Nov 2011 - Mat B forms are in and time is flying not long now

[PamSco]

Sorry just went for a new thread as I couldn't see another.

Hope you are all well this morning

Oh Poppet! So pleased you and baby Willow are doing so well!

And thanks for the advise about not needing to panic on the hospital bag front! We just have way too much DIY going on at the minute!

Bumps re bristol meet, sorry i said i'd put some dates together to arrange... but I kept waiting for more people to pm as expected more than just four of us... but guess we can still go for it with four of us! I'll pm you all in a minute.

Welcome to our newbies... some very lovely and knowledgable people on here!So don't be shy!

Mine and DHs wedding anniversary tomorrow and i know he has nothing planned, though we have the week of work. So I'm planning to make him bacon and egg muffins in the morning (may even treat myself with a runny yolk for the first time in 7 months!) then hoping to surprise him with a trip to the wildlife park in tenby (can't remember what its called but the one from the TV programme with anna ryder richardson!).

Hope everyone is feeling OK and looking after themselves (and the two littl'uns!)

(bumps, H007 and ali just sent you all a pm, but not sure if it worked, so let me know if you haven't got it!)

Well done Willow for moving from the HDU so quickly!

Well, I was panicked into writing 3 lists of; things to buy; things to pack for Connor, and things to pack for me. I've bought a few more things today, and the painter is coming round tomorrow to give me a quote for painting two rooms. Once painting is done, I can get to Ikea to order bedroom furniture for the two children changing rooms. Connor's essentials are all ordered and due to be delivered on Sept 10th, by which time Imogen should have vacated his room. Major sorting out of cupboards, wardrobes and drawers continues, with regular decants to charity shops.

I spent the morning having my GTT (Pam, they made me drink 496mls precisely, which would have been 25grams of sugar). Bit of a palaver as , whilst I'd been warned not to buy Lucozade lite or Lucosade sport, no one had said I couldn't have Orange flavour Lucozade (It turns out to have much more sugar in). Had to go to hospital shop. I'm amazed you were allowed to just drink 380 mls Pam - maybe they used someone else's leftover to top yours up. Anyhoo, got my results this afternoon and they are absolutely fine, as are my iron levels.

I'm really really tired too. Quite relieved to find it isn't just me - I was starting to worry that I am just too old for this. I've taken to going back to bed for an hour after I've shooed the kids off to school!

I am planning on making it to the sling meet. Don't think I want a sling, but be very nice to see folk!

Oh... and welcome to MrsDuff !

Poppet huge congrats! And Willow go girl for moving to HDU already, that's amazing. DS started in HDU and then had to progress through 3 diff 'nurseries' of decreasing care before we went home - I can't beleive I naively thought he was only in HDU because that's where they had a spare bed. Sounds like amazing progress in just a week - a hell of a fighter on your hands. Have you asked NICU if they have any loan breat pumps - ours do (but were out of stock) so I hired the big green hospital double one (ameda?) directly from the manufacturer - was double but not hands free.

Also well done to Sylvie Rose for moving rooms :)

I too am shattered all the time (hence unable to retain any info even from a post I've just read to be able to comment) - am eating 3 dried apricots a day just in case it's iron.

Whoever gave the advise about breathing out when you get up to help the leg not working pain thing thanks - its helped a little bit.

Poppet the 4am pumping session can be soul-destroying but it does pay off in the end. I am up to 600ml per day now after what I felt was a miserable start. I don't think the blood transfusion helped with supply. My supply was much better on ds3.
Medela do the Freestyle pump which is handsfree but I don't know much about it. I don't get on with Medela pumps myself ( the hospital staff seem to think I am weird because of this) so I am usually hooked up to my trusty Avent Isis IQ Duo which is not handsfree but I know it works for me as it's now on it's 3rd baby. FX it doesn't decide to pack it in now!
What I am finding frustrating is the stinginess of the hospital when it comes to breastmilk containers. I tell them I need 10, they grudgingly give me 6 or 7. If you leave in your own containers they get binned so I put the excess into breastmilk storage bags. I ran out of Lansinoh bags which I find good and the first time I used a Medela bag it leaked! I am going to complain about it as I really feel it's unacceptable of the hospital to be so mean with them!

alicat it was I re breathing out as the physio told me to do it. It's habit for me now but I do tend to groan/sigh loudly at the same time - even on the bus!

lying down has started to hurt now though booooo I like lying down.

