Homebirth General Discussion #19

I read some stuff about it today that said mild cases can last as little as a few weeks! And severe cases a few months, with people feeling sick for up to 6 months. Given I have no real symptoms (only fatigue which I attributed to pregnancy) and I am healthy and not causing strain on my liver (not drinking etc) then I can't see how it could get severe?

I think if I do all the liver support and prevent it getting bad then I can surely fight it off quickly. And I think you may be right Bella... in my first trimester we were all really sick for a few weeks with a "cold" that we couldn't seem to shake off with all of us feeling very tired. I was much more nauseous and tired than previous pregnancies so maybe I had Hep A then and that was the worst of it and I'm just at the tail end? I hope so!!

Yes meow! Think positive, your body won't fight something if it is wasting energy on stress. You need to start your positive affirmations NOW. You will be well and you will birth your baby at home. I'd be going hell for leather with the natural therapies. The will be something's you shouldn't do when pregnant but there are a million options for boosting your immune system and detoxing your liver. Um your intake of water for a start. But again, truly start some positive affirmations, it's the seeds of doubt and the little medicalised terms/procedure that wear our confidence down.

Just breathe

Be calm

I will birth my baby at home

My body is strong enough to create this life it is strong enough to heal before the birth

If they hadn't tested and its a transient thing that lasts less time than a pregnancy then YOU WOULD NEVER HAVE KNOWN! This changes nothing.

You will get sick if you don't stay calm and not take anything more on at the moment meow. You need to prioritise your stresses and let the rest rise up to fate (or insert word or worship of choice).

Hugs for another hurdle being placed at your feet at this time. Just picture your beautiful Disneyland holiday and how nice it will be to have your family surround you soon!

Acupuncture, Meow! I was having a conversation with my GF today about her friend who had a baby in December with terrible caregivers is now experiencing better milk production since she began acupuncture and got off the meds for blood pressure and milk production. It's worth a shot :)

Meow: oh no :( but as Tegam said think positive. It will be fine by then.

Tegam: yay for a heartbeat! Don't know how you manage to hide it for so long anyway...ummm maybe status updates of you've fallen off the fitness wagon and can't stop eating junk food? Lol

See GP Friday about u/s results it can't come quick enough. I'm really run down have a bad case of shingles and feeling really crappy. I feel so broken, I woke this morning feeling like death. Feeling as though I was going to die, yep that's how crappy I feel. Going to see naturopath tomorrow as well.

Two more sleeps, Eenee - you waited ages for the u/s, now it's just two sleeps till results :hug: The naturopath in between sounds ideal, I hope you get some relief.
My GF, who came to see me today, told us that we could call her when we needed her, so I think we have a family helper again, this time! She is the one who videoed and looked after DS when DD was born and I didn't know whether or how to ask if she wanted to do that again, now that we've moved almost an hour and a half from where we were. I'm pretty happy that she's offered because I would so love for her to be part of this one again, especially if we need to use the back up plan of a transfer.
I bought some overnight pads from the health food shop - they come highly recommended for leak-proofness, so I'll spray them now and freeze them (well, the first pack), for perineum healing. I bought my hand held mirror today, too. I will find a small bottle to put some arnica rub into, for them pesky afterpains (in case I forget, again, to ask for a panadeine forte script...). It's all coming back to me, all that preparation stuff I did last time that I have nearly left too late this time!

Oh eenee I don't know how you do it. Not pleasant or nice to feel that way as soon as you have woken up. And I'll spill the beans to the rest of you eenee is now moving house next Wednesday. Omg 3 little ones, unwell and a house move, I feel sick thinking about it, wish I lived closer to help you xx



Wow hearing some of the stuff you guys do as prep I feel like a newby. My theory use to be 'all I need is my boobs and vagina' but seeing this is my last I feel I'll happily let you all give me your top three tips!


