|
|
Today was my first appointment with the obstetrician, to discuss how I wish to deliver my baby. My choices seem to be quite straightforward -
- Vbac
- Elective section at 39 weeks gestation
This gives rise to a few questions… What if I go over my dates and still don’t go into labour? Then I’m told they can attempt induction but this carries high risk of emergency cesarean. So basically my choice is vbac, elective cesarean section at 39 weeks or a cesarean section at 42 weeks.
The obstetrician was extremely supportive of me having the final choice of how I wish to give birth and answered my 8 million questions brilliantly! I possibly overdid my vbac research on google… But you can never be too over-informed, can you??
I think my biggest fear of vbac is that my scar will rupture, which I’m told is extremely minimal risk and should I choose vbac my labour will be monitored closely with the baby on constant heart monitor, I’m told they will know there is an issue before rupture and will be able to deal with it promptly, signs of an issue apparently including pain between contractions, dipped baby heart rate and general discomfort around the scar area both prior and during labour. I am scared of this happening… anyone with access to google would be!
But then the other option… elective cesarean section scares me just a little bit also. Its a big operation, albeit a routine procedure in fact in my area over 20% of all babies are delivered by cesarean section. Yes an elective cesarean minimises my risk of scar rupture, but increases my risk of a whole host of other complications, bleeding, infection, difficulty in the baby breathing.
As I’m currently in good health and the pregnancy is a healthy one and given my previous history of vaginal delivery I apparently have a 90% chance of delivering via vbac, which I’m thinking has to be the best option. I meet again with my obstetrician at 36 weeks and depending on the results of my gestational diabetes tests and the general size of the baby I have to give my decision on what birth I’d like.
I’m hoping to be able to opt for vbac and have a natural delivery, but a little part of me is scared and thinking of the pain free cesarean option…but then I remember the recovery times and the serious limitation on what I could do after the last cesarean and I swing right back to vbac… and then I’m scared again!
I must say I feel very lucky to have such great support from the midwives and obstetrician as I know this isn’t always the case! Just have a read of Suburban Mummy’s experiences!
So.. what were your experiences? Have you delivered by vbac or did you opt for an elective section. Did you have any regrets with your choice?
I almost didn’t vlog this as you can see from the picture below of me trying to work out how to turn on the video camera… But as my hair has now returned to swishy (from hideous static frizzed knots, due to unfortunate incident with 2 in 1 speed hair washing debacle) I was determined not to waste it!
However… IT stumble overcome…
You can see the results on You Tube
Can the lovely winners please email me with home addresses and HiPP Organic will send the weaning kits directly to you.
Disclaimer: The video on YouTube is very hit & miss.. speed of video/commentary on some viewings is not in sync…last time I watched it was okay….
The winners of the three HiPP Organic weaning packs are:
- Something_Blue2
- Jenny
- Zoe Campbell
No quibbling the decision of Whimsical Wife is final
The theme this week over at Sticky Fingers is a day in August. The idea behind the theme is that on the day three amazing mummy bloggers travelled to Bangladesh with Save the Children to see the work the charity is doing out there and to press for change, back in the UK we took a snapshot of our ordinary day.
When I think of the pain and suffering that the mothers and children in Bangladesh endure due to such simple things like lack of water and basic medicine it makes me realise just how lucky I am to have my children and for them to be well cared for. And so I couldn’t help when taking this picture of my daughter, warm, well fed, healthy and safely tucked up asleep in bed think of all the children who are not.
You can help to bring awareness to Save the Children in the following ways:
- Click over to the Save the Children website read about the Blogladesh trip and sign the petition to put pressure onto our government to lead talks to end global poverty at Septembers UN Summit.
- Follow the Blogladesh journey by following the mummy bloggers on Twitter – @Porridgebrain, @nixdminx, @mummytips and @SaveChildrenPR
- Help to create awareness on twitter by retweeting any tweets you feel you can and using the #Blogladesh hashtag.
 This is boyo indulging in his latest pastime… Money!
He likes to count it, stack it in piles of 10p in groups of £1.
The past few days I have noticed a marked increase in the amount of money he seems to have. Today I found out why…
Girly “can I play with your bus?”
Boyo “yes, but for 10p”
And on further investigation he’s been charging for toy usage, general friendship and billing her for helping her tidy her bedroom!
Entrepreneurial? Ebenezer? Odd?
The little stacks of coins are littering the house, his conversation is heavily monetary based and on asking him why exactly he wanted the money? Enquiring as to whether he was saving up for something his answer… “yes, I’m saving up so I have more money to count and then I shall be even richer… mwaahahah”
Oh.. so I’ve tried to turn things to a more positive slant…
1) No charging girly to use your toys or play time.
