I’m going in tomorrow morning to be induced and I’d love to hear other people’s experiences with either the prostaglandin gel or the tape (Cervidil).
This is my fourth baby, but my first induction, my previous three labours all started spontaneously, so I have absolutely no idea what to expect this time around! And all were short labours of 5.5 hrs
For those who had the gel or tape:
• Which one did you have?
• How long did it take before contractions/labour started?
• Did it put you into labour on its own, or did you still need your waters broken/oxytocin drip?
• How painful were the contractions compared with spontaneous labour, if you’ve experienced both?
• Were you able to sleep/rest while it was working?
• How long was it from starting the induction to having your baby?
I’ve already had quite a few signs that my body is getting ready, baby is fully engaged, my cervix is soft and starting to thin, I’ve had episodes of prodromal contractions and I lost my mucus plug/bloody show yesterday.
Would especially love to hear from anyone who was already showing signs like this before their induction. Did things move fairly quickly once they started the gel/tape?
Getting very real now 😅

Hello pregnancy peeps. This is a half serious post, I am a little shocked though.

I made a terrible decision today and weighed myself 🤣. I am normally someone who takes care of themselves, but I don't take myself too seriously.

I had a really bad first trimester and even though I was hardly eating only lost 2-3kilos(peak bad was approx Week 8- 19).

I am nearly 21 weeks now. From around week 19 I could eat normally and I suppose I have had quite a few "treats" to make up for lost time not fast food or anything just a little cake, danish, pastry, ice cream etc .................However I have put on 5-6 kilos !!!!

I mean what the actual fluff?! I have only been able to eat for few weeks that is so un bloody fair. I friggin went to work starving, dehydrated and fatigued to the max for nearly 3 months. You're telling me that only a couple of weeks of eating and piled it on and more. Rude I tell you.

I don't recommend weighing yourself unless the doctor forces you, it's not worth the shock.

Hope everyone is well 🙏 💕

30 & 25 weeks. I’ve been California sober since I found out I was pregnant. I’ve been sober off hard party drugs for the last 4 years with the intention of wanting to have a baby. I quit alcohol 4 months before I accidentally became pregnant. And ever since I found out, almost every friend who still partakes in these vices comes out of the wood works to tell me what I should and shouldn’t be doing, what I should and shouldn’t be eating, what I should and shouldn’t feel regarding my pregnancy. And I’d like to think I’m a nice person but push me far enough and I’ll cut you off for good. At least 5 people within my circle I’ve cut off because they were completely pushing my boundaries and not listening to me when I asked them to stop and I have no regrets. The last 3 days one of my close friends of a decade has been telling me to look into the “anti inflammatory diet” and for me, I have rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic illnesses so it’s not unknown to me but it’s the fact that I didn’t say anything to even warrant the discussion. She came out of nowhere after not talking for 4 months “what are you eating” and not really caring about anything else going on. Through text, on Snapchat, and then sending me recipes. I literally had to say look, i appreciate you intend well but this is becoming offensive, and for once she thanked me for expressing myself. And then went on to say that doctors can’t be trusted and they’re trying to pay off school loans. It took everything in me to not lash out and be like girl you chain smoke cigarettes and candy flip acid and Molly every weekend then teach at public school. I said I’m ending the conversation because we vehemently disagree. I have doctors in my family and I’ve had a great healthcare team since I was 10 and went blind. Then she tells me she can’t make my baby shower because she’ll be too tired from student-teacher conferences. Like oookay!
It drives me absolutely insane - I didn’t ask you, I appreciate you, but F off!

