Pregnancy update 40 weeks+ 5 days

Visible changes in my body: I think my bump is more rounder and maybe slightly lower

Other: Still going 2-3 times a night to the toilet. As you may recall from my last week's post we are in a kind of a limbo at the moment as our landlord didn't agree yet to us moving out, and we are desperately in need of our own place as we were forced to take refuge at my husband's parents house, which is not ideal for me at all. We wanted to vacate property on Friday, but it's now been a week and a half since the incident and them being informed about the situation. This situation stresses me out a lot, I cry almost every day and I'm worried about baby as well,-when she will arrive, how she will arrive and where we will be staying. Baby is active, especially during the evening, from time checking heartbeat with doppler. My sweep is booked for this Saturday, will see if it helps to fast forward labour.

How do I feel: Apart from stress, feel good (touch wood). If out and about feeling tired quicker.

Cravings: still none.

Fitness: stopped any fitness routine due to no treadmill available and not sure that it's a good time to carry on swimming in a public pool

Baby: At 40 weeks baby is getting a little heavier and may grow a bit more in length. The average baby is about 51cm long from head to toe and weighs about 3.4kg at birth. Baby continues to shed the greasy, white substance (vernix caseosa) which has been protecting her skin. If she shows no sign of making an appearance after another week, she may have slightly dry skin when she arrives.
She has mastered all the skills she'll need after she's born. She can instinctively search for her thumb and suck it, just as she will search for your breast for a feed soon after birth. 

What's in my hospital bag?!

As now I'm 37 weeks pregnant we have just few weeks left until we meet out little girl and my nerves started to kick in I thought it's definitely time to pack my hospital bag. 

Thanks to my mum who came to see us in April I have less washing and ironing to do, I actually didn't want to do anything back in April but now I'm very grateful that mum insisted in helping me.

I have browsed different website, forums, blogs with checklists, some of them were more helpful than others, but none of them had quantity of the items I was after. I decided to wait till my next appointment with the midwife (at that time I was around 30 weeks). Few weeks later ( it was a very long wait) she finally gave me the checklist of things I need to bring into hospital. 

Most of the clothing bits and pieces we already had and some of the essential ones for before and after labour we were kindly provided by Mamabloom, they sent me their essentials kit (£27.99): bed mats (pack of 5), maternity towels (pack of 10), disposable briefs (pack of 5), maternity towels (pack of 48), breast pads (pack of 80), ultra thin maternity towels (pack of 12), ultra slim breast pads (pack of 50).

I made few adjustments to the list in red plus a bag for my husband is our improvisation as I thought that he is involved in this as much as I am. 

Mum

• 2 nighties 1 nightie for giving birth, 1 nightie for breastfeeding after birth, 1 vest for pool birth
• 2 feeding bras/good support bra 2 black seamless bras
• toiletries sample packs of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrush, small soap bar, bath sponge
• dressing gown & slippers long cardigan, disposable slippers and flip flops
• maternity sanitary towels (2 packs) 20 pads
• paper pants are useful of large pants 4 pairs of full briefs
• money for TV/ phone machine
• flannels wet wipes
• socks 2 pairs
• lip salve
• breast pads (15-20 for few days of stay) I'm planning to stay for 1 night so 5 pairs
• hair band
• drinks or snacks
• plain base/baby oil for massage
• big towel
• my own pillow
• my own birthing ball in case hospital ones are all in use
• t-shirt and joggers to wear in hospital
• intimate wipes
• paracetamol
• make up
• phone/phone charger

Baby

• disposable nappies (at least 12)
• cotton wool (pleats)
• 6 Babygro suits 3 in newborn size, 3 in 0-3 months size
• 6 Vests 3 in newborn size, 3 in 0-3 months size
• 2 hats
• Scratch mittens 1 pair
• cardingan
• shawl or similar warm outer clothing for going home in blanket
• muslin cloths/bibs I will be using 2-3 small towels instead
• socks

Dad

• t-shirt
• deodorant/spray
• drinks/snacks
• sample pack of toothpaste/toothbrush
• pants/socks

It seems that my list is even longer than baby's. Do you think I need to get rid off some things or should I add something extra?!

What happens in Labour & pain management options workshop and home visit from my midwife

Last Tuesday we had our second antenatal session with Helen & Jo (this time we paid £10), I was looking forward to it as we were told that we will talk about labour and that's mainly why I wanted to attend classes on the first place.

As usual we have started our session with a small chit chat between us-couples (I know we need to get used each other and to socialise, but I would really prefer to get on with midwife talking about important things). 

So when this bit was done we were divided into 2 groups with 2 couples in each, one group had to write everything they know about 1 stage of labour, 2nd group had to write about 2 stage of labour. I didn't really like that bit as the new couple who joined us started asking all sorts of questions and it didn't really help me to remember what the stages are about.

From what I remember we were told that 1st stage in the longest and they would want us to stay at home as long as possible, but if we notice that we can't cope, have heavy "show" or waters breaking to call triage.

2nd stage of labour starts when a woman is fully dilated (10cm), we were told that at this stage we will be able to push and to have a small break, but we have to remember that not all midwives let mums-to-be to have that break.