2) A list of little jobs he can do to earn some pocket money… well a spreadsheet actually as he wanted it on the computer!
3) I’ll take him to the bank so he can open his own little account
So.. do your children charge one another for siblingship? No? Just mine then!
*Disclaimer… this post may or may not contain generalised sweeping statements*
Basically activities on an English Bank Holiday Monday can be split into four categories:
1) Gardening
2) Queuing in a car on a motorway/queuing in a car to enter an overpriced attraction
3) DIY
4) A good old family get together
I specifically do all I can to avoid number two and four choosing at all costs to stay at home and where possible refrain from having to pretend to like these people who creep from the woodwork in the name of family at the merest hint of an all day buffet (yes the type with boiled egg dolloped with mayonnaise and sprinkled with paprika… possible a chicken drumstick with a frilly attachment to the foot end).
So therefore I plumped firstly for category one gardening, however pregnant gardening is no fun. It involves strolling around the garden wearing gloves and pointing whilst muttering vague instructions as to what needs doing. I set out with such grand schemes of neatening and cutting back and general tidying up of the whole space. (Why yes I have visited tidy garden friends just recently… can you possibly tell?). However after a wander and a count up of just how may different species of wildlife there is in our overgrown garden sorry wildlife haven. Including five types of bee, frogs, toads, snails, many types of butterflies, hover flies a scuttling hedgehog, crickets, shield bugs, leather jackets, spiders…. As you can imagine with two such bug interested children as mine this took quite a while. I decided it was probably best just to cut the middle part of the lawn so as not to loose the children as they fight their way through to the slide. The rest I’ve left to nature 
However leaving the garden to nature doesn’t exactly fill a day now does it? So I opted to take part in a little of category three and painted the hall, well the first coat, doesn’t pay to rush these things…. And why is it that you just have no appreciation whatsoever as to how dirty your house really truly is until you decide to paint it?
Only when you’re within paintbrush distance from the hall wall can you see that hmmm perhaps someone may have sploshed coffee up the wall at sometime and neglected to wipe it away… hmmm perhaps the children eat just a little too much chocolate and daub their chocolate covered fingers at child height en-route to the bathroom (unless… the brown isn’t chocolate after all and the daubing occurred on the return journey from the bathroom… I won’t smell…) And hmmm perhaps the dog needs to learn to walk without leaning her mud coated back all the way along the bottom of the hall wall as she enters the house…
But why oh why have I not seen this before? Why up until today did I walk into my house and think ahhh just needs a quick hoover and the windows opening… freshen it up?
So with category one and three taken care of, two and four omitted… what is there left to do on a Bank Holiday Monday? Drink cider, tidy a draw, watch the Sound of Music…
So which category did you fall into?
I’ve been tagged by the lovely Busy Mum of 5 prompting me to share a few little things that bother and annoy me, I really don’t need prompting to pop on my grumpy old woman hat so here goes…
I’ll be restrained…
1. Other peoples children who use my driveway as their football goal…. (technically it would be other parents who let their children use my driveway…) But result is the same
2. Supermarkets annoy me I hate the huge busy carparks, I hate walking around miles of unnecessary and irrelevant products, I hate all the pushy and very *important* people and I hate the way you have to apologise for needing a plastic bag…. And I hate the self service checkouts (in much the same way as Muddling Along Mummy)
3. The lids on pickled gherkins annoy me… If I want to dive into a big jar of gherkins with some degree of urgency I want the lid to come of with speed and ease, I don’t want to have to smash item on the floor and rinse of the glass in desperation to eat a gherkin
4. People who take, take, take annoy me – enough said
5. I very much dislike novelty childrens toothbrushes with the little animal head plastic caps and plunger sucker feet which fall out of the cupboard deliberately every time I go into the bathroom.
And so in true tagging tradition….
Mostly Yummy Mummy
Cafe Bebe
Dawnie Brown
Mummy Matters
Rosie Scribble
What bothers and annoys you?
Yesterday was my 20 week scan. This is the scan that picks up a whole host of anomalies, I know I’d scoured BabyCentre the night before!
I arrived, I booked in, I waited and I waited and I waited just a little bit more, I even managed to wait cheerfully and not be impatient, probably due to the fact there were lots of great big fat and very impatient pregnant mums to be in the waiting room doing spectacular impatient outbursts and much over animated back rubbing and I just didn’t think I could compete!
So eventually my turn came and I was asked if a trainee sonographer could conduct my scan (watched obviously by a trained one). No problem, everyone has to learn and if nobody let them practice we’d have no sonographers. She was very lovely, but as a trainee it obviously took a lot longer which is fine but gosh I was so desperate for the loo and all that tummy pressing is not good.