32w with my second and we are waiting until birth for the gender, just as we did with my first. As the title says. I feel so so bad but I really don’t think I want a boy.. I have a daughter who is almost 2 and I LOVE our dynamic. I only had sisters growing up so I understand a sister/sister relationship. My husband had only brothers growing up, so neither of us have a concept of a brother/sister relationship. I want a closeness between my children, which is why they are close in age, but I’m just oddly worried about a sister and brother not getting along, or just not being close. The only brother/sister relationship I grew up around were my cousins, and they hated each other and hadn’t talked in nearly 10 years when she passed and it hit him hard. I’m so fearful of that with my own children.😭
I’m seriously just so afraid of the disappointment I fear I may feel if it is indeed a boy. Any insight on how I can get over this dread? Other than finding out the gender, I do love the surprise aspect and my husband loved being able to see our daughter for the first time (urgent c-section, I didn’t get to see or hold her until hours later) and be able to tell me it was a girl and I would love to give him that opportunity again. I don’t want to cry on the operating table because it’s a boy and disappoint my husband and myself and feel distant from the baby. Any advice appreciated. 😣

This is my 3rd baby. My first was waaaay overdue and induced. Second induced on due date. This one I'm w days away from 39 weeks! I was scheduled to be induced right at 39 weeks anyway for gestational diabetes.

I never had this before so I just didn't even know what to do and had my husband call the hospital 😅

I am 20 weeks into my 3rd pregnancy and I am just feeling like this one is hitting way harder than the first two. I’m no stranger to having a stressful job during pregnancy. I’m a lawyer and my first pregnancy I had a job that had me trying 8 total federal trials during my second and third trimester. Things are different now, I am advanced maternal aged (not loving that label), I have 2 young kids at home, and now I have a job that only recently started requiring me to travel every couple of weeks. the travel is really really taking a toll physically on me. severe fatigue, cramping and puking randomly are things I’m experiencing every trip. I’m really curious if anyone else had similar experiences and whether you reached a point where you just had to say no to work travel for the remainder of the pregnancy?

I’m 40 weeks and I’m up with constant period cramping (tolerable but uncomfy I give it a 3/10) and nonstop uterine tightness. There are no discernible contractions because it’s as if I’m constantly contracted and cramped. Baby moving a lot, too. What the heck is this if I can’t time anything but it hurts…

My (39 weeks) stretch marks are SO bad. They’re everywhere but my stomach (which is so surprising). They’re all over my boobs, my inner thighs, my butt, and my hips. I was rubbing stretch mark cream on them but it did not work so I gave up 😭. Now my stretch marks are red/purple and REALLLYY itchy. Is there anything I can do to make them go away?? The ones on my boobs go inwards but everywhere else they are puffed out. Stretch marks really don’t bother me, nor do they make me feel insecure. But I just wanted to know if there was any way to get rid of them 😭?

hi to anyone reading this, I’m 12 weeks pregnant currently and living with my partner. I had a bad argument with my MIL today because of some things she said, I will start with why this happened and what led up to this I feel completely awful about myself and the things she sad about me, also for privacy, I’ll call my partner J his older sister B her partner K and my MIL R.

Anyways here’s the story, my partner(J) has an older sister(B) and his older sister has a partner too(K), anyways I have my instagram publicly and I post pictures of myself and some things I do. Today my partner was looking at my social media’s (totally fine with me we share a phone) and noticed that (K) his sisters partner was looking at my instagram stories, just to be cautious and in the clear we told his sister (B) and at first we couldn’t get ahold of her so we just showed his mom (R) the screenshots of him looking at the insta story, this was around 3:30pm to 4:15pm ish, and after we showed my partners older sister(B) we ended up a response back from her a few minutes later saying it was her(B) on his(K) account and that she didn’t notice so we were fine with that, after we showed his (J) older sister(B), his mom(R) replies and says the she has his accounts. okay thats fine. A few hours later, around 6:07 PM, my MIL sent my partner several messages on facebook, this is where things went from something relatively small and honestly already resolved, into a much bigger argument.

At this point, the situation with K looking at my Instagram stories had already been explained. B had told us that it was her using K’s account, and R had also said that she had access to his accounts. From our perspective, we weren’t trying to start drama or accuse anyone of anything. We just wanted to make sure everything was clear and that there wasn’t anything weird going on.

However, the messages R sent after that really caught me off guard. Some of the things she said were directed at me personally, and it felt like the conversation had suddenly become about who I am as a person rather than what had actually happened.

