Due August 2011, third and final trimester here we come!!!!

[KLou111]

Oooooo ladies, an exciting time for us all either already here or speedily arriving.
Can't believe how quick it's all going.

Bubbas will be here in no time!!!!

Evening ladies!

Hope you're all well and enjoying the sunshine again!

Thank you for the baby monitor advice, we're going with the Angelcare one and also for the sympathy / advice about my shitty experience with Lincoln County. We said we'd give them until yesterday to up their game otherwise we'd transfer, but yesterday's scan and associated consultations went pretty well. The babies were VERY wriggly though so it was hard for the sonographer to do the dopplers properly! But dopplers looked good on both babies, fluid has balanced out to around 6cm each and the one that had a dilated brain ventricle last week now doesn't BUT the other one's ventricle is now on the high end of normal .... but ultimately that still means normal! Had a long conversation with my consultant afterwards and he now wants me to be scanned twice a week (every 3-4 days) to keep an eye on dopplers. This is because the bigger twin's growth had slowed down a lot at last week's scan and the next growth scan is next Friday. He said that if the baby's growth tails off even more next week then he would probably look to deliver them next weekend. But he would weigh the growth up against the doppler measurements and fluid levels and make the decision based on that as he said growth isn't the only indicator of them thriving / not thriving. He said he is just trying to 'buy' a bit more time of them being inside as he wants them to be as developed as poss when they arrive. BUT he said that, whatever happens, they wouldn't go past 36 weeks which is 26th July so I am having my babies THIS MONTH!!!!!

I have to say that I left the hospital pretty much on cloud 9! I know our babies are still only 32 + 4 and, if they were delivered next week, they would be in SCBU for ages, but it just feels as though we are finally reaching the end of this LONG and extremely emotionally draining road. I can't believe that this time next month I won't be pregnant anymore and will actually have my babies!!!!

AND we FINALLY bought our new car today! Managed to part-ex mine as well and we're going to collect it tomorrow. So pleased as it was the last 'big' job that HAD to be done before the babies arrive.

Anyway, blah blah blah, me me me. Sorry. Just so excited!

yukana - Fantastic news on you guys finally getting a house! So pleased for you. It may not be a gleaming palace but, like you say, it will be your home and you will make it a lovely home for your little one to come back to. So pleased for you after all you've been through.

leilandri thanks for the recommendation will check that one out

mrs stevo glad things seem to be going well, 26th july at the latest is so exciting, soo soon!

Wow MrsS how exciting!!!!! Glad the babies are looking all OK in there. Think you are a bit of a traitor now with your July date lol!!

Leilandri that was the one they were moaning about, so not sure which one to buy!

Well, had a fab day here. Mum and dad rang yesterday afternoon to ask if they could come last night instead of today. After telling them very politely we were in heaps of mess and weren't really ready for them (which I was gutted about), it turns out they did come last night and stayed at a hotel about 40 miles away so they didn't have such a journey today. Was a lovely surprise as DH left at 9:15 and they turned up a couple of hours later :)
Still wasn't ready for them, I literally just finished hoovering, hadn't had a shower or anything, and I had the mopping to do so mum did it while I had a shower :)
Been a nice day, and weather been fab. They bought us loads of baby outfits and stuff off their hols, so cute! (and I got a lovely handbag and DH a bottle of Southern Comfort) and it's lovely to have all her knitting, and other things they had for bubs here too. Starting to feel all real now.

Getting the changing unit Friday morning, so that'll be the nursery done. Feeling sooooooo gutted for DH as out of the whole house, the one room he wanted to do was the nursery, so that's why he built the cot last night so late (as he knew I'd do it otherwise!) Last thing last night, he went into the nursery to have a look and came into our room with the biggest grin, and said he couldn't wait now It's going to be fab!

MrsS am v jealous about your July due date- if you were me that would mean Thursday!!!!!! Great to know the peas are doing well and the hospital have sorted themselves out!

It is so strange when I walk past the previous study now nursery and see the cot etc in there- dp jokes that the house is being submerged slowly in a sea of pink!

Well it was a lovley day for us yeaterday- went on a long walk and took dd to my mums for lunch- DD is getting very excited about her birthday (21st July). I cant believe this time 2 years ago I was 10 days from my due date! It has gone so fast- now my little bay girl wants to dress up in my clothes constantly and gives me ideas for names for dd2- 'door' is her currant favourite

Well i am 36 weeks today...only 24 days to my ELCS so another who will get to meet their baby this month!

Spent the week doing things for DD. Her new bedroom has been finished and floor laid, I asembled her single bed and she moved in last night and loves it. Also booked, wrote invitations and bought party bag assorted crap for her 4th birthday party in August, so we are a little more prepared now.

