April 2011 - towards motherhood boucing on yoda balls, eating coc pops and riding frozen surfboards we are

[SnapFrakkleAndPop]

Raspberry leaf and all round.

Continuation from here. No Mofo C bombs yet been dropped in the delivery room although our first 2 babies have arrived. Congrats to gormers and Jo, we hope your little ones are still doing great.

Will do a more detailed update/reply later but kerning fingers crossed for cycle

Fab news Jo!

Glad you're home sats. The uncertainty is a killer isn't it?

to petal & Ali and any who need them.

I go by the 4 hour rule for baby movements. Movements have definitely changed - fewer defined kicks and more stretching/prods - but I do worry if I don't feel something for a few hours so I prod it/lie down/eat chocolate and it usually obliges!

I think I've been nesting today. I've made a box of reusable nappy stuff, making up a change box to keep in the bathroom, plan to do another one of sheets and muslins etc.... This is very unlike me.

Jo that's wonderful news. I'm so very happy for you both. :)
Kitty good news from MW :)
Beetle I'm impressed with your night sewing. I've got a patchwork quilt that i want to finish but I never seem to find the energy and time to do...
mrswajs from what I can remember you are in Aberdeen. If it were me I'd use a black dress (or trousers/top) you already had and buy a mini tartan sash for your shoulder from kiltmakers (kiltmakers.co.uk), who are in Aberdeen. I used them once in a rush when I was living in Aberdeenshire. That way you're not spending too much, if you cannot attend you can use it for another time such as a weddings/ evening do. I quite like them as I think they are not over the top and you can use it in different ways for example if you have a flowing one colour maxi dress you can pin it in such a way that you can create an empire line. Handy to have in your wardrobe :)
The picture is here:
kiltmakers.co.uk/images/mini-sash-cat-1b.jpg
I've got our parish priest coming for tea in ten minutes. He phoned to ask how I was (not been feeling up to Mass recently), which is lovely of him as he's very busy, and wanted to come over to offer any support he could. He is going to bless the house, me and baby before birth. I know most folk aren't religious anymore but it's something that I've felt very important to me and so I'm very happy he thought to offer :)

Arch I think that's lovely. I'm not religious but feel like it would be lovely to be blessed pre birth, or at any time really.

Congrats to you jo on getting your little man home, and thanks to Petal and Liv for birth stories, I'm a first timer and it's helping reduce the panic a little.

I'm officially on day two of mat leave and torn between having a much needed rest and ruinning round doing little jobs. SPD is so bad that am barely managing an hours sleep at a time now but saving grace is obviously not having to get up for work, hoping it will help prepare me a tiny bit at least for night feeding and that it isn't going to be long now. My whole family congregated for mothers day and the general consensus is that I'm not going to last the week, we will see.

Mrsw love the pic!!

Lovely bump MrsW

Hooray that Connor is home Jo, such great news.

And hurrah for everyone else with good news. I won't name check as my brain is mush this afternoon

Osteopaths appointment was heaven. Just more of the same as before really, all the muscles holding the pelvis in place are tight and need loosening off. I walk out of her room like a new woman, I feel like I've been oiled.

A result this morning. I'm hosting a coffee morning tomorrow and thought I was going to be fannying around baking a cake this avo, but when I went to pick up ds from pre school there was a cake sale (which I had forgotten about ) and someone had made a Victoria Sponge. As I was first through the door, I strode in and said 'I'll have that one,the whole thing please.' I bet everyone thought I'd be sitting on my fat pregnant arse scoffing it by myself this afternoon

I reckon this is the real thing for Cycle as she hasn't been on all day - how exciting!

Love the bump pic MrsWajs. Re Tartan Henny how about a tartan poncho, made from a picnic blanket? Just cut a hole for your head! Second thoughts maybe not!!

Just back from visiting my now overdue friend! I feel slightly bad for being impatient when I still have 11 days to go and she's just waiting! She is of the it will happen when it happens opinion and expects to be induced as she was with DS. I don't want to have to think past my due date!

My other friend has just dropped off a whole bag of 0-3 months baby grows and vests her 13 week old has already grown out of! There is also a iccle pair of hungry caterpillar dungerees. Soooooo cute! I feel a bit bad i can't return the favour. Have offered my babysitting services whenever she needs them instead.

JoEW great news Conor is home. Enjoy the snuggles!

No twinges today after getting my hopes up the other night. I will stop over analysing and just take it as it comes I think!

