Due October 2012

@ Lac

Thankfully they both were very happy No1 did a summer camp in the gaelscoil so she was familiar with the classroom and some of the routine there, and she had two friends from her naoinra there too, so she took the whole thing in her stride. She was wrecked afterwards and I expect that'll continue for a few weeks, though tbh that suits me at this stage as she won't be a ball of energy all afternoon

No2 progressed into the naoinra, but as she'd been coming and going on the journey there for the last year she was also familiar with the environment and is already very familiar with and fond of the muinteoir, she was a bit awkward in the preparation to go, but was delighted soon as she arrived and wanted nothing more but to send me and Daddy away so she could have teachers attention to discuss her favourite topic of Gruffalos

We've ended up with no1 in school for the morning and no2 in preschool from noon for 3 hrs, so they were desperate to see each other afterwards, spent the rest of the day playing together even ending up watching a movie before bed and holding hands (as opposed to the usual territorial one on each sofa!) They are glued to each other since first thing this morning too and I haven't had to referee a single wrestling session between them so far - here's hoping I haven't jinxed it now - but it really seems this might all work out even better than I hoped Hopefully a few weeks now we'll bed down this new routine nicely in time for no3's arrival!

I'll keep my fingers crossed for your little man's first day on Monday, lets us know how he gets on (and you too, I swear I was battle the hormones to not cry esp as the girls didn't so much as pout!).

Too cute Lac Its great he has such a strong interest in soccer to tempt him to school club.

My little one is still head down too which is a relief, though the bum wiggles that stretch out the top of the bump get very sore at times, as does the twisting about. Any time I'm holding my friends baby (he's 11 wks now) baby gets all wound up in there and is always squirming about rubbing that bum up against him. Perhaps its the heat coming of the little lad that makes mine so curious and active, though we Mammies joke about that its all down to eagerness to get to know each other as we hope these pair will be close friends like both our daughters who we also overlapped in pregnancy timing

I'm all full of aches and loads of Braxton Hicks this morning, both lower back pain and bump pain and waves of BHs that have been going on since I woke up. Better not be anything happening as its only 34wks and I'm not ready yet! I got no1 off to school and then my Mum took no2 for the morning so I'm in bed with the laptop hoping rest will ease the pains and the BHs will taper off, going to give it another hour and try a bath if there's no improvement - what I wouldn't give to have himself home from work now to give me a nice back rub!

OH my goodness Lac, I'm so upset reading your update. Thats my nightmare scenario, I'm constantly nervous about being in a car accident when pregnant, I always carry my hospital card in my bag and have hosp details, EDD and hospital number in a note pinned on the home screen of my phone because I'm so afraid of it.

I'm SO so relieved to hear none of you are badly hurt and that the contractions have eased off. Be sure and give us an update. Are they going to keep you in for 3-4 days to do the full dose of steroids for baby's lungs? I had them on my last pregnancy when Pre-eclampsia issues were making it look like she'd be born before 30wks, they are so fecking sore, its worse than getting a kick in the arse I'm no soft touch at all and used to all manner of injections etc, but the steroid ones always had me reduced to tears. I've so much sympathy for you having them in whats already a traumatic and difficult situation.

Is your little man holding up alright after a trauma and now being away from you with the hosp stay?

Sending you big bumpy eHugs from afar. Keep us posted here.

KG

@ Lac being back into school probably normalises the day for him, its such a relief that they are so able to bounce back.

Delighted to hear the outlook is so positive for you and baby - I guess in some way its kinda fortunate they picked up on the platelets so that they can be prepared for it when the big day comes. Did they mention to you how your iron count is out of interest? My first was a Dec baby, I was pure mad on eating beef casseroles with mashed spuds and broccoli (real winter comfort food!) and during the last two months hubby was almost sick of coming home from work to it I was told to ease off the iron tablets as my count was very strong on account of so much iron rich food. Anyways I have no idea if it was an effect of going pre-eclamptic or a fecky 21hr labour on a 9lb baby with pretty much every intervention bar the actual blade for the c-section (was in the OR fully prepped and they got her out with forceps on the last contraction before they were making the cut!) but afterwards I haemorrhaged for a long time in the OR and lost a full litre of blood. Every one presumed I would have had a transfusion - even now when my charts are reviewed the Dr/Midwife always asks thinking it was left off the chart by mistake - but my iron count was so very high that I avoided needing it altogether, I was kept in for 5 days but my body was able to regenerate enough because of the iron reserves and all while I was BFing too. Women's bodies really are amazing.