After a while there seemed to be a little problem… she couldn’t find the baby’s diaphragm and so the trained sonographer took over, but she couldn’t see it either, it was all shadowy. So I was asked to go and empty bladder, have a drink and take a walk around. Naturally I used the time well, I frantically googled the likelihood, symptoms, chances and outcomes of having a baby with a hole in it’s diaphragm until I’d scared myself sufficiently and it was my turn to go back in for the scan.
I lay down in silence this time and the trained sonographer conducted the scan, she spotted a fully formed diaphragm straight away… BIG sigh of relief.
And so she asked if we’d like to know the sex which obviously I just couldn’t wait to know. I was told they both thought they saw the extras and so it was a boy. So I left my scan with a big smile on my face, content in the knowledge my baby has a full diaphragm and a willy.
And here is the little scan picture – just look at that cutesy button nose! And naturally I already love him and know he’ll be the most beautiful baby in the whole world!
It’s not too late to enter my HiPP Organic baby food give away
At what stage over the past generation did school shoes become a whole fresh hell?
I remember going for school shoes when tiny, I waited my turn patiently yes bored, but just sat down un-entertained on the chair next to my mum. A mature lady who had been measuring feet probably for decades checked my feet and brought out two pairs of shoes to choose from, the shoes were always black leather with a buckle or laces. I would try them on, walk to the mirror, my mother would buy the best fitting ones, pay and come out of the shop. That was it, all there was, no drama. Yes I’d spend the next few days excitedly trying on my shoes in anticipation of returning to school, story told.
So what happened to create the farcical series of school shoe hoops which must now be jumped through?
How has a straightforward and mildly interesting event been transformed into a drama epic?
School shoe shopping now is oh so different. It commences when the putting off of the event reaches uncomfortable proportion and eventually I snap, grab the children and head off moodily to the shoe shop. I take my numbered ticket from the shoe shop deli machine and sit on not a chair but an amusing and fun shaped padded form, clutching my ticket in amongst a raging crowd of bad tempered parents, and hyper children running aimlessly but at great speed around the shop.
Eventually and I mean eventually a teenager shouts my number and I leap into the air cheering its me in a manner I’ve seen on the bingo advert… and so our service commences. There is no measuring scale to pop your feet up into, now your child accompanies the teenager through the masses to the computerised spaceship looking device which they stand on to have their feet sized. Returning them to you to inform you their feet have grown in massive proportion which leaves you wondering just how long they have been hobbling around in tight shoes for…
Next the shoe choice… “I’ll bring you out what we’ve got” and three weeks later she returns laden to unimaginable capacity with box upon box of shoe. But, they are not just shoes… some light up, I hate them, some have dolls which can easily be dismembered and mixed and matched with other dolls, I hate them and some have insertable interchangeable stickers, I naturally hate them.
And so the trying on begins, obviously highly favoured are the shoes with hidden toys in their soles. They fit badly, boyo clearly uncomfortable hobbles across the shop declaring they are the most nicest shoes he’s ever tried on… I disallow them and eventually we settle on a pair that has insertable football shirt stickers into side pockets… I can’t help thinking that once they get wet stickers will disintegrate and a mini-boy breakdown will be sparked, but that is merely a glancing thought…
Girly slips and slides over the shop floor in patent leather ballet pump style shoes declaring their absolute comfort… I disallow them and eventually we settle on a pair with dismembered dolls concealed in the sole.
I briefly give thought to my upcoming nightmarish mornings when the children refuse to leave the house until appropriate sticker choice has been made and doll has been assembled and placed neatly into the shoe sole storage compartment. I think of the letters which will be sent from school over the next few weeks banning such devices…
So laden with shoes, school pumps and magic shoe cleaner I heave my way to the till to part with an outrageous amount of money and yet do I leave the shop downcast? No! I leave it feeling substantially smug that I’ve managed in the final week of school holidays to purchase shoes, pumps and magic polish….
I do have one passing thought though…. what happened to buckles and laces? Where did they go? Have the buckle and lace manufacturers been eaten by the velcro people? At this rate the next generation will be entirely unable to function velcro free and people will be forced to join the scouts to learn to tie knots.
This week over at The Gallery on Sticky Fingers the theme is ‘a photo I’m proud of’ and so here it is - and she is perfect just as she is even when in a bad mood
The lovely people over at Hipp Organic have given me three weaning starter packs to give away on my blog.
 To be in with a chance of receiving one all you need to do is…
- Follow Hipp Organic on Twitter
- Follow Hipp Organic on Facebook
- Join the Hipp Baby Club
- When you’ve done that – come back here – leave me a comment & I’ll pop your name in the hat – give away open to UK residents only – you have until midnight 31st August to enter – I shall vlog the draw and winners on 1st September 2010.
Good Luck xx
|
|