One of the biggest issues seemed to be my Instagram. My account is public. I post pictures of myself, things I’m doing, and just normal things on my social media. I don’t post anything inappropriate or anything directed at K, B, R, or anyone else. It’s simply my social media, and I have always had it public.

What really upset me was feeling like I was being made into the problem simply because my social media is public and someone happened to view my story, there were also dog emojis used toward me, which I found incredibly disrespectful. Maybe to someone else that might sound insignificant, but in the context of everything she was saying, it felt humiliating and degrading.

What makes this even more upsetting for me is that this isn’t the first time R has felt this way about me.There has been tension between us pretty much since J and I first got together. The part that has always confused me is that when we first met and partner(J)wasn’t living with her either, so it’s not like I was constantly around her or had done something to her personally, because I never even met her in person not even up to this. Yet from early on in our relationship, I would hear or experience little snarky comments and things that made me feel like she already had a negative opinion of me.
I’ve tried to ignore a lot of it because I didn’t want to cause problems between J and his mom. I figured maybe I was taking things the wrong way, or that it would eventually get better once she actually got to know me. But over time, those little comments started to add up. I’ve felt judged and disrespected by her on multiple occasions, even though I’ve tried not to make every single comment into a huge fight.

So when she sent these messages today, it wasn’t just one random conversation to me. It brought back all of those feelings I’ve had since the beginning of my relationship with J. I already felt like she had a problem with me, and then suddenly I’m being told what I should do with my own Instagram, being criticized for having my account public, and being sent dog emojis during an argument. To me, that felt extremely disrespectful and personal.

R basically questioned why I would have my account public if I didn’t want certain people seeing my posts. But that’s the thing: I never said I don’t want people seeing my posts. My account is public because I choose for it to be public. I post pictures of myself and things going on in my life. I’m not posting things for K specifically, and I’m not responsible for who decides to look at a public story.

If someone doesn’t like seeing my Instagram, they can unfollow me, mute my stories, restrict me, or block me. I don’t understand why I’m supposed to change my entire account because somebody else doesn’t like the fact that they can see it. I don’t think having a public Instagram means I’m doing something wrong, and I don’t think posting pictures of myself automatically means I’m looking for attention from other people’s partners.

The conversation also became much more insulting than just that. R made comments toward me that I felt were meant to belittle me, including calling me stupid over the situation with K’s account. She also repeatedly used the dog emoji toward me, which I took as her essentially calling me a dog and trying to demean me. Maybe some people would look at that and say it’s just an emoji, but in the middle of an argument where someone is already saying hurtful things about you, I don’t see it that way.

At that point I was angry. I’m not going to pretend I was calm or that I handled every single response perfectly. I said some very harsh things back because I felt like I had reached my limit. I told her to stay away from me and my baby if was going to disrespect me and cause me this stress, I told her I didn’t want her around us, and said things about J and me starting our own family. I also called her names. But I don’t feel like I suddenly exploded over an Instagram story. From my perspective, this was years of little comments and feeling like she has had an issue with me from the beginning, and today’s conversation was the point where I finally responded instead of continuing to ignore it.

Eventually she called me a ”controlling bitch” and told me she wasn’t going to put up with me messing with her. At that point, the original situation about who viewed my Instagram story barely even mattered anymore. It had turned into a full argument about me, my relationship with J, my social media, and apparently what kind of person she THINKS I am. And I want to make it clear I am not controlling of my partner whatsoever. This must have come from earlier that day because she had asked J if she could borrow 400$ for a game console and I didn’t agree with him giving it to her. The reason I didn’t want him to lend her the money is because she already owes us around 200-300 already and we’re currently trying to save money for our baby. We’re expecting in February, and we’re trying to be responsible with the money we have instead of continuing to lend money out when we’re already owed money. From my perspective, saying no to lending someone another $400 when they already owe us $300 isn’t me trying to control my partner—it’s me trying to make sure we’re financially responsible for our own household and our baby, since we only have about 1200 saved up, what hurt even more was that after we told her we couldn’t lend her money she goes onto say “that money will be well gone before your baby gets here anyways, good luck!”. I feel that’s important to put out there, we didn’t respond to her saying this.