We are just back from a lovely day at Walton on the naze....DD had a lovely time playing and paddling on the beach and riding on the rides on the pier. Tired and happy now so job well done to me and DH!

Mrs S...I beleive it was you who asked for ELCS info and hospital bag stuff. I am packing packets of windeze...to help with trapped wind and some sennacot tablets to help ease that first bowel movement out without straining. Also never refuse drugs...take them every time they give them out to keep on top of your pain management. Have also packed the new Jilly cooper book to help pass the hanging around time, lots of maternity towels, big knickers and more nighties than you think you will need. I second the slip on shoes...I take my crocs so can actually go in the shower with them if I want as well. I also take a couple of extra pillows both for extra back support and help with breastfeeding.

Glad the twins are doing well by the way.

Thank you MrsStevo, Leil and Firawla. Yes indeed we have our own place now, it's all settled and they can't back out of it!

MrsStevo I'm so glad you don't really have to worry concerning your little ones. Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly and they'll be delivered just fine, I'm glad they've been checking up on you and the babies. Excited to see the pictures of the LOs!

Hersetta Very good idea with the windeeze and senokot, I didn't think of that. I shall probably pack some just incase, I've never used senokot before.

Still haven't recieved my Sure Start Maternity Grant, did anyone else apply for this and how long did it take for the money to arrive? Also applied for a Community Care Grant that I sincerely hope we'll be awarded so I can get a sofa, a shower, and things I will need to help my spd etc.

Very excited about moving into our new ground floor flat, DP has been packing for me as my SPD has gotten worse the past couple of weeks, I'm feeling so heavy it's unbelievable, and can't move my hips/pelvis without being in pain.

Well been out shopping with mum and dad today. They bought me a lovely dress to come out of hospital with, some lovely black linen crops and 2 tshirts. They also got bubs some baby gros with little slogans on and I got bubs a lovely winnie top and bottoms set, and a Born in 2011 top and booties, and a Made in Wales hat hol! Also got some sheets and a pair of the most CUUUUUUUTEST crocs for bubs!!!!! They are a turquoise sort of colour with little orange straps and an orange tiger on. They were on sale for £1.80 in BHS so mum and dad couldn't resist lol! Oh they are the teeniest things :) just gorgeous!!
So been a full day of shopping, then had a meal on the way home :) Feeling very spoilt :)

Also got my maternity allowance started. Nice to have some tax money back from the government for the first time ever in either families lives! Think we deserve a bit back! Is kind of strange getting money for nothing, and do feel wrong getting it TBH as we chose to have a baby so we should pay for it!

Yukana...the Sennakot is good for all but the wind-eze is really only for ladies having a c-section. When they open you up and then stitch you up again you can get a lot of trapped air inside which can be painful - hence the windeze.

just a quick look in from me until tonight/lunch time, take that were brilliant, just a shame someone around us kept farting & my ibs played up so was uncomfortable. (wasn't me popping off btw lol)

anyhow wanted to keep this up there. oh will update at llunch as anti natal tonight on breast feeding - DP is REALLY looking forward to it! lol.

Thanks hersetta! I actually have all of that packed already - someone else had told me about the necessity of windeze so that was an early purchase! I only have 2 nighties but then have a pair of PJs as well as, once catheter is out, I'd rather be in PJs I think (they are massive and will come WAY above the scar line). Plus we only live 5 mins from the hosp so DH can take clothes home, wash them and bring back the next day if needed. Have packed a V-shaped pillow for my back and also a breast feeding pillow (fairly essential for twins!). I'm quite amazed really as I thought I'd have LOADS but it has all pretty much fitted into two bags - one for me, one for babies.

Klou- your day sounds fab!! Wish my parents would take me shopping! Can I ask where you got the dress and crops from? I really need to get some comfy clothes to wear post birth (that don't sit on my CS wound) and really need to find some that are very cool as it is going to be super hot in the hospital / if this weather continues.

Slept like a LOG last night - got up at 8:30am for a wee and then went back to sleep until 11am. Absolute bliss!!

Great news MrsS and lovely that you and Hersetta will get to meet your babies this month. That's really really exciting

My dad arrived from Sri Lanka last week bringing with him a suitcase of baby clothes and then went on a shopping spree here buying us the Stokke pushchair, cot from Mamas and Papas and changing table from John Lewis. My mum arrives on saturday night so am anticipating more things. Such a blessing to have them here - emotionally and financially! It's their first grandchild so I am letting them go a bit wild. And by god we need the help.

