April 2011 - we'll shop til we pop!

[GoldFrakkincenseAndMyrrh]

Continuation from our old thread here

So maybe this thread we'll see some babies?! And definitely lots more shopping

Hi all

Grrr at HV!

Thanks April thats v useful to know. I emailed them my suggestion which in my opinion is fool proof and will only cost them one day extra salary per week not the originally proposed office manager, and i know someone who might want the job. Cant possibly make it any easier for them. Just have to wait now. 6 weeks til mat leave and i am starting to get impatient. very envious of those of you already there. :)

Oh Mothercare baby club have 10% off until Feb 27th, Code WU7K

In one of my wide awake moments in the middle of the night , I thought of a good post natal bag tip. Pack t-shirts, pj tops, nighties etc that have buttons at the front - these are ideal for easy access to your breasts when bf'ing.

Although tbh after a few days you'll probably be walking about with your breasts exposed and won't even realise. Your postman won't be able to look you in the eye again - or was that just me?!

Well my ante-natal class yesterday was a huuuuuuuuuuge waste of time. It was the one partners were invited to so I thought we'd do lots of interactive stuff, trying out birth positions etc. Nope, it was a basic biology lesson with a powerpoint presentation and a really scary slideshow about the process of giving you an epidural (I'd rather deal with any amount of pain!) accompanied by a 'come to the hospital when your contractions are regular' talk and an invitation to a session on 'parentalité'. It's obviously not a good week in the healthcare world.

If they weren't compulsory I wouldn't go

We were also told to consider writing a birth plan - darn right I will be seeing as you want to bath my precious baby every single day with about 20 different chemicals and take it away from me at night. They also want to keep you for at least 3 days, possibly 5. Definitely 5 for a CS... Wonder if I can manage an accidental homebirth?

oh dear, I haven't even started classes yet.. hope they're not going to be a complete waste of time. Think I'll be relying on this site to keep the reality check going & understand what's really needed!

On a very exciting note, one of my best friends gave birth to a beautiful baby girl last night. Now I'm starting to get very excited.

Sounds like you had a great night Frakk . TBH they sound much like the NHS classes I went to with ds1. It was all about what will happen, not what your choices are.

BTW, if you end up having a section you may well feel phycially able to 'escape' quite quickly. I was home 30 hours after mine - the care in the hospital was the pits and I recovered very well at home.

Congratulations to your best friend isttime

Snap where do you live? How can antenatal classes be compulsory? You're a grown up for goodness sake. They can't make you attend, can they?

Have to say I got very little out of my classes except 3 excellent friends, who I still see every week 3 years on. They were my real support and still are as we all have girls the same age and going through all the same issues. We would never have met or even have had that much in common otherwise. And we still giggle at the crap we were told at the classes. Especially the one by the HV and the physio.
The physio had no idea what she was talking about. She even told us that it was standard policy in Scotland for every woman to get an episiotomy during labour. I told her that I was sure that was not the case and she went in the huff in front of the whole class. Oh and the HV showed a video on baby care which was mostly about feeding. So we watched 15 minutes on breast feeding and then she fast forwarded the bit on bottle feeding. My friend said she would like to see that bit too as you never know. The HV said we were "not allowed" to see that part of the video as bottle feeding should not be encouraged. Given that at 32 I was the youngest pregnant woman in the class and a few years older than the HV you can imagine how that comment went down with everyone.

All of us have gone onto have a second child and have threatened to go back to the antenatal classes to tell it how it really is, but we'd probably be banned.

Got a lovely surprise in my bank account this morning, £190 HiP grant. Really did not expect to qualify as edd is 20 April and my MW thought I wouldn't. Went for it anyway thanks to someone on this thread (forget who) who thought it was worth a punt. So that has just paid for my Little Nipper 360 pram. Woo hoo!

In the middle of the Indian Ocean

They can make a surprising amount of things compulsory...Basically the deal seems to be if you don't have all 3 scans and your monthly blood test/MW appts and your consultation with the anaesthetic dude and do ante-natal classes of some kind then you can't deliver in our hospital, and even if you turn up and the baby drops out it won't be covered by social security and we'll charge you £££ because you didn't tick all the boxes.

OTOH they are free! Which is a good thing because there's no way I'd be paying.

Some good tips on the hospital bag. I'd second/suggest the following also: -

*Flip flops for the shower - if you're sharing a bathroom with several women all losing incredible amounts of lochia you might not want to go barefoot.

