Okay, May Mamas... Here we go! - Page 3

[Rebekah]

Big hug to you XM. I can only imagine how hard this is. I was so struck (and touched) by your comment that you've been waiting for a baby since Xiola's due date. You WILL meet this baby soon.

[XM]

Well, our friend the masseuse came over last night and worked on us both. I am feeling a lot better, I'm not as achey and I actually have ankles today, lol!

She worked on the pressure points to stimulate labor and it would get me contracting while she was doing it and then it would stop when she would. I think that really helped me to see that this baby, for whatever reason, is just *not* ready yet. I'm ripe enough to get started but the baby is'nt going anywhere so it peters out. It sucks because I feel so ready physically, but I guess it really is'nt my choice when I go into labor (geez, and I am just *now* realizing that? no wonder I'm a wreck) and I need to just relax and the baby will come... in June :

I suppose we could talk to my MW about messing with my membranes but I am not comfortable with that idea, I'd really like to keep them intact for as long as possible into the labor. And I see castor oil as an absolute last resort. So at this point we have tried everything that we are comfortable with (sex, acupressure, hot tub, walking, pleading with the baby to come out, um... sex) and we'll just have to WAIT (damn it) for this baby to arrive. My MW carried all of her babies to 42-44 weeks so I know she won't be breathing down my neck if I go over, she said herself that some ladies just tend to cook their babies longer and I may be one of them (but I don't want to be one of them!).

It's just hard, in addition to the physical and emotional aspects, I am using up leave that I had hoped to take with the baby and my maternity does'nt kick in till the baby is born so I am feeling some pressure there as well (which I am sure does'nt help anything). But I guess we'll just have to deal with that later. Maybe because I have just now had my first week off work, my body is just now winding down to the point that it's ready to birth. I can hope, anyway!

Where's Kirsten? I'm almost afraid to ask... but I am sooo curious if she was having a boy or a girl! Who else is due this month and does'nt know if they're having a boy or a girl? It's maddening because I keep seeing all this adorable baby girl stuff and I dare not buy it because we don't know yet!

XM

ETA~I may look into acupuncture if the baby does'nt come by Monday, it can't hurt, and I'll be 41 weeks...

[velveeta]

Yay Carey and Jenn!

Wow! It sounds like it went great for you both. Jenn, I loved the pictures of Cooper. So far, May mamas are having great births. And LOTS of boys!

XM, you better hold off on that girly stuff -- girls are not really in the air right now! I am glad that you are feeling better. I was worried about finances, too b/c DH is taking so much time off. But, I will tell you what -- after your baby gets here, all those worries will melt away. I promise you!

I am now going back to my sleepy little boy. I have to look at him some more! What will I do if he ever wants to be more than 6 inches away from me? Perish the thought!

Love and birth vibes,

Jean and Daniel

[bloodrayne]

XM, sending you good labor vibes. I am starting to have a hard time with the waiting now. I'm just worried that it will be a long time. Did you chart your cycles? If you have long menstrual cycles your baby will 'cook' longer.

We don't know whether the baby is a boy or girl. I only reluctantly decided to get an u/s, and the baby was already so big and scrunched up (I was at least 30 weeks), that they couldn't tell. Plus "she" (heheh) was facing my spine. Boo hoo. I wanted to know. We want a girl SO BAD.

I wanted to post the info that my midwife gave me about treating GBS:

This is the chlorhexadine douche. I'm sending the herbal protocols first.

From Betty Idarius, L.M., C.Hom. Author of The Homeopathic Childbirth Manual.

Add 1/2 teaspoon goldenseal tincture to 2 cups body temperature spring water. Add this to a douche bag and douche once a day for a week. Also take 500 mg. golden seal (or 1/4 tsp. tincture) orally TID. Then, use a lactobacillus implant daily for 2 weeks (a gelatin capsule of high quality lactobacillus inserted vaginally once or twice a day works well).

Douching is only recommended during pregnancy for certain condidions, and it is important to know how to douche properly. Place a clean towel in the bath tub with pillows under her hips to elevate them. Make sure the tip of the douche is NOT inserted into the cervix. Undo the douche clip until the air is out of the line and reclip. Slowly let the fluid out, holding her labia closed with the fingers of one hand. This allows the vaginal tissues to expand and the fluid to wash over all the mucosa. As she holds her labia closed, her vaginal mucosa will balloon out. Some fluid will run out anyway, but keeping as much in as possible for at least a few minutes is recommended.

