We're now halfway and it's PMA all the way - Nov 2011

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Halfway there now ladies. on the countdown.

Happy Birthday Cali :)

Good news on everyone's scans and I hope that those not feeling great are feeling better.

Had a meeting with personnel today and because of the way my annual leave works out it looks like I only have 21 days left at work :) got my 20 week scan tomorrow and have to admit I am slightly scared.

cookie The placenta cannot move, but as the uterus grows the position it is in can change in comparison to everything else. So it may have grown in the front but as your uterus got bigger, that part of uterus moved to the back and took the placenta with it.

All of mine labours thus far have been back-to-back (with one coming out that way), so I can't tell you if they are harder, but I managed all three naturally -- two were home births without any pain relief - and I'm the type to scream at leg cramps. Anterior placenta are at no higher risk of causing problems than posterior ones, the only issue is if it is low.

sorry to rant BUT:

Today started badly & had just got worse :( was in tears before I left the house, & all the way into work!! If it wasn't for us being short I would've come straight home...one of the nurses I work with is incompetent at thinking for herself & after the millionth time of saying "I don't know" I ended up in tears!! Four of my visits were support visits, difficult at the best of times but barely coped as all I wanted to do was cry :( but I got through it, JUST

Then I get home...I wasked DP to hang out the washing so I could iron my & DS's uniforms & it is all still sat in the machine, the kitchen is a state so will need tidying before I even consider what's for tea!! So after more tears I message DP, to be told where he'd planned to go with his bro they didn't end up doing so he was at home even longer than I thought he was & that he now wants to spend Friday out with his brother instead but it's the only day we've both had off with DS in school to do something just the 2 of us!!!

So I'm in an even worse mood now & have to pick up DS & entertain him til bedtime (I'd much rather just sleep)

I've had a few good weeks & was begining to think feeling this low was behind me & has come as a bit of a shock today...almost feel worse than before :( will have to see how things go...

Bump after such a bad day could you treat yourself to a takeaway? put your feet up and have a cup of tea before thinking about doing anything.

Many thanks notjustkangaskan knew it could move upwards but not front to back.

Great news with all the recent scans.

Christopher kicking me so hard belly is jumping. Wondering if the fruit tart I scoffed earlier is giving him a sugar rush!

Bump, I'm sorry its been a tough day. I have a lot of low days too, and just keep having to remind myself that not ALL the days are low days, that tomorrow might be a high one. But take it easy on yourself, you dont need to do an amazing job on the kitchen or the laundry. We dont even own an iron and it hasnt killed us!
I had an ok morning at work but then a bit of a rough afternoon with various things and now feel like having a good chat/whine and a cuddle with my partner but obviously have to do all the dinner and playing and bedtime etc for my son first. Tired. Scan tomorrow. Reached that point of being more scared than excited now. Want the time to just hurry up!
For some reason this thread has dissappeared from the "i'm on" list - I am hoping posting now will make it reappear.

Been a bit low but just had the snowsuit and Santa suit I ordered delivered and have gone all mushy! Am a little worried wondering how something that fits these is going to come out of me however.

Sorry its been a tough one Bump!

Aww cookie where did you get them from?

Moosey and others you little stars - thank you!!! That canboli one looks spot on, it's sold out on love it, love it, love it but it's given me a product to search for. And I know, who would have thought it would be so bloomin' difficult to find a yellow sleepsuit. If in doubt I'll buy some Dylon, I'm contemplating dyeing some of DS's old sleepsuits purple anyway.
Bump my lovely what a horrid, horrid day. I've been there with low moods and the temptation is forever to attribute bad days etc to how you're feeling. Sometimes however you could be the happiest person on the planet and just have a crappy, crappy day. That sounds like today, so try not to take it too much to heart and worry about how well you're doing mentally, anyone would be feeling in bits after a relentless day like that. Hope you're having a recoup and that tomorrow is much better.
Me, I'm just being hideously grouchy with DS, I must try harder.

Bump what a rotten day! I had a day like that last week where just nothing seemed to go right - was in tears before I even got on the train to go to work, held it in all day and then had a shitty shitty evening letting it all out.

MrsA glad the scan went OK. Mine was fine too! We are... team blue! :o
It's no surprise as every child born in DH's family for 3-4 generations has been a boy. Apparently they just don't produce girls. Now to think about names...

Everything got spotted and measured (although I defy anybody to spot kidneys - those sonographers must just know what they're looking for!) and I think we're still bang on 20 weeks. Will post scan photo on fb once DH has scanned it in.

Saw the consultant as well who was reassuring about me being in the very edge of the "fat girl" limit. She's not that worried about me but I'm being a good girl and doing what I'm told.

Oh Bump - give DP a kick from me. How unsupportive! Hope you had a better evening.