• Sports water bottle (ie. one with nozzle top). Good for swigging from without spillage and also excellent to drink from if you've had a caesarean as you can drink lying down. *Moist loo roll wipes. Those Andrex thingies. They're great for post-birth loo trips, especially if you've had a c-section and your stomach muscles are Missing in Action.
  *Alfalfa tincture (from the Organic Pharmacy - www.theorganicpharmacy.com) - brilliant for breastmilk. I had a hideous caesarean and lots of trauma last time and I had no problems with my milk coming in or the quality.
• Fibrous snacks for the post-birth poo. Things like dried apricots, prunes, etc.
• Pillow or two from home. Hospital ones are notoriously sh!t and they're mean with them. Odds are you'll get some sad, flattened thing which will have to double up as a pillow for your head and a breastfeeding support.
• Disposable knickers/M&S granny knickers - you can just chuck them out after you've used them.

Frakk the idea of a compulsary antenatal class sounds quite draconian but at least you don't have to pay. Do you get a black mark against your name if you fall asleep?!

Got my 32 week scan tomorrow. Baby has been resolutely transverse/breech since the beginning of time so it will be interesting to see how it's lying tomorrow. Probably sideways with it's leg in the air!!

Off to buy some more feeding vests now - you can never have too many!

Alibabaandthe40nappies, IlikeToMoveItMoveIt, caramellokoalalover - Thanks for your kind messages. Things have calmed down a lot since Monday, the pain has mostly gone but I am still having really strong BH. I?m debating whether or not to go into work tomorrow

Liv77 ? re potty training, I feel your pain! We are trying to give it one more push with DD1 (2.5yo) in the hope she?ll be more or less potty trained by the time baby comes and won?t regress too much. Take it you?re hoping the same? She is ok but still has one or two accidents a day, usually when she?s distracted. She peed on DH yesterday then came and told me Daddy did a wee on her shoes! I find bribing her with chocolate stickers helps.

IlikeToMoveItMoveIt & ecuse: I find the fundal height test highly suspicious too. How can your bump be expected to grow exactly 1cm each week? It?s just too perfect, how did babies grow when we had imperial measurements?!

My antenatal classes sound quite enlightening, listening to most of your experiences. I did resent falling for the ?breastfeeding doesn?t hurt if you?re doing it properly? myth. Of course it?s important to check your latch but IMHO it can be quite painful for the first few weeks (i.e. chapped nipples, ache of let down pain) and this doesn?t mean you?re doing anything wrong at all.

My HiP grant has come through too :)
(EDD 17th April)

Have had a bath & gone back to bed this morning, nothing achieved at all babywise. And i'm sure it's trying to turn breech as the head seems to be creeping up my right hand side. grr.

Have watched some ECVs on YouTube to get the idea in my mind, one looked so simple! Also researching the Webster technique, though not sure anyone local does it, again looked so simple on a video.

NotAnother - i wouldn't go back if i were you, take it easy for a few more days at least.

Ah yes that great bf myth, hahahaha !

ANd I had to LOL at imperial measurements!!

Hey guys, in haste, but just wanted to say how lucky I am feeling about my antenatal classes and to reassure those who haven't yet gone that they are not all a waste of time (can't believe what some of you have experienced )- they are NCT and so cost a fair bot of money (although she has knocked off the NCT joining fee and told us we are under no obligation to join in order to attend the classes, so much cheaper, she really is a good egg) but they have been really useful so far (number two last night.) The lady leading it is very knowledgeable and calm and also very balanced, always giving us facts first and occasionally her opinion afterwards, but never evangelically. Very reassuring for the room of older first-timers that make up our group.

Or even bit!!

Can I just say the MW led ante natal classes here were great, if not a laugh! Just the HV who was a bit

What really mad me sad yesterday was it was the last class and I had thought that we might all exchange numbers to meet up later, but the woman was so boring we all couldn't wait to get there. So there goes my plan of making ante natal friends :(

You guys will have to do just now! :o

Lis McA Ask your midwife to get everyone's e-mail or phone number and send out a circular e-mail suggesting you stay in touch. They are supposed to do this in Scotland as a matter of course though it never really happened with us.

The only reason I have the 3 pals I mentioned is because I stood up at the end of the 2nd class asking if anyone wanted to go for a coffee. I was bracing myself for total rejection and waddling running out of the door with a red face but 3 people came along and they've all said it was the ice breaker they were looking for. There will definitely be women in the class who are also disappointed that they didn't meet anyone.

This is all good in for for my antenatal thing on Saturday. Mine's the NHS one and it's an all-day thing. I'm hoping that because there's nowhere to eat near the hospital it'll mean we all end up together for lunch or something to break the ice.

I'm not a medical person but I've worked on medical magazines for several years so I'm hoping I'll spot any dodgy advice and know to ignore it!

