week of October 18....who's birthday is *this* week? - Page 3

[flitters]

38 weeks 2 (almost 3) days

hi mamas!

congratulations bluehalo and noah!!!
he is a super cutie! wishing you a speedy recovery!

just checking in - i seem to lack posting energy lately but i love reading how everyone is doing!

things here are good. had a great midwife appointment today. just normal checkup stuff, everything looks great.

baby is very low now. i have loads of contractions. cervix felt pretty squishy and short and maybe a small finger tip or so dialated last time i checked a few days ago. tonight a big rain storm is supposed to roll in - the first of the season. the barometric pressure hasn't really dropped yet, but maybe it'll trigger something. i'm guessing i'll go this week but we'll see!

hugs to all!

[mandalamama]

checking in to read and catch up, and i'm so excited about all the moms in/nearing labor and all the births!

i could post this to Breastfeeding but i figure some of y'all are up late my milk just came in and i'm already engorged as hell, very painful and i can even feel hard, hot milk ducts that hurt. i'm following all the written advice i can find but nothing's helping, i mean it says to soften with a warm compress and have the baby nurse which i did, but that breast is actually *more* engorged after the feeding. confusing! same with expressing, they both engorge more. also, Willow "unlatches" halfway in the middle of a feeding but for some reason i can't feel it, so my left nipple is in a lot of pain and has a small blood blister type thingy on it. the last 2 feedings she'll latch on and then back off, too much milk flow is intimidating maybe? but expressing just makes more. yikes! i'm sure i'll get the hang of it but i'm worried i'll wake up even more engorged *eek*

[ameliabedelia]

Well, I am pretty sure my water broke early this morning. I woke up at 2:45 AM to feel something trickling down my legs. Tried to go back to sleep, but didn't really sleep and then an hour later felt it again. I just got up at about 4:15 AM to pack my hospital bag and felt more trickle, so no gush, just a trickle which comes and goes. Having a few contractions, still spaced pretty far apart and not that intense....but things should pick up soon. So, I think we may be having a birthday this week, hopefully today.

Melly, maybe try calling LLL in your area. They would have better ideas. You might want to make sure Willow's latch is ok, and she is really draining the breast. Also, they say you can try cabbage leaves. I think you just place cabbage leaves under your bra and that is supposed to help.

Bluehalo, I can't believe you can post from the hopsital... I want a hospital with internet access. I am already wondering how I will survive without MDC for the 2 days I am in the hospital (assuming they won't let me leave early).

[BeansMomma]

OK Ladies - looks like I answered my own question. My water just broke (does it ever stop leaking?) - conveniently on the toilet during a mid-night peeing session. WOW - here we go. I'll check back in in a couple of days after she's born (not sure what online access we'll have at the hospital). Happy birthing to all you others that are close!!!!

[sqoya]

You go Susan and Amelia!!! It's so exciting to wake up and hear such great news!!!

[True Blue]

38 weeks 6 days....

Thanks for the tips everyone, I KNOW I should wait there is just part of me that is getting nervous. I don't think I can go by our parents' kids' birthweights, or even the weights of my half-siblings' kids, bc Mickade broke the mold so to speak. My sis and I were 6 pounders, he was over 8 and 2 inches longer. Even DH's siblings' kids were smaller than he was. The latest cousin was about half a pound less but over 2inches shorter (mom had GD though). So I just don't know. We'll see how I feel this afternoon I guess (and Katie if I were you I'd be doing everything at this point LOL).

Meli -- Some engorgement is pretty common this early on. I don't have too much new advice in that department, except to say that in another day or so your milk supply will catch up (or down LOL) with Willow's intake. Cold cabbage leaves in your bra on your nipples will be soothing to pain you have. And do you have Lansinoh? That always helped me a lot the first week or two. You are going to have to pay very close attention to how Willow is nursing so you can see when her latch is wrong. Whenever she latches on wrong, as annoying as it is, you have pop her off immediately and make her re-latch so she learns to do it properly every time, otherwise you will be one very sore mama. I second calling LLL or a lactation consultant in your area. It will all be ok very soon!!

Ok I must have missed a page when reading because I just scrolled down and saw all kinds of water breaking messages LOL. Hooray Amelia and Susan!!! I'll try to hide my intense jealousy when we hear all about your births!

[Momma2LiamandTara]

Wow! What amazing news to wake up too! Good Luck Susan and Amelia!!!

