October 2011 Baby Bus... PART 4

[happymummytobe]

A new thread for the bus!

I didn't get any nesting energy last time, sadly, not expecting to this time either - just to get more and more and more tired from broken sleep... I am a little obsessive about this subject (!) but how many toilet trips do you ladies have to make per night? I average three but recall it gets worse

I sleep probably equally on right or left but a few times a week wake to find I'm lying flat out on my front. I don't like it as I worry the cord could be compressed (whether that's a realistic worry or not I don't know), but it does sometimes seem to be the only way I can sleep.

I have borrowed a dreamgenii pillow from a friend and amazingly (having thought it would probably be rubbish) I do find it helps to get a good night's sleep. Wouldn't pay £45 for it though.

Very grey and pretty cold here today - I expect we'll get rain later - oh, the British summer!

Oh god, the sleeping is a nightmare. Have got a dreamgenii too, courtesy of lovely DH who was trying to help me sleep. It does help a bit as I am trying to sleep on my left, but I have started also putting a pillow behind my back to stop me rolling on to my back. I reckon I get up about 2-3 times a night to pee, and at the moment also wake every 10 minutes to have a coughing fit as I have a chest infection, which is great!
Feel reeeeeeeaaally tired, and wish the next 6 weeks of work was over! Have got loads to do before I go off, but am so ineffective in afternoons as I get really sleepy! Lovely rain here today too: maybe that will cool the rioters down anyway!
xx

Hello all,

Ds now fine although we have had several more screaming episodes which convince us he has appendicitis, but the doctor reckons it is swollen glands in his stomach. Or could be wind related because of his reflux past. Will have to wait and see. He did sleep through again last night, which was a relief, as he has always been a good sleeper since about 5 months, thanks to his reflux meds. Trying to remember what we did to make him a good sleeper in the hope that it will work again on the new one but those early months are such a blur! He's been a bit unlucky health wise with a few hospital visits for asthma-type attacks and pneumonia, but considering how early he was we have been lucky really.

Nursery now sorted - I can see why those of you with delaying relatives are getting annoyed, I've been desperate to get it all done. We now have various other house disasters taking up time which are annoying me more. Just warn them the baby may come early and then you'd be in a pickle!

Sleep is a pain at the mo - I am so big already and am already struggling to turn over. I'm sleeping on my side and get some hip pain now too, although shoving a pillow under my bump or between my knees helps a bit.

Wobbles - your cakes sound great, and making me want to bake. I never get chance as my dh does the baking in our house - I apparently don't have the patience. Probably true!

We are having a girl and think name is sorted, but we've changed our minds three times already, so it could change again. Like you we found it easy last time but find girls names much harder.

Sorry for long post, better go and find some way of drying my washing in the rain!

Oh, and twice a night for pee!
Hope your chest infection clears up soon rebel.

I'm currently only waking once a night to wee. Usually at 5:30. I'm really bad at remembering to drink though, I always have been, so there's probably slight dehydration issues.

Names, we've probably picked a girls name, Anya. We've been thinking of the same name for months and neither of us hate it yet. It goes well with DD's name. With DD though I loved her name, it's very unusual and it has a lot of meaning for us... this name is just one we like.
Boy's names. I still want Seth, (have for 4 years) DH still hates it. We can't seem to find a compromise.

We're meant to be going camping tomorrow, but not in this weather... I'm feeling Big this week though so wouldn't be too upset if we had to cancel.

I bought the first things for my hospital bag today. Finally!!! Some maternity pads. The breast pads weren't on offer.
I'm now about to scour ebay for some cheap lansinoh cream, there were some really good deals last time I looked.

Cheeky glad DS is on the mend!

I am peeing 4+ times a night but one of the babies is sat on my bladder and just causing me gyp - but then I am also VERY thirsty in the night time and drinking a bottle of water a night!!!

I didn't get the nesting thing wither last time, in fact the opposite - I ripped out our bathroom as it was annoying me and DS was born with no running water or toilet in the house!

We still don't have any boys names - DH joked yesterday that if we have two boys there will be war in our house - not from the kids but from me and him fighting over names. Girls we have sorted - well we have 5 we love so will be able to pick one no problem!

