Week of September 13...we're halfway to October!!! - Page 8

[OakEmber]

Piglet- I was gonna say the exact thing as Mirthfulmum...our midwife strongly suggested doing the same if we were to end up with a c/s, and she also told DH that no one would suggest it to him so he should just do it (so maybe prepare your Dh for a few odd looks ) It really sucks that they have that policy (it seems very common, ours sounds worse b/c the midwife said that it can sometimes take 4 hrs for mom to see baby here : ) thankfully you have time to prepare for this at least, if I ended up with an emergency c/s I am sure that this is the part I would end up with the most negetive feelings towards after the fact! Ohhhh, that's so exciting that you have a date!!!!

I have such mixed days, re: comfort...sometimes I feel fine, other days I am uncomfortable...but I definately can tell a difference between this and the last time, with Ember I was walking everywhere right up to my due date...now I drive the 5 min. walk to town because just going from store to store down town is enough walking for me :LOL

Wow, Pg.8...our weekly threads seem to be getting longer and longer as we get closer!

[AngelBee]

Just wanted to say that I hope all the Oct Mamas are doing well. I am newer to the site and am expecting baby#3, Angelo Richard, edd 10/25/04. This will be my first experience with cd so we have been getting everything ready. Very exciting!

Congrats mamas! I look forward to getting to know you!
Angela

[AnnR33]

Welcome AngelBee! I'm due Oct 31 so we'll be pretty close to welcoming our babes together!

to everyone that needs it-we're getting closer though...I'm a little jealous (in a good way ) that most of you will be seeing and holding your new little angels before me! I'll be one of the the last ones-if not THE last one and I'm getting so anxious! I've still got 6 looonnnggg weeks to go!

Hang in there everyone
Ann

[OakEmber]

Angela! I will be using cloth for the first time too

Awww Ann, I know it is getting so much harder to be patient, isn't it when others are becoming full term already on us

[Piglet68]

Hey there. Just wanted to let you know, AshleePurdie, I finally added you to the list. It will show up tomorrow when I post the new thread for this week. And I'll be adding you, too, AngelBee - welcome!

Thanks for all the great advice re: the separation. The hospital where I birthed Emily did not have this policy and she was with me just a few minutes after they wheeled me into recovery. I was able to nurse her right away. I agree, Katie, that the hospital should really try to do something about that. I'm going to find out who is the one who "decides" when I'm allowed to go to my room (and get baby) and see if I can sweet talk them into cutting the time short. Either than or I'll just lie when they give my legs the "pinprick test"...

me: "oh yes, I felt that one, I'm sure the anaesthesia has worn off now"
doc: "uh, Ms. Walker, we haven't poked you yet"
me: "see? that's how recovered I am, I could feel the proximity of the pin....can I go see my baby now??"

:LOL


Ooops, DD has a poopy dipe...gotta fly.

[momadance]

Welcome~~~

belly cast is done and up for viewing at our yahoo page. I really like how it came out. We will be leaving it natural.

For the casting process I sat on the edge of a chair in a reclined position. After about 15-20 minutes I got very dizzy. I told Dh, and he was trying to help me up, and everything went black, and fuzzy. I could hear his voice, but my vision was bailing on me. As soon as I stood, I started to feel better, but I was SOOOOOOOOO close to passing out! Pretty scary. I passed out while ironing a shirt while pregnate with Ds, luckily no damage was done!

[Court]

Thanks for sharing momadance! It's beautiful! You have a really nice big ole belly. The one with your ds holding it is too cute. Now I wanna make one.....

[True Blue]

momadance -- cast looks great! Scary about almost fainting!! What did you use to make the cast? I'd like to make one this time.

[momadance]

Thanks for the feedback! I used a couple rolls of pre-pasted paper mache (sp?) from Michaels craft store. It's real inexpensive... I'm super happy we did one this time, coulbe our last!

