Desire Avenue

Hmm, could be an interesting couple of days .... my daughter has an appointment tomorrow to check the size of her belly, which could result in her being induced/possibly having a ceasarian section. According to her dates she still has a couple of weeks to go, but she's gained 2cm round her belly in the last two weeks, which is way more than she should have gained. She's now measuring bigger than she should be even at full term. This would seem to be down to an unusual amount of fluid surrounding the baby, which could indicate that he's not drinking as he should be. If she's still the same measurement tomorrow, she'll go into hospital for a scan and then possibly to have the baby.

Lord, I was really hoping there wouldn't be anything like this happening for her first time, but I guess that's the way it goes. You never can tell. She's understandably a bit anxious, but I'll go with her tomorrow and hopefully it will all be alright.

Always a worrying time but i'm sure all will be well. At least she's not having her baby in a mud hut in the middle of Africa.
.......i ain't arf glad i was born a male.

Hopefully her belly will have reduced a bit and they'll let her go to natural labour, that would be the best outcome. Still, if he has to come out now for his own well-being, that's the most important thing.

Gosh, it seems surreal that he could be here in a couple of days! I can't wait to meet him.

Good luck to Kate and babe!

Well everything is fine thank goodness, her belly had reduced back down to what it should be today so they're leaving her until her due date (14th October), and hopefully nature will take its course. I'm so relieved.

Good news Beth, I hope your daughter will stay in good health until that time!

pgss wrote:Good news Beth, I hope your daughter will stay in good health until that time!

Thank you Paul, she's obviously in much better spirits after today - she was really upset about the possibility of having to have a caesarian in particular, so it's a great relief to know that's not going to be the case.

The baby is driving her mad at the minute, constantly turning himself round every which way instead of pointing his head downwards like he should be now.

blue wrote:The baby is driving her mad at the minute, constantly turning himself round every which way instead of pointing his head downwards like he should be now.

What, with this weather? Would you be in any hurry to pop your head out on a day like this?

I think he just likes turning round and round.

Given his due date is the 14th, and most babies arrive a few days before or after the due date, I'm wondering whether he might decide to arrive on 10.10.10. Birthdates where all the numbers are the same are said to be very lucky.

blue wrote:Thank you Paul, she's obviously in much better spirits after today - she was really upset about the possibility of having to have a caesarian in particular, so it's a great relief to know that's not going to be the case.

I can imagine that's she's happy about it. After a caesarian it takes a lot more time to recover. She'd probably rather spend that time enjoying her newborn son.

blue wrote:The baby is driving her mad at the minute, constantly turning himself round every which way instead of pointing his head downwards like he should be now.

He should be 'sinked in' (not sure if that's proper english but it's the literal translation from the Dutch language) by now. Luckily he can still turn! Otherwise that caeserian would be the only option for his birth.....

blue wrote:Given his due date is the 14th, and most babies arrive a few days before or after the due date, I'm wondering whether he might decide to arrive on 10.10.10. Birthdates where all the numbers are the same are said to be very lucky.

Ah, grandma is already worried about his well being. [love]

pgss wrote:I can imagine that's she's happy about it. After a caesarian it takes a lot more time to recover. She'd probably rather spend that time enjoying her newborn son.

Yes, you can't do a lot for a few weeks after a C-section, she was really down at the thought of it. I've arranged to take a fortnight off work when the baby is born so I can go over every day and help out with housework/cooking and so on, but it would really suck if she couldn't enjoy caring for her baby the first few weeks.

pgss wrote:He should be 'sinked in' (not sure if that's proper english but it's the literal translation from the Dutch language) by now. Luckily he can still turn! Otherwise that caeserian would be the only option for his birth.....

They say 'engaged' in English these days, or 'crowned' which is the old-fashioned word. I still use the Scottish term 'quickened' though, that's what I grew up with.

Hopefully he'll get himself into the right position in time, I don't think they 'turn' babies anymore these days, they just give the mums a C-section.

pgss wrote:Ah, grandma is already worried about his well being. [love]

You mean Boo! I'm not a grandma, I'm a Boo!

blue wrote:Hopefully he'll get himself into the right position in time, I don't think they 'turn' babies anymore these days, they just give the mums a C-section.

Really? I know they often try to turn the baby in The Netherlands (as a manager of 24 women and 2 men, I know quite a lot about babystuff), but when the baby is too big it can be very painful for the mother.

pgss wrote:Really? I know they often try to turn the baby in The Netherlands (as a manager of 24 women and 2 men, I know quite a lot about babystuff), but when the baby is too big it can be very painful for the mother.

Yeah, it can be a long drawn out and traumatic process for the mum and baby, which is why they've done away with it here, I think.

I'm shocked at how much the whole approach to childbirth has changed since I had Kate. The attitude now seems to be to get them in and out of hospital as fast as possible - women often go home the next day, which I just find bizarre given the sort of complications that can set in after a birth, never mind the shock to mind and body and how much support and information you need. The lack of support for new mothers now astounds me.

When I had Kate I was in hospital for 10 days! The babies were all kept in the nursery at night to let the mums rest properly, and the nursing staff were constantly with you at feeding times and so on to help out with advice and showing you what to do. We were spoiled in those days compared to now.