I am loving the rain and cool weather! makes everything so much more comfortable. Think I may have scared my midwife with the potential early labour on Sunday as after my appointment on Monday have been inundated with calls from the community midwife to come and visit me and sort out my birth plan! .

Cheshire - I love the Christmas markets - but will definitely be glad to do Christmas shopping in week days so I am not rushing around late night shopping or on the weekends battling with the crowds to pick everything up!

Rebel - hope you feel better soon x

Hello!
31 weeks today!
It's been ages since I've had a chance to get on here! Work was crazy and then we had lots of visitors from overseas, but now I am officially on summer break and we have the house back to ourselves. I'm also in today waiting for a delivery (the cot and changing table!)
I'm trying to catch up on as much of the thread as possible...
rebelwithoutababy, CheshireDing bilblio and BB3 I also have a low lying placenta, scan on September 13th, fingers crossed they've all moved up!
happymumtobe i don't know if it's still on, but jojo maman bebe had a sale and I got a couple of BF tops for £5 each
edwardorericcantdecide those bounty photos are adorable! my hospital is listed, but how can i be sure they don't miss us?
wobbles and ferino welome to the bus!
emmazed i'm on iron as well, meant to take 2 a day, but tbh i only ever remember to take in the morning

The nursery is starting to come together! We went to ikea a couple of weeks ago and bought a book shelf and dresser. The cot, changing table and wall stickers have arrived (while I was catching up on MN) and so we just need to choose a crib and then get loads of little stuff and we'll be ready :)

I've never had a drink at the Christmas markets. :( We always go during the day, one of the perks of shift work. The first time I went I was BFing, it was one of the first times I left DD at home with DH and I was anxious to get back. The next year I was with MIL, and the 3rd year it was so Flipping Cold, then the zip on my coat broke, I ended up buying another, but then had to carry that too. I couldn't find anything to get as presents so got really annoyed and came home.
Oh and I'd seen cheese soup which I'd really wanted to try the year before... but the year I needed something warming they didn't have it!

I'll probably be BFing again this time so I think I'll just resist temptation and not bother going.

Camping is off for this weekend, too much rain :( I think we're going to go to Manchester Museum instead. I suspect the tent will be left packed away for a couple of years now.

monkeybubbles
I think you can email bounty to find out if they're only there on certain days, even if you miss them you can email them and arrang to go back into hospital to have a pic taken (they're packages are so reasonable) they said to me that I can try taking a pic myself and email it to them and still take advantage of their offer but not sure if I could manage such a beautiful pic.
I think the hospitals are quite accommodating to them as they donate o hospital for every pic taken.

Hi all,

Thanks for the welcomes! So, to update - we don't know what we're having as we thought we'd (and everybody else would!) stay a bit calmer if it was a surprise. We can't think of a name we like for either sex yet so it could be a post-labour possibly drug-influenced catastrophe if we don't get a move on!
Penguin, glad to have found somebody with the same due date - ticking off the weeks at the same time!

5 weeks left at work, which can't go by quickly enough. I'm really shattered at the minute. Sleep comes and goes but, having read your experiences, I'm counting my blessings at only being up to the loo once a night. I'm generally going at between 3 and 4 am. Last night I made it to 6.20, which was disappointing as the alarm goes off at 6.45!

I downloaded some hypno-birth MP3s the other day so I might give them a go tonight. Are any of you going down that route? It'd be good to hear what you make of it.

Haven't bought a single thing for the baby yet (procrastinating) but we're getting quite a lot given to us by friends, which is great. Some others are coming round at the weekend and bringing their Bugagboo Bee for us to have a go at and see if it's the one we want to buy - the choice on every single thing is a bit overwhelming, isn't it?!

Gosh ladies DH and I went to our first NHS Parentcraft class run by the Midwives tonight. If we had not read a couple of books before hand and been on our Hypnobirthing I would be pooping my pants now. I swear the Midwife said the word pain between 40-50 times in the session which was about one hour 40 long. They just talked about the jab in the thigh afterwards and until I said that I thought I had read you can try the breast feeding which should help the placenta come out she still even said after that "yes you can try that but you might be really tired and just want the injection"

I'm no raving hyppie but I am not looking forward to next weeks which is about complications, apparently tonight was supposed to be a light hearted session.

I will probably faint next week!