OMG I just cried at Deal or No deal!! [saddo emoticon]

Yikes. Birthing Pool just arrived. I just have to hold on until 9am tomorrow morning to qualify for a home birth. Its a relief to get here. Though bet I'm sitting on my fat arse for the next 3 and a bit weeks stressing about induction.

Congrats Jo. Lovely to hear that Conor is home.

Jaylar that's great! You could set it up tonight and have a lovely relaxing wallow :D Just to check it all works you understand

Looks like I'm a day behind you.

Arch I think it's great your parish priest is coming over. We're not mega religious but having just moved to a new area, are really keen to find a local church we like as our last one and the priest there, were just wonderful and friendly. I think with the nerves at the moment it would be so nice to have support & blessing like that.

Jo so lovely that Conor is home... hope you both quickly settle into a sleeping routine!!!!

I'm trying to rest at the moment but each day seems more manic than the one before.. had separate visits from electrician, hotpoint engineer & man to fit shutters today.. as well as spending far too long on the phone to DVLA trying to sort out DH's car (who is not darling anything right now....). Grrrr.. but did find yummy date & walnut cake in Sainsbury's on my way home so am currently wolfing that.. guilt free.

Jaylar - definitely test the pool
I was the same, hang on til 37 weeks, now sitting around waiting.

Our fridge/freezer has died a death - luckily neighbour bringing a spare fridge round later (we have a chest freezer so that's not a problem) - coolbag of milk & yoghurts currently sitting outside with freezer blocks in it.
It was here when we bought the house, and to replace, well the one i've decided will do is £850 but from Boots so at least I get the points, lol!

Just got to bath the boys and get them in bed then i'm off to my last orchestra in I don't know how long. Out of puff & out of energy for evening activities & it's not on over the school holidays. Cannot imagine right now how i will leave the house at 7pm with 3 DC to sort out

Would love to test the pool but haven't got the energy to faff about with hoses and instructions. It's a birthpool in a box one and they recommend that you need a new liner every time you use it. That's probably hygiene overkill but at £25 per liner it's not getting filled till D Day.

DD came back from nursery today and asked what was in the box then ranoff to get her special plastic peppa pig sandals (because she's allowed to go paddling in them) and her sunglasses. She's not quite got a handle on what a birthing pool is for obviously.

I'm absolutely beat today. Got that dilemma of do I go to bed now and know I'll be up half the night again or hang in till 9 when I've a better chance of getting 6 hours straight. If DD wasn't in nursery 2 days a week Ive no idea how I'd survive. You ladies who are doing this with young kids at home full time are made of tougher stuff than me.

I am rebranding this as the breastfeeding icon as it bares an uncanny resemblence to how my breasts currently feel

crumbly and filled with jam?? And goes soggy when dunked in !!

Hey all - you guys were right - my lovely sleepy baby has turned nocturnal and likes to feed for hours about 2am - 3 hours sleep last night, and just woken from a couple of hours now.
As this still seems to be the busier thread - does anyone have any advice on post caesarian constipation? It's over a week now and I've been eating fig rolls, dried apricots etc by the bucketful but I think the problem is partly in my head... having been given iron tablets doesn't help (though I've not been good at taking them).
Any advice gratefully received.

And congrats to all who've had babies, good luck to everyone else.

Had a little girl today, have called her Amelia. She is absolutely gorgeous. DH and I are tired but happy. Will fill you in on all the details tomorrow :o

Welcome Amelia. Another beautiful name and another one for the girls.

Congratulations on the arrival of Amelia Thaney. Loved the very nonchalant way you just said 'had a little girl today'

Chilli - orange juice and lots of fluid in general will help. The painkillers will be causing the constipation as well as the iron. Do you actually feel constipated? If you don't, don't worry about it too much, it will come when it's ready!
When the poo does comes, put a moist sanitary towel over your scar if you feel you need to push/strain. This will help combat the panic at the 'OMG by stitches are going to burst' feeling

Jaylar - don't you only need to use a liner when there are bodily fluids being emitted into the pool? I would really recommend doing a practice run so you can check for holes and also time how much time it takes to blow up and fill. Then of course you can spend hours wallowing in it

Tonight I moved the sofa's and cleaned behind them, oh my, the dust . DH is out tomorrow night, so we're doing the practice run on Thursday night

Am sitting here drinking a huge glass of milk and munching on a whole punnet of strawberries.

Congrats Thaney - another lovely name!

Jo so glad to hear you're home with your baby. It must be an amazing feeling.

