2015 MARCH-MALLOWS... Due in March 2015!! Come join us!

[bumpwishes]

bumpwishes: not knowing the gender of little one doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I'm more excited about finding out at birth. It's like getting butterflies in my belly. For some reason I am thinking this little one might be a little guy. I don't know why exactly but it's just a weird feeling I have. I haven't had boy/girl dreams. DH has the same feeling. But I refuse to call him/her any name other than baby squirrel for the time being.

Aww baby squirrel that's cute. I just call LO baby aha. I get those butterflies too, I know it'll be worth it in the end. I have always felt like it's a girl but oh thinks boy, as do many people.

I thought I did a good job researching pregnancy symptoms, but I had no idea sneezing could lead to so much profanity. After a few months of round ligament pain, I'm absolutely astounded that not once have I witnessed a pregnant woman in the wild yelling "AAACHOOO F*CK F*CK F*CK!" the way I do at least once a week.

Hahaha that made me laugh. I definitely find myself doing that on the odd occasion!!

 

[mummy_smurf2b]

Mummysmurf: hopefully the cold symptoms will go away soon. I've noticed I've been more stuffy than usual lately and my asthma has kicked in more often than not. I figured it was another pregnancy symptom for me. Do you have a humidifier at home? Sometimes that will help keep sore throats at bay along with cough drops. I used to make a cup of hot water with honey, lemon and cinnamon. It would help to soothe my throat and ease some congestion. If you're stuffy at all, I'd try vicks vapor rub on your throat and under your nose. I do that a lot and it helps.

bucherworm: How did he react? lol I still think it's cool when I see an elbow or knee jutting out and moving. I know it will only get more intense the further along we get. Can't wait to take a nice video of it and share it with friends.

MrsK: That sucks with the sneezing. I've found that I will literally pee myself whenever I sneeze so I try my best to go to the bathroom once every 2 hours.

So TMI: I don't wear underwear to sleep. I mean, who does? I feel like I'm melting and can only wear a pajama dress at the most now. And it's cotton. So when it's a sneeze in the middle of the night it sucks. DH is usually passed out and I can't wake him up so I just put a towel down and wait for morning. Thank god we have a mattress protector.

Have any had issues wearing anything constricting? I mean even the belly bands or elastic on the maternity clothing? I think my little one throws a fit whenever I wear shorts or pants now. I may end up stuck in moomoos and dresses until this person vacates.

I do av Vicks and I too put it on my throat n under my nose but this time it's not helping and in fact only thing that's helping is sleeping on about 8 pillows lol. I don't have humidifier but I'm kekeepin dosed up on a paracetamol lemon drink and halls throat sweets. I'll get an early night tonight and hope il wake up feeling refreshed hehe

 

[Bookity]

Birth story for Vanessa.

11pm Monday Nov 12... Had my show, got really excited. Felt a little crampy, but very dull with no come and go waves. Went to bed a little disappointed. Woke in the morning with no pain whatsoever and got very discouraged.

10 pm Tuesday night Nov 13, decided to go to bed early as my excitement the night before made me lose out on some sleep.

2 am Wednesday morning Nov 14: Woke up at first just felt a cramping constant backache. Decided to join my husband in the living room while I waited for the Tylenol I took to start working. After about five minutes I noticed the first contraction. It was definitely not a question of whether or not it was a contraction. Had another 8 minutes later, then another 7/8 minutes, then 12 minutes. Started my contraction app on my kindle.

3 am : Decided to call Mother in Law to come in as contractions were becoming more painful and had gotten closer together.

3:50 : Contractions get much more intense and start coming at 3 and 2 minute intervals (all lasting a bit over a minute). Beginning to writhe a bit during them.

Shortly after: Mother in Law arrives. We throw a few last minute things in the hospital bag and we are off to the hospital.

4 am-ish: Arrive at the hospital. Had 3 contractions in the car (and we don’t live far away at ALL). Paul drops me off at the ER. Receptionist calls up to L&D and the person who comes to get me tells me I am the third pregnant woman in labor to arrive within the last 15 minutes. I am given the second to last room available. Upon being checked (and re-checked) I am 9 cm dilated and very nearly ready to push. I am rather disappointed that I didn’t get there early enough for an epidural because I REALLY wanted one this time!