I spent my birthday with cake, flowers, cards (one from Sprout!), then Trafford centre for baby shopping, phone shopping, food and movie. It's been an amazing day. We saw Transformers 3 in 3D, so much fun. Sprout woke up from the loud noises and kicked exitedly at them.

The hospital called back though, iron and thyroxin is low and the consultant wants to see me. Oh well, they spotted it and it's treatable!

Hey all.

bump your day sounds terrible, hope tomorrow is a little better.

I'm ok, thank you all. It has been a draining few days, but sorting things.

Scan tomorrow so will let you know which team.

Hope everyone has a better second half of the week x

Cali Happy belated birthday, glad you had a lovely day.

Pam Pleased to hear your gall bladder is behaving a bit better.

Never Good luck with scan today

Bump Hope you have a great day today to make up for yesterday

Busy I had my scan yesterday too at 21+3 so are we due date buddies?? Mine is 13th Nov.

The scan went well. The sonographer wasn't as chatty as the one we had for 12 week scan but everything looks fine so that's good enough for me. She measured the head three times so I asked if there was something wrong but she just said the head was in a difficult position to scan but it looked quite large. After a few more measures she said it was in the range of normal so not to worry but when I looked at the printout of my scan info it is right at the top end of the 'normal' scale so a little worried about getting it out!

I saw my sis-in-law later who told me all the babies in their family have been large, eeek.

We got quite a good view of the babies face and saw it open its mouth and stick tongue out which was brilliant. I also get a 32 week scan at Kings as standard to check on growth which is great as I wasn't expecting it. Mind you, it means having to resist temptation to find out the sex again as we decided to have a surprise!

So, today is moving house day, hence I woke up at 5am unable to sleep because I'm stressing about it. DH has been brilliant and packed the whole house and we have removals people coming to do the actual move so should be fine but I won't really relax and until we're all in later today. Fingers crossed all money transfers when it should etc and there's no hiccups.

Hope everyone else has a good day.

Had a lovely moment last night with DH and Xander. DH was lying on my tummy and talking to him and told him he wanted to feel a proper boot in the face and some kicks now and not just a wriggly little flutters he's been feeling up until now. Almost as if on demand Xander gave him a massive kick in the face. I know it is a co-incidence and probably just because of the weight of DH's face on him, but what a good little boy! Made DH's night and he was almost crying. A mixture of wow that's my boy and remembering the things he used to do with Belle too. She used to kick him in the face when he talked to her. Ah everything is so bittersweet.

Morning all. Caz, I think you've done such an amazing job of taking Belle into your lives and keeping her with you and carving already a seperate, unique identity for Xander. I can imagine this whole process stirs up so much for you all the time, you both must be very resourceful, courageous people. I dont really have a point, to be honest, just kind of wanted to acknowledge what a lot of emotional work you must be doing all the time, while still saying so open to loving Xander and not being too deterred by the difficult stuff.
Well, I had a very wakefull night. Didnt help that I was starving and being starving still makes me feel queasy and I also think I may have had a cow's four stomachs worth of gas trapped and guggling about in there. But turns out I am suprisingly stressed by the scan today. I am quite the catastrophiser to be honest, so its not suprsing. Still, we booked DS's first flight for next week last night! All the way to the channel islands! We used to do so much travelling, and i just assumed we would carry that on with kids, its part of what I want to give them I guess, but then my son turned up and suddenly a trip to Dorset seems ambitous, bordering on impossible. Maybe we'll get back on the horse so to speak when this one is big enough not to need all the masses of equipment we seem to take everywhere we go. Wish we'd just gone ahead and got pets, our new lifestyle would finally suit them!

H007 got them in the mothercare sale. Thank heavens for online shopping as still housebound. Looking forward to the green baby delivery.

Caz I love the kick story. Sander is obviously a bright boy!

Cali your birthday sounds fun. Glad baby enjoyed the film!

Great to hear about the new scans and good luck to those having today. Have ordered a hypnobirthing cd from amazon which hopefully will help keep me calm during the birth.

Lots of my summer clothes don't fit so if anyone has seen a nice cotton or linen summer skirt please let me know.

Hit send too soon. Just starting raised a good point re travel with children. My fil lives in italy. Any recommendations on what age would be good to fly with Christopher? We would normally go just after Christmas but won't be this year.

I was talking about travel to my friend yesterday. I am determined (and probably deluded) that travel will still be part of our lives as soon as I can comfortably move about. She said that she flew with her DS in a sling (just a 1.5 hr flight) when he was a couple of months and he was fine.

It really depends on the DC I guess and how easily upset they are.

Good luck scanees today!