No idea how I will hide it, DH has said he just doesn't want to tell anyone until after its born. You've seen my pregnany belly photos eenee and I'm not huge but even I look pregnant by 30 weeks hehe


I also started my masters yesterday, crazy I know but already had it planned and only one of 25 that got excepted. Excited but totally nervous too. I'm hardly making through the days as mummy but maybe just maybe the last few days I've felt a little bit better..... Fingers crossed I have a great 2nd tri!

Bah! I had a post and my connection dropped out, losing everything I'd written!
Long story short: I did my grad dip through two children (max time allowed!), not that I have a great transcript to show for it. I'm waiting till all kids are in school before doing Masters/PhD (Masters might be a nicer way to get back into uni, though, after what will be a big break!), because I want the headspace to get good marks (I compromised and knew I'd get mediocre results to focussing on my kids as a priority).
As a water-birther, I need more than my boobs and vagina, so Top Tip #1 is a birth pool. Top Tip #2 is soundtrack for my breathing techniques. Top Tip #3 is my perineum care stuff - mainly my spray bottle and the infused frozen sanitary pads. I now feel ready to birth, and was feeling a bit nervous for not having those pads in the freezer till tonight, as if I were tempting fate!

Thanks everyone. I have an appointment with the acupuncturist next Tuesday and I'm seeing my doctor today too so I'm really looking forward to that. He's very holistic and I know he'll get me onto some great supplements like super strength turmeric extract and the like to support my liver. I feel like I should feel calmer and more in control after seeing him. Which is not how I felt after talking to my MW. So that's concerning. I'm feeling a bit torn over that and whether or not she's right for me now. I need to talk to her. My stress did go up yesterday and I was wiped out so went to bed about 8pm. I usually deal with a lot of stress but I think I handle it pretty well and just keep moving in a forward motion without letting it chew me up so just doing the same now. Oh, I'm already drinking a tonne as I'm flushing out an early stages UTI... it never rains, it pours huh?

I'm so sorry you're having such a hard time Eenee :hug: I hope you find answers and can get treatment that helps you soon.

Tegam- masters!!! Wow!

SJ- I LOVED all my comfy pads and herbal treatments after my last birth. They really helped me heal. Yay for getting your things together :)

ETA- Oh, a big woohoo for us! My H recently found out that his paternity leave has been increased from 7 to 12 weeks!!! He doesn't have to take it all at once but does have to take it in the first year. I think we'll get him to take a huge chunk after the baby is born though... looking forward to a LONG babymoon!

Oh meow 12 weeks. How wonderful. Maybe a huge chunk once baby arrives the.n a few weeks in the new year when school/Kindy start? I hope your dr is great today. Yes you probably need to talk to your MW more and maybe look at all your options. Seems she did deliver the news in a not so supportive (in this together, it shall all be ok) way.

SJ I'm only doing one subject a semester this year. I don't want to get poor marks as then I won't be able to do my doctorate later.... I use to think Ps means degrees and was only lucky I did better than that as you had to have a GPA greater than 5.5 to get in. Sadly I marked we'll in all my practical stuff and the academic side wasn't pretty. No idea what I have gotten myself into yet.but my first 3hr Skype lecture/tut was inspiring. I want a water birth or labour this time so ill add pool to my list....... :)

In my MWs defense she did say things like she still visualises me having a homebirth, it'll all work out, just breathe etc. But she told me stuff like it takes 5 months to clear when it can take just a few weeks and she didn't actually give me facts that felt like they held up to the optimism. So we'll see.

Doctor went well though he wasn't crazy encouraging... I guess no-one can predict for sure this will show up negative on a blood test before the birth :( He has given me a good treatment plan though and we'll re-test and see if I need "ramp things up".

