Shagged Out Viroids Volume 4. Over here!!

[nickelbabe]

ooops, got a bit carried away there.....

sign in everyone!
let's hope we get some new graduates on here too!

Why worrying now, nickel? It happens, you get through it

Val has someone taught you how to hand express properly? You might find that less chafey and just as effective. I didn't dare put my nips anywhere near an electric pump for a couple of weeks. Even now if I don't position them right they can get a bit sore.

Plus different feeding positions might help him get used to the other side.

Good luck!

yeah, i'll get through it!
it just feels odd, now it's all so close, and you lot are popping all over the place, and it just feels very real and is very going to happen in the not-too-distant-future.
when it was a very long time to go, i could just let it float over my head!

anyway, lovely stuff, too, when we went to bed last night, i made DH put his hand on my belly as we went off to sleep, and he could feel Isbn fluttering around (he kept going "oh, there's one!"), and he said it was lovely cuddling both of us :)

What a lovely birth story! You are doing really well with the feeding. I still feel more comfortable feeding on my right side rather than my left but 15 weeks on and getting better.

Nickel Don't worry, they will explain everything going on and I was like a crazy pozest lunatic for most of it according to DH and it still worked out just fine.

Awh Nickel I love those bedtime moments, both with DH and even when it was just Teddy and me!

Breakthrough today as we are now eating from both sides. Def preference for the right! We think his left side may have got a bit battered on the way out as his left eye is a bit closed still. But getting lovely wide eyed gawping.

Sorry...ultimate baby bore now!

Awww

Wow I have missed so much!!! Congratulations vallinna what an amazing birth story. Very at no tears - I thought I got off lightly with a small perineal tear which required no stitches and a couple of labial grazes (tmi?!). But tried to JS the other day, which was good except for the place where I tore was tight and tender, and it's kind of hard to avoid it.

Anyway, that is a really fantastic story and I'm so glad it all went well for you and Teddy :) And congrats on getting your keys to your house! It all happens at once, doesn't it? nickel, like esk, baby2b and val I had a really positive birth experience - it can happen (and we all had very different births). Now I've been through it I really think the trick is to be as relaxed as possible - it's actually not too difficult to be relaxed if you have the people around you who make you feel confident and calm (and nobody else!). I know it's easier said than done but try not to worry about interventions - if you've made it clear on your birth plan you want as little as possible they will honour it as far as possible. But if you need something, have it! I didn't want pethidine. 90 minutes after getting to the hospital I had pethidine and I loved it . I am very easily embarrassed at the doctor's etc, but honestly, you just won't care when you're actually giving birth - not just because of the pain, but because there's a job to do and your mind will be on the job and not on what is or isn't coming out of your fanjo . It's really hard to explain and I didn't believe people when they said that to me, but it's true. Now I'm virtually unembarrassable . You really will be fine, and you'll be even more fine if you relax as much as you possibly can (it'll help things).

I am a little of those of you with new snuggly babies :) Isobel is absolutely amazing right now - she grins, gurgles and coos all the time. The cooing is amazing - it's like she's just so full of happiness she can't help it spilling out of her. But the newborn stage was so gorgeous too. val, brilliant job with the BFing. Isobel was so sleepy for the first week or so that it was really hard getting her to latch, and for a good couple of weeks she would ball her fists up and put them in her mouth and DH would have to hold them back out of the way so I could feed her. But after a couple of weeks she just randomly learned how to do it - so much so that it's dangerous to leave her anywhere near my nipples now because she'll just find it and latch on by herself! You are doing a brilliant job :) Has your milk come in yet? You are going to get massive knockers when it does!

coaam, cuteness at the hitting and grabbing of toys :)

esk and baby2b, great birth stories too. Funny how it goes so differently for everyone. Hope you are having lovely times with your LOs :)

Saw everyone from our NCT group on Saturday for a reunion. We see each other every week anyway, but one of the mums who had really had a tough time since the beginning and hasn't been out much came along, and she's really turned a corner and looked fantastic. So that was lovely :)

So glad everyone is well and that Teddy has made it into the world. Anyone heard from bb and the twins?

PS - totally agree about being really rational between contractions. I was very polite during labour- I only swore once ('fuck', and not at anybody else, just under my breath), I said please and thank you all the way through, and I told DH I loved him several times (and wasn't yelling how much I hated what he'd done to me, which is the cliche I suppose). I was actually amazed at how, at least for the first few hours, you can feel completely back to normal and free of pain between contractions. A minute of screaming, three minutes of total normality as if nothing is happening at all. That really helped!

awww, i can't wait for the gurgles!

thank you for being reassuring, ttl :)

glad you've sorted out your sides, val

Still no sleep last night - it's getting really tedious now. but I keep waking up on my back, which of course is causing me to worry. I have tried everything - having a pillow behind me so I can't roll, sleeping right next to DH (which he rejects, and turns over and away from me - the other night he fell out of bed (but it wasn't my fault! I was nowhere near him at the time! [giggle] ))

nickel

Oh yes, I forgot tosay - the first proper JS since the birth (the other day, and the only one so far) was WEIRD. It hurt a bit but the worst thing was the milk spraying out of my right nipple when I got a bit, ahem, excited ...

right, i'm never JSing again after the birth!

