Labour signs -what were yours?

[Ginger]

hi sally- when is your due date? yeah i had a terrible nights sleep on friday and i think it was bubs turning on me..

[ella79]

gracie - sorry to hear that bubs has turned posterior
i think mine is posterior too (after spending MONTHS perfectly positioned at the front on the left!). my OB told me not to bother worrying about it though because babies can (and often do) turn at the last minute to the best birthing position at the onset of labour... i'm not sure whether he was just trying to make me feel better or not, but have decided not to worry about it anyway!!

[ele_ven27]

I'm in the same boat Jordie...waiting IMpatiently for something definite to begin.
I thought i was going on Sunday...was up at 5.30am with a real need to go for a long walk...so i went up to the local shops and bought the newspaper. On the way, i was giving the 'bump' a good talking-to and by the time i got back home i started having some contractions. These lasted all day...i had a few hours of regular, moderately strong ones, 4-5 mins apart, then they'd get irregular and weaker...then strong and regular again. By late afternoon i was laying down resting when i had a strong urge to go to the toilet...not quite sure whether i wanted number 1 or 2 or both, so i just sat hehehe. I felt like i had a bubble inside me that was literally going to POP at any moment, and everytime i got up off the toilet, i quickly raced back to sit down again, such was the strangeness of the feeling. I ended up getting in the shower for a few minutes and experienced a very weird emotional release...i just burst into tears and was completely irrational and off the planet. Poor hubby was staring at me in disbelief as it is waaaay out of character for me to be like that!! After calming myself down getting dressed again, i phoned the hospital and they said to come in and get checked out. I had these funny mental images of me being in labour all day without realising it and now all of a sudden being in transition and expected to be pushing at any second!!
After being examined, they said that i hadn't even dilated and that i was clearly just "getting ready".... no kidding!!! I had another 3 hrs of strong contractions at home and then nothing! Everything completely stopped....and ironically i had the best night sleep for months!! The baby's head has well and truly engaged deep down into my pelvis.
But since then...not much action i'm afraid. Just the usual BH, with a stringy show the past 2 days. I'm extremely frustrated but trying not to get stressed about it, that'll just make things worse i think. So i'm just trying to keep busy and hope that it all happens soon. I have to go back to Dr's on Thursday if nothing has progressed and we'll talk induction.
This is my 3rd pregnancy, and i have to say, that they've all been completely different. Which can make you feel a bit silly, because when you speak to people, especially some midwives, they automatically assume that you should know what is happening, or what to expect etc....but you don't and it can be annoying when they look at you like you're a fruit loop!

Let's hope that we get some action soon huh....or there's gonna be a whole lotta crazy over-due preg women going beserk out there!!!

[ele_ven27]

Oops....i wrote the wrong name....was meant to write Gracie...sorry matey

[Ginger]

ella- i'm glad to hear you're the same as me cos we're due around the same time. i've been really worried about it all night cos everything was going perfectly up until then. then i find out the baby's head is nowhere near engaged, i've got crippling back pain and the ob says to me 'be prepared to have an october baby'. i'm so upset now. do you think it's nothing to worry about?

[castle]

Ella & Gracie,
having had several posterior bubs it is worth doing everything you can to make them turn. Yes, they may OR MAY NOT turn at some point during labour, but there are other factors too...their less than optimal position makes you more likely to go overdue, for example. If you do labour while they are posterior it is very tiring, because the back labour means you never get a proper rest. If they don't turn at some point during labour, persistent OP babies often don't come out easily. Typically stage 2 is prolonged; a forceps/ventouse delivery may be suggested or required.
My first was a posterior breech. I had a c/sec. My second delivered OP after I pushed for 4 hours. I had a birth centre delivery with a private midwife. Had I been in a hospital delivery suite, I'm sure I would have been sent for another c/sec. The baby was never in distress, but progress was very slow.
There is a great book, Optimal Foetal Positioning, which you can get from Capers bookstore online. I highly recommend it. I read this book while expecting my 3rd and did everything I could to get him to present OA. It worked and made a huge difference to my labour. One of the authors has written another book, along the same lines, but geared more towards mothers than midwives. I think it's called Sit Up and Take Notice! Either one would be very well worth reading.
Also--if bub is posterior--not surprising that the head is not engaged. It probably won't happen till labour starts in that case.
Every labour has been very different for me. The one thing I had in common with each labour, was lots of B-H in the week before delivery.