There probably isn't a whole lot you can do actively yourself re the platelet count, but maybe if you are fond of any iron rich foods it might help to eat a bit more than usual so that at least you can feel reassured in yourself that if you do bleed a lot after, you can maybe get through it and still be in decent shape

Keep us updated my dear, I've fingers crossed that all continues to hold well for you and baby.

KG

@Lac Yay for being home! In your own snuggly bed and the privacy of your own bathroom for a shower Its probs the biggest relief upon discharge.

I was out buying the non-bio just this morning! I thought I had gotten rid of 99% of my baby stuff and kept only one small box of white vests and baby grows, but it turns out I wasn't as ruthless as I recalled, hubby came across a large box in the attic that I'd packed with vests baby grows little coats and lots of 0-3 mth outfits. Suddenly with the appearance of that big box I'm more sorted than I realised! Got the crib mattress yesterday so in spite of everything being in boxes/attic we're mostly ready.

Himself and his brother are up there now putting up bunks for our older two so I can repatriate the cot bed from no2 for the nursery setup (though we'll have a crib in our room for 6mths or so) I want her to be all settled in the big bed so that she loses all sort of attachment to the cotbed which she has been in as a Jnr bed. Hopefully when she sees it back in the nursery and the bars up on it she'll associate it with baby and not her own snuggly bed

35wks for us now, counting down the days to next hosp visit to check engagement and ask how soon we can get sweep, at this stage my nerves are getting strung out always waiting and watching for the pre-eclampsia warning signs

Hey Ladies, great checking in to see we're all in reasonably good shape

I'd another morning/afternoon of the crazy BHs, got really bad on the school run and I didn't think I'd make it back to the car from the classroom Thankfully my Mum came to the rescue, took no1 for the afternoon and handled the pick up of no2 from the naoinra so that I could go straight to bed, as being on my feet made them stronger and closer together - himself thought we were go but thankfully not. 36wks this weekend so I can relax a lot more about delivering as the days tick past. (Till the actual labour kicks in for real :P)

@Lac

Delighted to hear your wee passenger has gone back in position again, must be a relief! Keep the feet up and rest while you can, in the circumstances finishing work now is fantastic for you.

@ Ariana

Yep I did have Pre-Eclampsia on the other two, the first one I'd a particularly severe episode that was scary but very late in the pregnancy at least. Second was in danger of arriving ~28wks but thankfully we kept her in and got to 37+ a few. I spent more of the 3rd trimester admitted in the hosp than I did at home which was tough as they are only 13mths apart and I was broken hearted missing no1. I'll never forget the pure joy I felt being released in time for her first Birthday to be home there on the morning with her when she woke up, they'd great laugh at me in the ward that time massive bump ready to pop and bawling for my baby's first birthday.

This time round I've been medicated from early on and have had lots of day care but only one actual admission - a record for me! I've been monitored really closely all the way through and its been better than I hoped, though they have told me in the hosp that the reality is more 'when' it happens as opposed to 'if' it will happen, but I'm all coached on symptoms, thresholds and managing it - I'm an armchair expert by now I've a BP monitor here at home too and the first sign of high BP symptoms its straight to bed and checking it closely with an overnight bag always on standby for an ER trip - Thank God we haven't needed it so far! I've an appointment on Tuesday so I plan asking about baby's position how soon I can get a sweep done.

On the other two it complicated the deliveries a lot, I had the Epi both times on their recommendation as it lowers BP I had like 180/110 and crazy stuff like that during labour, usually the drip given with the Epi has a drug to counteract the BP drop it causes so they just leave me without that. It also caused crazy haemorrhage I mentioned earlier in the thread, but that didn't happen at all on the second. I'm hoping the safer pregnancy this time around might be a good indicator for a smoother delivery too



Also I might have have bought the non-bio days ago ... but I still haven't washed a stitch yet But hey its all there so I'm not too worried. What a change to how I was first time round!