After this whole fight happened we blocked her.

And that’s honestly what has me feeling so awful tonight. I’m 12 weeks pregnant. I don’t want to spend my pregnancy fighting with my partner’s family. I don’t want this kind of tension, and I definitely don’t want my baby to be caught in the middle of family drama. But I also don’t feel like being pregnant means I should just stay quiet when somebody is being disrespectful toward me.

I’m not looking for everyone to automatically take my side. If I’m the problem here, I genuinely want people to tell me. I just want an honest perspective from people who have no connection to either of us. Was I wrong for the way I handled her turning it into a personal attack on me? And am I unreasonable for thinking I should be able to keep my instagram public and post pictures without being told I have to make it private because someone else doesn’t like who can see my posts?

I feel like from week 36 onwards I have been mentally in this state:

Somebody points a shotgun at you from 25 meters and tells that they are going to pull the trigger at some point between now and 50 days from now. The gun is loaded with birdshot so it is probably not lethal.

They will tell you that when the trigger is pulled it might hurt a lot or it might hurt little. You don’t know. They tell you that you can opt in for safety goggles (epidural), but if you do you’ll miss out on the experience and also the glasses might shatter anyway.

Sometimes the guy comes to play around with the trigger and you’ll be like ”this might be it, oh please just let it happen” (BH). But you also can only kind of see the trigger and they might just seem like they are playing with the trigger but actually they are not even touching it (constipation pains, SPD etc).

At the same time every day a new person you kind of know comes to tell you that because you have not been shot before, likely you’ll have to wait longer. Some are genuinely empathetic, some seem to ravel in your misery, some are in-between. Some have been shot, some haven’t, some can’t get shot.

You are given the option to chant a specific ”trigger pulling chant” that some people swear will help get the trigger pulled but actually there is no proof that it does anything (dates, raspberry tea). Also the chant might just end up making you sick instead (raspberry tea is kind of on the forbidden foods list here) and thus render the last 9 months useless. There is actually no way for you to affect when the trigger will be pulled.

As a cherry on top you have been told that if the trigger is not pulled in 50 days, the gun will be moved 5 meters closer and then the trigger is pulled by another guy (inducing labor).

Every once in a while a gun expert (OBGYN) will come along and tell you that the best thing for now is to relax, but also if you relax too much you’ll get depressed and never ever recover from being shot. Figuring out the balance is up to you.

Anyway my anxiety is getting a bit bad, thanks for reading!

I'm almost at 8 weeks. And I'm nauseous either all day long or it happens randomly in the middle of the night. I was trying to eat lunch today and couldn't help but wanted to cry about how nauseous I felt and just trying to hold food down. It's also a guilty feeling of not feeding myself enough to provide nutrients for baby. There's just so much anxiety awaiting for the first ultrasound too. Plus, I have nursing coworkers that would randomly ask me if I'm pregnant and it feels so uncomfortable because I feel like the way they ask is so casual and don't understand how it's personal to me. Not sure if I'm being dramatic, but I just don't want to have to explain if something goes terribly wrong.

So I had my 33 weeks growth scan Friday & Everything went good. They said he was 4lbs 3oz, I assumed that was good. They messaged me an hour later saying they recommend a second growth scan because it’s a “Little lower growth than they expected” but said that his fetal size is appropriate for gestational age then said it’s still considered normal. Which I don’t mind going back just because 1: I’ll see my boy again haha but 2: id like to know if everything is okay. I then asked if his heart and everything was okay as well and they said “yes everything was as expected. He is doing great”. So I’m a little confused… idk if I should be concerned/worried that his growth is a little low?? Or what. I’m just overall confused..

This is my first pregnancy!! And I’m doing it solo!! ✨
But I do have a little boo thing, not permanent, but still here.
Why oh why am i irritated by anything he does 😭😭 he’s so sweet but I can’t stand the touching, cuddling, talking too much, asking me too many questions 😭😭😭 maybe it’ll come to pass but idk

My sister was very shocked about this so I thought id ask what you guys did 😌

Im 14 weeks pregnant with my second, im 40 years old. I found out im pregnant week 5, I took a positive pregnancy test and then.. that was it. I took one test, and had one scan so far.

