Pregnant moms and after birth advice

Misha, Holly is a cutie!!!! How old is she now? My son is 10 months old which I can't believe how time flies by. I agree also, it is a lot of highs and lows, more lows I think for me, sometimes I dream of packing my bags and taking my son and cat and leaving. I think the lows are when my husband is just sitting there not doing anything, after being with a 'baby' all day it can be a bit lonely but I guess its a male thing, I don't understand sometimes. When my hubby is gone, I feel better actually, like I can focus better on my son and tend to his needs and mine. But as a wife, it's harder to keep up both ends, mother and wife. And I do try discussing, he gets frustruated, so then it makes me want leave even more. Anyway, that's another long discussion. The books help, people help, sometimes too much to the point that its annoying, but you learn to listen and see if that is what you want or not. In the end it's rewarding, it would help if my hubby could participate more but I guess in his culture it is that way with the woman doing everything.

Thanks Jellybelly I meant to say your boy is gorgeous in my last post. Was he born with a full head of hair like that? Holly's still a baldy, wish she'd grow some hair. She looks like a friar, she has very thin hair on the top, with slightly longer hair at the back. LOL. I know exactly what you mean. My hubby helps out a bit (changes nappies & cooks the odd meal), but to be honest I find him more of a hindrance than a help. When he's not home, the house is tidy & Holly seems to sleep well, that all goes out the window as soon as he gets home.

There have been a few occasions where Holly's feeding & I'm unable to get up & make some food & hubby ignores my hints that "I'm hungry". Once I was pinned to the bed feeding her, while he was out in the lounge room enjoying a 2 course meal. By the time she'd finished eating, it was time for us to all go out, and I missed out. Geez, I was really hissed off at him that day. He just left me there pinned to the bed while he enjoyed a long & luxurious breakfast. Grrrrrrrrrr.

I'm lucky that I'm back at work 2 days a week. I have been taking Holly in, but it's too unsettling for her, so a friend is minding her one day, and hubby the other day. I had my first baby free day at work last Friday, and it was lovely. I adore my girl, but I really enjoyed that time at work, among grown ups & not having to worry about Holly.

Holly's 10 weeks old.

Dont have a C section though unless vital - it affects children in later life. Every time you open the car door, they get out of the sun roof - very true!

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Kev - that cracked me up!!!!!!!

My baby is due 17th August (less than a week away - YIKES). 2 girls from my Childbirth Classes have already had theirs - one was 10lbs 12oz (OMG, OUCH).

My hospital has a birthing pool which I would love to use. Being a piscean, I adore water, and can't think of any beter pain relief than sitting in a pool of lukewarm water. I don't really want to be doped up to the eyeballs, and the pain doesn't really scare me. I've had a couple of things happen, medically that tested my pain thresholds to the limit, so I think (hope) I'll be OK on that front. It's just the not quite knowing what to expect that is giving me the heebygeebies. I've read books and watched videos, and on one video a woman was giving birth, and instead of screaming or moaning, she was just repeating "Come on baby, out you come, you know you want to come out don't you" I thought that was brilliant.

Jellybelly and Misha - your babies are beautiful!!! We will be taking both digital and SLR cameras with us - digital for those immediate moments after birth, and SLR with b/w film for the more artistic shots which I hope will follow.

Tasha - good luck!!!! I thought your due date was much later than end Sept. Hope you're feeling better now after your crap week the other week . . .

Wow Yola - just one week to go!!! How exciting!!

Thanks for sharing the birth stories everyone and those cute baby pictures!!!

I gave birth to Ron in a planned C-section. That was 18 months ago. I wanted to go natural so much - we had taken the right classes and all. I was disappointed when my doctor recommended a C-section because Ron was in breech position. Some people tried to talk me into trying to go natural with a breech position but my doctor advised against it. Thank God I took his advice! Turned out Ron was in breech because he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck three times. Had we gone for a natural birth, it could have been a disaster as his cord would have been squeezed in the birth canal while his head was still inside. When they took him out they also found out I had a very rare complication (one in 70,000 births) which is called placenta accreta. This means that the placenta grows into the wall of the uterus and sticks there when the birth ends. Those are the kind of births you read about in the paper when the woman suffers such a major blood loss that she dies. The only way to save the woman's life is to perform an emergency hysterctomy. In short, had we gone natural, both me and baby would have been either dead or severely damaged.

Still, my doctor says this time around, unless we get a breech position again he recommends a natural birth. I do prefer to go natural - healing from the C-section is much more difficult. But what I learned from my experience is to take what comes along - either way the baby comes out in the end

Glad to know everything turned out for the best Anne!!! Send us pics if you can

Yola!! You're not too far away!!!! How are you doing thus far? I've heard some ups and downs with delivering in the water, I definitely give thumbs up to women who want to try something different than the traditional method.

