December 2010, where we waft about in mat gear eating icecream

[Miffster]

Yo December 2010 ladies, here we go - the mid-point of our pregnancies...and beyond!

Ah whoops just remembered that 27th September is DH's birthday! Ahem, probably shouldn't book anything for then

Erm right I'm pretty much out of weekends now til my EDD! I think I have one in October and another in November. How the bejibblies did this happen? Hurrumph

Hello! am back from fab holiday.

And have just ploughed through 17 pages!!

I can't possibly say things to all of you but welcome button, and congrats C&G on the wedding plans and supervised access and look at this it makes me go ooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeee

Well I have a busy day tomorrow, meeting with the home birth midwife, getting an electrician round to (hopefully) fix our shower and then the architect to discuss plans for the extension.

Decorating house is well under way but we have 4 rooms to do!

My eldest(14) went to a party at the weekend and got drunk. Had to drag DH away from a night out with the boys to deal with it as was feeling ill, tired,up late and just couldn't handle it. My DD (10) seems on the verge of starting her periods and her Dad just does not want to know, she is being ultra emotional and he is being insensitive.

I hope you all do not mind me venting but noone in RL has time for me being pregnant or is interested in how baby is developing - to me it is as special as the first time but to them I am just mum-as-usual. Which is good I guess. Although my DD is knitting "something" for the baby, which is sweet, except it appears to be a large multicoloured scarf.

I hope everyone is feeling better this week, at least it seems we all have a bunch of healthy strong kickers! And congrats to all of you with good news :)

Congrats on the wedding C&G, I'm glad things went okay with the hearing.

FF I know how you feel with people not being as interested in pg. DH is the worst - he has felt the baby kick once or twice but doesn't seem to find it as exciting as I do. Plus he thinks it's weird that there's a little person in there, but he loves it when I'm pg - I'll never understand how his mind works.

DD (2.7) has declared she's not wearing nappies anymore. She took hers off last night and slept without one, I'm glad she's had a waterproof sheet on since she had a sickness bug or I'd have to clean her mattress. Haven't got a clue how to potty train, oh today will be fun, especially as we've gotta go shopping.

frankenfanny Feel free to vent away - the rest of us do AArgh - can't imagine being pg and having to deal with a drunken 14 yr old - definately time for your DH to step upto the mark on that one! Anyway what are you doing letting him (DH) out of the house when you are pg - I didn't think they were allowed out on their own

Miffster Glad you had a nice holiday - welcome back!

GGG Are you secretly a celeb or something with a diary that busy?! Enjoy the freedom while you can (insert manic laugh!)

CherylAnnTweedy and WholeLotta The article was debated somewhere else on here recently and from what I can gather, although it was "done" in the USA it is actually a massive peer review of various studies from around the developed world with a lot of research coming from the Netherlands where they have a high percentage of home births compared to here. The general consensus seemed to be that HB was good in UK with MW support. I spoke to a colleague recently who is a Nurse Tutor and a MW and asked about our local MLU and she said - you may as well have a HB as go into a MLU here - not sure if that was a good or bad thing! I will be seeing here again in Sept so will ask her then!

DF Fab news for your SIL - they must be over the moon!!

PJen Wow I am impressed that someone stood for you on the tube! I am definately thinking of getting one of those T Shirts that says something cheeky on it as the amount of people that "ignore" me when I am travelling at the weekends is amazing! they all seem to need to look the other way because they have a seat and I am standing! Friday afternoons are always so quiet on the tube as well In the 10 weeks or so now that I have been travelling I have been offered a seat twice!