Bit pissed off at DH's parents who haven't really offered much help but lots and lots of advice on how we are doing things wrong/not doing enough etc etc (their first grandchild too). Although his mum called up excitedly to say they are redoing the lawn at their house to accommodate a trycicle track. She also told me how much it was costing them. I did feel like punching her in the face. She made some comment to my dad about feeling left out of the pregnancy which is a bit selfish as I work full time and don't have THAT much spare time to sit and chat with her when she comes down to London. Especially as the punching her in the face feeling surfaces quite regularly these days. She keeps hinting that I shouldnt go back to work - I havent even gone on maternity leave yet. Sorry for the moan. But she is a handful sometimes. DH has temporarily banned her from visiting (EVERY DAY!)

Yukana Hope you feel better. There is a young girl in my antenatal class with SPD and she is in a lot of pain and obviously quite scared about the actual birth. Midwife running class told us about a Mongolian woman who gave birth vaginally to this 10lb 4oz baby the other week! Yikes

Hi all, sorry for posting dramatic message then disappearing!
Having broken his arm on wed night, DH was in a cast up to his shoulder and was supposed to have an op on Thurs to take out the old metal plate from his wrist fracture (a mere 10months ago ) and put in a new plate covering both breaks. The consultant looked at his notes and decided it was more complicated than first thought so he wanted to operate himself, which is both bad and good! So op wasn't til Friday morning (poor DH being in pain for a whole extra day :( ) but it went so well they let him out that night! He's not had to take pain killers since, and we all managed to go to the wedding we'd been looking forward to on saturday! He's working from home for the next few days as he can't cycle to work, and he can always rest at home or have his arm up in the special support they've given him which hangs off a chair.
Our friends are being amazing - one came round at 9am yesterday to mow the lawn, and another came round today to put all the newly organised baby clothes back into the loft, as neither of us is capable of lifting. We're also wearing matching crocs as neither of us can do up normal shoes

It was so fun sorting the baby clothes, I've got the newborn neutral stuff in the hospital bag (that's all that's in the bag ) and a bag of each of boy and girl newborn things in the chest of drawers for baby. Then when its born we can go into the loft and get down the 0-3m clothes for girl or boy depending, coz I now actually know where they are, result!

The nursery isn't ready as it has two old wardrobes in that are being collected on the 25th, and there's no space for the cot til they've gone, but at least I feel like I have a plan. Hopefully the joiner is coming at the end of this week to turn the door round so it opens onto the landing, which gives a lot more space inside the room.

Apart from being big, I'm feeling really well at the moment, long may that continue! The SPD pain has really died down, although that might flare up after I had to carry DS's bike back from the shops this morning!

MrsS that's such wonderful news about your babies, especially the brain ventricles, and brilliant that you're getting lots of sleep. Can't believe you'll meet your babies this month, eeek!

One of my friends had a baby this morning, a 'beautiful water birth'. Yes please to one of those!!

carrie glad his operation went well

rehune and klou all the shopping and getting things brought sounds exciting

rehune yes visiting every day is toooo much! i had that with my mil with my first, and the always hinting about doing things wrong but luckily these days they have calmed down and let me get on with things my own way, but i feel for it cos it is really annoying isnt it!

yukana that is great u managed to get something on the ground floor too, def the best floor to be on with babies, to save you having to bump up the buggy and all of that. im sure you will make it a lovely home

Firawla Tee hee, am glad you said that cos I posted and then felt a tiny bit bad about verbalising my desire to cause MIL physical harm! She's not as close to DH as he is perhaps to my mum so she feels it a bit. But still...thanks for the support!

MrsS George at Asda had a sale on so got my dress, crops and t-shirts from there. Dress is great cos it flares from under the bust just below the knee so hides everything. Also has an elasticated back so have a bit of room to grow :) The crops and tshirts I got in the next size up from what I am now, although I have been wearing them today :)

To everyone that knows their baby's sex, re the george Asda sale, they had STACKS of clothes for £1, £2, £3, I was totally gutted at that point that I didn't know the sex where we were thinking about buying loads of clothes in both sexes and selling whatever we didn't use on ebay!

Thanks for the tip on the Asda sale, DS needs new pjs!

Ooooooooooooh, thanks klou! That's tomorrow sorted for me now then! Although I have a scan at 11:15 so that's prob most of the afternoon taken care of.

rehune - your post about your ILs made me laugh so much because it rang SO many bells!!! My MIL is ok (although I think will be hyper-critical about my parenting once babies arrive as she is with her own daughter) but FIL and Step-MIL are both miseries and, particularly S-MIL, don't have a nice word to say about anything. Most of the time I want to punch her in the face or just tell her to fuck off and take her misery elsewhere. Spiteful old goat.

Gets bag and heads to asda ......

Hi ladies,

Well I have felt really rough for past 24 hours (bad stomach and vomiting pains etc) so I'm off to see Mw this afternoon. Baby moving fine , no blood so they weren't arsed when I rang them.
This heat is a killer and it's only going to get worse- I'm eating ice as often as possible as I can't stomach anything else. I convinced myself yesterday the mad bowel movements were the start of labour but no contractions followed.

