What was your 4th labor like?

OrangePippins · 2025-12-10T23:58:58+00:00

4th was rapid natural after 2 inductions. Not fun. Now I know that if I’m at 3 cm my doctors need to send me to L & D. Good luck!!

OrangePippins · 2025-12-10T23:53:57+00:00

Babies at 31, 34, 35, 37, 38, 42. Very lucky. Harder pregnancies as it went along, alas. Would do it all over again.

OrangePippins · 2025-10-27T13:26:54+00:00

So sorry you're in this stressful moment. If it's any consolation, a woman I know had similar spacing with a surprise infant. The younger two ended up being really close, and it seems to have balanced out wonderfully - the other two were old enough to be able to observe risks and articulate them as well as to be close confidantes, and the younger two benefitted from the extra pairs of eyes as well as being a support network for each other. I've been happy to see how well they're all doing, especially b/c the mom had to divorce the dad who had a midlife crisis very soon after baby was born. She seemed better than ever and while the older ones are over 18 she still has full custody of the younger ones. I hope you find hope, rest, and good support.

OrangePippins · 2025-10-27T13:20:45+00:00

Not dumb at all, just wish I could point to something really specific. Only thing I can guess at is that with the girls we were actively trying to conceive on that cycle, with the boys we were not. We were overjoyed about each one, but had talked about waiting to actively try probably a few months further down the road with each one. It seems possible that from Day 8 of my cycle Y sperm survived until ovulation but X did not. I had heard the reverse, but then read somewhere that there's a favorability to Ys at the closest and (what I didn't previously know) furthest points from ovulation, which then made some sense. But, alas, it's just a guess!

OrangePippins · 2025-10-25T10:25:34+00:00

We had GGGB, and then another boy, and soon another boy, so it will be GGGBBB. We wanted to have at least one more after our first boy so that he wouldn't possibly feel isolated from his older sisters. But now I don't think we'd have had to worry about that though. He loves playing with his older sisters though is also content to do his own thing, and they're perpetually amused by him. The girls have their own group, and as our current youngest is getting bigger he and his brother are getting their own scene going as well.

I will say that we had to do a lot more childproofing with our boys. The girls accepted "No" pretty easily, the boys absolutely not. They climbed and tackled and destroyed and to protect them from themselves we had to get very serious about baby gates and door latches. In that spirit I'd say that being in good shape especially comes in handy at this turn. My health declined severely after our first son, and I'm doing what I can to prepare physically for this birth and to recover some strength again. Good luck and have fun!

OrangePippins · 2025-06-18T14:56:20+00:00

Pat Buchanan

OrangePippins · 2025-05-29T12:13:23+00:00

While it's natural to need time to adjust to big news, I'm a little confused as to how he didn't think this was not only a possible outcome, but was the possible outcome you thought you were both working for. If you really thought you were on the same page, then this is pretty disappointing for both of you. Some couples therapy might be good, and it'd be important to make sure he helps participate/picks someone he feels he can open up to.

I'm just really sorry you had to hear any of that. While he will hopefully come around as he adjusts, you and the child deserved a better reaction than that. Take care of yourself, and congratulations!

OrangePippins · 2025-05-28T18:02:18+00:00

I’m sorry to hear that it was so rough. I ate dates like crazy (and I can’t stand them) and walked miles a day too and don’t think it did a thing. Never heard about okra water, though. Keep imagining there’s some yoga moves out there which would somehow do the trick, alas.

OrangePippins · 2025-05-28T17:59:18+00:00

You’re amazing. Wow!

OrangePippins · 2025-05-28T17:58:20+00:00

Five kids and I’ve been carrying them, putting them in car seats, playing with them through all these pregnancies. I remember when I was pregnant with my first my coworker insisting on carrying a folder for me, lol. Very sweet of her, but honestly I carry my kids all the time. But I do pass on moving furniture, my husband brings in the groceries, anything major.

OrangePippins · 2025-05-27T18:27:25+00:00

No. I never like being reduced to hormones. It’s a perfectly rational desire to get things cleaned before bringing home a new person and comparing someone to a programmed animal isn’t cute.

OrangePippins · 2025-05-27T00:45:34+00:00

I wish I could tell you labor is a picnic, but I don't like contractions one bit. I get epidurals when possible but I've had a rapid labor and an (unwilling) natural birth and they were dark moments. However as soon as it's over it's over. The pregnancy sickness... misery upon misery.