I keep putting my top leg forward, like the recovery position - apparently that is bad as it twists the pelvis.

chip can't you just nick them from the bf / breastpumping room - in my hospital they had a supply in the room by NICU so if you pumped there you didn't need to have any with you?

Thanks Pam it still hurts but I think its less intense and for fewer steps with the breathing (ok you got me, groaning out) also I ache at night no matter how I lie. Was helping DD learn to scoot today so not expecting a good night backwise.

doh, forget end of post before pressing enter.

Pam my chiro said to keep legs straighter just a tiny bend with the top leg slightly behind bottom one resting on pillows to keep knee roughly level with hip - it does help but I do tend to fall over onto my back and then wake feeling a bit yuck

alicat the containers are kept in the office in SCBU and there is always a staff member there! Not only that but they frequently run out. I did say to one nice nurse today that I was pumping 600ml per day and she went down a corridor which is inaccessible to us mere mortals and got me some more but it really is like extracting blood from a stone! I mean, I know Ireland is going through the worst recession ever but these things can't be expensive. They are not even as good as the Axifeed containers I used for ds3.

Chip how frustrating, they should be encouraging you to catch every precious drop! And annoying that your own ones get binned. I'll be intrigued to see if that's the same here now - shame you can't just buy them as I bet they only cost the hospital a few pence each.

yo! That's in homage to juststarting :)

Wow! and OMG! and Congratulations to both Chip and Poppet beautiful babies already. They are amazing, thank you for sharing the photos, at least now I know why I'm getting battered from the inside. They have such long legs!

All good here so far apart from feeling a bit more tired than before but as I'm a little later than the rest of you 27 +3, you will all by now know the feelings.

Just had a couple of cot sheets arrive that I ordered from baby mattress online. We have an oval cot so wanted to get fitted sheets, I do love a bargain and much to my DPs delight I don't spend money willy nilly like his ex did. Sooooo I bought these sheets and they are really good value for money, 100% cotton, with that kind of stripe in them I don't know what it's called but anyway, they were less than half price of the proper ones for the cot so I bought two. Well worth a look if you have an odd shape cot/bed.

I think I remember on here a while ago that someone, was it you Folic or Stace mentioning about painting the nursery a teal colour? Did it look good? We are going to paint two walls in teal and the rest white. I've then ordered this www.wallstickeroutlet.com/wall-decor-detail.php?RecordID=300012 but as a white tree with light brown owls. This will sit in one corner and will reach over towards the cot in the other corner. We don't know if we are having a boy or girl although I feel it'll be a girl but I'm afraid I just don't do cuddly bears and giraffes and ducks or disney. I've never been girly myself so if baby is a girl she won't stand much chance of it herself.

I am astonished at all the problems that some of you are having with mws. What horrors. Mine new one is a gem, she said they don't weigh mums anymore, thank god (2st increase) and she also didn't push about BF. She said if nothing else at least give it a go for a couple of trys. I do like her.

Caz A for you.

Bristol meet Now come on ladies I wouldn't exactly call that south more south west?! :) Would love to come but Bristol is still a good 150 miles. Ah never mind. Off to Ikea later for kitchen shelf and boxes - the joy.

Morning all, been back to practice nurse to get fasting bloods taken in the hope that this negates the need for a GTT! Cross fingers! However the nurse decided to inform me that my iron levels are slightly low. Least I assume that's what she meant when she was talking about haemoglobin! I asked what that would mean and she doesn't know..... I think I'll start on iron rich food in the meantime! Apparently will have to have a repeat full blood test thing in a couple weeks. Am assuming my MW didn't think it was anything to worry about or something..... Ah well! Off to make a bacon sandwich as am starving! Hope everyone is ok :-)

Wow poppet congratulations! Sounds as if willow is making good progress. Her photos are beautiful and I got quite tearful reading her birth story.

Enjoyed the wedding at the weekend although was really tired afterwards. I do feel quite self-conscious about my bump as I feel massive. Have my physio appointment later this week so hope that helps my hip. Dh on holiday soon so fingers crossed we can get some shopping for the baby done.

Hope everyone is feeling well today.

Hello all had my GTT app this morning turned up late so no waiting around :) didn't have to drink too much either afterwards went and bought a magazine and bottle of water sat in the waiting room and had a read. One of my best friends was working on ultrasound an came and had a chat for a bit, and then went for a walk to put more money on the car, all in all not as bad as I thought. But didn't get any food at the end of it so popped to Sainsburys an rushed home to eat, bumped into the neighbour who chatted and chatted and would not shut up I wanted to scream was soooooooo hungry haha... Find out results tomorrow...
Staceroo I didn't get a pm :(

Sorry for being more south-west than south just that seemed the middle ground for those who said they were interested.