I've got an antenatal physio class for a whole morning on 2 March too. That one's for pg ladies only (no partners) so again I'm hoping there'll be the opportunity to chat and possibly make contacts.

Anyone got experince of bumps and babies coffee mornings? NCT was prohibitively expensive near us so I'm hoping to visit the coffee mornings while I'm on maternity leave.

Theres a breastfeeding cafe at the community centre here that welcome "ante natal" mums along if they want to go. Think I might pop along next week, just for something to do really!

I'm finding my early mat leave quite boring just now! I'm rattling about the house, drifting for room to room. I should really do some gentle cleaning, but I don't think I'm quite that bored yet! Still 9 weeks til d-day!

Carpet for the nursery got delivered this morning. I forgot it was coming and was still in bed . There's me flustered and pregnant at the front door god know what my hair was doing, but my bed head is exceptionally bad ATM. Think the poor guy was more embarrassed than me and told me to go back to my bed! Must have looked like I needed it!

Jaylar - I think I'll do that. There was a big spread of due dates in my class from Sunday (poor girl looked mahoosive yesterday)to 12th of May so quite a few of them were already on mat leave.

Theres a breastfeeding cafe at the community centre here that welcome "ante natal" mums along if they want to go. Think I might pop along next week, just for something to do really!

I'm finding my early mat leave quite boring just now! I'm rattling about the house, drifting for room to room. I should really do some gentle cleaning, but I don't think I'm quite that bored yet! Still 9 weeks til d-day!

Carpet for the nursery got delivered this morning. I forgot it was coming and was still in bed . There's me flustered and pregnant at the front door god know what my hair was doing, but my bed head is exceptionally bad ATM. Think the poor guy was more embarrassed than me and told me to go back to my bed! Must have looked like I needed it!

Jaylar - I think I'll do that. There was a big spread of due dates in my class from Sunday (poor girl looked mahoosive yesterday)to 12th of May so quite a few of them were already on mat leave.

Ooh that posted twice, how did that happen??

Speaking of antenatal classes I had my NCT refresher course all day yesterday. No lifelong buddies to be had as everyone already knew people from their original NCT classes (except for me as I missed mine as I was on bedrest in hospital - typical!). Anyway, it was interesting but didn't really blow me out of the water and I'm not sure how much I learnt. Still, good to feel that I've done it and ticked that box and my feeling is that any little bit of knowledge is good in my great VBAC journey. Plus, it was quite informative on breastfeeding, etc. as a lot of it I had forgotten or was a bit vague about as the girls were tube fed for the first week of life which meant I never did the whole 'normal' breastfeeding thing but faffed around squeezing colustrum into syringes, etc.

As for the 'no pain in breastfeeding' myth that's up there with 'nipple/teat confusion' as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, a bad latch can make it excruciating but it takes a while for nipples to toughen up (winces at memory) and even the most brilliant latch/perfect baby isn't going to change that. Lanisoh worked wonders for me, as did leaving breastmilk to dry on my nipples afterwards.

Just eaten some 'off' mango from M&S - it was decidedly fizzy. Am awaiting fallout from this with trepidation!

Oh dear at the fizzy mango - I've made that mistake with fizzy pineapple before!

I still attend the NCT coffee mornings and I've made a great circle of friends there, I'm also very active with our branch - I am their newsletter editor.

I think with all groups, whether they be NCT, toddler groups, bf cafe etc etc, you sometimes need to be quite tenacious and put yourself out there. People will often see a new face and bring you into the conversation, but sometimes you also have to sort of push yourself into it. Some groups are well established and can seem quite cliquey, but that is because they are have been friends for a while so have lots to talk about, but don't be put off, bring yourself into the conversation and start conversations off. Even if you get onto a subject you're not that interested in, keep chatting and stay in the conversation.

I know that all seems rather scary and daunting, but I am quite outgoing and I still found I had to bring myself into the group - probably because they were all well established groups. If it all sounds a bit too much then I suggest you go with a friend, even better if your friend can talk the hind legs off of a donkey!

Groups really can be a lifeline. There will come a point when you've had enough of spending day after day at home and you feel confidant enough to start going out and about with your baby and meeting other mums.

Change of subject. I got a Pink Lining / Yummy Mummy hospital / changing bag for christmas but its a bit big for everyday use. So i am going to get a smaller one. What one out of these 2? www.johnlewis.com/230906759/Product.aspx or www.johnlewis.com/230742062/Product.aspx

I like the PacaPod one. Will your partner be using it too? If so then option 2 might not be to his taste

Yeah he will. It looks more organised too doesnt it. :)