When people said to me "flying with them when they are tiny is much easier than later on" I thought they were, well, confused. A little odd. But in retrospect, those months when we were breastfeeding and he was entertained by very little and wasnt the little free agent he is now would have been MUCH easier for any kind of trip than where we are now with a free roaming, easily bored creature who still cant manage normal grown up food or use a toilet. I think those first two months (ok, I know I had a lot of problems in the first two months, but even without them) were too hard to do anything but exist, but I wish we'd had the confidence to break the flying abroad barrier at maybe three to five months.
Doesnt life change. I have got out the shower and had to come downstairs to find my bra, having discarded it on the sofa. Sadly, this is not the result of a night of passion, but of heartburn and bloating. Nor is said bra the kind one might not mind being seen by anyone dropping in, but is in fact one of only two giant unstylish bras which currently fit me. I mean, obviously my giant boobs would be far more attractive without the bra. You know, were it not for the scratch marks rippling accross them due to the insane itchiness!

Mash glad your scan went well. FX the head isn't too big! And good luck to Never for today.

I love your kicking story Caz Hope he'll be that obident when it come to sleeping.

Lol to just and your bra. Boobs have a new use now! Let's hope they don't get too much bigger in fear of just strapping hammocks to you!

Take that were fab last night and we managed to get a seat so no back ache for me. But my voice is suffering now.
It's Raining loads down here. Might go shopping today as I need a bra fitting and new knickers or may put it off until rain lets up. Now there's a bagel with my name on it in the kitchen. Nom.

Thanks ladies for your support, still not feeling 100% today but not been intears so much today :) was supposed to be going to DS's sports day this afternoon but it's been cancelled due to the weather...still left work early rthough so will spend some time relaxing

Yay for good scan news, fx'd for more

With travel & LOs: I took DS abroad when 5months old just prior to finishing mat leave & apart from carrying him round the airport at the other end until we got the pushchair back, it was the easiest holiday I've taken him on :) we haven't had a holiday abroad for 3yrs so plan to do so whilst on Mat leave when baby is about 5months again!!

Scan looking ok - they couldnt see everything cause it was lying breach but they seemed happy enough they had seen what they needed too. LOOKS like a girl but they were very non-committal. Basically, looks like a girl with a giant swollen clitoris, hence a bit unclear. Got the three white lines and a protrusion! But no testicals. I did ask if it could be both but apparently that hardly ever happens that people have both sets of external organs. Funny how as I asked I realised how non-catastrophic that would be to me. It would definitely make for difficulties, I see that, but I had no sense of "oh no!" And yet when she was struggling to see if both bones of one arm were there I was much more fearful. Funny what we can imagine ourselves coping with and what we can imagine ourselves struggling with.
Anyway, so, all looks ok, and I reckon they were right on the girl front.

bump Glad you're feeling better today!

Well, after a great b-day, today just turned out to be hell. Car clamped, not able to go to work, my Symphysis pubis seems to have given up completely and I've been crying and eating left over cake most of the morning.
PMA: Scan tomorrow morning! Yay! I get to see my lovely Sprout again! Hopefully we'll know if it's a boy or girl!

So, my helpful friend emailed me this list of "essentials" for baby - as I'm a first timer I have no clue what to get! Looked through and was quite pleased to see it's not overly bedecked with "cot bumpers" and other useless stuff you find in Mamas & Papas...

Stuff:
Nursing table/mat
Nappies
Washcloths
Baby oil
Handtowels (cheap IKEA ones)
Bath
Car seat
Pram
Mattress for pram
Blanket/pillow for pram
Nursing bag
Sling
Toys
Cotbed
Mattress for cotbed
Sheets for cotbed
Cotton cotblanket
Baby monitor

Clothes:
4 x body
4 x pyjamas
4 x trousers
4 x socks
Hat
Outdoor hat
Cardigan
Overall for walks
Outdoor Mittens
Outdoor booties

What do you guys think?

cali we had a change mat but no table. We also had one of those temperature eggs showed at a glance if room too hot or cold for baby. When you say body do you mean the vests? or tops? there's always 2 layers at least, a vest a bodysuit and then depending how cold it is a cardigan.

bump i don't blame you for being upset i would have been as well without a doubt. It's my birthday tomorrow and i specifically told dh that his friend is not allowed round at all tomorrow afternoon, (he's almost always here. lovely bloke but i would like some fridays and sundays on our own.)

More great scan news just. Team pinkish for you then.
Thanks for the list Cali. Now we've had our 20w scan I feel it's time to start buying stuff. We've bought nothing so far and it is a minefield as to what to get as we're first timers too. That list looks pretty complete.
What do you mean by nursing table? A changing table maybe. Sorry I'm being dumb (no change there)

I was on another forum for first timers and those that had popped already recommended to buy a set of bottles and some fomular as although she wanted to breast feed it wasn't working out straight away and discovered at 3 in the morning they needed to top baby up with fomular and didn't have any. She said better to have some and not use it then be in that situation.