The school year actually starts here in Aug/Sept right around the time I'm due so my H will certainly be doing school drop offs on his break and I think it'll be a really nice special time for him. Then I was thinking we could take a holiday to Hawaii later in the year or something. Bliss :)

Meow, have a chat to her about how your comfort levels with her are going. If you still feel like you're not comfy then look at someone else. I hope the acupuncture gets you kickstarted to feeling better :hug:
Tegam, I did one unit at a time for most of it (why it took so long!). I was never one to subscribe to the Ps = Degrees, myself, but copped the compromise. It was silly, really - I enrolled for the Grad Dip and on a parallel universe we also decided to start a family...not sure what I was thinking! But I did the psych really as an offshoot interest to my Anthropology, and whilst I'll not have the marks for Hons in Psych (meh!), my aim is to take my Anthrop further, and I could go straight into PhD, but will be kinder to myself, I think, when the time comes! I don't want to mess around with my Anthrop, hence waiting till I can give it my fuller attention (the Grad Dip suffered through the first and second pregnancies, SPD with both, the passing of my FiL, selling and moving house, living with my MiL for a while after that, then moving to a shed on our farm and settling into a completely new community with DS starting kinder and school during that time and learning all of those ropes!). So, if it's 'just' a little one to work around I think you'll be fine, especially for the first year. DS went to uni childcare at 20 months for two days, which helped, too.
Photo shoot today - then this baby can come! But not on Friday or Saturday, because my parents will be here and I couldn't think of anything worse...

Done! This baby can come now!
I'm not sure if this baby is dropping or just torturing me. My pelvis is doing well but my difficulty in walking is coming from a distinct feeling that this one is burrowing deep into my uterus and trying to bust out? At one stage I was holding onto the walls to get to the other end of the house. Just. couldn't. walk. And it wasn't my pelvis' fault! Tightenings all day and the trip back from the beach for the photo shoot was quite uncomfortable. Pleeeeeeeease be sooner, rather than later; I've had quite enough discomfort and pain for one pregnancy!

Yay SJ, nearly there! Sounds like bub is almost done too. ;)

I did half of my Masters after DD1 was born (the other half beforehand). So glad it's out of the way. I enjoyed it but just wanted to get through so was very pleasantly surprised when I ended up with a Masters with Distinction. I didn't even know such a thing existed. I aced my last few subjects, much better time mgt skills post-baby! So it's certainly possible.

My top three things, hmmmm... Fit ball, definitely. Didn't use much else this time. Lol Maybe my Blessingway counts, that was vital prep for my headspace, and also reading Ina May. I didn't end up needing many practical things with the speed and relative ease of delivery. Apart from several good debriefs. ;)

For DD2 the birth pool, for sure. And wheat pack and fit ball.

Another thing, and this is where I get into TMI territory because my belly buddies group defected to FB and I didn't, is bowel movements. I haven't had to take psyllium husk lately and it's a LOT easier than it was for months before hand (where my pelvis would pay for it if I didn't take the psyllium husk!). It is starting to feel impossible that this will go on for 3 more weeks, but knowing my luck it will!!
Fit ball - I have one on loan here that I haven't inflated, but I think I will (and risk the kids doing something dumb with it...). It helped with DS, I didn't really have time for it with DD because I rocked and swayed hips leaning on furniture for a while before hopping in the birth pool.
DP had a tanty tonight because I was asking questions about his plan for the birth pool filling (I mean, where do I get off???). I suggested that adding hot water in buckets may not be quick enough and he may need to plan to fill straight from the hot water tap. Then I asked which taps and hose he would use. He didn't like it and threatened to leave the loungeroom, saying I was being nasty. Never mind that I wasn't being nasty, unless 'nasty' means still wanting answers to questions I've asked and not wanting to be fobbed off? I mean, I made him come to ONE antenatal appointment at the hospital (he wasn't entirely happy about feeling compelled to come with me, boo hoo) and I've done everything else - crib assembly (I need his allen key set to firm it up and it has no linen because it's all back at the farm), sunroom set up, hammock frame cleaning and assembly (except for that spring he still hasn't asked him mum to look for and he wouldn't let me buy a spare one going on eBay a few months ago), buggy clean up and assembly (it had been out in the shed for a couple of years and was dirty as all get out) and I reckon I'm on my own for folding the flat nappies (I have a GF searching for her small size MCNs, as I only have a handful, being that I'd borrowed a stash of small Peapods last time from SiL that haven't been offered again and mine are all M size). And where will I PUT the flat nappies and clothes? In a book case he needs to collect but is doing the same thing about - when I bring it up he gets all antsy about it because his time is so precious he can't be driving around collecting things for me. For ME? Not...like...us and the baby?? I mustn't have done enough so far to deserve some more thought about the birth pool filling and effort in collecting a piece of furniture that will make things easier for all of us. But he gets to have a tanty and opt out of the conversation because it's all a bit too hot for him. It would be nice if he could man up about it, instead of acting like I'm trying to outshine him. If that's the resulting effect then it's because he's left, oooh, just about everything to me to organise?? We didn't just accidentally have two fantastic births - I worked damned hard for them and then made it look easy...great for me, bad for me :( I want to kick him in the shins. AND he's clearly never heard the tenet "never let the sun go down on a fight". But I bet he tells his boss that I'm a whinger again :/
Vent over. Time for bed.

