Charters Anonymous Graduates Volume 2! – No more temping!

[Iwish]

A nice cosy place to accommodate our growing bumps and little wrigglers.

I'm here and boy have I missed a lot! Haven't read everything by a long way-will catch up tomorrow. Hope everyone's well and all the babies (born and still waiting!) are happy and healthy!

I was quoted? What what what?! I don't get those emails!

I'm still here getdown! Been feeling huge and uncomfortable and sorry for myself today but also met up with an NCT friend for coffee which was good.

Half of me wants baby out now but the other half still thinks stay in cos I'm not ready!

pips not hugely exciting I'm afraid, it's just their weirdy advertising email. You and a few other quoted as recommending some product:

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish

"Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish is amazing. I had perfect skin that went absolutely haywire when I was under a lot of stress. I spent about six months trying loads of products, but when I found Cleanse & Polish my skin was back to normal within a month." Pippaandpolly

But I got excited going "ooh, I know her!"

Sorry you're feeling rubbishy MrsP. There's nothing like the discomfort of being heavily pregnant to make you game for labour. Bring. It. On. I felt like chanting at the end! Are you being hassled with the "have you had the baby/any twinges" nonsense yet?

Hello,

just a quick update as i should really get up and do some work...

Scan was fine, measuring a week ahead of what I thought though so now apparently 12+3! One wriggly baby present. :)

DS not sure what was going on, more interested in the fact that my tummy was out I think! He is only 2 and 3 weeks.... He was very well behaved though.

Congratulations jaggy!

Hey all!

getdown I can't believe you make it out for 9. Well done you! We had an appointment yesterday at 9:15. We were walking there which takes 10-15 mins. We got up at 7:30am AND WE WERE LATE!

Thanks for the link split! that's so useful. You know so much and are so helpful :)
I also saw pippas mention and thought oooh I know her lol.

mrsp I hope you enjoyed your time out with your friend. I managed to go out twice with friends before little man arrived at 37+6
Not long for you now tho so I hope you don't feel too uncomfortable.

How are you doing with your little one pippa?

Congrats jaggy!! have you told the world now?

Waves to everyone else! [hgrin]

Joshua had another fairly good night last night. Wasn't as good as the other night but definitly making progress. Also had him weighed yesterday and he's now a chunky monkey at 9lb 3oz!! He was 7lb 4oz at birth then lost 7%. Very proud of him gaining the weight, he's 4 weeks old tomorrow.
Who of you are being evil like me and dressing your LO up for Halloween? [hwink]

No probs iwish - as I said we have great support round here so it's nice to be able to pass on some of the helpful tips I got. Fantastic weight gain. Sounds similar to us. DD was 7lb7 at birth, lost 6% and was 9lb4 at 4 weeks. She was at last count 10lb6.5 at 7 weeks so not going up quite so fast now. Probably will grow fast again soon!

One of my NCT folks is going to host a halloween party and we are making a slightly lame dressing up attempt - 1 goofy bib from sainsburys with a spider on and "I'm scarily cute" on the front [hblush]

Hey all

Congratulations jaggy! Excellent news and it must be a relief to tell people. [hgrin] It doesn't seem like 5 minutes since I was telling people my news, the time has gone by soooo fast. And I also can't believe that it's time to post Halloween smileys again! [hshock]

Not being hassled too much by daft people yet spilt, it seems that the people I know are quite sensible. There's still time though......

I have just started noticing my braxton hicks in the last couple of days. I had one whilst the MW was poking me in the belly and I told her that I hadn't been feeling them and she reckoned this was a good sign as in theory my body will be able to progress fairly easily through the early stage of labour. I guess we will wait and see how true that is!

Hello everybody else, lovely to read your updates on your babies. Can't wait until I'm holding mine!

Not long to wait MrsP! She will be here before you know it!

We've had a couple of good nights in a row. Basically involving feeding DS till he is bursting in the late evening! Have been feeding him about 8ish, putting him down, then waking him again at 10:30 for another feed, followed by a bottle of expressed, which I pumped in the morning! This seems to enable him to sleep for 6 hours straight which makes such a difference. Fed at 5am this morning and then went back to sleep, so that was only 1 night feed! Yay. Of course, this will probably all go to pot in a few days

Hope everyone else is doing well. I seem to be chasing my tail in terms of general getting things done. The place is a tip! Ah well.

Hi!!!!

Been away for so long and look what happens - loads of babies arrive! It is so lovely to read about all of your newborns and how you are all getting on. And hi to fellow bumps too!

All is ok with me. 25 weeks now, and starting to feel it. Measuring the size of a 32 week singleton pregnancy apparently, feeling every inch!

