They don't routinely do the hep b jab here in nz but my baby got the vitamin k injection, I figured that if something happened because I made the decision for him not to get it I would never forgive myself. I can't remember the exact details about it but I know it was to do with blood clotting and babies that don't recieve it have a higher risk of developing problems due to the blood not clotting. The midwife gave it to him not long after the birth while he was busy feeding and he didn't really notice it all! :-)
just when you think you have made all the hard decision they go and throw more at you! :-)

I wonder why you guys don't have the hep b? I have an appointment with the gyno tomorrow so I will ask his opinion of them. I read all up on the vit k injection and it said that there maybe a link to childhood cancers, that is why I am trying to get all the info I can on the injections.
I know that I don't have hep b and neither does my husband so its a bit of a worry if a new born can contract it in the hospital. This is terrible, I am always worrying about the health of my baby girl. What will they throw at me next! Thanks for your input.

Just went and had a look at my sons health record book to double check and they give the hep b vaccine during the routine vaccinations at 6wks, 3months and 5 months, along with all the other assorted needles!!! .
Hows everything else going with your pregnancy so far?

Thanks for looking that up for me. I have decided, after talking to lots of ladies, that it is definately worth getting the needles. One lady said that there are so many germs in the hospital that it is just not worth the risk.
I am 37weeks pregnant now and everything is going really well, thanks for asking. I am getting a little nervous about going into labour and not knowing when she is going to arrive. I can't wait because I am all ready for my baby girl.

Waiting is the worst bit!! Until the baby turns up and then you wish she/he had waited just a little bit longer :-)
my son arrived 3 wks early which was a bit of a suprise.
Good luck with the labour - are you planning on going drug free? Hope you don't mind me asking.

Yeah, going to go drug free I hope. I am hoping that she comes early because doctor wants to induce me on my due date if she doesn't. Had an ultra-sound at 34 weeks which suggested that there may not be enough fluid for the size of the baby. That is supposed to be a sign that the babies kidneys are not working properly though my girl scored 8/8 for her organs which ment there is nothing wrong with her kidneys. Doctor said that they probably over estimated the size of the baby though he still wants to be safe and not let me go a day over my due date.
I'd really prefer to go naturally and not mess with nature by being induced.
How old is your baby boy? How was your labour and what were the feelings you had when you suspected that you were in labour 3 weeks early? I have 19 days until my due date.

At least the doctors are keeping a close eye on you, i'm sure everything will go brilliantly.
My wee man is just under 5 months old now.
In the last few months I always had a feeling that I wasn't going to last till my due date and sure enough I woke up early one morning (it was a thursday) feeling weird and uncomfortable and went to the toilet and there was blood and gore everywhere so I freaked out and rang my midwife who assured me that it was just my mucous plug (sometime you can bleed when it pulls away) and she would ring later in the morning to see how I was going. When she rung back a few hours later I was having mild contractions which came and went throughout the day and the next day (by this time my poor hubby was a bundle of nerves :-) my midwife came around on saturday evening and swept my membranes which took things up another notch but everything died off again that night and I managed to get some sleep till 3 the next morning when everything was well under way. We went to the hospital at around 6am and everything was going really well, but towards the end she had to break my waters as I wasn't dilating any further, until that point I hadn't had any pain relief but once she had done that the pain really intensified and I dilated 4cm in under an hour and I was on the verge of panicing because of the pain so I had a bit of gas until I was allowed to push then it just got in the way, finnally our baby was born at 3pm. I was really proud that I only needed the gas, it is a real buzz knowing that you werent drugged up for the whole thing!
The thing I found about not having any drugs for most of it was you actually feel quite 'out of it" anyway I remember telling my husband and midwife that I felt like I had smoked a joint or something :-) and it was just from all your bodys hormones and stuff doing their job.
The biggest thing to remember is to relax (at one stage I was that relaxed it was almost boring :-) and don't feel guilty if you do need some pain relief, I found the gas was more than enough.
Sorry I just realised how long winded this post is :-)

Thanks sarah for sharing your labour experience. Today my girl is very quiet as she is usually kicking and punching her way inside me. Was your boy active up until birth and did he still move around alot during the labour?
I have had a feeling that I would go early too (maybe cause I am just fed up with being pregnant) though now I feel like shes not ready to come because of my size. My baby is hiding really well in there and my stomach is not huge. I think it may be hard for me to realise yet that I am carrying a nearly full term baby!
Congratulations for staying off the drugs, I hope I can get away with just the gas. Personally it gives me chills to think about having a needle so close to your spine to have an epidural.
How were you feeling by the end of your pregnancy? Did you feel energetic? Today I feel like yesterday I ran a marathon and today my body is trying to recover. I am very achey all over. I have been having energetic days and then days where I don't want to get off the couch.
I hope my labour stretches out like yours as I am an hour from the hospital.
How did you feel when you got your baby boy home? My husband and I can't wait for our girl to arrive and we are getting a little impatient!
Hope you don't mind all the questions. I love hearing about other women's experiences as pregnancy is all I think about at the moment.