Wow SJ that sounds really tough :( I hope the two of you work it out soon xx

As for study, I finished my 4th year/some masters level subjects of my degree last year. I've been finishing off the degree one subject a semester FOREVER. I am so looking forward to having a baby with NO study to do :lol:

Ah study and babies....totally doable...but afterwards oh so lovely not having to do it hahaha. i did my PhD fulltime and had my first two amongst it all. in many ways it worked out ok as you can choose your hours pretty much with a PhD, but it also sucked as i was so darn tired all the time that my traditional work time (at night) just wasnt there. i was too tired to read anything but bad teenage vampire novels hahaha.

Meow: hhmmm i do suspect that maybe the hep a was there for some time. you guys did have that rough trot with that cold and may have been part of it? It seems to be so similar in effect on birth planning to the GBS....if you know about it it can impact on your plans, whereas if you are just aware that it could be there then you are attentive to all signs and symptoms. Now that you know, i just hope that it passes soon and that you are merely on the tail end of the virus :hug:

Smoke J: oopha. that is really worrying that your H is still not really stepping up. Does birth/babies in general seem to freak him out? is he maybe fearful of the changes that are comign with the arrival of a new human being? I know that my DH can be a bit of a moron once bubs is here as he still has some freak out about the whole new baby thing (i had a shocking time with PTSD after DD1 that left some emotional scars on him i think).
on a more practical level: do you have anyone that could drop the drawers off? Are you able to speak to his mum about the spring? it does suck though that he is not taking part in this wonderful, special journey. ultimately his loss, but still, you want and need that support from your closest.

Sounds like you and baby are certainly getting close to birthing! i would think that filling up hot with hose would be best while pots of water boil on the stove.

Tegam: hhmm top three....

1. birth pool

2. Birth affirmations

3. Calendula tincture (for all things grazes/stitches/swollen nethers. i would put some on my pads and it would help heal and relieve the area.

but then again, i would also have to add Arnica. I had it in two types of dosages: a 200cH for immediate post birth (single dose) and then a much milder dose that could be repeated as needed in the following days).

Hello again ladies.
I'm back in here with a bubba on board. Hooray. (For those I haven't met yet, I had a HBAC a few years ago and lost a bubba last year). So I'm really in denial about this one, I can't seem to 'get it' that I am pregnant even though I have had a 12 week scan and heard the heart beat. I constantly feel like I'm going to lose this one too. I figure if I put it out there it might help, I've got no real physical symptoms (I had bad ms with both boys) and that's odd for me, I kind of wish I was spewing all day.
Anyways congrats to all the new mummas and mummas to be. Looking forward to sharing the journey again x

Hi lady-bug! I think you are due inbetween me and meow! Congratulations.

A phD wow cass!


Oh SJ that's tough and very hard to deal with!