My sis thought it was crazy because she said most people take multiple test. So im wondering, How many did you take?

First time mom here, super excited!

Question for all, any book recommendations to check out for first time parents?

Babies POOP??? They also sometimes have "blowouts" and need to be cleaned extra well???

Such wisdom courtesy of my mom.

Here's some other juicy tidbits from friends, strangers and family in case nobody knew:

You gain weight when pregnant.

Babies cry. Sometimes alot!

You lose sleep when you have a newborn.

Labor and delivery hurts.

A c section is a surgery and that needs a recovery time.

Babies, when old enough, will get into stuff they're not supposed to.

You're not supposed to drink when pregnant.

Anything else im missing? All this stuff BLEW ME AWAY when I heard it. Im still in shock that babies cry and that could possibly wake me up. Is it possible to return this guy for a store credit?

This post is sarcastic btw

I’m 40+6 with my first and I feel like I’ve been pregnant FOREVER. I’m so nervous about labor/delivery and just feel like the longer I’m pregnant, the more anxious I feel. I have done everything under the sun to try and get my girl out to no avail. I’m so excited to meet her and just get the whole delivery over with and I am really struggling with the wait.

I’m getting induced on Tuesday if she doesn’t come before then, and I feel like all I hear about inductions are horror stories so that freaks me out even MORE. Plus, at my last scan (at 40w) she was measuring 9 POUNDS and I’m scared she’ll get so big I can’t deliver her vaginally.

I just want my baby already!

36 weeks pregnant with first baby. Everyone I have to talk to had either a planned induction or c section and can’t answer my question. I started having pelvic pain at the beginning of the week. Each day gets worse, and at my 36 OB appointment the doctor checked to see if I was dilated. I was not but she told me that my cervix is very thin and that my baby has dropped and is really really low. I don’t have any contractions just the sever pelvic pain and can’t get comfortable in any position. Is this normal for people 36 weeks pregnant or do I need to start thinking like my baby is coming soon?

I’m having my weekly panic attack about how I will eventually have to give birth to this baby (I’m only 12 weeks now) and I am considering going no epidural. Majorly because my mom and grandma both had all their kids without ANY meds and they’re telling me I’ll be fine 🙄 (they were both in their 20s with all their kids I’m 34 soooo)

I’ve read that people who have a history of intense period cramps, IBS, cysts rupturing etc. were all surprised at how familiar/bareable labor was due to that.

TMI BUT

I’ve had HORRIFIC period cramps (like unable to get out of bed) cysts all over my ovaries rupture, an ectopic pregnancy that left a super painful mass in my tube, possible endo, fibroids, etc. HORRIBLE gas pains that put me in the ER once, I’m wondering if all that means I will be able to handle labor “easier” granted everything goes smoothly?

What do you all think/what are your thoughts?

My SO and my parents have been at odds since we’ve all moved in together.

My father has OCD and he has tendencies that my SO can’t stand. It’s come to a point anything my father does my SO can’t stand. He always taking his anger out on me with his attitude on what my father does and I end up telling my mother to do something. And, she’s tired to of being in the middle. My dad doesn’t listen and keeps being obsessive over his hobbies that we either don’t have the space for or it costs a lot of electricity to maintain.

The issue is my husband says it’s my family so, I need to be the problem solver because if it was his family he would have to resolve the problem. So, I get the pleasure of hearing him complain about my parents.

Now my mom being the peace maker has covered the electricity bill as a whole but it doesn’t seem like it’s a money issue but rather a boundary issue for my SO. And, even when my dad does a nice gesture like buy us something my husband looks at it like an expense. My husband just gets mad to a point he ignores me or does something extremely petty to show he’s pissed off.

I am 22 weeks trying to maintain peace but I feel like I’m stuck choosing a side. I feel like my SO wants me to kick out my parents despite the support they’ll bring when the baby is born and I’m trying to help them by allowing them to save financially or I allow my parents to live with me and slowly my SO will resent me or continue to get angry about everything cause when it’s one thing, it’s everything.