[SpiralWoman]

Hi all~
Congrats Carey & welcome little Giovanni! He sounds wonderful & I can't wait to hear more about him~ BTW, where are you Delivered May Mamas gonna hang out? Are you going to Life with A Babe? Can't wait to join you - heehee!

So my week on the birth ball has pd off I think, had my 38 wk appt & baby is ROA & further down! Last week the little bug was posterior & floating free. Go baby ! I guess my dear sister's million hr labor with a 10lb posterior baby & eventual C-sec has been in the back of my mind a little bcz I sure feel better about things now! Whew! I have been staying on the birth ball for all my computer & TV time, making sure I am never sleeping on my back (imposible anyway) and no reclining even a bit! My beautiful reclining glider is off limits until bfing starts:bf BTW I got my birth ball @ Kmart for 12.95 & boy has it been great, however I had to let it "outgas" in the back room for about a week before I could stand to be around it, my god it was vile.

So since we were doing my GBS retest swab today, I went ahead with my 2nd vag exam of the entire pregnancy. 3 weeks ago my cervix was very high & posterior, MW could barely get to it. Today, it was center & effacing @ the lower OS, still closed upper. So I am happy, yea progress! Now that the baby's head is engaging that should help efface the upper. Hope this isn't TMI, but it is so funny bcz with all my TTC'ing & charting before we got pregnant, I was cking my cervix almost daily, we were good buddies! Now, I've been totally "out of touch" for the last 9 months & it was strange to have my MW up there saying "feel that?" & me being all "what?" "um, I guess" & " oh yea, that"~ like I was rediscovering my elbow or something, IYKWIM. I wonder what it'll be like after I'm not pregnant anymore & going back to normal cycles, etc.

Glad everyone is hanging in there, we are trying to stay mellow, but I get totally emotionally stressed pretty easy. We found a little momma dog & her 2 4-5 wk old pups @ the end of our alley last Sat & I have been taking care of her. A rescue group is paying for the vet & getting them altered. She was just an absolute wreck, totally matted & her skin all infected, the vet was so good to her. She has to be spayed Tuesday bcz she has an infected uterus, so the pups will be on their own all day. They are about ready to wean really, very interested in what she eats & they are very cute, she had given them just everything she had to give. Such a good mama!! Now it is just too hot for their kennel to be on the back porch (even tho it is nice & shady), really it's not too hot for them, but it is for me to be sitting out there playing withthem for hrs a day~ suppposed to be 90 tommorrow! SO we have to bring them in the house tommorrow & I just got completely overwrought about the whole thing last nite, bcz I really don't have room & I felt like I am working so hard to have things just so for the HB, etc etc. But what can I do? Animal control would have picked them up, but I just couldn't do that, esp in my condition. As soon as they do wean, there is another foster family for the mama & in less than 2 wks there is a puppy foster home opening up for the little ones, so they will all be gone soon. Anyway, it is wild how things happen sometimes, I think having them with us has been a crash course in natural mothering for me, she is so great!

Bloodrayne~ thanks for posting the GBS info, esp the douching tips! I have been using the Hibiclens, couldn't find the plain clhorhexidine, but was finding it very hard to "get it up there"!

XM~ We are also waiting for the big day to find out boy/girl & it sure has gotten harder to wait! My MW asked me today - any questins? & I said, yeah, how much does the baby weigh, does it have hair, how long is it, what sex, will it be here in the next 2 weeks? ... heehee, she knew I was just joking around! But I tell ya if they asked me to have a U/S now I sure would be trying to find out, & like BR said, they prolly would'nt be able to tell! On the "get the show on the road" topic, I have been taking an herbal supplement called 5W for the last 2 wks now, it is supposed to be toning my uterus & getting me ready & I suspect it's working! I'm not sure how you feel about herbs, but it's not really an inducement, just a supplement. It might be worth talking to your MW to see if she's heard of it. FWIW, I will never in my life take castor oil! Remember my DS's million hr labor? uh huh, castor oil! I think you make a good point that you have only been off work a week & it is taking some time for your system to adjust. Think of it as a resting up period for the big work you have ahead of you in labor & post-partum. I have a really neat little card that has a 9 months pregnant lady sitting in a watermelon patch with all these ripening melons. She just has to sit there & wait & wait & when she is ripe, she will have her baby. I just think of it when I think of you, you don't have red hair do ya?

ok, now that I've written this book, I'm gonna try going back to bed. haha
blessings, Maria

[sea island mama]

Hey everyone! Haven't been here for a while.
Congratulations to you new mamas !!