Sooooooo tired today.

Hours of aches and soreness and BHs from yesterday afternoon all through the evening, but I couldn't sit still I was either pacing or trying to do things like sweeping the floor, disinfecting the kitchen surfaces or other mad stuff like that. Felt like such an eejit when I realised its some hyper nesting/cleaning instinct and finally listened to hubby and went up to bed to rest (silly me over did it and the BP shot up and I got swollen fingers and ankles )

So I woke up at 2.15am proper contractions, but gentle in terms of pain. Woke hubby after an hour of them being steadily 5 mins apart and so we spent a few hours in the middle of the night drinking tea, checking and repacking the hospital bags while waiting. By 5.30 they were still 4-5mins and no stronger, with no show or anything so I told him to go back asleep (which he managed in like under 2mins!) and decided I'd try to sleep too. I nodded off some time around 6am and nearly cried then when no2 woke up at 7am and came in looking for her breakfast. I'M TOO TIRED!!!

Himself took no1 to school and brought no2 around to my brother and headed off into work so I'm in bed exhausted but too strung out to sleep and still having contractions but nothing else going on, no increase in frequency or intensity. I'm too wrecked at this point to even get up on the gym ball - no idea if I'll actually have the energy to manage a delivery if things do pick up!

37+5 today and this wedding is tomorrow. I'm proper F-ked!

Aw Lac

I'll send you e-support which of course is nowhere near as good as having someone sit beside you, but at least you've got some long range good will coming your way. Hope things work out alright and there's no big danger to you and baby with your count dropping so low - I'll be having my fingers crossed for you so be sure and give us an update when you have a chance.

I managed to fall asleep eventually before lunchtime, a good 2hrs which perked me up thankfully. Contractions are gone completely irregular now so I'm up and on the gym ball atm, going to pop out shortly with my sister for some last minute pick ups down the shopping centre before tomorrow. Perhaps a bit of waddling around will help me.

TBH I need to go shopping to sort things out as I'm all :mad: that the Bride hasn't provided what the girls need for tomorrow and she seemingly has no intention of it either. I'm done with stressing over it so I've no choice now at the 11th hour to get out of bed and go do it myself (it seems she's not only not bothering to provide the basics for my two, she's also not paying for the incurred costs for her bridal party at all and its causing untold bad feeling among the family, I've never seen a wedding where the bride has pissed off SO many people in the build up!) Hubby was close on calling off our girls involvement in principle, but the girls are too excited so that it wouldn't be fair. So I've already had to pay for the shoes she chose for them (even though she was in the shop with my sister, she left my sis paying and I felt so bad I insisted on repaying the cost) almost e50 for shoes that are not at all re-wearable & will end up in the costume box for dress up games, I'm going out now to buy them cardigans, hair accessories & tights.

To round it off, recent phone calls have made me feel the children are not actually welcome at the reception and there was awkward silence when I said their grandparents would be picking them up after the meal, quickly then covered up with a too rapid reply that 'of COURSE' there was arrangements for them at dinner that to me at least sounded hollow. (There was attempts to have them put in a room at the church during the ceremony to be out of the way too!) In the end now the children will be collected before dinner as I just feel far too uncomfortable, that my beautiful little girls are merely being used for show for her Wedding Album and at MY expense in a month where we've had first year at school costs and for preparing for the new baby too. :mad: Seriously don't need this, and our whole extended family is in snarls of anger about similarly being taken advantage of in regards to this wedding. I'd be happy now if baby came tomorrow, apparently among my cousins we're the hold out hope for someone deflating the bride's selfishness by stealing her thunder and having the baby :P

To add insult to injury - the bride was one of MY Bridesmaids and I provided absolutely everything required bar her knickers and bra and it didn't cost her one cent! So its not like she doesn't know that her bridal party should not be left out of pocket. Some people eh?

YAY good news Lac! Delighted the outlook isn't quite so grim, fingers crossed you'll be able to have the epi if you need it.

