Homebirth General Discussion #17

[ladybirdflies]

Arimeh, I totally understand where you are coming from, regarding that haze after a life and death situation. I had to be resuscitated 18mths ago after my MC, my hubby was there and I woke up to a room of people yelling my name... 7 long minutes went by until I started to breath and I will never forget the look on his face when I started to come around. It took me months to process the enormity of what had happened, plus I was bid ridden for weeks and months to even get better. THere is such a fine veil between life and death, and I feel so incredibly blessed to be here and humbled by how easily it can be taken. I feel like i crawled my way through the gates of humility in those weeks and I will never see life in the same way again. The love that blossomed in our family because of that moment is amazing... try not to look at what could have been as much as how much there is here and now. So much for you and hubby to process, I hope you feel supported in doing that. xx

[*The_Mrs.*]

Thank you everyone to the response about hemorraghing. I've spoke with my midwife and she carries pitocin and methagine just in case so that makes me feel better. I think I just have anxiety over the unknown of it all. I got really tears eyed when I told my midwifes helper midwife about my fears and she said she had no problem making daily visits to calm my nerves

Question about sitz baths? Did you find them helpful? Did you take one after with baby?

[Smoke Jaguar]

I didn't, but I made a herbal solution that I soaked maternity pads in and froze, about a month before I was due. They were the bees knees! I googled the recipe and it turns out I had all the necessary oils at the time. Some of my oils went missing while we lived at MiL's (she stashed our things and forgot where she put them...including my expensive aromatherapy products!), so I may well have to stock up again.

[Cassius2]

Congratulations Loulabelle!! Another wee man to add to the family! That is so crap about the treatment at hospital...especially considering their lack of judgement when you first presented prior to labour

The_Mrs: that is relieving news at least that your midwife carries that with her. I had a PPH at 5 weeks (!!) PP. it was for retained placenta. i was surprised actually by how calm i was. we called an ambulance (after calling my IM to confirm) and away we went. it was scary, but calm all rolled into one IYKWIM.

Teni: oooohhh it is creeping up!! exciting exciting

Bella: i was pooping my pants way more this second HB time around...for me it was because i now knew how awesome having a baby at home could be and i was scared even more then of having to miss out and go to hospital.

[Jennifer13]

Oh hun. Big hugs to you and DH. That is very scary and I'm not surprised you are teary thinking about it. You just know you wouldn't mind the settling thing at night so much if you weren't running around after all the other chickens all day! I hope you find your rhythm soon. I bet feeling a bit better physically might help how you cope as well. How is Felix doing? And his brother and sisters - what do they think of their new sibling?

Dot Face - we're getting into spring cleaning so I can get the nesting thing over and done with early. DP completely cleaned the pantry and reorganised it over the weekend. He wants to do the fridge this weekend. And that was following a huge effort in the garden and on the pool the day before! He has a few other 'jobs' and some notion of being to clean out every room of the house (haha) but we'll see how we go. He's back at uni in November and that will slow him down. Hope your efforts pay off - so close now!

[Bella29]

I used a bottle that I squeezed and it had holes in the top that let the water out. I got some nice herbs from blissful herbs to make into a soothing mix and chilled that and would spray it on my bitz when I went to the loo to stop the burning. Blissful herbs has the bottles for sale in their post natal care pack.

[Dot Face]

Is it possible to get spd after 36 weeks? I'd have thought it would occur earlier? I'm hoping this is just pelvic stretching pain or something :/.

[Smoke Jaguar]

At around that time it's normal-ish - that's when your body is supposed to start stretching. I'd keep an eye on it, though, and do the things SPD people do, in case it doesn't go away after the birth xxx

[Arimeh]

Is it possible to get spd after 36 weeks? I'd have thought it would occur earlier? I'm hoping this is just pelvic stretching pain or something :/.

I got SPD in my first pregnancy at 36 weeks. 28 weeks with the second, 4 weeks with the third. Can't remember with the 4th because I was having chiro treatments the entire time between pregnancies, and this last one it didn't get bad until around the 3rd trimester.

So I think it can happen at any time really.

[Cricket]

Sitz baths - didn't do an actual sitz bath, but had a bath in my own tub daily with sea salt added to help things heal up. My midwives also leave a package for an herbal bath that is great. Also the peri-bottle for when you pee is essential if you have an scrapes, tears, nicks, whatever. Pee stings!

About the pelvic pain - what does it feel like, DotFace? You might have a bit of SPD with your body loosening up in preparation for birth. I've had a relatively mild case of it in the past couple of pregnancies, but it hasn't given me any trouble after the birth.

Bella - about the fear of birth. Yep. Know what you mean. I feel it every time, sometimes worse than others, and I think most women do. But every time labour starts, after an initial "crap, here we go again" things move along and you just ride the waves, deal with each contraction as it happens, enjoy the rest in between, and get through it. I did find it helpful to talk about the fear with DH and the midwives, and the good ladies here on BB. The more at peace you can be, the easier it will be on you. I think Abraham Hicks said something to the effect of "be happy and stay out of the way of what your body is doing."