C&G If I can't be bothered to do any work today I will try and find you a dress Size 8, not tooo expensive, something suitable to be worn again?? Let me know if there is anything else

Right today I will be mostly writing down my housing complaint, finishing the last bits of work before I go on leave on Friday and looking for a dress for C&G Hope evryone has a good day - I am feeling slightly more revitalised after an almost complete nights sleep - only woke twice

MrsSL have you got one of those baby on board badges? I think you can get them in mothercare. And start being brave and asking people for a seat - on the few times I have had to use the tube I picked on the person in the priority seat on the basis that it has that name for a reason. If the person you ask doesn't budge, then hopefully someone more gallant will do so.
(And should I feel guilty that I took the seat off an 8 year old girl the other day? Someone stood up from it and I sat down even though I think the man was giving the seat up for the girl.

PJen that made me smile - a nice story, I'm pleased. Happy for you too DF - how great to have cousins close in age. There are 11 years between me and my closest cousin (and 23 years between me and the eldest) so never really had a relationship with them.

Consultant appt for me this afternoon - she was so rude last time, I'm not looking forward to it. At least the MW will have a listen to the baby's heartbeat, which is always good :). Oh dammit, i just remembered I am supposed to take a urine sample. Bother. I'll have to try peeing into the bottle in the loos at work. Nice.

Hi everyone

I?ve been reading for a while but have been a bit nervous about joining in.
I?m 22+2 with my first baby so it?s been very reassuring to lurk on here and see people going through the same things at the same time.
I had my scan yesterday (routinely done at 22 weeks in my area!!) so after the long wait we found out I?m having a boy!!!
I figured I have to join now to up the boy numbers!!

I must be one of the -?fat-- lucky ones as I?ve been getting offered a seat on the tube for the last 6/8 weeks!!!

Hope everyone is well, am now going to attempt to add my details to the stats list.

Cookieaddcit Hello and welcome to the club! Maybe all of us that use the tube regulalry should have a meet as well - somnewhere central like Victoria or Euston - we could all go on together and see how many people stand up for us

WWSB If I remember didn't TFL give badges away a few years ago - might have to phone and ask them! I hate asking for help/people to give up a seat - it's just not me! It's weird because if I was at work I would have no problems, I just seem to become a different person out of work

Congratulations C&G! Sounds fab. I didn't spend much on my wedding dress either as I knew I'd trash it and it's for one day ffs! In the end I got one for £90 in the Monsoon sale.

PJen - I'm feeling fat too. My boobs are now huge so I feel that my bump doesn't stand out so much, so I feel I look like a barrel on legs! Looser clothes are the worst. I've got some non-maternity long vests I'm still wearing and in them its obvious that I go in a long way between the boobs and bump! I've bought a bikini for holiday to show off the bump and weirdly I feel more confident wearing that that wearing proper clothes.

WLL - the NHS and Midwives College both responded to that study and basically the response was "not applicable to the UK". The study included births without a single accredited midwife present and births in the US and elsewhere that didn't have a connected healthcare system (if you know going to hospital will cost 10K, you'd be less likely to transfer!). In the UK, you should have a midiwfe with you throughout labour and then another for the birth, which makes it a lot safer for the baby as both you and the baby have a midwife concentrating on you if something starts to go wrong. Also, in the UK the NHS midwives will transfer you if they feel that something is not going perfectly.

MrsSL PJen WWSB - I'm getting quite determined at asking people to let me sit down now. I've had a seat offered on the Tube a few times, but some people are so rude! Never mind about 8 year olds - they can stand up okay, I can't!

WWSB - good luck with the consultant! We had our consultant appointment last week - well, with a registrar - and he was so lovely DH asked afterwards "was he really a doctor?"

Is anyone else seeing an anaesthetist? We've been discharged from the consultant care but need to see an anaesthetist first to discuss options for if I need to go into hospital as I have issues that mean local anaesthetics don't work, so it's possible an epidural won't either.

welcome newbies

C&G congrats on setting a date - hope they have something available quickly for you

DF congrats on your SIL's news - one of my best friends is due the day after me so like you, I'm looking forward to having someone to share things with this time round.

MrsS good luck with your complaint, lets hope that moves things along.