Hi everyone. This is my first post here, thought I did post on the October stats thread back in July. I am 32 weeks with #3 (though no 1 for DH) and am going for a growth scan and other appointments later today.

Am posting here something I've already posted over on childbirth, in case anyone on the October bus has experience of using a doula/is a doula:

"Have just found out that DH has organised his work schedule so I can't guarantee he will be reliably on call for the full two weeks before/two weeks after my EDD. I am thinking of trying at this late stage (32 weeks) to organise a doula. How much do they cost? Can they guarantee to be on call throughout those full 4 weeks (how can they -- presumably more than one of their clients might be in labour at the same time?)?

Any advice welcome. Can't face labour alone. V p'd off at DH."

Hi and welcome back meravigliosa. I think you can go to doula.org.uk to arrange doulas and they should be able to answer your questions. My hypnobirthing practitioner, and some others I have seen, also offer to be available for labour at a cost of about £50. Hope that helps a bit.

Cheshire yikes about the Parentcraft. I'm no hippy either (I'm a doctor!) but I think all this scaremongering is rubbish. We're not stupid, we know it's not painfree, but it doesn't help to focus on that. I'm so glad we're doing the hypnobirthing now. Also, I've been reading Childbirth Without Fear, which is a really old book (from the 1950s) by an obstetrician trying to change views about over-medicalising childbirth and making women feel that they don't know how to do it, rather than trusting their bodies. I'm very much of the opinion that I would welcome medical intervention if needed to protect my child and myself from harm, but why not start from the perspective that we can do it ourselves, and offer that help if needed, instead of assuming that we can't do it?!

Ferino, as you may have guessed from the above, me and Cheshire* and a couple of others on this thread are doing hypnobirthing, although my classes don't start until September, but I have only heard good things from other friends who have done it, so I am really looking forward to it.

My chest infection is still crap, so I am going to leave work early today: DH is away for a few days, so I am going to make the most of my empty house as it will probably be for the last time for a very long time! Think I will get a chick flick on video, and a chinese take away! Hope you all have nice weekends planned
xx

oops, sorry about all the heavy type then! Stupid computers! xx

i'm getting the hypnobirthing book and cd (can't afford classes)
sorry about your DH meravigliosa i'd be furious too.

i'm doing a 10hour shift at work today and its killing me!! still got till 6pm to go, my job is truly soul destroying.

on the plus side, my mat leave has been approved to be brought forward so i finish 4 weeks today

Ferino i am doing natal hypnotherapy (the brit version of hypno birthing). just started the CDs and the book. we have the class at the begining of Sept. i figure if it helps at all then it is worth the money. got my CDs from ebay so they were v cheap.

we had names (2 to choose from after we have met him) but i have gone off one, and my dh has gone off the other, so it is back to square one. at least we know it is a boy so dont need to think about girls names as well!

Hey ladies

merav sorry for name shortening am on the train home on my phone and cant scroll down to get the spelling right! welcome back - there's a chance my DH won't be at the birth of these babies either he is probably going to Norway for September and if CS / induction is booked in he can fly back for the day but if I go into labour before then I'm pretty screwed!

I'm not going to get much say on the birth i dont think - will be cs or induction with epidural and in surgery. The whole thing feels completely out of my control and I wish someone would give me some clearer answers on everything! I've got 32 week scan on Tuesday and am hoping someone will provide some answers for me then but my consultant is a bit of a nightmare so don't think he will!

God I'm feeling awful today really really emotional - DH and I aren't getting on (he's stressed with work, I'm tired and trying to help but turns out I'm not helping), DS is clearly starting to worry about the change and is getting really clingy and I hate not being able to be there for him. Im not feeling great (bit chesty and coldy) and I'm sat on train home from london just wanting to burst into tears I don't know what's wrong with me!

I've got so much to do tonight too and I just want to curl up in bed and hide from it all!

So sorry for the crappy me post, I'll snap out of it soon hope everyone is ok xxxx

Hello Everyone :)

Is anyone else confused about buying cot mattresses?
Whilst of course we want our LO to be as comfortable and cozy as possible, it does make me feel slightly queasy when I see cot mattresses for 150 quid!

What do you think is the most important thing to look for in a mattress? Any advice out there?

