January Snowdrops 2016: 58 BFPs and counting (12 boys / 8 girls / 4 surprises)!

[DannaD]

Have you ladies read the "Delivery room drama" thread from babycenter? I've been reading that for 2 days and laughing/cringing so much, great advices for 1st time moms too! Does any of you have stories like that too? xD

 

[Frustrated1]

Mushy - Good luck! I imagine you may well have your little boy in your arms by now

Lily - I wouldn't worry too much about things happening too quickly with a first baby (although everyone is different and you may be lucky). I was 1cm dilated when I had my second sweep last year. My waters broke about 4 days later and I had to go straight in because of meconium. At that point I was still only about 3cm dilated. When they hooked me up to the hormone drip to induce me they said that I could expect to dilate a further 0.5cm per hour. As it happened, I was a bit quicker than that (3cm at 5am, put on drip at 11am, 6cm at 3.30pm and then fully dilated (10cm) by 6pm (baby born at 6.33pm). Good luck whatever happens. I would have thought that you'd be ok to wait until your contractions are regularly at 5 mins apart though (from memory established labour is considered to be when you have 4 contractions in 10 mins).

 

[Bevziibubble]

Yay Lilly! Good luck!!

 

[embeth]

Good luck lilly...I would say the same as frustrated don't worry too much about not getting back at home things do tend to take a long time particularly with first babies.. Now iv said that your baby will probably shoot out!!😉

 

[Mushymilkfor2]

Benjamin Robert was born at 723 am January 1st! He came out in 3 pushes, which is a huge improvement from my first, which was over 2 hours of pushing! He weighs 8 lbs 14 oz and is 19.5 inches long of pure perfection!

 

[sportysgirl]

Congratulations mushy he is gorgeous!

 

[Bevziibubble]

Congratulations Mushy!! He's gorgeous!

 

[TTCBean]

Awww congratulations!!!

 

[donnarobinson]

Aww congratulations he's beautiful Hun
I pushed two hours wv CJ aswell and around 45 mins with Chad so hoping it's even quicker this time I hate the pushing lol x I've been so busy today cleaning and sorting bits of house out X

 

[Chelle26]

congrats mushy hes lovely

 

[LockandKey]

Congrats mushy on your little man he's gorgeous!!!!!

Trying not to jump the gun again but have been having mild contractions 30 seconds long 5-10 mins apart since 8 this morning and nothing has stopped them, even after showering, walking about, changing positions, eating, and drinking water, and just had a huge glob of blood streaked mucus discharge after going to the bathroom. Just waiting for them to get more intense then might go in

 

[Frustrated1]

Mushy - That's such wonderful news! He is beautiful. I have been wondering whether labour might be different second time round. I've also been wondering about the use of an epidural (being induced and only have gas and air as pain relief was not much fun and hypnobirthing proved pretty impossible to do when you are induced). There are certain groups in the UK that are very much against the use of epidurals (the NCT etc) and I was swayed by that last time. I'm wondering whether that might have been a mistake though. One of the things that they often say is that the pushing stage lasts longer if you have an epidural as you can't really feel what you are doing and is more likely to result in an assisted delivery (forceps or episiotomy). It sounds like that wasn't the case for you though. Does anyone else have any thoughts/experience on this? Is there anyone who was induced first time round and had a natural labour second time round? Would be interested to know whether it made much of a difference and also whether the labour was quicker/easier second time round for both mothers who had had an epidural and those who hadn't. I'm meant to be trying for a home birth again, but am feeling a bit nervous about the lack of pain relief that will go with that.

 

[embeth]

Congratulations mushy! Beautiful boy!

Good luck lock hope this is it for u!! Xx

 

[Fit_Mama2Be]

Congrats Operation and Mushy!!

Mushy little Benjamin is gorgeous.

 

[LockandKey]

I had an epi with my 1st and 2nd and with my 1st it was hard to tell when to push, but with my 2nd when my mw said I was at 10cm I asked her to shut off the epi so I could feel when to push and let my instincts take over. Epi wore off in a half hr and an hr later I was pushing and got the urge to push rather than someone telling when to. I'll probably do the same again if I get another epi

 

[Frustrated1]

Thanks, Lock. That's helpful. Last time round I told the MW that I needed to push and she didn't believe I was fully dilated as I'd only been at 6cm 2.5 hours earlier. After a bit of persuasion she examined me and said I was fully dilated. I'd already switched to J breathing (breathing technique taught in hypnobirthing for the pushing phase) in any event as I felt it was the right thing to do. Am worried that I wouldn't have known to do this if I had been numbed by an epidural though and that the midwife wouldn't have told me to push as she would have assumed I was not fully dilated. My pushing stage was 33mins, so not as long as some of the others mentioned although was very intense and they made me push him out in a hurry in the end rather than breathe him out using the J breathing technique as they said he was in distress.

 

[Spudtastic]

Congrats mushy. What a beautiful little boy. Well done.

Frustrated - I had an epi with dd. I think it really helped with the birth. I was having very painful contractions that were continuous from 2 to 4cm. One would finish and 20 seconds later the next one would start and they were about 90 seconds long. This took about 7 hours and at 4 cm the midwife suggested an epi. I relaxed and conserved energy for the pushing stage which was another 9 hours later. Because I relaxed things progressed quicker. Midwife said without pain relief it would have been a three day labour.
Pushing was two hours. I couldn't feel when to push but I got my midwife to put her hand on my stomach to tell me when to push.
I had an episiotomy but the reason the midwife gave was because I have a long perineum and the angle babies head came out at (the munchkin turned in the birth canal) meant that without it I would have teared badly.
I was pretty happy with the birth.

I am going to hospital with this one because if it's a long birth I will have the epi again but initially I am going to try the birthing pool and see how that goes. I'm hoping for a quicker pushing stage too.

There are lots of people here against the epidural too and it's easy to be swayed. I initially wanted to do it without but looking back I think without it I could have ended up with more intervention because dd got slightly stuck on the way out but because I had had a rest I could push her out on my own.

I personally think the most important thing is that mum and baby are healthy afterwards. Having said that I am lucky because the midwives here try to do everything as naturally as possible and only intervene if you actually really need it. From reading some of these threads it seems that some doctors just get the forceps out or do an episiotomy even if it's not absolutely necessary.


Good luck lock. I hope you're having a baby.

 

[TTCBean]

Good luck Lock!!!

No signs for me today. But then again, with my first I had ZERO symptoms and woke up in the night in full blown labour.

 

[Bevziibubble]

No signs here either. Done a long walk to try and encourage him to engage but he's still in an awkward position I think! Can't wait to my appointment next Tuesday so I can find out what's going to happen.

 

[DannaD]

Congrats Mushy, he is adorable