Had 20 week scan yesterday - all looked well, baby wasn't co-operating (again) but that just meant we spent more time watching him/her. Did have a bit of a worry as he sonographer initally said my placenta was a bit low and would need checking again at 32 weeks . Not good as I was really hoping to avoid another c-section, but then he had another good look and decided it was fine.

Nice to see some sunshine this morning - have a good day

Pregnant women can also wear a 'Baby on board' badge to let other passengers know they may need a seat. These are available from our Customer Service Centre, or by calling 0845 330 9880 or emailing [email protected]

Above info off TFL website - have just phoned customer services and spoken to a lovely lady who is putting a badge in the post to me

Right someone make me go and do some work

Hi again ladies.

c&g that's great news! You really deserve a nice happy occasion :)

wll I agree that that report was flawed. It doesn't differentiate between planned homebirths and accidental ones, and it doesn't take into account the difference between a 'freebirth' and one attended by properly qualified midwives. In some states in America midwifery is basically illegal, so if a mum doesn't want a hospital birth she has no choice but to give birth without assistance. Also American doctors have a vested interest in disparaging natural birth (no money in supporting someone through labour without all the unnecessary drugs etc). So I think that it is basically scaremongering, as in the UK homebirths are attended by midwives, just as it would be in hospital. The only difference is having to transfer in if there are complications.

Hi everyone. Had my 20 week scan last Friday. All was well. Although he had a bit of a big belly. So I have taken great delight in telling people that this big belly is in fact his and not mine.

Then, I had a consultant appointment yesterday to discuss my much desired section. He was so agreeable I almost forgot what I had to say. I was all ready for having to really argue my case, and he pulled up the screen and asked me what date I wanted... so it is all booked for 16th December, and I am first on the list for the electives. Yippee It is always good to be first in case emergencies come in and start bumping you. Certainly don't want to be sent home and told to come back the next day. The next day is DH's birthday, and I don't think this one will be very happy if he has to share his birthday.

Hope everyone else is well. I saw something briefly down the thread about the number of midwives at a homebirth in the US. This is probably largely because American's are normally treated by OB/GYNs and not midwives. Birth is more medicalised in the US. I happen to think this is a good thing. But, appreciate that others don't like that approach to childbirth. So, it's probably not really comparable to talk about the number of midwives in the US.

Hope everyone is well. And welcome to the newbies!

Oh, one more thing, has anyone started to think about vaccinations? I have noticed the addition of men c and pneumoccocal and just wondered how necessary they are. I am happy with 5-in-1 since it doesn't have mercury anymore. But, I won't be happy with it if they put varicella (chicken pox) into the mix.

C&G I promise I have done some work but also found these there is no monsoon Outlet here anymore and the only one i can think of is Bicester Village but I am not sure if they have an outlet on Ebay now so you may want to try there (I can't get it on work computer!)
Monsoon

or this company seems to have some reasonable stuff in the sale

www.bjornandme.com/product.php/938/49/Maternity-Bridesmaid-Dress/Maternity-Formal-Dress-Wrap-now-49-99&jssCart=e8397af1cfee5c0df6befb115fbc4130

or this page

www.bjornandme.com/section.php/50/0/Maternity-Wedding-Dresses

or here

www.bjornandme.com/section.php/51/0/The-Maternity-Sale

Right back to work

Hello, I've missed loads again!

Yay and congrats C&G, I so wish DH and I had had a quickie wedding before DD was born, am very jealous.

franken can sympathise with hormonal 10 year olds, DD is definitely getting ready to start hers too.

Cookie hello, welcome and congratulations on a boy.

maxpower it's awful when they worry you isn't it, I had that yesterday with my BP, first it was dangerous, then highish, then ok considering, wtf that means I don't know!

MrsSL hope you give them what for in your letter.

Miffster glad you had a good holiday.

GGG You are one busy lady, it must feel like your pregnancy is flying by, lucky thing.

crazykat good luck with potty training, hope you don't end up with rivers of wee!