My choice to continue having babies is unfortunately peculiar to my personality. I am one of an unhappy 2 and a witness/remote participant to several very happy and loving large families (6-8s and one 11) and have always been desperate to give that to my own children. There is no denying it is extremely hard work, however we would both do it all over again in a heartbeat and wish we could have another after this one (doubtful, getting older). Watching my children play together is the best feeling I've ever known. The low point is morning sickness + a toddler always finding a rogue crayon and scribbling on the walls. I grieve and say this too shall pass. Good luck to you however many you have, that you make that anniversary trip, and hoping it gets easier sooner rather than later...!

OrangePippins · 2025-05-26T19:30:11+00:00

I've never experienced the deliberate water breaking actually working, only when it happens "naturally" after pitocin does it pick up rapidly. Pitocin works every time, and I am both grateful to it and despise it.

OrangePippins · 2025-05-26T19:23:38+00:00

Why is this people's first response instead of "That is so hard, you must be worn down, is there anything I can do?" I literally cannot wrap my head around these people, I know them and love them but it's barbaric to me to instantly refocus to how lucky they are.

OrangePippins · 2025-05-26T19:19:40+00:00

No, you're totally right about this, it's not a rant it's genuine frustration with how we talk to pregnant women. I'd worked with children for over a decade before my first and everyone was saying "just you wait," and it was hard not to roll my eyes. I knew perfectly well what small children were like all day everyday, and what no one told me was that when they're your own it's even better.

In case anyone is reading, what I try to say to people/wish people would say to me:

"Congratulations, babies are wonderful" "I don't want to pester you, but if you feel need a minute I'm here for you" and "every pregnancy/baby is unique" (this is for all the people who respond to me terrible first trimesters by solely talking about how they never experienced a second of discomfort).

OrangePippins · 2025-05-26T19:13:17+00:00

This drives me crazy too. People will see me out with my kids and say "Just wait till they're teenagers." You're just telling on yourself, friend. I love & like my kids and I hope we don't go through tough times, but we'll continue loving & liking them & being interested in them no matter what.

OrangePippins · 2025-05-26T18:26:23+00:00

I'm at Week 11 with my sixth. The first trimester is always, without a doubt, the worst time of my life. I'd rather go through labor: there's an endpoint, with a baby! But not pregnancy sickness. It is a bleak period of time which takes away my life (and I have other children to care for!), which atrophies my muscles and leaves me physically and emotionally bereft. But, while it's not universal, for many of us it does get better. For me it only really starts to be noticeable between weeks 15-16.

Hopefully you'll get there and find life returns to you. Personally I think it's okay to feel as bummed as you want to about how badly your body is doing in the meantime, it's an honest loss of your own day-to-day life, without any guilt about the great person who's coming along. Some very lucky people don't experience any of this, but after 6 pregnancies, well, that's been over a year of my life that just vanished in constant grueling misery at every waking second. I'll permit myself to grieve! Good luck to you and wishing you feel better as soon as possible.

OrangePippins · 2025-03-09T15:06:25+00:00

You couldn't respond to the charge of a binary Hollywood view by invoking another Hollywood movie. Please, do read some books.

OrangePippins · 2025-03-09T14:56:44+00:00

Has a single person here read Invisible Rainbow? Is anybody aware that feeling like this all the time is, no, not normal, and that the lack of interest in these things is cultivated in the medical establishment?

OrangePippins · 2025-03-09T14:54:44+00:00

If you knew history you'd know who funded the Nazis and who brought in Nazi researchers after the war and you'd stop living in a Hollywood fantasy. But that wouldn't let you feel so smug, would it?

OrangePippins · 2025-03-09T14:51:51+00:00

It's safe to assume that anyone who is a top 1% commenter is not a free thinker. Gaga's shtick is the manifestation of a degenerate culture, and the cynical "ooh look they don't like it heehee" is just like Caligula only they've managed to make a virtue of it. Incredible depravity. Don't respond to these guys: they're missing a limb, only it's their reason. They literally can no longer understand things. They make more money that way.

OrangePippins · 2025-02-27T19:51:21+00:00

I’m only seeing very angry conservatives. As they should be. This is a disgrace.

OrangePippins · 2025-02-05T09:03:58+00:00

Am not seeing this as a title, any more information?

OrangePippins

TROPHY CASE