How's everyone else? Arimeh, how's your recovery going?

[Arimeh]

Hey cricket, thanks for asking. still not totally back to normal but I'll get there I'm sure xxx

[Special]

I think Abraham Hicks said something to the effect of "be happy and stay out of the way of what your body is doing."

I love this, Cricket. I have days where I am psyched, days where I am terrified, and days where I just don't care.
I try and remember that being stressed isn't going to make it any easier, so I try and get prepared. This is round 2 though and I feel a bit lost as to what I need to research. Sounds silly, but I am worried about what I don't know, I don't know.


My SPD started early this pregnancy, but is actually getting better. (I am 24 weeks now) Maybe I am being more careful, but I actually think some activity is helping me.

[Cricket]

In some pregnancies I definitely found that the hip/pelvic pain was worst from about 18-25ish weeks, and then improved. Seemed kind of odd to me too - I expected it to get worse! - but I didn't complain.

I think that one good thing you can do to prepare yourself for second and subsequent labours is to remind yourself that you can do it. Watch natural birth videos, read natural birth stories, tell yourself that you've done it before, etc. Do your support people need some information? Penny Simpkin has some good stuff for birth partners to read. And, make sure you are happy with your midwife. If you have a good relationship with her, then if something unexpected happens at the birth, you'll know you can trust her judgment, and that she will do her best to respect your wishes.

Arimeh - hope your recovery is smooth and quick! How's your little man behaving?

[Mum2twoBoys]

How engaged is bub dot face? I would think if they were very, that you would get pelvic pain related to that.

[Dot Face]

Williams mummy last week midwife said bub wasn't engaged but head has been down for last few weeks now. Maybe it's starting to engage?

Arimeh I died a little inside reading your post lol I really hope this isn't spd.

Smoke jaguar I'm trying to keep my legs together in bed and when I get in and out of bed. The pain is like a bruise or a soreness in my pelvis but especially my left side. Have a checkup tomorrow will bring it up then to my middie.

[Dot Face]

Cricket it just feels sore around the bones I use to sit on so my pelvis just feels really sore and gets quite stiff in the mornings making it hard to maneuver out of bed. Especially on my left where my leg joins my hip on the inside feels sore. Midwife yesterday didn't mention anything about spd when I told her she just said it sounds like some ligaments are stretching in preparation so hopefully it isn't spd. I imagine spd would be far more painful this is just mainly soreness.

Smoke jaguar thank you I saw your posts before they got deleted (there were 2 of the exact same one so maybe while trying to delete one both were accidentally deleted?).
I'll have a look at the site you mentioned to google and hopefully some exercises can tame this soreness and stiffness.

In other news baby isn't engaged yet but midwife said it's very likely I've "dropped" after I told her that my inlaws were commenting that my belly looked lower. Still have heartburn and I'm going to start taking apple cider vinegar again because that's the only thing that has actually helped really well. Just been forgetting to take it after meals!

37 weeks today, 21 days to EDD . Feel like I have to climb a mountain in these next 3 weeks because of all the things I need to get done that I still haven't! Darn the nesting urge!!!

[Cricket]

...double post...

[Cricket]

Cricket it just feels sore around the bones I use to sit on so my pelvis just feels really sore and gets quite stiff in the mornings making it hard to maneuver out of bed. Especially on my left where my leg joins my hip on the inside feels sore. Midwife yesterday didn't mention anything about spd when I told her she just said it sounds like some ligaments are stretching in preparation so hopefully it isn't spd. I imagine spd would be far more painful this is just mainly soreness.

SPD pain is more in the front center of the pelvis, I believe. I think your midwife is right - it's your ligaments loosening up and your baby moving down. You're getting so close now! So exciting!

Arimeh - of all the things to cry about, that's probably one of the best reasons to cry. I don't think you've got issues. There's a lot to deal with there. Go ahead and cry! Caleb was taking a long time to settle at night too, some nights, but I got Ovol drops (simethicone) for him and that has helped a fair bit. Quiet time after lunch has become an essential part of everyone's routine here too, which helps me make it through the day. I can catch a nap then if I need to. Maybe that would help you make it through this rough, not-getting-any-sleep newborn stage?

Jennifer - my DH nested at least as much as I did too this time around. We did quite a bit of work on the house before Caleb was born. It was nice to have everything clean and fresh when he arrived.

LBF - that must have been terrifying for both of you. Losing DH or leaving my kids without a mom is one of my biggest fears. I can see how that would alter your perspective on life. DH's mom had cancer twice when her kids were young and they didn't expect her to live. It made her a very cheerful, thankful person! She knows how fragile life is. If only we could learn that lesson and remember it without having to go through the near-death experience!