Well my leg still hurts. I think it's just a nasty muscle pull. It doesn't seem like sciatica. Now my groin is hurting a lot now. I'm just hoping to have this baby soon. The big due date is Sunday so we shall what happens. DH predicts the 20th and a girl. I predict the 31st and a boy. Well i'm just not a happy camper becuase I hurt so much : and it hurts even more to go talk a bath becuase I strain my legs so much getting out. Oh well it will all be over soon.

So who is having their baby next????

Happy birthing Susan and Amelia!!

[momadance]

41 weeks

The days keep cruising by. I'm always so surprised to wake up in the am! Had a nice night last night. Had an old friend over for dinner, some real good contractions, that hugged all the way around and were good and painful... Then, I wake up this am

Tonight the couple who are coming down for the birth are coming to stay the night. Our friend Mikes (from Col.)in town till wed. so we'll have a good group over tonight. All the key players will be around, and there's always so much love and good energy when where all together, and with the addition of my sis being around, I really hope things get going.. Although I'll have to make sure nobody starts to have "too much fun" There outa towners with a favorite microbrew that comes out of atl... I can just see me going into labor after everyones gone through a case

Oh, is anyone else having men who aren't dp's around for the birth? Everyone thinks its so wild that Josh'll be here, and maybe Mike... It's not like they have to have a front in center spot, or even watch the graphic portions, but everyone acts like I'm a nut...It's good prep. for them when their dp's (my lovely best women friends) go through it, don't ya think!?

Contemplating the LLL meeting and gymnastics today... "Your still preg?" do I really wanna go through it? I just don't know....

Trueblue.. I would personally hold off on the stripping.(till post due) Do you know if your GBS positive or not? I can't remember if you did the test or not.

Katie~ I'd totally do the stripping at your point! I will next Monday if I'm still preggers!

Thanks for the compliments on my cervix. Never thought I'd type a sentence like that

Have we done weight predictions? that may be fun.

My guess for Reed is 10 even.

[blessed2bamommie]

: what's with all this water breakin and *how* can you tell if you're peein! I sometime pee for 5 minutes in the middle of the night and wonder if its pee or amnio. Seeing inconsistent amounts of mucus wonderin if its the plug or not;but, my MW says you'll know. Wonder if its comin out gradually...

Had a lot of ctx in kickboxing today. :LOL My instructor tells me to do whatever I want! And only once did he say push and he looks over at me and waves his finger. I want to mess with him so bad as we're doing squats and tell him come here I need him to catch the baby! :LOL He's a trip. I go on Tuesdays. I'm thinking this will be my last class (kickboxing unless I do have the baby and don't make it out the rest of the week) preggo.

Dh is working from home today waiting on maintenance. Do you *know* how thrilled I am that the water is BROWN having a wb! He *betta* come today. At least the pool is inflated leaning against the wall and he can see it up.

Well, I'm gon check my email and relax a bit since dh will be home the day. I was gonna do some cleaning since he was here course, his help was questionable. I think I'm gon call the other nfs and ask about a cleaning person. I haven't had very good success with the three calls I've made.

[Soogie]

Yay! Happy Birthing to Susan and Amelia! I can't wait to hear about your new babies. And I can say that I'm a wee bit jealous of all this water breaking/birthing going on. My water doesn't break until I'm pushing, at least it didn't with my 2 previous pg's, this one might be different, but highly unlikely. And for those of you predicting who willl be last...raising my hand up high for this one...ME! I'm not due until next Wednesday and both my other babes went 1 week over, so that would put me around Nov 4/5. But I'm counting on the full moon next Wed as both my babes were born under a full moon. So many variables, so many guesses, and only this wee one in utero knows its birthday.

I'm trying so hard to enjoy these last few days/weeks of this pg, as it may be my last. But I'm getting anxious to meet this babe, anxious to be able to sleep comfortably again. It doesn't help that I have 2 overly excited toddlers, getting very antsy waiting for their new baby bro/sis. And of course the deluge of phone calls have started...ugh.

Off to my mw appt...

[gottaknit]

39 weeks 2 days!

Oh My Oh My Oh MY!!! So much good news today!

Susan, looks like you'll hit your due date exactly or even a day early! So much for the baby needing to "drop" two weeks beforehand, huh? And Amelia you're early! You lucky ladies. This is so exciting... Can't wait to hear the stories!

I woke up thinking maybe my water had broke, too, but then realized I was just sweating a lot.

Letia, I cannot believe you are still doing kickboxing! That must be quite a sight! What kind of reaction do you get from the others in the class? I bet they're nervous, imaging themselves on the nighly news. "Kickboxing classmates assist in gym delivery!" :LOL

Meli, good luck with the breastfeeding. I'm sorry I don't have any advice since I haven't BTDT yet. But from what I was told at LLL, expressing can help (they recommended doing it by hand in the shower when you're warmed up), but if you express too much your breast just make more and it doesn't help the situation. I've heard the cabbage leaf thing a lot, too, at LLL and other sources. It cracks me up everytime. Just the visual of a bunch of cabbage leaves stuffed in my bra.... :LOL But hey, whatever works! Hope things ease up soon.