Next, we spoke about pain control options available: gas & air, bath (relieves pressure, relaxes, women feel lighter, free movement), massage, movement, relaxation, distraction, cuddles, paracetamol, TENS machine.

Other pain control options:

Pethidine:

- opiate

- sedative

- injection + antisickness injection

- crosses placenta

- affects baby's heart rate+ respiration

- nausea

- high

- wears off on 2-4 hours

- takes 24 hours for baby to get rid off it

Epidural:

- pain relief (total block or low dose) can be done by midwife

- injection (catheter into spine)

- 6 hours to wear off

- catheter to wee

- crosses placenta (baby can be sleepy)

- more likely to have forceps and ventouse

- lax pelvic floor

- can't use standing up position

- not mobile

- headache

- sometimes not effective

- can make a mum very itchy after

- can dicrease blood pressure

-  need fluids

- continual monitoring

- starts working in 15-20 minutes

We were very interested to know pethidine's and epidural's drawbacks and lots of us were questioning why on earth pethidine is still used as none of us from what I know will ever consider using it. 

As for epidural, my husband and I have decided that we would like to have a natural birth without epidural or pethidine, but as we don't know what lies ahead of us we are planning to be open-minded.

Home visit

Home visit was exactly what I didn't expect it to be, my midwife turned up with a student, who was looking around almost everywhere and was very eager to go to the kitchen, which I thought was firstly weird and secondly, rude.

Then we had a routine check- they checked my urine (and found keytones, meaning I had to see midwife again in couple of days), blood pressure, measured my bump and we listened to baby's heart beat. After that my midwife was totally confused with my health history, I had previously heart and thyroid issues but all was cleared at least throughout my pregnancy, so my midwife for some reason thought that I am taking medications and looked very puzzled -should she send me to do more tests or not and at this stage I had to tell her (like I do over and over again) all my medical history and all the history of my appointments with a consultant. I didn't know should I laugh or should I cry (and she is the best community midwife..NOT).

Next part was extremely fast, I wasn't told that we are discussing my birth plan she just quickly asked me questions about who is going to be my birthing partner, will I OK students to come and check on me (mentioned they will be supervised at all times), gave me a list of what to bring, list of pain relief options, asked for how long I'm planing to stay in hospital, what kind of birth I want, gave me the list with massage techniques, leaflet about Vitamin K,  leaflet about labour and off they went. 

I was so naive to think that she will spend all this time discussing properly all my options and talking through birth plan. But she doens't know yet that only made it worse for herself as now I have a huge list of questions for my next appointment.

Antenatal classes dilemma

                                                           

Source

On my 25th week appointment with the midwife I was told that in our area they are no NHS antenatal classes as such, the only training or support they give is with breastfeeding and it will be 1-1 session.

It's been a week since my appointment and I still feeling very disappointed and let down in a way. If you follow my blog for a while you know how unhappy I am with rare (in my opinion) appointments with midwives and that it makes me feel neglected. Perfect example of neglect is my booking appointment.

I have learnt more from books, internet, other mums (to-be) than from local community. And the fact that due to cuts midwives can't give me enough support and provide appropriate care is appalling.

I'm not so bothered really about breastfeeding and early days with baby as I know my instincts will kick in, as much as I am bothered about labour as I need reassurance and all valuable advice from a professional.

Lovely mum-bloggers directed me towards Mumsnet and Netmums websites, where I could find antenatal classes in my area. I came across NCT, Laizy Daisy and Your birth and babies etc etc.

In the past 6 months I have heard a lot about NCT classes, however I have heard more about people making friends rather than what you can gain advice and support wise. I do appreciate that everyone have different opinion about classes and want different things from them, but I'm more determined to learn new things than to meet new people. I'm not afraid to be alone, I already found lots of support online and 100% sure that when we start going to children centres we will find friends.

When I enquired with NCT they could only offer classes in a town 6 miles away as all classes in my town were booked. The cost of the course is £201 per couple, including one years membership with NCT; £161 with no membership plus you can have 1-1 classes where 1 hours costs £57 (they recommend that 2 hours is enough, but there is no agenda), a discount can be applied if your income is less than £26K. But even with discounts the price is the highest I have ever seen for courses.

Lazy Daisy offers weekly antenatal classes for women only (£54) classes are a combination of yoga-like movement, active birth education and self-hypnosis/relaxation; and couple workshop (£75, which is discounted to £60 if you book women only classes) 4 hour session. The couples workshop goes through everything from the women only classes but you don't practice exercises on the day they will be just showed to you. It is a slightly cheaper option, but I'm not really into yoga and hypnotherapy, a couple workshop sounds like a better option, but still not sure that it is worth £75.

I have also found Bounty webinar which suppose to have online antenatal classes, in reality it consisted of 2 minute videos with mums discussing labour.

In the end I managed to find classes which are not quite local (24 miles) but they offer exactly what I'm interested in (labour, birth, pain management) and for the right price- the first workshop option is free of charge and follow up workshops are £10 each (in total £30), which is brilliant!

Finally, I'm stress free! Hope that my post will help if you are having dilemma with antenatal classes.