I am even supposed to worry about!