The water birth (or at least labour in water), is hugely gaining in popularity in the UK. I've not really heard anything negative about it, except that if there are any difficulties you are asked to get out of the pool.

It is supposed to be a less traumatic entrance into the world for the baby, as the transition from amniotic fluid, to pool water, to being lifted out (only at which point does the baby start breathing) is quite healing after having being squeezed through the birth canal.

We'll just see how it goes - as I have fibroids I will be monitored extra carefully, and I too am at risk of heamorrhage (sp) when delivering the placenta (Wow Anne, that must've been a real scary wake-up call finding out that all those things could've happened if you'd not listened to the doctor)!!!

Hope you can have the natural birth you want this time round!

I think I'm only now beginning to feel the real change motherhood has made in/to me. I think I'm a softer person for it now - especially when it comes to children. I never was the kind of person that likes babies and children, but now whenever I see one it makes me smile I think I'm also kinder to people in general and I'm more sensitive to human suffering - I always think that that person, no matter how horrible, was once someone's precious baby. I know that some children are abused rather than loved and it breaks my heart. I am so in love with my boy and it breaks my heart to think that some children are not as loved as he is.

I think I'm going to bond with the new baby so much faster - I think I'm already bonding with him I never thought I'd be one of those mushy moms who go overboard over their babies but I certainly have turned into one

Anne: When are you due?

I agree with what you say about motherhood changing you. When Holly was born, I developed a newfound respect for life. I've always respected life, but once I became a mum I respected it more because everybody was once somebody's baby.

Today I was in a shopping mall & a toddler was kind of in my path. Pre Holly, I'd have been mildly irritated & walked around him, but instead I looked into his face & he gave me the BIGGEST grin, to which I grinned back. And it was genuine this time instead of put on. It was just so heartwarming to see this little boy & his huge smile. I just love it when Holly smiles, I melt. I think I have become a softer person too.

That said, I also think I've become tougher. While pregnancy & childbirth aren't the worst thing on earth, they're not easy either. I was really amazed at just what my body could do. Holly is having some difficulty sleeping at the moment, and we have hours of her screaming her head off. It is very hard, but I seem more able to take it than my husband. I seem to be able to take one day at a time. I know she's not going to be a baby forever, and am trying to really cherish every moment of her babyhood, even the bad times. I've also discovered that it IS possible to function on just 3 hours sleep. LOL.

Julia.

YOLA!!!! Where are you?!!! Hope everything turned out well for you!!!! Send us some pics!!!

Anne, when are you due??? No pics??? Send us some pics!

Crazycat!!! How are you doing? Not too far now

Misha, my son in the pic, it was taken right after he was cleaned up, he had a lot of hair (which I hope he continues to have, my hubby's father side are baldies and his brother only 21 is balding )

Send more baby pics if you have any

Oh Yola! Have you had your baby? We wont lots of details and pics!

I received an email from Yola with a picture of her wee bub, hes gorgeous! I am sure she is very busy with the wee one.

sniffle...how come we don't get to see Yola's baby? sniffle sniffle!!

Originally posted by Crazy-Cat-Lover
22 more days until I'm due! The baby has dropped already! I am having signs that labor is approaching. I dropped 3 pounds and the baby is so low. I will post pics when the baby is born. Yola, is the baby here yet?

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Are you having contractions yet or the Braxton Hicks? Wow, you lost weight, I gained five pounds towards the last few days!!! Of course I was eating a lot of Haagen Daaz Mango icecream and some other sweets, like chocolate fudge puddings, etc. I had a huge craving for sweets towards the end

I gained 11 pounds in the last week of pregnancy. Mind you my son was almost 2 weeks early and he weighed in at a heft 9lbs 5oz!

Congratulations Yola!!!

I lost half a kilo in the last week of my pregnancy too. Also, my fundus didn't "grow" that week either. My obstetrician ordered me to go have an ultrasound just to be sure everything was ok...which it was.

More photos??? I don't need to be asked twice to show off Holly

Come on, where's everybody elses bubs?






I stuck that one in because it has a cat in the background, and after all...this is a "cat" site. LOL.

I joke about the "posh" naked piccies of Holly that I have at work. The guys in the factory at my work have the bog standard calendars with nude women on them, so I have my own nude chick photos in the office. LOL.

Julia.

Misha!!!! I love pictures of Holly, she is sooooo pretty and must take after the mom, you!!! I love the black and white photos, we didn't get the fancy stuff, just our good old digital camera :sad: but still it's neat to look back at the pics when they were little tykes!! Anytime, send us pics of Holly she is a cutie pie!!!

Anne, send us some pics if you have time!

Congratulations YOLA!!!!!!! Can't wait to see pics!!

Crazy cat, how ya doing?

Pollyanna, where's pics of your furless baby?

Anne, how are you doing? Try to rest up!

This is the twinnies at a week old.

Awwww..very precious!!