No I don't mind the questions I love sharing my experience.
I can't remember what the movement was like before labour but he definately didn't move around much during it (i kept asking if something was wrong :-)
i had the same issue with needles the thought of an epidural freaked me out!
I finished work a week before I started having contractions and during the first few days I cleaned every part of our house (i even made up the bassinett) as I had sooo much energy then I spent the rest of the time parked up on the couch reading a book as I had no energy whatsoever it was a struggle getting out of bed I just wanted to sleep all day!
Don't worry about your size I was quite small too, everyone kept asking me if I got my dates right!
I only stayed in hospital for one night as I just wanted to get home. When we got home we kinda sat around wondering 'what do we do now' but then the baby starts crying and its all on, its brilliant to finally have your baby home but so scary no matter how much we thought we were prepared for it . My mum was great she came around each day and done the housework for us. For the first week or so we were on a bit of a high but then the sleep deprivation kicked in! I wont lie those first few weeks are incredibly hard and you think its never ending but then suddenly your little bundle of joy is one month old already and you try and think where the hell that time went! I look at my son now and can't believe its been so long you think they are going to be a little baby forever and all the hard work never ends but then they start moving around (my boy started rolling over this week) and sleeping through the night :-) and you realise that they aren't a little baby any more :-(
enjoy the time you have alone with your husband now, go out for dinner, curl up on the couch with a good movie etc as once your little girl turns up there aint much spare time left and you miss those quite nights together. And when your little girl is born make sure you take all the help on offer (you'll need it). Another thing if you keep getting visitors and you want to sleep put a sign on the door saying 'mum and baby sleeping please come back later' and take the phone of the hook! It makes all the difference and no one gets offended by it.
How is your husband feeling about it all? I know mine was a bundle of nerves and so excited he almost drove me nuts!!

My hubby is very excited and can't wait for her arrival. Today he said he can't wait to see what she looks like. I don't think that when the baby is born that it will affect my husband too much as he works nights so he won't be here to get woken up at all hours. His daytime sleep may get a little interrupted though.
Yesterday I went to work and when I got home I was exhausted and started getting period like pain. Nothing eventuated from it though. I had similar pains today as well though now I feel good. Baby has been very quiet for the last two days so maybe she is thinking about making an appearance.
I dred going to bed because I can't get comfortable and babies head is buried in my hip which gets rather painful. I stay up until the early hours and then find I have my best sleep from about 7am until 10am. I wonder if thats a way of getting my body used to getting up to a baby all through the night and not having much sleep. I am surviving on about 5 hours a night now and don't even feel tired. I am sure it will be a different story when our baby comes home!
How was your hospital experience? Was it a bad one as you stayed there for only one night? I am dreading the hospital because so many women have told me that the mid wives don't give you much attention and treat you as if you are putting them out. Its just another case of under staffed, unorganised health care system. Hopefully I can be transferred back to our home town after the birth. It took me 4 goes to book into the hospital as they didn't have time for me and didn't turn up to our appointments. I got a really bad impression of the hospital when I went to book in.

My husband got used to the baby crying during the night and he used to sleep through it after a while so hopefully your husband will be able to do the same during the day. Fingers crossed that she may arrive shortly - have you thought of trying the various methods of hurrying things along? And yes you do get used to surviving on very little sleep and when baby sleeps through the night you find yourself exhausted from too much sleep :lol: some people can't be pleased! If you find it uncomfortable at night sleep with lots of pillows everywhere (between your legs under your belly etc), if your not already but nothing really helps when they are pushing your pelvis around does it!!
The hospital stay wasn't too bad but I found that all the buzzers going off in the other rooms and the nurses walking up and down with their squeeky shoes kept me awake and then a baby starts crying and you wake up hoping like hell it isn't yours :roll: the bed was also extremely uncomfortable especially when it feels like every part of your body aches and it feels like the universe has fallen out between your legs! (sorry you prob didn't need to hear that bit). The nurses seemed to treat me like I had no idea what I was doing but I found that instinct takes over and you know exactly what you are doing!! And they all have different ideas on how you should do everything, especially breastfeeding - are you planning on breastfeeding? I just wanted to go home to my comfy bed and cuddle up to my hubby alnight. Hopefully they treat you better when the time comes than they have so far. How come you aren't able to give birth in your home town??