Had my sweep today. My consultant offered and I thought "why not!" in the way you might go for an extra piece of cake. Miraculously it didn't hurt, which suprised me as friends have been falling over themselves to tell me how grim sweeps are. I did my hypnobirthing breathing and he pulled my cervix forward, stretched it out by a couple of centimetres and even managed to touch the baby's head and move the cord out of the way (it was under the baby's head, which he tells me is quite normal) and although it was slightly uncomfortable it really wasn't too bad. Only now what? What happens now? I keep expecting things to kick off but nothing has happened so far. Have decided to eat lots of yoghurt and cake this evening to console myself at lack of action.

The c section date is confirmed as 13th April at which point I'll be 41 weeks. My consultant has said he'll break my waters that morning and see what happens and if things don't progress then I can have a c section, which I'm okaaaaaay about. I suppose I can always say 'no thanks' nearer the time as they can't force me to have one.

Got constant low level period pain but nothing is developing further. Off to google....

Thaney - Congratulations!!

Jo - that is fantastic news that Connor is home with you, enjoy the unrestricted cuddles :)

Chilli - you need lactulose. I remember it being awful after I had DS1, so I demanded some in hospital this time. The midwife was like this 'well it is normal for it to take a few days'. I told her I didn't care, that I wasn't going through it again!! You will have success within hours

I think it must be it for Cycle, hope things are going well for her.

I feel a lot better today, still weepy but I'm getting there. Feeding is going really well, although I'd forgotten how much courage it takes to shove a hungry baby onto a sore nipple!! Feeling pretty grateful for the post-section painkillers I'm still taking

Chilli I bought a bottle of lactulose from the chemist for post birth constipation - on the advice of some ladies on here. I think it softens the poo as well, so hopefully should be easier when you do go.

Congratulations Thaney and welcome to the world little Amelia.

Fab to hear Conor is home Jo

I am a bit gutted tonight as the sweep didn't go too well. MW said my cervix is tucked behind baby's head so she couldn't really reach it. I'm not dilated at all and only got a bishop's score of 4, so it's unlikely that anything will happen in the next few days

Woohoo, more babies! Congratulations Thaney!

Congratulations Thaney!

Chilli I would go for the lactulose too, just remember it will take a few days to work. I was put on iron after having dd and it made me horrendously constipated. In the end I stopped taking it and got myself some Spatone sachets instead. Not as much iron in them but I managed to get my blood count up pretty quickly. If you take iron with vit c eg orange juice it will help you to absorb it too. Plus its really important that you drink tons of fluid, especially when breast feeding.

Jo great news for you to have Connor home with you.

Snap you can come round to my house and do some nesting if you want, you sound v organised!

ILTMIMI god only knows what lurks underneath our sofa's or under the bed, probably some new kind of life form or something

Jaylar I have visions of your dd, lounging in the birthing pool, shades on, splashing around!

Kits sounds like your sweep went well, especially if your consultant could feel babies head. Lets hope it starts something for you.

Notanother sorry to hear your sweep didn't go too well. Will your midwife try again in a few days?

Ali glad you are feeling better.

Liv loving your breast feeding icon.

Looks v likely something is or has happened for Cycle as we've not heard from her since last night, am v jealous that she has probably beaten me to it but I just hope everything has gone ok and she hopefully has a lovely baby to cuddle right now.

Sorry if I have missed people out. This thread is moving at a really fast pace. Still nothing happening here. Getting a bit fed up of people asking "Still no baby then" er no does it look like it? My Mum even asked why this baby was taking so much time to arrive. I had hoped this time round I wouldn't end up being induced but still have another 10 days to go until they would induce me so fingers crossed that baby will arrive before then. I am seeing midwife for a sweep on thurs morning, and she will do another one next Monday for me if that doesn't work. Well off to bed now. Will be thinking of all you April mummies who have already have your babies and are up feeding them in the early hours. I will be up too groaning and grunting, turning over and over in bed and making my umpteenth trip to the toilet of the night.

Congrats thaney look forward to hearing all the details when you are settled x

For those bored and waiting for their babies to arrive, I thought I'd flag up a highly disturbing and amusing thread on AIBU which has made me decide that I definitely am not having a little boy*. My deepest sympathies to those who are or have .

Off for a and then my nightly ritual of stringing together hour-long chunks of sleep.

*disclaimer - I don't know whether or not I'm having a little boy

tee hee! ecuse

Congrats Thaney! x

Thanks for all the support. Had a good day today and am just starting the marathon-feed-sesh with some sleep already banked tonight. I'm set up in bed with an internet enabled phone, books, snacks, and a DH who's learning to sleep through it all!

I expect to be up till 4 now. I will not get stressed about it!

I'm on tenterhooks waiting to find out about cycle too!