I am really starting to feel like I want this done with now. Dh is working so much & I am finally starting to get uncomfortable to the point where I don't want to do anything with dd any more. I feel really bad for her sometimes, but it will be over soon enough. At least dh will be home for a few weeks afterwards to spend time her.
I haven't had the swelling all over like I had last time, but just in the last couple of days my right hand has started freezing up at night & becoming very painful. Another reason to get this over with - I don't want tendonitis in my wrist like I had last time for a year ! I am now taking 34 pills a day between my regular supplements, EFAs & supplements to try to clear up the GBS - I won't be sorry to stop all that! I am getting very emotional over the slightest thing (good or bad) & really wishing dh didn't feel he had to work all this overtime right now
I have all the homebirth supplies ready & we blew up the pool yesterday to make sure there aren't any leaks. Now we just have to keep dd out of it until after the birth! I have lists for everything as well: things to do in early labour, food to get out, who to call after, what to pack if we have to go to the hospital & I have made a group in e-mail to send announcements to - am I missing anything?
I am also really looking forward to meeting this new little person. I look at dd & wonder if the next one will be like her or completely different.

[Rebekah]

No recent posts from XM--I hope that is a good sign.

I just had my first weekend off in weeks. I had to work like a fiend the past few weeks, so it was good to have that end and to focus on getting my body rested and back into a peaceful place. And I got to start nesting!! Cleaning, etc. Made my last purchase today--a few more cute newborn clothes and nursing bras. I also splurged and bought this mobile that has really cool colors and plays Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. I brought it home only to realize that it DOES NOT fit on our cosleeper. I can't believe I actually cried. BUt boy did I. I think it was because we decided not to have a nursery adn just to buy the basic stuff. So this was the only thing that felt babylike. Don't know if that makes sense but ....

I bought some Kefir and acidopholous last night and Whole Foods. REALLY REALLY want to avoid thrust from the antibiotics for GBS. And I bought some essential oils for labor. DH bought this cool book that had a section on which oils to use and how to use them. I bought Lavender, Rose and Neroli.

I can't wait to meet my little guy. I can't believe we are so close. But I'm definitely starting to pay attention to how my body feels being pregnant. It has been such a special time, especially now that he moves so much. And I may never be lucky enough again to have this experience. So I'm trying to savor it.

Have a good week all!!

[Janessa]

Don't read this if you don't want to hear complaining

UGH I am on day 5 of contractions every freaking 10 minutes or less, now granted they aren't horrible but they still are somewhat painful and annoying. Everynight I have laid down to try and sleep and the get harder and more frequent then just stop right around 4am so no baby no sleep=very grumpy me.

Then to make life even more exciting we got our birth tub and I decided to fill it up even though I think this baby is just torturing me and won't come for another 3 weeks. We rented the aqua doala which is quite big so it takes about 3 shifts to fill it (letting the water heater refill inbetween) on the last shift dh was rushing me wanting to go out to dinner so I run in and think I turn off the water when I actually turned it all the way on we come back an hour later and our bedroom is soaked thankgoddess the water didn't reach or bed which is on the floor yet. So it takes us 2 hours to clean this mess up the whole time I'm having stronger and stronger contrations. So now I'm having stronger contractions and I can't set the birthing tub back up since our hardwood floors need to dry. It would figure it the baby actually decided to come now. If you made it this far your a saint and I thank you so much for listening.
*sigh* Just when I thought I was ready for the baby
man I hope I can laugh about this tomorrow
Take care all
Janessa

[XM]

Janessa, I am so sorry!!! I would be fustrated to tears. That just sucks. Is there another room you can set the tub up in?