Mercifully I'm still sleeping ok- wake twice for the loo but get 8 hours most nights.
I'm 36 weeks Thursday, this time of preg is a drag

Morning Ladies!

Well I've been up since 4:07am with what I thought were contractions. Woke up in pain - not mega bad, just like a very tight and stabbing-pain type braxton hicks - went for a wee, which seemed to relieve it a bit and then went back to bed. I realised the braxtons were coming quite regularly - ended up timing them at about 5am and they were between 8-10 mins apart. The babies seemed to be having some kind of party in there between each one as well. I gave up trying to sleep fairly quickly and got up at 6 to have a shower and wash my hair - couldn't bear the thought of going into hospital with manky hair, I haven't washed it in days!!

And since my shower, I haven't had any.

Humph.

So that's evidently how the babies fancied celebrating reaching the 33 weeks mark.

Fortunately I didn't wake DH to alert him to my impending labour (!!!) so he is still sound asleep whilst I'm downstairs drinking tea with soaking wet hair ... I daren't put the hairdryer on as I'll wake him and then I'll have to explain and will feel silly

So, for those of you in the know, how DO you tell if you're going into labour and differentiate it from just having fairly regular braxtons??

Oh no MrsStevo! How annoying, hope you manage to get back to bed for a nap or something. The reality of proper contractions was pretty clear to me, I lost all sense of inhibition (stripped off as I was so hot and couldn't have cared less who saw !) and they were very strong. Really hard to describe though. I'm not sure about how it feels when they come on gradually though as I went from 2cm-8cm in under an hour so they were incredibly intense from the start. I would describe them as strong period pains at the start but then they took on a life of their own! Hope everything settles down and babies get a bit longer inside.

Well, I'm 34+1 now and I've decided that I'm going to get my bags packed today. Really looking forward to going through the newborn clothes box but can't believe that this is probably the last time I'll do it .

MrsS I worried the same thing the first time- then when I went into proper labour I KNEW! Its thbe sort of pain you cant relieve and will stop you in your tracks for the entire contraction- at my antenatal class last time the mw said if you can hold eye contact and speak during one then you're probably not having one.
It is good your getting braxton hicks though as you'll know the difference easier.

LittleMissL - at least you wont have to go through this enormous preg stage again though?

Hiya, I am reading all the posts and keeping track of all your news, I'm really bad with responding though because I forget everyones names when I scroll down. It's hopeless really. To those of you who have your births planned and booked for this month, that must be really nice and comforting to know and I hope everything goes really well. Good news of the ground floor flat Yukana, that's going to be much easier for you.

I spent ages with the midwife yesterday planning a home birth, there were masses of caveats about when I would need to go to hospital though so I'm not counting on it but hopeful anyway. It was much nicer having the midwife in your home chatting about things rather than in a clinic AND I got a free Little Lamb washable nappy, fleece liner and cover, it's so cute. I am also impressed with the amount of really good information about normal birth pathways, feeding and safety I got compared with last time I had a baby! Well done Welsh Assembly.

hello ladies! Ive been reading all your posts but have been soo busy the last few days so havent replied.

We've got a lot sorted the last few days - The bednest is here and we tried assembling it and its sooo easy and the perfect size for co-sleeping the fist 4-5 months!! Our bugaboo bee plus travel system got delievered yesterday and we've now set up the car seat in the car :) Hospital bags are ready as well now and our changin table was delivered this morning. I put all the baby clothes for washing today so that should be sorted in a couple of days - Im finally feeling organised!

This is my last week at work and people at work have organised lunch for me on friday which was a surprise. Im going to continue working from home for another 2 weeks cause i didnt want to just sit at home and my manager has been really nice about it and said i could do it. As long as i dont have to travel by tube (which in this heat is horrible) i dont mind working - Lets me relax at home and also sort out stuff around the house! Im 35+4 today so hope to work until im 38 weeks unless bubba makes an appearence before!

MrsS - so good to hear the pods are doing well! Also hope u've had a chance to have a nap after the early morning excitement!

Klou - Love your shopping spree! I got a born in 2011 sleepsuit with a hat as well from next :) Its sooo cute i love it!

yukana - so happy for you re the home - and the ground floor flat is perfect as well!

Rehune - Your comment re IL's made me LOL!! Thats one thing i dont hae to deal with as my IL's dont stay in the UK :)

Sorry for the loooong post ladies!

That's true MrsVidic, although I love this stage of pregnancy with the wriggly baby...I'm lucky that I seem to have nice straightforward pregnancies, it's the heat and running around after two children already that make me tired. Was feeling very slow, heavy and sweaty yesterday so grateful for this change in the weather today!