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Weekly chat thread January 31st-Feb 6th

7K views 251 replies 47 participants last post by  monkaha 
#1 ·
: It's our month tomorrow! I can't wait to read all the birth announcements that are sure to start flying in soon.

It's time for us to have babies!
:
 
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#2 ·
I want baby to come tomorrow early or not 'til after Wednesday. Because we're supposed to get a snowstorm! Wahoo!

I have icky heartburn. And lots of pressure Down There. But am not as exhausted/ill feeling today as I was yesterday. So I'm back to getting things done (laundry and dishes).
 
#5 ·
I've been nesting like crazy today. We did a trial blow-up of the birth pool and decided to just leave it up in our bedroom. My husband seems to be more excited and ok with having the birth here since the tub isn't some big mysterious task now. It fits perfectly in our room next to our bathroom. I can't wait to climb in it. The kids are so excited about it because I told them that they could have it afterwards for an outside pool.

I'm feeling ok though and could probably, easily, handle another week or so. I checked myself today and my cervix is far back and the head has gone back up some! I guess I'll be doing some squats today to get him back down into my pelvis. I'm 37 weeks on Monday, so no big rush.

I was feeling scared of labor, but then, I read some and remembered how good pushing felt and how nice afterwards feels when you can just lay on your tummy and be comfortable in your own body. So, I'm less scared. I know the contractions aren't going to feel great, but I also know that it won't take very long to get to the good part. I keep imagining that soft, downy head that I'll soon get to kiss.

Everything is ready, the pool, the hose, the kit, the clothes, blankets, carseat, bassinet, swing, snacks, drinks....all just waiting. I'm going to listen to some hypnobirthing tapes as soon as my husband gets back from the store with a tape player. I can't believe I don't have one around the house somewhere...not even in my car!
 
#6 ·
Present and pregnant!

I'm so excited that tomorrow is February.


skmama, you can be one of us now (and still one of them, too! Why not?) Sorry your doctors are being dumb, no pressure fro mus! Gestate away in peace!

zenmom, I've been feeling a bit better about my fears, too.

We are getting the carseat tonight (I know, we really put that off till late) so I feel really good about that! Unfortunately, I had hoped we'd have the larger vehicle for before Eliza's arrival, but it looks like it will be late February when we buy that. We'll be squeezing three carseats into our Avalon until then.
: Oh well!
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by JesiLynne View Post
I think I'm in early labor, I went mall walking and had some painful moments. In a few minutes I'm going to do a dose of castor oil and see what happens.
Woohoo!!!


 
#10 ·
Yes, good luck JesiLynne! And everyone else still dealing with issues...

Still pregnant here. Excited to make it so far - my due date is next Friday! I hoped and hoped but was fully prepared to go early like I did twice before. But now it looks like I will have a February baby after all!


Trying to be patient and enjoy these last moments... nothing much happening so I don't think it will be terribly soon. My house is a mess and I certainly don't feel like cleaning it right now so I hope not

I think I'm catching my kids' cold and all I want to do is sleep...
 
#11 ·
Go JesiLynne!

Still pregnant here too. Not much happening with me... 38 weeks.. some cramping... extreme tiredness. I just don't think it's time. I wish it was, but I'm trying to be patient.
 
#12 ·
I am pleased that tomorrow is February! My husband is very excited about the Superbowl tomorrow, and has expressed his wishes for me to not have the baby during the game!


I can't imagine that I would go that early anyway. My due date is the 6th . . . and I don't imagine that I will go earlier than the 6th. We shall see!
 
#13 ·
Still pg here too. I have to admit, I am feeling a little jealous of the mama's who went early....

My desire to be not preggo has trumped my fears of labor/delivery/recovery and life with two little ones in diapers. I just want this baby to come!

I hope Jesilynne is either laboring away or holding her new baby!
 
#14 ·
Still here, I waited to take the castor oil b/c I was having a few contrax, and so I took the oil about minutes ago.

I totally feel like I am "starting labor" which I why I made the decision to take it. Now I am all nervous but pretty confident. DH called the midwife and put her on "yellow alert" as dh called it. She has nothing going on, no one due, no one has called her, so I am feeling really good about this. Nervous though. and hungry
 
#15 ·
People keep asking me if I'm getting scared yet... of the pain involved. I haven't been through the whole pregnancy and I'm still not. There's just not much in life I get nervous about. I'm more afraid of the embarrassment if my water breaks during class. That would suck. Maybe I'm just not letting myself think about the whole labor thing. I just keep thinking about that baby I'm going to have in my arms very soon. The family I have lined up to do child care for had their baby yesterday. Yay! They had a baby girl. Owyn has a friend already!