[ella79]

gracie - i think that we should both prepare ourselves to have to wait until Oct to have our babies simply because it's very common to go overdue with first babies in any case. however, that doesn't mean that we WILL have to wait that long (and i hope we don't - trust me, i want to have this baby ASAP!!)... the only thing that i seem to have learned with any certainty from reading people's experiences here on BB though, is that everyones pregnancy, labour and birth stories are TOTALLY different, and there is no way of accurately predicting what's going to happen to yourself.. at my appointment last Mon my Ob said "you could go into labour tonight or not for another 3-4 weeks"... he doesn't get hooked up on how many "stations" engaged the babies head is, or which way the baby is facing (front or back) because he says that they can keep changing right up until when labour starts (and can even swivel front back to front during labour). so, while i might end up having a posterior bub when i go into labour i've decided that there's no point worrying about it now because what's the point in being miserable for a few weeks when it could wriggle around at the last minute into the anterior position where she's been for the last few months in any case?
don't worry about the baby not being engaged either - mine seems to bob up and down in and out of my pelvis - a few days ago she was sitting REALLY low down and now she's higher up again... and although most first-time mothers usually have their babies engage a few weeks before the onset of labour, there are still plenty of exceptions to the rule!!

castle - thanks for your advice. i ave been onto Spinning Babies, and read other stuff on trying to turn posterior babies, and am doing a few things on a daily basis to try and encourage my baby back around to the anterior positon (doing a bit of crawling around on my hands an knees, etc!) as obviously i would PREFER to have a perfectly positioned baby if at all possible. but at the same time, i'm trying not to dwell on it too much because at the end of the day, i don't see the point in upsetting myself for weeks (potentially) when it all may work out fine anyway... and if it doesn't, i don't want to have built up the fact that my bubs is posterior as a huge failure in my mind either - then i'll just be feeling sorry for myself all the way through labour when i'll need the energy to overcome the extra challenge of a posterior bub. might check out the titles that you recommend in any case - thanks!

[JordieC]

Hi there - no haven't had the baby yet SAlly06 though getting excited cause you never know. From all the diff stories I've heard it could be a few hours or a few days so just keep waiting! Definately had more mucus leakage so might go an check this arvo what it is exactly. Bags are ready to go and I straightened my hair! all the important things!! ha ha

[Sally06]

JordieC - Hee hee I've been straightening my hair every day lately, just in case I go into labour, I thought I was the only one who did this?!! Pregnancy has definitely brought out my vanity...!!

Gracie - I'm due next week so just before you. I wonder if you're feeling extra tired because of the bubs position? I'm not sure if my bub has turned but I defintely was exceptionally tired when the ob said he was posterior on me the other day. I usually have heaps of energy and in those days when my back was aching and he was most definitely posterior, I was asleep by 8:30 every night and dragging myself through each day. I also felt really light headed with lots of nausea. I guess having a baby resting on all your nerves along your spine like that is going to be tiring, so we shouldn't be hard on ourselves! If it's any help, I've been paying more attention to my posture and sitting more upright, never leaning back and this seems to have helped. Apparently lots of leaning back can encourage ther baby to go/stay posterior. Also try leaning forward on all fours, ideally on a beanbag when you're watching the telly, stay like this for at least 30 mins if you can and you should notice a big improvement to your back pain. I'm quietly hopeful the baby has since turned, as since I've been doing these types of things my back pain has gone away...mmm...will wait and see what the next ob appointment reveals, all this waiting is so annoying!!

JordieC - Sorry to hijack your thread here! Good luck, it sounds like you may be getting close! Finegrs crossed very tightly for you!!

[Ginger]

think i might have to invest in a beanbag- cos i always lean back- it's the only way that my back doesn't hurt. it sounds like i may be getting myself worked up over nothing. it's just hard when everything seems to be sailing along smoothly and now i'm completely exhausted and in pain and can't even do the supermarket shopping!
sorry to hijack your thread jordie- i'm sending you lots of labour vibes!!

[ella79]

Joridie C & Sally 06 - LOL at the hair straightening!! i won't be looking glamorous during labour (will want to use the shower so no point in using the straightener or mascara), but have already got the GHD packed in my hospital bags for post-birth, but pre-photos!! ha ha ha!! if i'm too tired to straighten my own hair one of my friends has offered to come in and do it for me - i wonder whether she does pedicures too... will pack the nail polish just in case!!

Gracie - had another OB appointment this afternoon. told him i was upset because i thought the baby was still posterior. he had a feel and said that it wasn't fully posterior, but wasn't anterior either (so maybe it's facing sideways?!).. anyway, i asked him about the techniques to get it to swing around to the front and he said that i was very welcome to try them, but he was not sure that any of them worked particularly well. he also repeated the same as last time, that the baby can still turn anytime from now up until going into labour, and can turn during labour itself.. or of course it's also possible that i might just be stuck with a posterior bub!! am going to try hanging out on my hands and knees when i can and leaning forward when possible just in case it does do some good (there seems to be a lot of literature on it!), but am also going to try and keep up the "don't worry, be happy" mantra seeing as it's not all doom and gloom just yet...

[stillhoping]

Just a question on labour signs, so hope you girls don't mind. When contractions, waters break etc all the starting signs of labour, do you still feel the baby moving, even just a little bit, or is bubs engaged, so unable to move? Hope this isn't a silly question.

thanks

[Sally06]

Stillhoping - I've heard of women who can still feel their bub kicking away inside them while giving birth! I'm pretty sure your bub can continue to move regardless of pre labour, labour, braxton hicks etc. Though having not given birth myself I'm probably not best qualified to answer this!