4:30 ish: I want to push, but am told that I can’t because the OB is still on her way to the hospital. Not pushing is murder and my back REALLY hurts!

Before 5: the OB arrives and everyone has marvels at how calm I was on arrival and when I talked to OB an hour earlier. I’m in a lot of pain now, so I don’t really care how wonderfully I labor.

5 am: as OB prepares to break my water they burst on her (rather comically I will think afterwards). I start pushing after this. Pushing is hell! I don’t remember it being that hard with my first. I pull out my IV on accident and am pretty oblivious to the IV fluid and my blood squirting everywhere.

5:19 am: After what felt like FOREVER my daughter was born with the help of another episiotomy (boo) and small tear (all together a second degree laceration). She is beautiful and didn’t have to be taken away from me like Michaela was. I was surprised to see that she had just a wee bit of blond hair. I was expecting a head FULL of dark hair like her sister.

Vanessa was born November 14th at 5:19 am just over 3 hours after I woke up in labor. She had been posterior and turned before she came out, had a nice big bruise on her nose from it too, poor thing! She weighed an even 8 pounds and was 19.5 inches long.

After she was born I had to give my consent to be treated (LOL) and also had to answer the formal question of whether or not I wanted my baby circumcised if it was a boy.

 

[Bookity]

Michaela's birth story:

I wasn't very good at keeping track of the time during the course of events. Just FYI.

Thursday, August 4th. I remember that I didn’t feel much like going to work, but I hadn’t for the past few days. My hips and back had started hurting and I had to pee ALL THE TIME. Even when I’d just gone to the bathroom. I even posted on facebook (the last post I made before baby) that I wished I didn’t have to go to work that day.

I was not feeling my best at work, but only started to notice the contractions after I ate my “lunch” at 7:15 pm. (I work 2nd shift). They just felt like period pains. I thought “maybe this is BH.” because until this point I hadn’t had any contractions to speak of (that I recognized anyway). I was also noticing that I had a lot more discharge than usual and it was a little thicker as well. So I went back to work, but worked at a snail’s pace because I was feeling like crap. I started to think to myself at some point: “Hm, these seem to be coming and going in waves… and definitely more than 4 in an hour.” I took my last 15 minute break just before nine at night. During break I had two or three more contractions (that I still didn’t recognize for what they were). Afterwards I went to the manager’s office and told them I needed to leave early and go home. I told the asst. mgr that I needed to lie down and see if whatever was happening would stop.

I got home and called my husband. At this point I remember feeling a little silly about calling him because I didn’t really KNOW what was going on. I told him I went home and was feeling pain, but had to rest a while to see if it would help. He advised me to call his mom and the nurse line thru my insurance for some advice about what to do. I remember sitting at my computer for a little bit and every time I felt pain I looked at the time. I had trouble believing what I was coming up with. Every 4-5 minutes or so I would have a wave of pain. Still totally tolerable pain. It reminded me of cramps I’d get every month back when I was in high school. My husband called back and I told him the latest. He was unsure about what to do and so was I. He called me again a little bit later and told me he was coming home. I guess his coworker had told him “GO HOME.” when Paul shared what I said.

When Paul got home I had been continuing to time contractions and they were routinely 4 or 5 minutes apart. Even for a 10 minute stretch they were 2 minutes apart. We decided to go to the hospital to put our minds at ease. My only excuse for still being oblivious at this point? I’ve never done this before! We got there and to L&D around 11:15 or so. The nurse was skeptical because of my lack of seeming to be in much pain. Also when she hooked up the monitors they didn’t show “typical” contractions. But when she checked me she seemed kind of confused. She told me she was going to get another nurse for a second opinion. The other nurse came in and checked and nods in agreement “yeah, seven or eight.” And the first nurse tells me I’m dilated to 7 cm. I WAS FLOORED. The nurses were surprised too. Because I was still laughing and smiling. I told them it was a nervous laugh. They asked what I wanted to do about pain and I told them I was interested in totally natural if I could do it. They said I was a good candidate for that.