No baby yet, looks like we might end up waiting till the sweep on Tuesday, maybe it will actually be an Oct baby after all - we've been sure that I'd have gone by now and it'd be a Sept one. Another crappy night with no sleep (total wtf moment of puking blood about 3am I swear my body does weird stuff when knocked up!) but the excitement of the children this morning is getting contagious so time to get them out of the bath and get cracking on for preparing them.

I'd best get moving - these legs aren't going to de-hair themselves and given the size of the bump its going to take a while

It was long, tiring, stressful in parts but also at times very lovely

My little darlings looked adorable and were exceptionally well behaved, the 3yr old was very nervous walking up the aisle but she held tight to her sisters hand (4yr old) and they melted every heart in the church, I was all teary eyed and so proud of them! They were beautifully behaved through the entire ceremony (all fecking TWO hours of it, longest wedding ever!) and posed patiently and cute for all the photos. Honestly for two such tiny people I couldn't have asked more of them. Though there was a few lols when the 4yo asked me in the quiet before communion in that loud whisper kids do in church 'Mammy will everybody get to have a chameleon and will ALL of them be different colours?' She also very seriously warned me not to drink what the priest had in the golden cup as was probably horrible The 3yo nearly lost her mind when she saw my brother about to do his prayer of the faithful (he's her big hero and the Jedi to her Padawan) she stood on the pew and was waving like a loon, he really struggled to keep a straight face

As for our no3 and long standing member of the 'Occupy Womb' movement, well whether it was the baby or fate that decided the wedding dinner and speeches would be a great time to start into another few hours of regular contractions I knew again it was only a long session of BHs as like the others there was no increase in intensity and still no show - of course it went around the room like wildfire among the family tables and my aunts and cousins came tracking me down or sending my sisters to tell me to get a move on and have the baby on the night, so we quietly slipped away and came home to bed. There was big disappointment that we didn't provide a thunder stealing baby!

So tomorrow is hospital appointment for me and all going to plan, the much demanded sweep 38wks now which is thankfully further than I ever expected to be, but at this stage I'm constantly on edge and the blood pressure monitor needs new batteries again as the slightest thing and I'm anxiously checking it and fearing going pre-eclamptic

So how's all the other bumps now that Oct is here at last?

All gone quiet I'm so disappointed. Honestly if you had of seen the antics of me last night trying everything I could to encourage proper labour - I wouldn't even mention half of it here >.< Dr said it could take time but if nothing by Thurs am then it means the sweep didn't work - I had myself all convinced it'd be like last time and I'd be in labour in a matter of hours. Still getting discharge of the plug overnight and this morning, so I'm going to try drum up a family member to come out shopping with me, hopefully as much walking as I can manage and taking my mind off it might help.

So word of warning - avoid Blanch shopping centre for fear of a frustrated heavily pregnant woman

I did buy pineapple, but himself laughed as I was stacking up the trolley and said it takes the equiv of 8 pineapples to get enough of the natural chemical in them to trigger labour and that stage apparently you have already had a dose of the runs which is also just as likely to create the same effect it on its own - I have to admit as much as I adore him he got the stink eye off me while I unpacked the majority of it back out of the trolley

Been out for about two hours walking which has me wrecked but no fresh contractions yet, but I did get some nice nursing bras and PJs so it wasn't a total loss. Going to text himself now and request he comes home from work with a curry and already in a fit state to 'perform' for me The poor man is so patiently doing all he can to look after me and each time he says 'Can I do anything for you/can I get you anything?' I reply with 'What's the chances of a ride?' and lately the usual eager face has been replaced with one of tired resignation He's really hoping baby comes soon too!

KGLady wrote: »

Going to text himself now and request he comes home from work with a curry and already in a fit state to 'perform' for me The poor man is so patiently doing all he can to look after me and each time he says 'Can I do anything for you/can I get you anything?' I reply with 'What's the chances of a ride?' and lately the usual eager face has been replaced with one of tired resignation He's really hoping baby comes soon too!

He got you pregnant, it's his duty to help get you un-pregnant

I have my hubby warned already, he has another couple of wks of peace before i start making making demands

I don't finish work for another week and another 3 weeks until due date so it still feels like ages away i'll probably have a november baby :rolleyes:

cfit it sounds like your other half is nesting

Lac how did you get on in hospital on Monday? I hope you're ok.

Kg did you get a date for induction?