WWSB Good luck with the consultant, saw mine yesterday, it was nice to hear the heartbeat.

Japh and PJen I am also feeling fat, I thought I look ok for BILs wedding but looking at the DVD I look like a massive round berry in my pink dress. I have decided to diet... again.

Hello to everyone else I haven't mentioned

All went well with consultant though I have a urine infection so need Antibiotics.
I have my pram and love it, want to use it already, also have carseat and base, cosytoes, and changemat.
Have just bought some nappies on Ebay, the BargainBots shop have some erm bargains on seconds easyfit and teenyfit as well as some others. Have bought in the past and you can never tell they are seconds. I really need to start selling stuff now though to pay for my purchases.
Have loads to do to get ready for V Festival/Dc going camping.

Have a nice day all.

Congratulations C&G - Have you tried George at Asda for dresses. They do some lovely empire line ones at a reasonable price x

Pjen Thanks! Aww that's lovely :)

DF That's wonderful news, congrats to her!

franken my dd is 8 and a half and gets quite moody at times, don't think she's that close to puberty yet though but we'll see. Hope Your 14 year old recovered ok! I remember doing the same at around 15 ish but I wouldn't be happy with mine doing it now!

Crazy thanks :) Personally I leave night nappies on until the nappy is dry every morning, otherwise there will just be wee to clear up every day. I started with day times first, ds2 is training now and has been a few weeks (he's 2 and a half) and is getting it. He's fine during the day but still wets a lot at night so I won't be taking the nappies off at night for ages yet.

MrsS Thanks hehe, the only other thing would be a simple dress, nothing too fancy. Hope work goes OK. Did you get your complaint sorted? Loving those links, will have a proper look later on as dp's mum should be here shortly.

Whatwillsanta Good luck at the consultant today.

Cookie Welcome :)

Japhrimel thanks. That's the way I feel too. Sounds like yours was lovely. Glad your consultant appt went well. I have no experience at all with anaesthetists, hope that goes well too. How's your spd now?

maxpower thanks. Glad scan went well and that you don't have a low lying placenta.

QOD thanks :)

Strix NOt vaccinating here, I've read before about a link between cot death rates rising and the baby vaccines, then when the vaccines were moved to a different age the cot death rate rise also moved. Was a while ago and I'm fairly hazy on it but I didn't give any to ds1 or ds2 because of that and also as I don't like stuffing small babies with vaccines. Ds1 is almost 7 now too. Single MMR also, including for dd who is 8 and a half. Glad you got your secion sorted out, must be a weight off.

notso thanks, I'm glad we're doing it, just need to sort a date. Hope you're not feeling ill at all with the infection. Which pram did you get?

Angel thanks :)

Going to try and do a Mahoosive reply to everyone I have missed in the last few days:

Welcome to ButtonAzure and a big Boo for the UTI - hope you are feeling better now.The annoying guy at work sounds awful. I have someone here who calls me 'preggers' every time I see him. Meh!
PitterPatter2 congratulations on the 20 week scan and on having a daughter. I am a teeny bit jealous of those who know. I kind of secretly like Vera
I am jealous of your new dog C&G . I lost mine when I spilt up with my ex a few years ago and I still miss the walks. Massive congratulations on the wedding plans. I was lucky enough to have my dress made by my mum but I did a lot of hunting for vintage stuff on ebay. Do you know what kind of style you would like to go for?
Lavitabellissima same here with the sleeping - I keep waking up and am usually wide away by 5am. I think they say left side is better because of a vein in the right side but not sure what you do with twins. I try to sleep on my left but seem to develop a pain under my ribs on the left side so end up rolling onto my right side. I have a stack of pillows all over the bed but don't feel like they are helping me get any more sleep.
jobobpip08 hope the hips are still not bad but I am envious of your sleep!
I am sooo jealous of your caravan project MrsSnaplegs . Sorry to hear about the continuing House woes, it's all so rubbish
Cheryl your ex sounds like a nasty piece of work. your parents on the other hand sound lovely - if they are willing to help then I think you should accept even though I know it's hard to be 30 something and still need your parents to help out. Glad your London trip went well. I loved the drive to London when my brother lived there.
Chooster thank you for your kind words and wisdom RE me and DH getting used to all the changes, we've managed to have a chat about my emotions and I think he understands a bit more than he did before. People keep asking me when I am due, I am pretty sure they are mostly shocked when I say December because my size suggests otherwise!
WhatWillSantaBring Thank you too - I am looking forward to the day when I can hand DH the baby and go out on the Razz myself Hope the sickness is easing off?
wholelottalove you didn't sound patronising at all How is the Widgey cushion working out?
maxpower SlightlyTired and mumatron thank you all too, I am feeling a bit more like my normal self now. it's all a bit of a rollercoaster isn't it? Hope you are managing to get more sleep Maxpower? - congratulations on the Scan . mumatron did you book your facial? I haven't had problems with my skin yet but I do have a very hairy belly!
kittybump I loved getting my pram but have folded it away now as the house seems to be filling up with baby stuff and I am going to have to start seriously reorganising soon.
MrsChris you have my sympathies, hope everything is ok with your Husband now and congratulations on the 20 week scan.
notso sounds like it must have been a great wedding, which bits made you cry? Am very jealous of the Spa though not so jealous of the PITA SIL Urgh to the urine infection, I hope that I am going to get through this without one though I have been prone to them in the past so maybe I will fall foul.
japhrimel the only thing I find that works for me RE sleeping is 2 days of not sleeping ie I am so tired by day three I manage to fall asleep more easily. I have tried Horlicks too which did seem to work but not brilliantly.
93pjp I'm having weirdness in work as everyone seems to want to stop me and ask me if I am ok and how am I feeling. I find it all a bit odd really, though nice too.
Emmaxmas Congratulations on the scan, I've not found out either and slightly regret it but I can't wait for the surprise on the day.
Pjen glad you are ok and nothing came of the email error. I can totally sympathise with the weight gain fear thing. I look at pictures of me from about 10 weks and can't believe how small I looked back then, even though at the time I felt massive! Lots of people in work are pregnant and seem to have smaller neater bumps than me but I guess I'm only going to get bigger!
GreenGeekGirl I thought for a while that pregnancy had straightened out my erratic hormones as I was feeling very chipper last week. I was pretty sure I would escape the down moods until this last week. I am hoping that I am back to normal now and will stay that while for a bit.
QueenofDreams Good luck for the job application. I am loads older than my DH and I find it distressing that I am now 'in my 40s' while he is still in his 30s and will be for a few years!!
Sorry to hear things are tough Frankenfanny, it can't be nice to be taken for granted . Like crazyKat I am trying to get DH to feel the baby to get him more interested in what is going on inside me. I am not sure it's easy for blokes to understand all he emotions and changes we go through.
Welcome back Miffster and welcome to Cookieaddict - conratulations on a boy and to you to strix for the scan and getting the section date. I haven't thought about vaccinations at all, I think I need to do some more research.
I am getting loads more kicks now and quite high up. When I was stressing out lastnight (we had a burst water pipe - aaarrgghhh) the baby went crazy! Pipe is fixed now but only temporarily. It looks like we are going to have to replace the whole pipe eventually. At least it happened now and not in December!
I've not been extra hungry at all which I am quite glad about though from the size of my bump you might think otherwise. I think I have a big baby in there! All through this pregnancy I have waited for all the things that are supposed to happen - sickness, tiredness, hunger - but none of them have happened. Though I do have Constipation and heartburn in spades to make up for it.
Re the home birth debate - I really wish I was brave enough for a home birth as I hate the thought of a medicalised birth and have a big worry about other people taking over and not listening to what I want. Whenever I watch American birth programmes they always seem to give an epidural instantly and have the mother on her back for the whole time. I wonder how they got like that.
I am so so excited about my SIL's news. I was never close to my cousins so hope our kids will be friends. We live about 20 miles apart so our kids will be in different schools but in the same school year so may become firm friends. She is such a lovely person and she so deserves this success, as does her DH (my DH's brother) who is lovely too. Am also enjoying the fact that this takes a bit of the heat off me Re the MIL. Now we both get to provide grandchildren within months of eachother I just want my other SIL and my own sister to get pregnant now and we can all have babies and maternity leave together

