Born Oct/Nov 2015

@Chrys83 At Stellenbosch Medi Clinic

Oh cute man LouiseM! As for the watermelon I am really thankful all I pushed out was a 2.5kg baby although I have heard and read that it's easier to give natural birth to bigger babies than smaller.

My brother who is 2 years younger than me wants to go in with me on this birth, I was like HELL NO! Until he mentioned how my mother showed him all the photos she took of my first birth. She literally has photos full frontal of my vaj with baby coming out! Talk about embarrassing told him he can watch his future wife thanks even if he's seen my vaj in photos!

Lauz! oh my word!!! I had NO idea kids could get Foot & Mouth disease!!!

I thought it was only animals..?

I can only remembering feeling so guilty as a parent, that I somehow failed cause my daughter got it. And everyone looked at her and literally "screeched" to see how she looked covered in the rash...

Only afterwards did DH's cousin (who is Head of Paediatrician at a local hospital here in Pta) advise us that is a natural occurrence and they tend to develop it around 6 months when they start crawling.

And unfortunately babies only get the measles vaccine from 9 months...

Lol, Lauz.Mayer... Thank God for caesareans!!! Cause I would've literally had to pop out a watermelon... I actually went afterwards and bought a watermelon weighing the same weight as my daughter. I then gave it to my husband and said to him - now imaging walking around with this for just one month...

With a caesarean they only allow your partner or person of your choice...

In some instances, they will allow an older sibling. We considered it, but my daughter said no...she'll rather wait with Ouma & Oupa in the waiting room

@Stelliesmama, where are you giving birth?

Regarding the measles, my LG had baby measles shame that was hectic but not as bad as hand, foot and mouth disease which is unbelievably contagious amongst young children - who would've thought!

@juanita and LouiseM, you both were very lucky! I had it pretty hard withy LG she was extremely sickly, no colic but we had a monthly visit to the Paed from 4 months till 2 years! So I'm pretty much prepared for the next one lol!

@Juanita how big was your first born if I may ask? And for you LouiseM, I bow down to you woohaa 4kg! Amazing!

@stelliemama I didn't have a doula thought about it but didn't know about it in the hospital environment. I was very fortunate that I was allowed both my mom and husband into the labour room, however some hospitals like Clinton Clinic here in the south of JHB apparently only allow your husband in.

Juanita I wish I had it as quickly as you. Then I would've had no choice lol.

Chrys I absolutely 100% agree with Juanita and LouiseM please don't stress about it take what is said here and make your decisions and as I said before ensure your gynae, midwife, hospital have all the options available to what you would prefer.

I initially had a large part of my mucus plug come out on Sunday morning. They say you could go into labour within the next week or two after seeing that and I thankfully went into active labour the Monday afternoon, however you can become very anxious when things like that happen and I saw it happen with a colleague recently where her anxiety got the better of her and she landed up putting the baby into stress and had to have a Csection.

Take it easy for now and research everything ask as many questions and make your decision, but be prepared for everything. You'll have everyone giving you their advice and please remember my story is just that mine. Yours could turn out very different to mine and you'll be telling us here what an amazing experience it was. Even though mine is not the greatest story and actually sounds a little scary I laugh at it and am glad I went through it all.