Not that I think education is the only means to measure ones intelligence but wow there are a lot of us that have done or attempting further studies and we are the ones accused of not doing our research when it comes to home births....

SJ ill have 5 kids and no husband for 4months this year..... I think I'll have plenty of excuses to not do well, I'm just lucky I'm a Taurus and are far to arrogant to think any of that will stop me hehe

Just did my first fallen off the fitness wagon Facebook status! Just for your suggestion eenee :) triple choc, raspberry brownies.... Looks yummy but I just want to vomit :)

Tegam: masters? your crazy lol
Birth pool, fit ball, and DH would say plastic sheets and towels.

Meow: that's great it's 12 weeks, that's got to help!

SJ: birthing vibes sent your way

Ultrasound results= no retained product! yay!

Awesome, Eenee!!! Happy days!!!
Lady Bug :hug: I hope you feel more secure in this pregnancy soon - as secure as anyone can feel when pg x
I need some Zen time tonight (but my parents are due, so not likely) after my DS has been testing me to my limits. It started in the morning and then at the pool again tonight. Ugh. I want my boy back, not this grot! I'm having big doubts about his role in the house while I'm birthing :(

Hi all

SJ, man that all sounds really tough to be coping with. It is hard when you just want a willing partner to get things done with and you feel you have to drag someone kicking and screaming the whole way. Especially unhelpful when pregnant.. Oh and sympathies on the bub group ****ing off to fb. My last group did that. This time me and a few of the girls who have done this before, resisted when it was suggested. I think we will probably add each other as fb friends when we have had our babies, but I am glad for now we have stayed on bb land.

Ladybug, congrats on your pregnancy my dear. I hope that you start to feel more secure soon. I had really big doubts about this pregnancy at the start. I used to panic quite often feeling like as tho I might not get to hold this baby. I still panic a little when I hear dd talking about her brother. She told the whole class about him at prep this week. And her teachers tell me she talks about him all the time. Which is great and yet slightly scary for me in case anything happens.

Eenee, great to hear that there is no retained products. Now to just get your bleeding to settle down.

As for me, well I have officially hit the emotionally vulnerable stage of pregnancy. Usually for me that is somewhere in the early weeks of thirty, so right on schedule. I find myself really sensitive and crying for no or little reason. Today it was cos one of my best friends sisters responded to me setting up a fb group to support my bf, as she is expecting twins anytime now, negatively. She basically just said that is very nice that you wanna help, but people don't need expectations put on them on how much they should help, and we all have our own relationships with her, and anyway she is super organised and I'm sure she will be fine. Which makes me worry that I am being intrusive and or making a pain of myself. I haven't posted anything on the group at all t suggest what we should do for my bestie other than just that it is a place to organise meals and support like vacuuming the floors or doing a load of washing etc. anyway. It made me cry to read the response and made me want to back away feeling a bit rejected.... Gah... Oh the joy of over sensitive feelings. I honestly don't have a tough skin. Big softie. I often think I am an introvert because I find the work of trying to protect myself really exhausting. Right now I am even more sensitive than normal and I just find people so confusing.... Thanks for the chance to vent girls..

Bella, it sounds like her sister doesn't want to be upstaged OR feel like doing much for her sister! I'm sorry you copped that. Just do what you can and see if you can get some other friends on board and bypass the sister? I hear you on the early 30s! That's when I got teary.
Mixed up with DPs behaviour is the attitude that birth is ordinary. I think he's getting mixed up with 'normal' and throwing 'ordinary' in so that he doesn't have to fuss over me...he's done that twice before. I watched a bit of the DVD and his face does not reflect 'ordinary' right after birth, but he reverts to it easily enough :/
My parents didn't stay tonight! Small mercies! They had someone call to arrange to stay with them so they just dropped in for enough time to work the kids up, put them to bed a bit later than I wanted and then go back home! I sound ungrateful, but late pregnancy is not a time I want them around for longer than necessary, particularly my mum.
Anyway, it's more than bedtime :)
Have a great weekend, all!!