Amy, I'm in the minority here, but I'd hold off on the membrane stripping. My only concern is that I've read that sometimes during the procedure the bag of waters is accidently broken.... and then if you and baby aren't ready to go yet... well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Might lead to more interventions (pitocin, etc) to get things going. KWIM? And there's also the GBS issue, but I can't remember if you're +, -, or not-tested. Hang in there! This baby might just seem bigger because women "show" more with second babies...? Is that a possibility?

OK I'm off to get to work on my never-ending to-do list. I'm driving DH cuh-razy with all my organizing and cleaning. It makes no sense to him, and he's a tidy kind of guy. I finished all the laundry and started to feel twitchy because there was nothing left to wash. I asked him if he wanted to take off his pants so I could wash them. Guess that is a bit excessive, huh? What's weird is that there are things that do need to be cleaned that I have no interest in - like the floors and the shower! Instead I'm wasting lots of time organizing the little "junk drawer" in the kitchen and alphabetizing files, etc...

I'll check back later to hear more good news!

[Lucysmama]

WOO HOO! Go Amelia and Susan! Can't wait to get some updates from you and/or hear about your lovely births!

I'm with Amy - pretty jealous of all you going-into-labor mamas! I feel I've been teetering on the brink for WEEKS! Augh! Dh says I should, "Walk till I drop." and if that doesn't work, he wants me to go to an accupuncturist. Isn't it funny how much people change from pregnancy to pregnancy? I was induced with Cervadil and Pitocin with dd and didn't bat an eye, and now I am thinking membrane stripping and accupuncture is too much intervention! I told him if by Friday or so I am still pregnant, I will consider the acupuncture.

Have a good day, mamas! I will be popping in a lot, I am sure....I get so excited when we have mamas in labor!

[Lucysmama]

Nancy, we x-posted! I wanted to add, I went into a fit of nesting the other day, and I scrubbed the bathroom floor on my hands and knees, and then decided to do the tub. Well, I just couldn't get a good angle from outside to tub, so I actually took off my clothes and climbed in the tub and scrubbed it naked. The scrubbing gave me so many contractions, I wanted to take a nice warm bath, and I was really glad I had just washed the tub. :LOL I sat there contracting in my spotless tub in my spotless bathroom and all felt right with the world.

[mirthfulmum]

Woohoo! More babies comming. Even though I don't post much I check into the boards everyday just keeping baby watch. It is so exciting to see if anyone's babe has been born yet. Good Birthing Amelia and Susan! Can't wait to hear more news!

Amy - re. the membrane sweep, I'd hold off a couple more weeks until you're overdue. Like Nancy said, there are some risks involved that could lead you down the path of medical intervention in your birth. My suggestion is to ask your midwife to do a stretch and sweep of your cervix. It does help get things moving but without the risk of membrane rupture. I had my midwives do a stretch and sweep to me at 39 weeks and then again the day before Harrison was born. It's not the most comfortable thing to have done to your cervix but that's the whole point. Hopefully you won't be waiting much longer.

Meli - I too was so painfully engorged when my milk came in with Alias (fortunately this time around it dosen't seem to have been as much of a problem). Here's what worked for me: hand express a little bit after Willow's done nursing. I found that it helped take the edge off. Put cold compresses on your breasts to help reduce some swelling. Try not wearing a bra. It's pretty messy and you'll soak your shirt several times over but I found that when I was so totally engorged that having the restriction of my bra seemed to only make matter worse. And finally call your local LLL. Even if they can't give you any better suggestions thye can at least give you some support.

All is well here and we are starting to find our new groove. We've had 2 bad nights but last night went so smoothly that I don't think they are the norm. Parenting 2 is a challenge but so far it has gone so much better than I had imagined. I had heard so many horror stories from well meaning people that I was totally freaked out that I was not going to be able to parent the way I wanted to with 2 children. I am so happy that my worries turned out to be baseless. As I figured out, I have 2 babes and 2 arms and plenty of room for both on my lap and yes, there is more than enough love to go around. Hard to imagine a few weeks ago but I am as in love with Harrison as I am with Alias. Amazing how the love just grows and multiplies !

[gottaknit]

OK I need to post one T rant.