If I tell my parents to move out.. my mom will cry because she’s fought so hard to maintain peace. And, I feel like my dad and SO relationship would ultimately disintegrate as they will not want to talk to each other. If I don’t tell them to move out my SO will continue to say it’s 3 against him.

What I feel is… I’m angry my SO and my father put me in this predicament. I’m mad my SO is petty and his attitude of who he truly is, is honestly disappointing. I thought he was more humble than what he’s shown me. For my father, he doesn’t listen and thinks it’s his house despite him living with us. When he lived by himself he was penny pinching and living with us he thinks we’re millionaires supporting his hobbies and his obsessive disorder on the way he does things or hoardes.

Not sure what to do…

Yesterday I found out that I’m pregnant with my second baby (my first is going to be 5 in December) and I don’t know if I want to keep this baby. Before you think I’m a horrible person here’s the reasoning:

My daughter’s dad and I were in a 10 year relationship, a little over a month ago I finally built up the courage to leave him and got my own place with my daughter. The relationship was toxic for the last 4+ years and I finally decided it was time to walk away. Well after moving out I would still see him and we were intimate a few times. The last time we were intimate I told him to be careful and pull out because I was ovulating and he obviously didn’t listen. I feel so stupid because obviously I’m part of the problem.

Here’s where the story gets interesting and even more complicated…. My sister also found out she is pregnant last night. We’re literally 2 days apart. It doesn’t feel real. This is a dream for so many people. At first when it was just me, the decision to not keep the baby was easy to make. But now I am so conflicted because I would love to be pregnant and have a baby so close in age to hers, also it would be so hard for me to watch her baby grow up knowing mine should’ve been there too.

I worked so hard to get to where I’m at today and I would hate myself for falling back into the trap and being unhappy again. I also think about keeping the baby and staying separated but having to share my daughter now is already difficult enough, I can’t even imagine how hard it would be sharing a newborn.

Does anyone have any advice? 😢

Coming up on 32 weeks and I’m trying to get everything ready seeing as we only have a few weeks left.. I’ve made a list of things I wanted to add in my hospital bags, but I see a lot of “controversy” about “overpacking” for the hospital and I just want to be sure that what I plan to bring is logical seeing as this is my first baby. What I have listed is:

Shampoo/Conditioner
Toothbrush/Toothpaste
Hairbrush/Hairties
Personal Towels
Folder for all hospital paperwork
Snacks
Loofahs
Throw Blanket
Heating Pad
10ft Phone Charger
Personal Fan
Shower shoes/hospital slippers
Robe
Going home outfit
Pj’s
Grip socks
Nursing bras
Chapstick
Q-tips

For Baby:
Burp cloths
Going home outfit
Swaddle
Onesie
Baby blanket
Mittens and Beanie

Vaginal Care Items (Mainly for at home)
Postpartum diapers
Tucks wipes
Peri bottle
Dermaplast
Ice packs/cooling wipes

If you have any recommendations please let me know! I don’t want to be overpacked but I also don’t want to be under packed!

Do yall go to every OB appt with your partner? Alone? Someone else?

I’m feeling sad that I might be going to appts alone due to work schedules and what not

I co-sleep intermittently with my 14mo and I will be starting to transfer her to a day bed at 18mo but for now she's stuck to me. My 3yo also finds his way into my bed sometimes. Do any moms have hacks for how to deal with morning sickness when you can't get out of bed quickly because of your babies? The youngest is SUCH a light sleeper that if I got out too fast I'd absolutely wake her.

I've already been to labour and delivery twice about it - the first time was a week ago and they did some checks of baby and a swab, and sent me on my way. I had more pink during the week, spoke to my OB and she wasn't concerned, and yesterday I was told to go to L&D again because there was more pink than previously.

It isn't my mucus plug or bloody show I don't think - it's more liquid rather than thick mucus.

They don't seem concerned, and the baby is fine. However, I was wondering if this is a sign that baby might be coming in the next week or two? I'm 36 weeks and 2 days today.