Apart from that all is well, still keeping in good health, no problems atall. Main thing is all the work we have to do before they arrive. 2 rooms to gut, clear out and redecorate and not bought a single thing for the babies, just hoping I don't deilver too early or we will never be ready. Started my four day weeks at work this week, off this Friday. This is part of my wind down to mat leave. Hoping it will help me feel less tired. They are kicking away like mad. Signed up for NCT classes which start in a few weeks, quite looking forward to them. Still don't know for certain our flavours - could be 2 boys, could be one of each. Find out for certain at my 28 week scan - 3 weeks today. Put on 8kg as at last Weds.

Really hope everyone is doing well.

Hello Raven so glad to hear things are going well and huge congrats to jaggy for a good scan :)

I am 35+6 and so far so good, nothing to report. Am lurching between having days where I feel constantly sick and can't eat to days where I am ravenous but eat a few bites and feel full. I think bump is in the process of dropping but is not engaged so keeps going up and down in the uterus! Night times are especially hard. If I eat too close to bedtime I wake up feeling sick and am awake for about an hour but if i time it too early, I wake huungry. Can't win.

So far so good for the HB though and to my delight my blood pressure is spot on (120 over 70), which was not the case with DD.

The baby had a massive growth spurt at the weekend and I am now feeling a bit more of the strain. I swear the bump was expanding before my eyes! Finish work 2 weeks on Thursday. Working from home though so about to have lunch and have a nap on the sofa :)
Anyone remember Folic from the charters thread? She got her bfp about a week after me and her waters went on yesterday so I think she's on track!

Yawn. Off for nap.

Wow raven it seems like last week you had your scan and had the thread jittering with excitement about TWINS! How much longer are you planning to work for? Sounds like you are doing great. I hope you get a good group at NCT. I enjoyed the course (though I knew most of it already from MN but very good for educating DH) and had a lovely group and we now go for lunch once a week with the babies.

Fab about your bp MrsA, you must be very relaxed!

Yay for Folic, let us know the news So chuffed to hear Caz and Xander got through the birth safe and well - I've nattered to her a fair bit on the bereavement threads and follow her lovely blog. My heart was in my mouth when she threatened another prem labour,nothing to how terrified they must have been though.

Whoop for sleep GetDown. Life is so much easier when you get those few hours of uniterrupted rest.

Well DD is now 10lb11!! No wonder my arms get tired... She's got her first jabs on Friday [hsad] it will be horrible. But nothing like as horrible as watching the paedeatric nurse making a right hash of taking a blood sample from the back of her hands when she was 2 weeks old. Hacked one to bits and then tried the other after failing entirely to get blood out of the first. DD was howling and going purple, DH had to hold her down and I was waiting, trembling, boob out ready to comfort her the second the brutal witch nurse finished. Her hands were black and blue for the next 3 weeks. I felt so guilty.

Having a lovely cuddle just now. Sleeping babies are sooo snuggly

Hello ladies, just a quickie to say that Abigail Charlotte arrived yesterday at 3.12 pm weighing 8lb exactly. Totally in love!

yay MrsP! congratulations. :) :)

Yaaay! Well done MrsP and a big congratulations and a kiss for little Abigail! Welcome

Aw huge congrats MrsP well done you and welcome to the world Abigail. :)

Congrats mrsp! Welcome to the world Abigail. Hope you enjoy lots of cuddles with her x

Just found out that Folic's had her baby. From the Nov antenatal thread:

'I've heard from Folic and have basic details. They are still in hospital, hence the indirect news.

So Folic had a little boy on Tuesday night born at 37+2 weeks so still in neo natal but he is an excellent weight of 7lb 2oz. He managed a breast feed today (wed) so all sounds positive. They are both shattered and a bit shocked - I don't have details other than it wasn't a chilled night!

Can't wait to hear from you Folic hope you are home soon.'

Great news MrsP! Well done! Can't wait to hear your birth story, but as and when you are ready. So we have two babies born on the same day, with Folic's little boy too!

Congrats Mrs P!

Congrats Mrs P!

I have finally done my birth story, apologies in advance for the mammoth length

It all started last Sunday when I decided to go for quite a long walk, determined to set something off. I also ate a massive dinner and DH commented on how quickly I ate it. I also just felt generally out of sorts and went to bed with my fingers crossed that this was it!

I had a few mild contractions during the night but not enough for me to ask DH not to go to work. However at 11am on Monday my waters broke. I rang DH to let him know and we agreed that he would still stay at work but then half an hour later I had a show. As it would take DH two and a half hours to get home I decided that actually I did want him there so he set off.

My contractions continued to get stronger all day long and I couldn?t eat much dinner. By about 9pm DH decided he was going to ring the birthing centre, partly just to let them know about my waters breaking which then meant they wanted us to go in. They confirmed that my waters had gone and therefore they would like the baby to be out within 96 hours, and that they would book an induction for me on Wednesday morning. As I was doing hypnobirthing this was something I would prefer to avoid but I stayed calm using my breathing techniques and we went home at about 2am. By 5.30am things were getting intense so we went back to the birthing centre but not before I had shut myself in the toilet saying that I couldn?t do another car journey! I eventually pulled myself together and got in the car and off we went, with me muttering about pain relief ? I didn?t care about hypnobirthing anymore!