So we called family. His parents, my parents, my sister and brother. His mom, who we told we were going to the hospital to get things checked out, was really out of it sleepy because when I told her I was dilated to 7 cm she asked me if they were going to keep me or send me home! My sister ended up coming to the hospital as did his mom. (my parents were in Tennessee).

This part is a little longer and boring. My pain did start to increase, but was still pretty tolerable for me. Everytime they checked me it seemed I was a little further along. Until it got to I was just about totally there but with a little lip of cervix left. The nurse kept asking me about how much pressure I was feeling if any. When I finally did feel what she was talking about, the OB decided to break my water. This is where mom in law and sister made their exit. Contractions were hell after that and I was thrashing around in pain. I think this part really scared my husband since there was nothing he could do for me to ease the pain. I remember he looked pretty upset when I would look at him. It was soooo difficult to breathe slowly. I got to start pushing not long after these horrific contractions began. In no time her head was right near the opening and the nurse was frantic about getting the OB in there (a lot of ladies were having babies that night and he was elsewhere). He made it to the room in time for baby’s head to come out. I had to get an episiotomy and I tore a bit. I remember the greatest relief of pressure and pain when she was out of me. My gorgeous one. So I ended up with a natural birth when I didn’t really believe I could have done it. I was so thrilled. One thing I remember clearly was that while I was pushing my IV was coming out of my hand and the nurse was trying to save it so I wouldn’t have to get jabbed again. When the contractions came I would automatically grab my legs and start pushing like she had told me to. So it was a difficult thing to try and fix when I ripped my hand away. I remember apologizing for that. Imagine, pushing out my daughter and being in all that pain and apologizing for that. LOL. I guess it’s that deeply ingrained in me. I’m a chronic apologizer.

She was born at 6:23 am and she was 6 lbs and 15 oz. 19 inches long. A very good size baby for as early as she was (I was 36w2d when she was born).

 

[MrsKChicago]

Mummy Smurf, I hope you're feeling better soon. Try to get as much rest as you can. Maybe an allergy pill would help? Claritin and Benadryl are safe - I'd start with Claritin because it won't knock you out.

MommaSquirrel, our bedroom is so cold, I'd freeze without pajamas even while pregnant. It's in a poorly insulated addition. Brrr! I'm kind of enjoying it now, though I like to sleep in a cold room, I have trouble sleeping in evenly heated homes.

I've only peed while sneezing once (while on my way to the shower, thankfully!), but I'm expecting it to start any minute. I really should start wearing panty liners or something when I leave the house... I think the only thing that's saved me is that I've had bad environmental allergies my whole life, so I'm always sneezing, so my sneezy kegels must be rock solid. I've perfected the squeeze and sneeze maneuver

I'm mostly ok with constricting clothes, but I have my limits. For some reason, all my fleece non-maternity pajama pants are ok, but all the flannel ones are awful. Go figure...

I can't even imagine waiting the whole nine months to find out the sex! You ladies are way more patient than I am.

Thanks for the birth stories, Bookity! Hopefully we all get at least a few mild contractions It's good to read some natural birth stories.

 

[DentDoc16]

I thought I did a good job researching pregnancy symptoms, but I had no idea sneezing could lead to so much profanity. After a few months of round ligament pain, I'm absolutely astounded that not once have I witnessed a pregnant woman in the wild yelling "AAACHOOO F*CK F*CK F*CK!" the way I do at least once a week.

Omg, I laughed when reading this! So true. I had no idea this would be something that I would experience, but it really can be painful to sneeze! haha.

Foosh and Bookity thanks for the stories! Very interesting, nice to see what the crazy possibilities can be for having a baby.

Yeah I've been feeling a lot of movement too. I wake up in the night for the bathroom and feel the baby moving and also wonder whether or not she had anything to do with me needing to get up... This morning I yelped and woke my husband up because I had to pee really bad already and then she kicked my bladder really hard! I like feeling her move, just not that! haha.