[momadance]

I almost forgot... Katie, we all love to see Lucy Beth, but your totally incognito in that pic... Although it does seem you have one of the warmest smiles ever

[Lucysmama]

Yeah, the only other one I have on here is of me in a bathing suit postpartum. Yikes! I'm a photographer (well, I can't use my darkroom while pregnant, so I haven't been much of one lately!) so I am always behind the camera....we will take some birth pictures and I will post those though.

Oh, I do have one that was taken when I was 18 on my computer, but it is pretty silly.

[ashleep]

How do I get to the yahoo page? I would love to see the pictures and maybe post some too!

[mandalamama]

37 weeks today, woohoo! i finished up the nursery today, it feels good. even though she won't be sleeping in there, it's a nice cozy room to curl up and rock in.

Piglet: i hope your recovery is fast and you'll be holding your baby as soon as possible!

momadance: paper mache? i'll have to get some tomorrow! the instructions for a bellycast that i'd seen were for bandages with i think plaster in them, couldn't find any. can't wait to try a bellycast!

i could use a pep-talk, i guess ... other than nesting, i haven't had any signs that my body is getting ready to birth, i'm getting a little nervous about that. i'm wondering if first-time moms "get ready" later? i just keep meditating on the baby slipping lower and lower, visualizing flowers opening, all that stuff last week it felt like she had dropped, lots of hip and cervix pressure, the last 2 days she's nestled back up in my ribcage.

[Lucysmama]

Meli -

I never felt my dd engage, and I never felt "settled and ready" in my pregnancy with her.My contractions did not feel very productive compared to these - they were not pushing the baby against my cervix in the same way, not as strong, etc. I think it is normal for first time mamas to be slower to get going. I would start mentally preparing yourself (if you haven't already) that you could carry Willow until late October. 37 weeks is pretty early to be feeling ready to birth in a first time mama, I think. (That isn't what you wanna hear, I bet!)

Do you happen to know what your baby's position is? As your first baby, she is more likely to be in a posterior position. If she is posterior, she will have a harder time getting engaged, your BHs will not be as productive, and you will be likelier to carry over your EDD. One thing you can do to help encourage things to move along at a steady pace is to try to flip her in to the optimal fetal position - with her back on your left side, and anterior if she isn't already.

I just went to a 2 hour meeting about positioning, so it is all very fresh in my mind! I can't believe how much of a difference it makes in pregnancy, labor, and birth, and how little is ever said about it to women!!!

[Court]

I also wanted to send hugs out to Piglet - that hour seperation seems so unfair. I hope it goes by super fast. And I hope Emily is feeling better with her molar ordeal.

I'll PM you the link to our Yahoo group Ashlee!

And hey, I guess my babe is in the optimal fetal positon, cause his back is laying to my left, and has been for quite awhile. Thanks for the info Katie! You learn something new every day. I find, since he's in this position, he wont let me lay on my right side. He knees me and kicks me, I guess he wants to be on his back.

You know what annoys me (besides most everything these days)? Are people like my mom who keep asking, "Are you ready to have the baby?" I'm like 35 1/2 weeks along, so no. I always say, "well, I would kinda like a bigger baby, or he's not done cooking, etc." And they act so baffled.

It's weird, I don't really have any pregnancy complaints lately, except for feeling really fat - which is more amusing really than upsetting. I don't think the baby is engaged yet, so I don't have any of the groin crampy stuff. I'm sure I'll have some complaints in a couple weeks.

Um, one more thought for the night - I'm kinda panicking that we decided on a name so early on. I just hope this baby looks like a Zander, cause that's what we call him. Logan calls him that all the time, so I think it would confuse him if we changed it. I had always said I was gonna have a list of names and then choose after he was born. Now I'm thinking, what if he looks like an Emerson, or Kamen - my made up name. I'm just having anxiety about everything though. I hope yall don't mind me using our chat threads as my personal journal.