Sewing machine fail - the foot has gone missing in the move, so I had to craft glue the flags onto the tape, but it all looks good :)
I also got the kids doing birth art with the left over flags today! It got them away from TV and thinking about how this baby will fit into their lives - the cutest things came out, and they reckon they'll do more tomorrow.
I've packed a transfer bag that really just contains a couple of changes of clothes, figuring that DP can shuttle for anything else I might need...a token effort on my part!
DP being a lot less obtuse this weekend...not sure what brought that on, but anyway, I hope it lasts.
Just waiting for this baby to go quiet so that I can get excited about things starting, but so far there's loads of movement and trying to bust out of my ribcage. Ho hum.

SJ...my second child never stopped disco dancing ;) even on her way down the birth canal...weirdest feeling ever hahahaha

Bella: just sounds like she felt her toes were stepped on IYKWIM. I reckon right now should all be about protecting yourself and nourishing your emotional health....time to get selfish and demand the love! shut out the negativity and create a baby/birth bubble!

Hi everyone! Before now, I have kind of just been lingering... but I am 20 weeks today, so this whole pregnancy/home birth thing is starting to get a bit more real!

I will see my midwife next week, and I guess we might start discussing details for a home birth then. In the mean time, I guess I just wanted to get a general idea of the sorts of things I need to organise. My midwife has a birth pool I can hire, but that's all I know.

I will aim to try and keep up with this thread more from now on! :)

Exciting, Sterla!! You're half way cooked! The Midwives Naturally website has documents you can download for things to prepare - things like sieve, hand held mirror, watercolour paper for the placenta etc. You can google for aromatherapy recipes to make up oil blends and products to heal your birthing bits afterwards (I've got a perineum massage oil and a spray ready, as well as pads in the freezer with a healing blend sprayed on them) - stuff you can start making at about 35 weeks in between furniture rearranging! Think about birthing support, for your other children, too.
Cassius - I know my DD never stopped, and actually annoyed the crap out of me while her head was out and she kicked inside me for laughs with her angel face pointing up in the water after her quick labour. I'm not sure DS ever stopped, moving before labour, either (he shot out, though, he was in a hurry!). I was hoping this one would be more textbook...though I'm not sure why the labour goddesses would all of a sudden decide I was deserving of textbook at this stage, after spending more than half this pg on crutches ;)
I'm getting a real hankering to be back in the saddle, so I wonder if that means anything for this week? Come on, baby, I wanna get back on my horse.
I forgot - after our photo session the other day, the photographer got excited about my homebirth revelation and asked if we wanted a birth photographer. I said I'd already asked DP and run her fees past him and we decided we couldn't afford it...and then she said she does payment plans...DP still wants to hold onto that money, but part of him seems to want to do it. It's our last one (if we can help it!) and we know how much our kids love seeing pics and the video of DD being born (not that we had one, but I am pretty sure it gets more viewing than if we'd had a wedding video!!). Soooooooo...it might still happen...

How many of those cotton umbilical ties does one typically need? I've made 5...might make extra, even if the kids get to wear them afterwards :)

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How many of those cotton umbilical ties does one typically need? I've made 5...might make extra, even if the kids get to wear them afterwards :)

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generally only one ;) maybe two if you want to tie placenta side as well before cutting.

I did cord burning this time, so no tie required. I had one packed, just in case I changed my mind about the burning or we had to transfer etc.

Oooh, good idea to pack one in my token transfer bag!!
ok, so I ended up with 8...maybe one for everyone in the birth team ;) Who knew I could feel so crafty?? I'm even contemplating finding my drawing pencils and sketching a thingy onto a canvas square I have here, waiting to be painted up into something. I painted a dragon for DD's anticipated arrival. I have nappies to fold, too, so I know which one I'd rather be doing!
I've put the kids' birth art onto tape so they'll be ready to hang tomorrow. They'll be so pleased. They're both giving my belly hugs goodnight telling me and the baby to have sweet dreams.
Nothing left for it but to keep nesting - bookcase was collected today :)

I LOVED my "transfer" bag last time. This time when I pack it I'll call it my "early days" bag and relish it. It was so great to have all my nourishing things and the little newborn baby things all together in one place. We ended up putting the bag next to the bed and if I needed anything I could grab it easily or else pretty much anything I wanted to ask for I could just say "it's in the bag". Made life so easy.