Poppet and Chip you both sound like you are coping so well (although I'm aware that a few lines hastily typed are a world away from 24 hours a day living the reality of a having a very premature baby). But I hope both littlies continue to thrive.

I had a hospital appt this morning for the gestational diabetes. Dr was lovely, but sadly very rushed, the clinic was chaos, the corridors were full of people. Am home with blood sugar monitor and instructions (as expected) to be very very strict with my diet. My consultant appts up until now had been at different hospital (well, a sort of hospital - a hosp that closed down ages ago, but continues to hold outpatients clinics) but she has arranged to have my care all moved to the main hospital where the maternity unit is. So I have to go back next week, for (deep breath) an appt with the endocrinologist, the obstetrics consultant (so I will now probably be under the care of a different consultant, although since I have never actually seen 'my' consultant, only locums or registrars this will hardly matter), a dietician and I also need to have my anti-D injection. I am going to be so popular in work .

The hospital is really close to where I live, about a ten minute drive, but it is in the opposite direction from where I work, so if I am at work and need to leave for an appt, I need to factor in a about a 45 minute drive. The problem is that I work approx 9am to 1pm, and if they give me an appt at 10.30am then there is hardly any point going to work, and then I have to wait an hour once I'm at the hospital, then there is no point going to work afterwards either. The clinics are too busy for me to demand an appt to suit me, as they just don't have the capacity to do that. I want to keep the goodwill in work, as they treat me well, but on the other hand, my full time colleague who is pg too gets the time off without having to make up the hours (as is our legal right) so there is no reason why I should feel obliged to make up for the hours that I miss. So why do I feel so guilty for the time off that I need?! Dilemmas dilemmas!

I go away for a weekend in a field and somebody else has a baby! Ack!

Congratulations Poppet - lots of thoughts and virtual hugs!

I've got a reply from the hospital after making a formal complaint about the continuity of care and standards of treatment there - I've been told to contact the Midwifery manager, and I'm shivering a bit in my troosers, but we'll see.
I just thought that if no one points out the failings, no one will, and after the "Happy thoughts" incident I'm worried that pregnant ladies get sub-standard care at the hospital.

Anyway - 62 days to go for me!!!

OMG!! Congratulations poppet, and am very glad to hear that both you and Willow are doing well. In fact I'm very pleased to hear that both our premmies are doing so well, it's very heartening xx

Well I've hit the big wk30 - eek - only 8 weeks until I'm induced . Will really have to pull the old finger out and get the rest of my washing done, and start sorting our room out (are we meant to wash clothes that have just been newly bought from the shop?). Our crib and cot that we're meant to be getting from the ILs is still up in the air. They can't find the crib, but they have one more place to look, and the cot is still a bit uncertain (whatever that means), though they're all on holiday abroad at the moment, so can't sort it out. This has been going on for months, and I have been very patient (for me), but I am starting to panic a little bit now. I am not great with dealing with uncertainty at the best of times. I am starting to wonder which drawer might be suitable . I don't mind if they can't get hold of anything, but I'd rather just know so I can sort it out. I HATE not being able to control this sort of thing :(

Apart from that things are going well. Had my 30wk appointment today, all ok and I got my Rhesus negative jab (in my bum ouch!). The bump is 2cm above average, but both DH and I are tall so they're not worried. Modom has def been getting her wriggling well practiced, she's been at it for a few days now :)

After 2 weeks of visits from friends and family DH and I have the place to ourselves for the next 2, which will be bliss. Back to afternoon naps me thinks :o And we start or first antenatal class on Saturday - I'm looking forward to seeing DHs reaction

Welcome nells and mrsduff, it's lovely to have some new people.
Good luck to Willow and Sylvie-Rose
And to all those peeps feeling guilty about work, please don't, your health and your baby's health should take priority. If you can, do two fingers and get those feet up :o xx

afternoon ladies.

chip that does seem ridiculous just make a pest of yourself for them maybe they'll get the hint.

glad gtt's have been going well, fx for results. i have no idea when i'm suppose to get mine, but i have a mw appt next week so if still not heard will ask her.

just walked to the nursery to get ds, omg am i aching now.

sitrfry for dinner tonight yum, oh and i got some fat free chocolate muller yoghurts this morning, as they were on offer, just had the dark cherry and choc sprinkles and for some reason just tasted better than ever today.....think i've just found a new pg addiction.