[AnnR33]

Court-we have the opposite problem with names-my DH won't even discuss them anymore! He just keeps saying we'll come up with one when he sees him/her-arg-it's so frustrating to me since we need to have at least some choices-and I like your Kamen. I came up with something similar-Calen (long a sound)
And man do I ever feel FAT! I didn't even weigh myself at my last midwife appt-my legs feel so huge-I don't remember them looking so big last time but they say we always forget...Heck I can barely see my legs :LOL
Hope everyone had a good weekend!
Ann

[Court]

ooh I like Calen, too. Yeah, my midwife and I decided to stop weighing me, since it drives me nuts. I think when I'm in labor I might weigh myself just to see the grand total - out of morbid curiosity. My legs feel really huge too...especially when I'm shaving them - there's so much more surface area to cover

P.S.- I organized the Yahoo group photo section. I gave everyone their own little album, cause I thought that might make more sense. If you want to add pictures to your album, just click on it and once you're in there's an "add photos" link. I wanted it all to fit on one page, but sadly trueblue is on page 2, sorry...it was last in alphabetical order. Okay, so apparently I'm nesting online too. Hope it's okay with y'all.

[ameliabedelia]

Meli,

With my first, I NEVER felt my body getting ready, never felt a single contraction until I actually went into labor, felt great all through the pregnancy, was power walking right up until the end. At my 37 week appt they checked me and I was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced (and I had never felt a single contraction) and at my 38 week check-up I was 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced (again all without feeling a single contraction). Two days after that appt. I lost my mucous plug and dd was born 2 days after that at 38 1/2 weeks. The first contraction I ever felt was the day before she born when I first started labor.

I have no idea what position the dd was in other than she was head down.

So, you never know when you will go or what your body is doing.

I really think that their is a genetic tendency to go either before or after the EDD. My mom always went between 4-10 days early with all her birth children (4) and my maternal grandmother also always went between 2 weeks and a few days early (3 children). So, I would say your best indication is to ask your mom and grandmother what happened with them.


I have also heard that woman who are more active tend to go earlier than woman who aren't as active.

[ameliabedelia]

Piglet, that is great you have a date already. That is so exciting. I am a little jealous of you and your c-section in that regard. I would LOVE to just be able to pick a date for the birth, mark it on my calendar and make plans accordingly LOL. Sorry about your separation. Don't worry, I am sure it will all work out. Maybe you can hold/nurse him immediately after delivery while still in the operating room. I know that LLL says that right after delivery is a good time to nurse while you still have the anasthetic (sp??). Surely they will at least let you hold him for a few minutes before wheeling you off into recovery.

Ann, I am also jealous of all the full-term moms here. I hate being at the end of the pack. LOL. Everyone else hits all the milestones first. But, I *think* I will go early, so I am hoping for a mid-Oct babe, not a late a late Oct. babe or *gasp* Nov. babe. LOL

Court, I know what you mean about the name thing. I am starting to doubt our name too. I really like it, but then I don't know. Choosing a name seems like such a big undertaking, and it is so hard for me and DH to agree. I hope our babe looks like a Greta.

momadance, I like your cast. That is cool. Sorry about the fainting though. At least all is okay now.

[krnflwr]

37 wks

Oh, I like the name Calen, too.
We have finally agreed on a name (for this week, at least). What do you guys think? Emma Grace.
We could never get over the Arwen-vs-Morgan debate, and once we heard the name Emma, it just seemed to fit just right. I feel so much more settled and relaxed now, oddly enough, about having this baby. Now that I know what to call her.
I'm feeling very heavy and slow and waddly (is that a word?) and like my pelvis is spreading apart inch by inch. Otherwise, I feel pretty good today. Sending positive energy vibes out to all Oct mamas!
My friend in NC just had her 1st baby last night...2 hr labor, can you believe that? They named her Iris Jane, isn't that sweet? I'm so excited for her, but bummed that I won't get to see the baby until at least Thanksgiving time. She said it was a very intense experience (her labor) but felt timeless and wasn't nearly as scary or painful as she had imagined. Just wanted to share the thoughts of this first-time mama w/ all you other first-timers.
And I love the belly cast! It turned out great. If you ever seriously serve chips and dip out of it, I HAVE to see a pic of that!