I'm still around (very very round), I'm starting to think that this baby won't come til the full moon this weekend. I am pretty much resigned to being pregnant the rest of my life at this point, and I was just trying to spare the rest of you my complaints so I had'nt posted lately. Actually I am not as bothered now by being late as I was last week, after the massage work we had done I have just felt a little more relaxed about this whole thing. I tell you, it was money well spent... you should all go get massages *right now*!

I just REALLY wanted to have the baby with me -outside of me- to celebrate Mother's Day, since my arms were so empty last year. But that did'nt happen so now I am like *uck it, the baby does'nt care about when I want it to come so I had best quit caring about 'when' myself and just roll with it. I try to remind myself that the more uncomfortable I am the closer the baby is to arriving, but it's hard to keep that in perspective when it hurts so much getting out of bed at night to pee for the 500th time.

Maria... no, my hair is black but I do look remarkably melon-shaped at this point. I would have been down for the 5W but silly me, I thought I would go closer to 40 weeks so I never ordered any (my cycles before Xiola were 28-29 days and I went to 41w 4d and my cycles before Spawn were 25-26 days so it seemed reasonable to think that I would go closer to 40w this time). And how wonderful of you to help that dog mama, what a sweet infusion of mama energy before you have your own pup! I love animals and would love to be able to do rescue work someday myself.

XM

[mshollyk]

aww, Janessa!! i hope things get better for you!!!!!

[Janessa]

ugh sorry double post

nt

[Janessa]

Thanks for the empathy mamas. Apparently I need caous in order to give birth lol
Oliver Kai was born this morning around 8am after 5 hours of active labor (and 5 days of prelabor ) With the help of the midwives boiling water on the stove none stop we got the birth tub filled in time and Ollie was born in the water just like I wanted. Wow short labors are hard, I was in labor for 30 hours with Shiah and it was so much easier then Ollie. I'm just thrilled he is here he is 6lbs 15 onzes is nursing great and is just wonderful.

Kinda freaky similarities between my two births, both were born 3 days before a full moon during unseasonable cold weather and both caught us completely by surprise

XM-I hope the full moon is the trick for you I'm sure you'll be snuggling your little one soon
Everyone else I'm sorry I can't remember names I hope you have wonderful birth and are snuggling your newborns

Janessa

[Touch of Sunshine]

Yeah Janessa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Congrats on your baby!! Wonderful.

I know about short labors being hard... my longest was 6 hours, it was easy compared to the 1 hour 15 minutes and the 45 minute..lol

Lots pf love to your newest addition!

[XM]

You know, Janessa, when I made my sympathy post I almost said something to the effect of, "just watch, the baby will come tonight for you... maybe I should try flooding my bedroom if it works..." but I did'nt want you to think I was making fun of you and how fustrating that whole episode must have been. But lo and behold, it worked! So maybe I *should* flood something around here!

It's a beautiful sunny day today... I love springtime!

XM

[Rebekah]

Congratulations Janessa!!!!! I was just about to send you a sympathy post when I read your post that you had given birth! Wow!!!

Hang in there XM. I just know that I'll be reading a post from you shortly about your birth.

Well, I'm sleepy. Time for nap #2.

[mshollyk]

Congrats Janessa!!! and here's some quick birth vibes to XM...

Lana was born this afternoon, not in water as i'd hoped, due to there being some meconium in my waters...and pushing her out was easily the hardest work i've ever done. but she nursed very well, and was almost two lbs bigger than my ds!! more later...

again, a speedy and easy labor and delivery to you, XM and anyone else who's still due...

[sea island mama]

Congratulations Janessa & mshollyk
I think Lana is the first girl baby here!

I am still a week away from my due date (which has changed to the 19th, BTW), but tomorrow I'll start to feel late since dd#1 was born at 39 weeks. Maybe on the full moon on Thursday

[joesmom]

thinking of you, xm...

i remember when you first posted here, & i was so happy when i found out you were expecting again. i posted this so i would get notification when you post, can't wait to hear about the birth of spawn!

love, jenny

[owensmom]

XM - you are too funny. I feel like I have been stalking you, to see how you are doing. Anyway, maybe the lunar eclipse on Thursday will kick your body into gear! Ah-ooooooooooooo!

[owensmom]

edit - double post