I'd also agree - do not feel guilty about taking time off work. I am having monthly acupuncture and class these as antenatal appts as they are keeping me on an even keel and de-stressed.
Before I had DD I wondered how I was going to feel on maternity leave as I was very career focussed. Ha! I went back to work FT and am lucky that I have a flexible job but I am now happy just to pay the bills and really don't want to travel. You won't feel guilty once the baby is here :)

I washed all DD's clothes before she wore them ( still do tbh). I don;t like the thought of clothes going straight from a factory onto her skin. I'll do the same for baby DS.

And those haveing had GTT etc (as have I, waiting for results), may I throw just another opinion into the melting pot? What's MN for, if not discussion?! This link suggests gestational diabetes is not such an issue as perhaps is made out and it contains numerous research references at the bottom.
It stresses women who are diabetic when they become pregnant are a different story (rightly so) but.....the paper argues that higher blood sugars are simply a normal reaction to pregnancy.
For me, I am uncertain but the paper makes interesting reading and I truly believe our bodies do not grow babies that are too big to birth, whatever consultants say.

(You know me by now though don't you )

Afternoon all - tiny wave to tiny babies Willow and Sylvie-Rose and big hugs for their mammies and pappies.

I'm a terrible sweep stake doer in work - I wonder who is going to be the last on this thread to bring forth their babski?

I'm going stir crazy in the house. My cold is too rotten to allow me to do much, eating spinach and primula watching Glee isn't exciting me.

Though I have all The Boys duds on to wash with happy clappy natural soap. I've bought cheaper newborn vests and sleepsuits and slightly more expensive 0-3 months. Very hard to imagine being allowed to to take a tiny human that fits these clothes home?

Done another supermarket run and now own 30 maternity pads of various varieties. Some look like livery for a shire horse.

Just need something to wear to give birth in and I'm done for bag stuff.

Ok what do you wear for teh birth - I've never seen button up nighties?

pam, i was thinking about getting mens pj's, they might be long enough?

mrsa I saw a similar article at work & thought the same..it is a difficult one to balance!!

pam yay on nearly having everything for bag :). With DS I laboured in a loose t-shirt & dressing gown. Both got thrown off though once in active labour and gave birth in just my bra, that to went quickly as wanted to BF so I think I deliveded the placenta with nothing but a sheet over my mid-drift . Did have a buttoned nightie for poat-natal ward though (bhs).

After working the bank holiday weekend I'm glad to now be off work for 5days :). Off to the safari park with DS & DP tomorrow for our last family outing of the summer hols, just hoping I can survive it!!

Hope everyone is well & the baba's are continuing to gain strength.

I laboured in nothing but my watch and glasses. But then, I was at home. I have a couple of massive primark t shirts and a primark nightie with a few buttons down, enough to hoik a boob out, so I will pack them in case I end up in hospital this time. Though I cant pack them yet as now I am a bit bigger I am sleeping in them already. And I didnt wash anything before I put it on my son, unless it smelled. Like, his sheets and sleeping bags always smelled strongly, so I washed them. He DID once get a rash after wearing a new shirt though. Went down after a couple of hours and might not have been the shirt, but might have been. The same thing happened to me. In 33 years of not washing before I wear, I once got a rash from a shirt.
Well, fun day car shopping. With a punishing headache and nausea and a toddler who despite his past fascination, was abruptly disinterested in cars. Bought one which will hopefully serve us though, but we cant have it till thursday after he's serviced and mot-ed it. which still leaves me up shit creek for work tomorrow, especially after cancelling my clients today. Might just have to stump up for a few taxis. Got so few weeks to work effectively in before I need to start wrapping things up in time to write closing reports and so on, I feel loathed just to miss a whole weeks appointments, plus I am on holiday next week. But hopefully the car issue is sorted for few years. Hopefully. Now, if someone could just decapitate me, or knock me out for a few days....

Pam I bought myself a nightshirt from M&S to give birth in (the final indignity as far as I'm concerned, as I am very much a PJs sorta gal). It was just the sort that is like a long T-shirt. Anyway, laboured away wearing that - it was sort of thigh length, so was able to feel halfway dressed in between contractions. It was finally peeled off me about 48 hours after I first went into labour, as I couldn't shower or wash after the birth due to emcs. I've never smelt anything so awful - covered in sweat, amniotic fluid, blood and (drumroll) meconium. Sent it home with DH, who duly washed it and put it back in my bedroom drawers where it has stayed buried for 5 years - I could never bear to wear it again! Might have to dig round and see if its still in there......