I have my transfer bag stashed in the buggy and my oils, sprays, umbilical ties are in a basket that came with a raffle win. I have an auto tray set up in the loungeroom next to a recliner chair and the basket is there. The tray has heat packs and a baby chamber pot on the bottom and will have a jug and cup on it (and there's a tray ready to load nuts and Skittles, my preferred labour 'food', onto). A friend will bring around another change table soon to keep at that end of the house (because I'll be doing elimination communication as soon as I can I'll only really need tops for the baby and back up nappies). The auto tray moves around the house with me. It was fab in our teeny house when DD was born and will be even better in this longer house!
DD has just been watching her birth DVD and is feeling very inspired :)
All night I slept lightly, and kept dreaming that I was in early labour.

i did similar this time Meow, and it was awesome! Last time, i had things on a change table that dh was meant to move to the birth area, but he didn't so had to keep going back to it and not finding things. Having everything together in a bag was so easy, had a bag inside with all new baby stuff, nickers and pads and clothes for first few days for me, arnica etc... I had it in the lounge for a few weeks, but i could move it around myself.

I had quite concentrated? prelabour for coupe of days before birth. At the time, it was frustrating, cos i kept wanting it to kick off and was trying to work out why it wouldn't. Looking back that it was quite good, as i was expecting labour to start i got quite a few rests where i lay down and sometimes dozed. DH took kids to park couple of times so house was quiet. i don't often get a chance to nap so it was a lovely way to prepare for birth. on sunday, i decided i was over waiting for it to happen and the 4 of us went out to a local market and walked around. the kid s played on a jumping castle slide and then we got some chips and went to the local park for lunch and play. we saw some friends and then headed home.

I'm lucky that our house is large so we actually use the master bedroom as a spare (it's way up the other end and I don't like to be away from the kids at night) so when Dd3 was born I had my own suite, everything I needed and no other kids to interrupt me at night, so I got all the precious sleep I needed. It also meant and means that this time that I can set the space up with everything I need and not have to move it after the birth. The room is also big enough for a birth pool so I can be super contained :) so exciting to talk about it.

Sounds wonderful Tegam!

We currently live in a small 3 bedroom house and I'm not sure where I would the birth pool as the rooms aren't that big. But when we move we'll likely move into something even smaller so who knows where it'll all go down! I keep reminding myself of all those Dutch women who home birth in small apartments ;)

On the toilet meow. Nothing to clean up and a very nice neat compact space :)

My 3rd was born in the shower. It was great. I went straight from the shower to my bed. :)

My hair is ALL falling out. Like a serious amount every second day when I wash my hair. It's not funny and today I put my hair in a plait and its half the thickness it was a few weeks ago. DH even said something. Will I end up bald??? HELP

It didn't fall out the other times?
Mine falls out in clumps right on the 3 month mark - I have a lot, anyway, but it seems to like falling out at my temples, in particular, which is annoying! It'll start growing back - it's just the hair that didn't shed while you were preggers :) I've been contemplating shearing mine off again, in anticipation of the great shedding. I've been growing it for about a year, though, even though every couple of months I nearly call my hairdresser to cut it all off again...it'll look better short and thin than long and thin, and when it grows out it grows corkscrew tight, so maybe it's better off super short again!
Folding flannel flats tonight, ready to stack into the bookcase, just in case my GF forgets to bring me her MCNs...

I am pregges SJ if it falls out after I have baby there will be nothing left! Ahhhhhhhh