Blimey - this is long! I feel like I have missed so much! Sorry it's so long and hope I didn't miss anyone?

CheeseandGherkins - I'm doing a bit better with the SPD, mainly because I now know what not to do! Physio and swimming was really helping, but I've been so busy, tired & without the car during the last few weeks that I've neglected it and am feeling it.

Strix - we're definitely vaccinating. Feel pretty strongly about it TBH.

Hey where's Aimee? She's not been around for AGES! You lurking there somewhere lady? Pop in and let us know how you're doing sometime :)

Evening everyone and welcome to cookie

Thanks for everyone who replied re HB and that study. It is quite hard to understand all the different studies and stats as it feels they get twisted for political ends and used selectively depending on what point people are trying to prove. Then you read threads on HB and of course it can get very emotional and charged and out come horror stories etc. I'll carry on researching and planning for a HB as it will be easier to change mind from HB to hosp than other way round.

Yes, hope you are ok aimee

Hmm vaccinations... well we did with DD although her MMR was a bit late. I never seriously considered not vaccinating either TBH.

It's nice when your bump gets bigger and people want to look after you a bit.

So who else is still having surprise? I regretted not finding out for a little bit as I was dying to know, but now I'm really excited although does feel odd to still be saying 'it'.

Meant to say GGG you sound ultra busy! Maybe we'll manage a date a bit later on when we're all on mat leave but before babies put in an appearance...

I'm still having a surprise.

:)

Mine's a suprise too (although I've got a strong inclination as to what it'll be!)

Yeah, good point - hope Aimee is doing well and getting some support from her family.

We'll also be vaccinating - I have with my other 2 and they had no adverse affects to it so I'm using that as my benchmark. Also I believe in doing all we can to prevent diseases spreading and affecting those who for one reason or another can't have the vaccinations for health reasons.

All this wedding talk is exciting C&G!!!

Welcome cookie and congrats on the boy!! . Good to have another one on here.

Such great news DF! Its always so so so nice to hear about people pregnant after trying for so long - lovely news . That was a monster post by the way! Has to be the longest yet

I had a wierd one with my MIL the other day. Due to past issues we didn't tell anyone we were having an amnio and we've not told anyone we know the sex of the baby. Not sure why but we just wanted to keep that to ourselves. Anyway, my MIL used to work in a local hospital lab and worked along side the people who test amnio / cvs. So, she's on the phone to her ex-colleague (and friend) who said "I think you've got some good news to share - when we knew who the results were for we did them as fast as we could". Sure enough I've checked my amnio report and its my MIL's friend who counter sined it. I dont have too much issue with her mentioning the amnio although its a breach of my confidentiality, but my issue now is did she say the sex?? Its clear on my notes that we wanted to know.... Its just if MIL knows I'd like to know she knows (if you see what I mean) otherwsie its awful to think she knows I'm lying when anyone asks if we know the sex.... Just not sure how to handle it - am tempted to just leave it all alone and not bring the baby's possible gender up in front of MIL.

Anyway, we've had a lovely day today apart from a barny with DH at lunch-time - pah! he was being so unreasonable. He was off to work though so me and the DS's and some friends had a lovely afternoon at the chinese state circus. DS1 goes back to school as well tomorrow! Gulp! Second year of primary...

Really should do some catch up work but can't be bothered! DH still out at work so early night in bed (may watch a bit of telly!).