The last baby that was delivered in my home town hospital was about 25 years ago! We don't even have a permanent doctor. Its quite bad really. My gyno will not allow me to transfer back here because we don't currently have a doctor. So mum has organised for me to be transferred back to her home town hospital which is only half an hour from where we live (we are kinda in between two country towns). The hospital that I will be transferred to is much nicer than ours and my parents will be there and my husband can visit easily. I just hope they let me out of the hospital where I will give birth because I think the noise and unfamiliar bed would drive me nuts as well. I will be likely to throw a tantrum and scream "let me out of here!". You must have been doing really well as a new mum to your son for them to let you out after one night!
I think my mum will be a huge help to me with breast feeding. She has been trying to explain how to do it already! I am feeling fairly confident that instinct will kick in! (i hope).
I have been walking about 8 kms every afternoon in hope that it may trigger labour. I haven't been doing anything else to try and bring it on because I feel a little guilty and think to myself that she will come when she is ready though its always in the back of my mind that I don't want to be induced on my due date. I worked a whole day today (from 7am until 4pm) on my feet and I think she just enjoyed that because she squirmed around all day. It did feel as if she was trying to push through my skin though, I could nearly feel myself stretching! I am exhausted now so I am going to try and go to bed earlier and pray that my hip doesn't ache. I have about ten pillows in my bed. Nothing seems to help except not lying down. Did you only sleep on your left side? I have trained myself to only sleep on the left side which is probably why I am having so much hip trouble.
Are you still breast feeding and if so, how do you get your little man to sleep right through? He sounds like a good baby.
Did breast feeding come naturally to you? I have dreams about the labour and then breast feeding her and I kinda feel a little funny about it. I am 100% for breast feeding though and I know that I will give it my best shot.
My husband sleeps through my brother being his noisy self so I am sure it won't take him long to sleep through the sound of her crying. It will be funny to see how long my brother can put up with the crying though. We may get our home back to ourselves before long! Ha, ha.
Oh, and just one more question, are you really that sore after the birth? How long does it take to feel normal again?

Hope fully it all goes the way you would like with regards to the hospital, I also live in a small town and if there are any 'problems' with the birth they fly you to the nearest city!
They will only keep you in hospital here if they don't think you aren't coping or if there is something wrong with the baby, other than that you can pretty much leave when you want I think. My midwife called in everyday for the first week then once every few days for the next 5 weeks so there is always someone making sure you are ok. The biggest concern the hospital staff have is that you are feeding ok - but if all is going well they don't like you staying much longer than a few days anyway!!
I can't believe you are still working you must be getting exhausted from it. Now that you mention it I did sleep mostly on one side (right side I think) atleast you have'nt got too much longer to go.
I found breastfeeding really simple we both took to it like a fish to water but my milk dried up after about 7 weeks. The nurses are great at helping you breastfeed but each one will tell you a different way to hold the baby etc and it gets a bit confusing. Just find the way you like and stick with that and tell them 'no I found this way easier so ill stick with it for a while'
the idea of breastfeeding does seem a little weird doesn't it :d and it can be a bit daunting having to have your boobs on call 24/7 but I found it was a nice quite time between you and your baby. But in saying that I was happy to have my body back when my milk dried up. Make sure you look after yourself while you are breastfeeding, eat well etc otherwise the quality of your milk isn't as good and baby needs more and more. Stress is also not good for your milk - I think that was half my problem!!
I started my son on solids at about 4 months as he needed it (he is a big boy) and I think it wasn't long after that he slept through for the first time. Alot of women swear by the theory of giving a bottle of formula just before bed time as it takes a bit longer to digest than breastmilk or give them a 'dream feed' when the have been in bed a hour or so, all you do is wake them up just enough to get them to feed (breast or bottle) they are so relaxed that they don't need to be burped afterwards so you can just put them back in bed and it just tops them up a little bit more so you get a little extra sleep, it works a treat!! Not that all that is really important to you right now :-)
i don't know about all women but I was pretty sore afterwards especially the first night but I was too exhausted to really care. When I got home my hubby was great at running me baths filled with relaxing bath salt etc which helped alot. It manly feels like you have run a bloody great marathon and all your muscles are protesting a bit but to tell the truth you are too busy admiring your adorable baby to take much notice and it only lasted a couple days. I had alot of back pain and shooting pains down my legs as my son was facing the worng way (outwards rather than towards my back) and turned on his way out so that probably contributed to alot of the pain elsewhere, hopefully your little girl is a bit more cooperative for you :-) isn't it a good thing that men can't have babies imagine the whinging !!!!