I am so tired of people constantly coming to the door and calling wanting to know if I've voted yet, if I can donate money (seems a bit late for that), who I voted for, if I need to talk about the issues some more....!!! I'm getting like 6 phone calls and 2 or 3 people at the door per day! I'm pregnant - leave me alone!!! :

The funny thing is that my neighborhood is very, um, well let's just say that there are lawn signs in front of every house, and they are all for the same candidate. Including our house. And people come to the door, from this same political party, to educate me!?!? If they want to help, why don't they go to a neighborhood/town that isn't so pro-nameless-candidate?! What a freakin waste of time. (Get in your car and drive to Gresham and chat them up!)

It's not like I'm apolitical or something. I'm very passionate about politics. But if I'm taking a nap and some idiot comes to the door and makes my dogs bark their heads off.... grrrr

Should I hang up a lawn sign that says, "ALREADY VOTED!" ? Is Oregon even considered a swing state?

[AnnR33]

Meli-first off congrats to you again! I'm so happy for you mamas holding their babies already! The nursing blister is a sign she's not quite latched right somewhere-make sure her top and bottom lips are both flanged out all the way around-there are some good pics on the LLL website I think. And be sure that she's not sucking like a "whistle" just around the nipple if that makes sense-she has to have her mouth wide open and lots of boob in there! LOL The cabbage leaves really did work for me-don't know why but I didn't question the relief! Hope things improve for you-the first few weeks are the hardest but I swear it does get easier and it is so worth it!

Happy laboring vibes to Amelia and Beansmomma!

All these late babies this month-very interesting I think...what ARE they waiting for

Ann

[Court]

Oh man, Nancy I hear ya on the political phone calls and visits. We've probably had 5 total visits to our door (and a couple I didn't answer cause I was trying to get Logan down for his nap). It's not enough that I'm voting their party, I'm supposed to donate money and volunteer. Um, do I look like I can volunteer anywhere? I'm 10 months pregnant with a toddler and a husband who's not home till 7 some nights. You should put a sign on your door that says "mommy and baby sleeping." I guess that wouldn't prevent your dogs from barking though. I don't think Oregon is considered a swing state anymore...it's definitely not a "battleground" state.

I'm so jealous of all you water-breakin mamas. Good luck!

I'm not even to my due date yet and I'm so grumpy and frustrated. My annoying mother keeps calling and screaming (she's one of these types who thinks they need to scream if they're using a cell phone) "Did you have the baby?" "Tell him to hurry up!" I guess she really thinks we would have the baby and not call her. I'm not answering the phone anymore.

Meli- I hope you get things figured out - engorgement sucks. Be sure and crumple the cabage leaves a bit before putting them in your bra. That releases whatever chemical it is that helps. If you have a strong let down that sprays everywhere, and causes Willow to sputter and unlatch...just spray into a towel or something and then when it's stopped, latch her back on. Just my .02 cents. p.s. I loved your birthstory and pictures. Willow is beautiful. You sound like such a strong, centered mama.

[blessed2bamommie]

Nancy: : Everybody in kickboxing seems to be ok, cept the instructor. He avoids using the word push. The cycle class....after I told them that I had my mws numbers in the front of my wallet they calmed down. :LOL

giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirl I turned the phone off on my edd Friday. Yesterday too, and today and got my nap on. There's no soliciting, course, that doesn't deter some..at my complex, so I get no political visitors. But, yeah, the neighborhood signs should be obvious.

[True Blue]

Luckily no soliciting here, which is nuts since Florida IS an important state LOL. But I guess only if we can get our vote tallies straight this year. They started early voting with machines and there have already been problems...I really hope I don't have to be embarrassed to be from this state again!!

Well I didn't go for any stretching or sweeping or anything today, didn't even have the midwife check me. This week she said she didn't think the baby was big ( : ) since I'm still measuring small...so who knows?? Plus I was feeling guilty, I didn't do anything like that with DS and just couldn't do it now either. And yeah I thought about the accidental water breaking thing too, I thought of that later this morning (I left the house before a couple of you mentioned this). So anyway all is well and here I am with my basketball belly!! And DH is leaving me for a couple days, luckily the ship will be within a very short range so if anything starts he can be home within an hour or so. Maybe that's just what I need to get things going!

[Lucysmama]

We're getting sick of all the politikin', too. I live in Ohio, which is considered one of THE battleground states, and lemme tell you - people are getting UGLY! Though I have to say, I know dozens of registered voters, and only one is voting for Bush, and that makes me very very happy.

I don't answer the phone, either. When the cell rings, I hand it straight to dh. He screens for me, and always tells people I am either napping or in the shower. I don't feel like chatting. Except to you guys.