However, once we arrived and found them running the pool for me, my relaxation kicked back in. DH put on my relaxing music and lights and I was given Lucozade as my wee showed my body was breaking down too much energy (or something like that) and I carried on with breathing through all my contractions. After 4 hours the MW wanted to get me out of the pool as she was concerned that despite all I had drunk I couldn?t do a wee plus she wanted to do an examination to see how I was doing. I had to have a catheter and oh my word what a relief!!!!! It also turned out I was fully dilated and she could feel the head so it was time to push.

I got back in the pool and was there for a good couple of hours before we decided it just wasn?t working. My contractions were too far apart which meant the baby kept going back up every time I pushed her down. So we decided to try pushing on the toilet (!) as the birthing stool wasn?t available. Contractions came much faster and harder and I made a little bit of progress here before moving into the ?flat out on the bed? position which did the trick, and after a total of 3 hours of pushing, Abigail entered the world and immediately started crying.

I also had a second degree tear which was stitched up and is healing very nicely.

Overall it was the birth that I was hoping for and I am so happy and proud and also proud of my DH as I couldn?t have done it without him.

Congratulations, MrsP. So pleased you got the birth you wanted.

Sorry I haven't been around much. I have been lurking a bit but not finding the time to post and my crap top was broken and at menders for a while and hard to post from phone. We are all good here though. DD is 3 months old now and an absolute darling. She's very smiley, sleeps well, waits patiently for everything. I feel very lucky as DS was rather a high needs baby! It's her first ever night in her cot tonight as she is really too big for the moses basket now so we have had to rearrange the entire bedroom to fit it in. But she went down like a dream - I put rolled up towels under the sheet down either side of her to make it more like a cosy nest and seem more familiar and seems to have worked. Will work up to removing these and putting her in a sleeping bag as still wrapped in a blanket now.

DS has settled down quite a lot although still has days when he really pushes my buttons. Have things improved any for you on that front, Nix?

I can't believe you are so pregnant Raven - time really is flying! So exciting.

Congratulations on the scan, Jaggy.

Waves to Spilt, Getdown, MrsA and everyone else I've missed (sorry).

Sounds like all the babies are doing really well and growing nicely. Funny to think it was about this time last year I was frantically temping, shagging and obsessing about the texture of cervical fluid .

Lovely birth story mrsp!

Glad your dd is doing do well lady. Hope my DS does do well at her age. He is 5 weeks now and is fairly good but has his moments.

Tmi question for you all.... Those of you who had a tear and stitches, how long did you wait to dtd? I had a 3rd degree tear with stitches, DS is now 5 weeks and we havnt dtd yet. [hblush]

I have put some new piccies up of him too [hsmile]

Aaaw iwish he's a beauty! Love their little scrunched up sleeping faces

MrsP lovely birth story, well done. I completely empathise with the "oh God, don't make me get in the car!" feeling mid-labour! Also with the "f*ck hypnobirthing, this hurts, where are the DRUGS??!" moment

Hello lady Wow, 3 months already. I bet she is enormous now if mine is anything to go by. Can't believe she fitted inside me only 9 weeks ago.

iwish re dtd... I had one small first degree tear and grazes but no stitches and we have only dtd twice so far, first time was when she was about 5-6 weeks old. I was Scared. It was ok, but a bit sore and we just had to take it slowly, plenty of lube and were prepared to abandon if needs be. Don't worry about it until you feel ready for it. No sense in doing something if it hurts.

I have had a crap mummy day. Lots of night waking last night which resulted in me and DH Having Words at about 4.30am, just before DD vomited all over me. Then this morning she did the most horrific poo (3 days since last poo, so just imagine the quantity and overflow...) which I retched over. Whilst she was barebottomed and finally clean and about to be re-nappied she peed everywhere... And then she's been quite grizzly and I have officially had enough. Oh and it rained on my washing that was nearly dry I very nearly bundled us both into the car to go and turn up on my parents' doorstep and cry, but decided I needed to grow up and deal with this myself. Just been a hard day really and I am counting the minutes until DH gets home and can take over with her for a bit. Not long now!
Oh and the cats have decided anything baby is fabulous . They are both now curled up on the changemat and have been turfed out of the pram, cot, clean laundry today.
Pic of them in moses basket on profile, along with some baby pics too.

But aside from my grump (!) I love her to bits. She is so beautiful it makes my heart melt. I am so proud of me and DH, can't quite believe we made her!

And to lower the tone of the thread somewhat...
I had a terrifying dream a couple of nights ago. I dreamt I'd just got a BFP and was due around DD's first birthday. Obviously this horrified me as when I woke up I'd wet myself