 

[SarahBear]

Violet has had her eight incisors, 4 canines, and 4 first molars for a while now. I don't remember exactly how long, but teething seemed endless for a while. Then it felt like part of the past. Now it's back! She's drooling, she's sticking her hands in her mouth constantly, and as a result, she got sick recently. She also has mentioned her teeth hurting. Now that she has pretty decent verbal skills, being able to actually tell me that is a new aspect of teething.

I've been reading stuff about how the 2 year molars are worse than the others and take longer. Was that true in your experience?

 

[missfrick]

Experienced my first "OMG I'm going to barf" moment in pregnancy. Luckily I was able to hold it together, but man, I didn't expect it starting in 3rd tri...

 

[MrsKChicago]

Poor Violet No advice, but I hope it's not too bad for her.

Isn't it great how pregnancy just keeps throwing stuff at you when you least expect it, Missfrick? Fun!

 

[missfrick]

Today was a BAD FOOD DAY! After almost losing my salad with chicken at lunch (I got about a third of it down before the nausea hit), I have still managed to eat: 2 taco bell grilled chicken tacos, about 10 fries, 2 slices of frozen pizza, 6 mcnuggets, a mcdouble dressed like a big mac, licorice, chocolates, pulled taco beef with beans, caramel and cheese popcorn... and about 5 diet sodas... OMG as I write this I cannot believe I ate all that today! And currently (at almost midnight) we have cookies in the oven... HOW!?

Thanks ladies for sharing your birth stories keep 'em coming! I love hearing all the different stories and experiences, much better than expecting an ideal or a worst-case-scenario, I think most fall in between.

 

[MrsKChicago]

Sounds like a growth spurt to me!

 

[DrMum]

Evening all, just checking in and loving the start of some birth stories!!

For those experiencing the sneezing/bladder glamour... I think you will find the official term is.... speezing!! My sister in law introduced me to that one the other week and it still makes me laugh!

A little bit of drama here today but with a happy ending. This morning I was just uneasy and couldn't put my finger on it, baby was moving but just felt different, and then I just really couldn't feel him for a while at all. So for anyone, but especially with my history, we went in and got checked out. They were great and did a full biophysical profile which was 10/10 and they showed me how he was lying directly under my placenta in a transverse position which is why it felt so different.

So it was a long day of tests and observations but I was glad for the peace of mind and feel able to go to bed now and rest properly instead of worrying.

I will post some birth stories tomorrow as I can tell you about a vaginal shoulder dystocia and a c section and I survived them both and can honestly tell you nothing is a bad as you fear it will be!! Everything is survivable.

So on that optimistic note, it's bed for me girls night all!

 

[MrsKChicago]

Glad everything's ok, DrMum!

We got another bag of hand me downs from a friend today. Very cute stuff, including a onesie we already bought, but in a different size. I'm pretty sure we could get away with never buying this kid a single piece of clothing if we didn't want to.

 

[frenchie35]

Hand me downs are great! I'm on the other end of the giving: I haven't received a lot of clothes for DD, but I pass everything of her along to a friend that has 2 DDs, one six months younger and one 18 months younger than my DD. She raves about Carter's microfleece zip-up pjs every time I give her a new box. French one piece pjs usually snap in the back, which is awful and not very practical for wriggly toddlers. I'm glad to show her how awesome America is!

Sarahbear: Penelope recently finished cutting the second row of molars. She seemed like she had a cold and drainage the whole time. She definitely went back to baby behavior and put her hands in her mouth and got quite fussy at mealtime, potty time and bedtime - all unusual for her. We gave her tylenol on what seemed to be her worst days, and we had to watch a good amount of TV in the afternoons when she was really out of sorts. The worst lasted about two weeks, but I can say that it does calm down and you do rediscover your lovely preschooler again! I'll be thinking of you!

 

[mkyerby16]

Just wanted to say I really appreciate and enjoy reading the birth stories! With me my mom's water broke but then her labor never progressed and she ended up having to have a C-section, so my sister was a planned C-section after that. Therefore she can't give me much advice/anecdotes about labor! I am worried I'll have to have a C-section though as I'm quite petite and have a feeling this will be a big boy.