Had a shower today with some girlfriends. It was small and I liked it that way. We did some really cute craft projects. Made a mobile out of wool and small silks... supposed to look like fairies. It's very cute. They had also done a watercolor scene on canvas and we put our thumb prints on it to make a caterpillar. A friend of mine has a baby girl and we used her finger prints to make a flower. It came out really cute! I was holding the baby on my lap. She's just over 3 months old. She was staring at the pattern on my shirt. We got some pics and it looks like she is staring intently at my belly and she kept cooing at my belly like she was talking to the baby. It was really adorable! Even she wants Owyn to come out and play.

Everytime I'm around a baby now, all I can think of is how badly I want to hold my baby. Soon enough...
 
#16 ·
baby is way low and having contractions sporadically everyday...makes me wonder if we'll make it to the end of the month or not. i'd certainly like her to cook another week at least. i have a blessingway on friday night that i would like to attend. haha!

i love that it's february tomorrow though...makes it so much more fun!!!
 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by chaoticzenmom View Post
I was feeling scared of labor, but then, I read some and remembered how good pushing felt and how nice afterwards feels when you can just lay on your tummy and be comfortable in your own body. So, I'm less scared. I know the contractions aren't going to feel great, but I also know that it won't take very long to get to the good part. I keep imagining that soft, downy head that I'll soon get to kiss.

Sleeping on my belly! Yay, can't wait! Although it takes me awhile to feel good in my own body again.
:

Still pregnant! Felt pretty good today! Nothing going on. Just had a lovely bath. I still think the baby is posterior- still trying to get it to turn!
 
#18 ·
Still present and pregnant here to. Dh has a major meeting monday night so I'm hoping not to go before then. But we are still dtd to prep and I'm drinking my rrl tea, taking epo, had eggplant parmesan (just wanted to try it, I know it's a myth). I will get more acupuncture on Tuesday and have my membranes swept. I'm just hoping to dilate some before actual labour. I only reached 2cm although I laboured all night with ds. If I can start at a 2 that would be a step ahead in my mind.
 
#21 ·
JesiLynne, I too tried castor oil a few days before and then again on my due date. Did not do anything for me except clean me out. Hope it works for you!
cagnew, I feel the same way. Everybody's having a baby, except for me. I'm very envious at this point.
Queen of my Castle, I too am looking forward to sleeping on my stomach!!

Voicemail is a wonderful thing...lol! Doc's office can leave as many messages as they want. I will see them Tues...they can wait till then!
Went to the mall for a walk....got bh/ctx and some cramping....and of course, being the gullible one that I am, I got excited....and, of course, like always everything stopped right after I got excited!!!
 
#22 ·
WHat's this about eggplant parmesan???? I LOVE eggplant parmesan!!

I"m happy for and a little jealous of the mama's that already have their babies! I still have the month of February to go. Which is good because our bathroom is getting more torn up as the weeks go by and the bedroom is still not ready!! But tomorrow DH is determined to have it painted and rearranged. My dad will be making some cabinets for the bathroom and DH suggested that we build one of the doors as a changing table/ledge thingy. I like that idea because the only available place we had was the bed or floor. And I know a lot of things suggested for a baby registry aren't necessities, I felt a little bad when talking to some of my girlfriends about things they have that I won't have. It's just the green eyed monster in me.

DH and I pay for our own medical insurance. So my pregnancy visits have been "free" (no co-pay) but my hospital stay isn't covered and my co-pay is $200/day. Gah, if I had to pay $300/hr for L&D, I'd never go into the hospital! After baby is born, we will probably apply for Medi-cal. My WIC lady told me that I should qualify since I am already on WIC. I'm trying to see what other programs are available but AIM required me to have signed up no later than 6mo pregnant and well, I'm definately beyond that point now!
 
#24 ·
It's fun seeing the babies coming now, more and more each day!

DH spent the day finally getting the basement family room and office back in order, shelves back and everything put away (well, sort of, as well organized as most guys could, I guess!) which made me feel a lot better. Our house is an 860 sq ft footprint, and there's already 4 of us (plus my Mom to help lately and my step-dad on weekends while she's here) so not having the living space downstairs available has been making our little house REALLY small. Now at least the boys' toys can stay downstairs a little more, and the living room upstairs can stay nice for visitors after the baby is born.

Tuesday I'll be 37 weeks, and I'm hoping to make it that far, but everything feels so weird and crampy and unlike my other labors that I can't tell. If nothing's happening I'll be freaked- weeks of this will be unbearable. But at least after Tuesday's appointment I'll feel comfortable going for walks and doing stuff around the house and encouraging action to happen.
 
#26 ·
I'm so stoked for all the recent births and soon-to-be births!
: I'm present and pregnant as well, and have been obsessively checking the board for new news from everyone!