Hope you're all well. I'm 30+3 and suffering with sore ribs! Excited in a tired/nervous/irritated/uncomfortable way!

Jane X

Hi Jane, yep, I was massively confused about mattresses last time. Thankfully our choice was limited because we used the cot me and my brother had (and about 11 other babies due to my Mum being a child minder.) It's slightly longer and narrower than modern cots.

I know we got ours from Mothercare, but I've just looked at what they have and I'm confused all over again, I can't work out which it is.
I know it was about £80 and it was recommended for children with allergies, which thankfully DD doesn't appear to have, but I do, so we thought we'd best be cautious.
The top also zips off so you can wash that section, it dries really quickly, and the layer underneath is waterproof. That feature was a godsend when we all had D&V! I think it's a sprung one.
DD was always very happy in it.

I've just realised you're meant to buy a new mattress for each baby aren't you? Or have I made that up?

I would say spend extra if you have a cot bec as they will last longer and get more support as a toddler, if you just have a cot and will move them to a bed as a toddler then dont spend as much but tbh I think £150 is way too much regardless

rebel hope you're chest is better.
Edward yay for only four weeks
bb3 hope you're feeling better?
And Jane and Bilblio I've just ordered a mattress from Tesco, much as I hate spending money with them they have 25% off everything nursery at the moment and had loads of stuff from out list so we did the first shopping for the nursery although have no nursery to put it in yet!
I'm still ill it's been over a week now with sore throat and sinus infection but no wonder really it's been very full on this week with my nana, culminating with a phone call at 2.30am on Thursday morning and a dash to get to her bedside as she'd taken a turn for the worse. Sadly she passed away about 6am. The blessing is it was peaceful and we were all with her and she hasn't had to suffer for long but selfishly I wish she'd been able to meet this LO.
I have two days off in a row the only time all summer so going to concentrate on resting and making sure this baby is ok. Xx

bilibio and edwardorEric - thank you! zip off top layer makes sense..think I'll def look out for that.
Yes I think you are meant to buy a new mattress for each child, but I'm not sure why...
15o way too much for me, think I'll look around the 60-80 mark...getting a bit worried about how we're going to manage when baby is born!
LittlePebble I'll check Tesco out... :) So sorry to hear about your nana, not selfish at all to wish she'd been able to meet LO, I really feel for you ... Enjoy your time off as much as poss.

Have a good day all xxx

littlepebble sorry about your nana.

I have to have the 28 week bloods taken for a third time as they didn't fill the form in correctly. Anti-D is supposed to be given by 32 weeks, am booked in on Fri when I'll be 31+6 but they keep delaying the jab as they want the blood results first. Guess I'll be ringing them to find out if I should go in before Fri as I got a letter saying it will be taken again at my next AN (which I'm not sure if Fri counts as).

oh, I've not been struggling with numerous pees at night, but have been uncomfortable. Nigel is sitting quite low and forward so often have a tight tummy etc and hard limb like things are felt frequently protruding out. Me and DD seem to alternate having bad nights, I'd rather we just have a bad night together and I can catch up the following night.

hello, been busy here, just catching up.

littlepebble sorry to hear about your nana.

I've also got a low lying placenta - scan on 1st sept to check it's moved, if it has we're going for a homebirth.

(we did have a scan at 28wks - she said then it looked like the placenta had moved but she couldn't officially confirm)

still trying to figure out the whole buggy thing. i want a rear facing one, and i want it cheap lol. i don't care about names or brands! not averse to Ebay at all! and i'd prefer a travel system - any suggestions?

re. cot mattresses - we also have to buy specific size as the crib we have is over 40 yrs old - my siblings & i & all my cherubs have used it. the last one was just too darn big though, every time he moved he hit the side & woke himself up, so we got the musical vibrating travel cot for our bedroom - his cotbed didn't fit into our bedroom!

however, we bought cotbed & crib mattresses from ebay - brand new, reputable sellers, cheap as heck compared to Mocare etc.

I did a preggy yoga DVD the other day - little bit hypnofied, if you can get "in the zone" i imagine would be V helpful for labour - however i found last time i got myself in the zone automatically, which was fab.

i'm up once or twice a night for wees! but always at 5.20am lol.

yet another grey dreary day here. sick of not being able to dry washing!!