Thank you for all that info on breast feeding. Its good to be learning things all the time and hearing of your experince with breast feeding. If you don't mind me asking, do you think the stress caused your milk to dry up? Were you stressing about your new born? Reason I ask is because I stress all the time about the babies health and I am sure I will keep on stressing after she is born. I really want to breast feed for a long time so I don't have to be mixing up formula all the time. I also stress about work because we own our own business (reason I still have to work occationally) and theres always something to stress about! Now you have brought it to my attention I will just have to try and be calmer. Its amazing the affects that stress can have on your body. I am always wondering whether the baby can sense it as well.
The hospital I am going to likes you to stay for up to a week! (don't ask me why). Hopefully my doctor will give me the ok to come back to mums hospital straight away. I don't think I could handle the kaos and "busyness" to stay in the larger hospital for a week!
I had my 38 week check up today which was a bit of a waste of time I thought. Doctor just said that i'd had a really good pregnancy and that I could go anytime now. He'd forgotten that he said I would be induced on my due date though remembered when I reminded him. If my baby hasn't come by next week he is going to organise the date and time for me to be induced. I pray that it just starts naturally (before next week). Even though I am not huge, its getting very uncomfortable. How long did your boy stay turned around the wrong way for? I am having back pain though I can't imagine how painful your back must have been with him turned the wrong way.
A few days ago I truely believed that I was close though today I feel like I could easily go another week! Especially now that I am totally organised for her arrival. How did you cope when your boy came 3 weeks early? Did you have all the supplies you needed already? Are there any baby things that I should get that you forgot or realized that you needed after he was born? Does he sleep in the same room as you and your husband?

The stress was manly due to lack of sleep as I am terrible at sleeping during the day which is what I should have done. I also ended up with a mild dose of post natal depression but I was prewarned (so to speak) as my mum had it to, it wasn't too bad I didn't need medication or anything I just needed to accept a bit more help around the place and leave the baby with my mum for a few hours break every couple days. I also found that I actually forgot to eat :-) there is so much else going on that I tended to forget about myself. The other problem was that I lost alot of weight real quick, within the first week I had no belly at all the weight just fell off which I thought was great at the time but it probably contributed to my milk drying up so quick.
I used to be flat out all the time before baby turned up and stressed quite alot so I had to adjust that and chill out a bit more often.

I reccomend sticking with breastfeeding as long as you can it so much easier and its always ready to go you don't have to worry about making bottles up strelizing then etc :-)
those last few checks get pretty boring don't they!!! Even if she doesn't turn up on her own then its still not long to go till you get to meet her!! Your mum must be getting pretty excited now too :-), mind you if she is anything like mine she would have been excited since the day you told her you were pregnant.

My son was the wrong way for alot of the last couple months but turned the right way at about 34wks then 3days before I went into labour decided he would turn back the wrong way again! And didn't turn back till after the midwife had broken my waters and he was literally on his way out!!! - he had a big bruise on his head from knocking into my pelvis.
I was (suprising for me) completely organise when our son turned up I couldn't believe it, i've never been organised for anything before. I can't think of anything right now that we did'nt have but needed or should have brought but i'll let you know if I do think of something :-)
we started of with the baby in the bassinet in our room but he is a noisy sleeper, he grunts and wheezes and mumbles, so we put him in the lounge after a few days, it was nice and warm by the fire too. Then he kept hitting his arms on the side of the bassinet (he is also pretty active when he is asleep) so we moved him into the cot in his own room when he was about a month old.

Yes, mum is definately excited. I think she has rung me nearly everyday since I told her I was pregnant! I think she will be a great help to me when she is born and fortunately she lives in the next town so I shouldn't get too sick of her because I won't see her everyday!
I am so glad you told me about breast feeding and eating/sleeping/stressing etc. I too forget to eat sometimes because I keep doing jobs instead of stopping to eat. I will put eating off to do something else. I have found it to be a real struggle trying to eat all the right things to give the baby all the nutrients she needs. Not because I eat badly, just because I am not a huge eater. Grazing didn't come naturally. Its so handy that I know now how important it is to eat properly and sleep so I have plenty of milk.
I hope I have a noisy sleeper like you. That would be so reassuring that he was ok. Was he an active baby in the womb? My girl is so active, I wonder if that means she will be an active baby outside!?
Only 11 days until my due date! How scary! Last night I started screaming in my sleep, "wheres the baby?" and it scared the crap out of my husband. He thought I was in labour! He couldn't go back to sleep then so he got up and went to work! I thought it was quite funny! I think I was dreaming that I had gone to sleep with her in our bed and she had disappeared.
I will probably sleep out near the fire with the baby until it warms up. The bedrooms are too cold.
Well I finished packing my hospital bag today so I am all set to go.
Just wondering about how you said that you had a show on thursday and then didn't have your boy until sunday (was that right)? So does that mean you were in labour for 3 days or does it mean that you started preparing for labour over a couple of days? I am hoping I have as much warning as you did as hubby is working at night and it will be hard for him to race away from the job! We kinda have a plan though its hard to plan when you don't know what to expect. I keep thinking is this real, am I really going to go into labour one day!? I feel too normal if that makes sense.

I just sent a (pm) private message so we don't drive everyone else on this forum nuts!! :-) hope you don't mind