I'll be 38 weeks on Tuesday. I really can't complain too much: some mid-day tiredness that I'm luckily able to remedy with a nap most weekdays, very early morning insomnia (ugh!), some cervical twinges here and there, some pressure on the inner surface of my left hip joint when I'm walking (baby's consistently on the left side, so that only makes sense), but other than that I'm in good shape. Right now I feel like I'm getting my husband's cold, which sucks.
Hopefully the Emergen-C I've been taking daily will result in it being a milder version than his. But anyway, things could be much worse, I know!

I had a blessingway thrown for me on Wednesday which absolutely ROCKED.
It's wonderful being surrounded by a supportive sisterhood who "gets it"!
: I also had a lunch date at an Indian restaurant with some girlfriends yesterday and then went shopping for a bit ALL BY MYSELF (note: I have three kids -- this almost never happens). It...was...awesome.
I found two inexpensive nursing bras at Motherhood Maternity and a newborn-size Carter's Valentine's Day outfit elsewhere that I just couldn't resist.
I also have a massage scheduled for this Wednesday morning, and I'm really looking forward to that. It's been a rough couple of weeks, but I'm feeling good now. Relaxed, ready, and waiting.


I got all my birth supplies bought, washed, and/or packed up earlier this week. I have my Aqua Doula here, ready to be set up and filled. Our bed is double-made with the plastic shower curtain liner in between the sheets.
I did a major house-cleaning Wednesday and Thursday and have been working hard to maintain that and to get everyone else to, as well. Today I plan to go on a major grocery shopping trip and totally stock the kitchen, including buying a bunch of junky treat stuff and stashing it away for the kids for after the birth so there's a little something fun for them to look forward to.

For my birth team, I've always planned on my husband, the midwife, and the midwife's assistant, who were all there for my last birth. I've gotten to know the midwife and her assistant on a more personal level throughout this pregnancy, too, which is great. I think we all mesh really well. About two months ago I hired a birth doula as well, not because I really felt the pressing need for one so much (heck, this is my fourth baby and I'm birthing at home with the same midwife team and have been there, done that, bought the t-shirt), but because she's become a good friend in the last year or so and I really feel like she would bring a lot of positive energy. She also offered me a deal I couldn't refuse, which always helps!
So yeah, now I'm scheduled to have three attendents in addition to my husband, plus we'll have a postpartum doula coming at least twice to help out with the older kids and around the house. Me talking to and hiring these women seemed to bother my husband just a little bit; I think he started to feel a bit pushed out of the way or something, though I've tried to talk to him and explain that their presence should be a great, helpful thing for everyone, least of all him!

So then yesterday, my sister happened to ask if she could come to the birth if she's not working (she works different shifts each week). She's younger than me with no kids and not in a serious relationship, though she does seem to have "gotten into" this pregnancy in recent months and has been pretty helpful and supportive, less self-centered than she usually is where her entire life is me, me, me. She asked this same thing in my last pregnancy as well; I didn't really take her seriously and never got back with her with an answer and she didn't ask again...until now! I don't think I would really mind having her there so much -- I guess we'll see. I'm not afraid to tell her no; part of me thinks it would be really neat to have her there if she really wants to be there but part of me says that would be nuts.
She's struggled with anxiety for years and can sometimes get freaked out over illness, injury, and blood. But she also attended my blessingway and seemed to think it was very cool (I hesitated to invite her, thinking she would find it way too weird). So...I dunno. I told her I'd talk it over with my husband and get back to her.

And ALSO yesterday, over that "girls' lunch" I mentioned above, I happened to finally meet a local photographer several people in my little social circle know well and always speak very highly of; she specializes in artistic photography of women (pregnancy, nursing shoots, newborns) and her work is absolutely gorgeous. She mentioned to me that she's in the early stages of getting a birth photo/storyboard book together to hopefully be professionally published, and for anyone who's willing to allow her to shoot their labor and birth, she'll charge them nothing in exchange for a signed model release. Hmm... I would love to have great photos to document this birth; I only have some snapshots from my last birth and none are that terrific, really, and I hardly have any pictures from my first two births, which were both in the hospital. And this person usually charges mega-bucks because she can; people even pay to fly her out of state to shoot events. I guess at the last birth some months ago she shot 1,300 pictures documenting the entire process and whittled that down to 700 for the mother to pick and choose from. Anyway, she wasn't high-pressure or anything like that and I haven't committed to anything yet, but this is another idea I'm trying to sell to my husband. We shall see... Lately I feel like I've found my "tribe" and the idea of being surrounded by supportive women while laboring and giving birth seems empowering to me (and frankly, my husband hasn't been all that wonderful in this department in recent months for this, that, and the other reasons, mainly that he tends to be especially susceptible to stress and grumpiness in late pregnancy every time, though when he IS being supportive, he's great!). But, on the other hand, having a circus of people present during such a private, inward time in my home does seem a bit overwhelming. Gosh, hard decision...
 
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