I also appreciate any breastfeeding advice! That's another thing my mom was never able to successfully do for various reasons, although she tried. So she's no help!

Can I ask a personal question here? For ladies who have been there done that, when did you buy nursing bras/how much bigger did your breasts get when your milk came in? I had already went out and got a couple of new bras a while back as mine just weren't working anymore, but I just recently had another growth spurt what seemed like overnight. I went to latch my bra and was like what the heck, it looked 5 sizes too small!! lol And I hate to keep going and spending money when I don't know how long they'll fit, but I don't have much choice!

 

[mummy3]

I posted on the FB page but incase some are not on there, my waters completely went on Friday, I had a bleed so went to go get checked and the whole lost went in the labor ward bathroom, I guess right place! In hospital trying to keep her in, the contractions started this evening so mag sulfate is on, so bit out of it. We are doinf Christmas day here tomorrow in the hospital. 28 weeks seems so far now

Birth stories are so beautiful, I'm going to go back and have a full read Little foosh

Dr mum, what a scary day! Glad everything is ok!!!

 

[Bookity]

Praying you are somehow able to push to 28 weeks mummy!! You were definitely in the right place though!

 

[mommasquirrel]

missfrick: Hopefully the nausea will subside. I have been getting that way but thankfully I still had lots of ginger-ale around to help. I am too afraid to write down everything I eat in a day. I know I will have to keep a food journal soon~i think starting next Sunday onwards to help keep track of blood sugar and of course to help me limit my carb intake.

Drmum: So glad everything is okay. I'm looking forward to reading the birth stories.

mkyerby16: I have been told by midwives that the best time to get a nursing bra is about 3 weeks post delivery. Your lovely lady bumps will continue to change but once you get your milk in and you have a feeding schedule you'll stay in that size range for awhile. Personally, I bought some nursing bras from a maternity store that are super stretchy. I'm a 44I at the moment and they fit okay. I figure they will stretch to accomodate me if I get even bigger. Really hoping after all is said and done that my bumps go back to a normal range~38G

mummy3: I've totally been stalking the FB page. DH and I are sending positive vibes your way.

In other news, yesterday we went to see the Hobbit movie. Little one moved around so much that I felt almost bruised when we left. I can't believe it's almost the new year. It keeps hitting me and I am shocked at how fast time has gone by. I mean, we got our positive HPT on the 6th of July and if feels like it was only yesterday.

 

[twinkie2]

Also loving the birth stories and hoping to see more when you ladies have a chance (as well as hear about BF!)

I just ordered 2 new nursing bras online and I'm praying they will still work for me once LO gets here. I wanted to wait until after baby came, but I am in desperate need of bras and (sorry I don't remember who but thanks for the info and I'll let you know how it turns out! ) someone on FB sent a good link about ordering the right size. So I'm super excited for the bras to arrive next week (christmas present to myself!!) My bras are so uncomfortable right now, the new ones are wire-free and I'm hoping that helps as I've been having a lot of discomfort right under my breast (for some reason mostly on the right side)

 

[MrsKChicago]

Hope you can keep the little one in as long as possible, Mummy. Tell her if she's patient, her first Christmas will be a lot more fun next year.

I ordered a couple stretchy nursing bras for at home - the kind that just slip on and don't offer tons of support. I figure they stretch over several sizes, and they were cheap on Zulily. I won't be going out a ton for a couple weeks after he's here anyway, and if I do I'll probably have a coat on, so they'll do til I can figure out what size real bras I need.

We're doing lots of cleaning today, which means stirring up dust and pet hair (the pet hair is neverending in this house no matter what we do), which means my allergies will be killing me. I haven't had any incontinence problems yet, but I may need to dig out a pad just in case...

We're having fun now. We were picking something to watch last night, and I made a joke about watching Divergent. I like the books and have seen it, but DH and the friend who was over definitely weren't interested. So I woke up this morning, and guess what DH was watching. Ha! I'm having fun listening to him analyze all the little intricacies of the movie, and since it's in Chicago, we're also having fun talking about the geography.