TTL It's not to hard to be relaxed if you're off your head on G&A!!! (I was a bee at one point, flying around with a painful sting in my bum. Great fun ).

and hahaha at the spurrting milk!! No JSing here. It's been forever and I miss it. Shouldn't complain though as DH can't help it.

So who's next then? Katee isn't it?

We've JSed a pitiful amount of times. The absence of the ERTD is making me strangely jumpy - I can't deal with another pregnancy right now and I got so scared a few weeks ago that I've flatly refused since. Add that the fact that BFing has depressed my libido to non-existent level and we co-sleep and have a live in nanny. The shag cape is well and truly retired for now.

My shag cape smells like moth balls and is hiding with my apron (MIA since we moved -grr). It's been at least 6 months, though I think longer (see so long I've forgotten). Stupid fecking OCD. Wish bfing would repress my libido, then I wouldn't mind...

I would like to get my shag cape on again soon, not loving waiting on stitches to heal. Hopefully by 6 week check up will be good to go.

With you on the not getting bfp again frak. Was just having a nice kiss with dh and I jumped before saying, 'we aren't protected!'.

In other news, I weighed myself yesterday and I'm back to just under my pre-pregnancy weight of 10st10 . The bad news is I need referred to physio at 6 weeks as my stomach muscles appear to have parted ways .

Hope everyone got a good night sleep. Thanks to co-sleeping we got some much needed zzzz.

Oh frak, placing an order for the ergo with newborn insert (in-laws are treating us!). A friend has offered to lend me her babasling in the mean time. Reviews seem to be very mixed, do you know any reasons why I should avoid?

Yep, me next! Definitely more postgraduates than graduates on this thread now I'm due 16 October, but who knows when LO might decide to put in an appearance?

I'm still wondering about what form of contraception to go for after birth - was so liberating coming off the pill that I'd rather not go back on, but unsure about the reliability of the various coil/IUD thingies - anyone have any thoughts/experience?

My current night time thing is waking up at 3am desperate for a pee and as dry as a desert - with accompanying dehydration headache - it seems to happen no matter how much I drink in the evening, so not sure what the solution is? I had lots of drinks, 1 litre of plain water and 3 pints of squash yesterday, so I'm pretty sure I'm getting enough fluids down me...

PS MIL was horrified when I announced we were going to co-sleep with the baby - "but what if you roll on top of it"? Can't say I ever rolled on top of the cat in all the years I was at home, so I think I would be a leetle more careful with a baby...

katee I don't know if you're planning on BFing but everyone will tell you it protects you. I am not having that crock of crap and getting a BFP again! (Am so with frak there . At my 6 week check the doctor didn't want to give me any contraception because I'm BFing, but could only be persuaded to give me the pill (progesterone only as the combined stops milk flow) - she said the other options were less suitable if I'm planning on more children, which I am. That may also be a crock of crap.

She also heavily promoted the pill you have to take at the same time of day every day - ha ha ha ha ha. I asked for the one with a 12-hour window (it's called Cerazette) and she gave it to me. I also felt liberated coming off the pill, but since we're going to try again when Isobel is 1 I thought sod it, I'll just take it for a few months.

JSed again last night. No leakage . Not exactly comfortable either. Weird that some bits feel the same, other bits not ...

Yes planning on BF, but also on expressing from time to time (if it works) which automatically debunks the protection (I think it has to be exclusive breast feeding on total demand to work)... I would like a little gap between babies please! I did get the contraception leaflet last time I was waiting for my mw appointment and it didn't say any of them were contraindicated for BF so I suspect you have been told a crock of crap TTL! Very responsible of her to not want to give you any contraception! we'd all be swimming in babies if they were all like that!!

TTL you might want to show her this? www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Postpartum-Contraception.htm

Hey, my midwife said progesterone only. Firmly not relying on bf for protection. Oh the irony of coming full circle and being worried that you could fall pregnant at the drop if a hat . I had the implant before and got on really well with that. Not sure what to go with this time. My sis has had good experience with cerazette (sp.?).

Good link katee. I think implanon still looks like my best option. I only wanted one baby, but well aware that time and hormones might change my mind .

Different I suppose as I had a c-section but in the earlydays as long as my stitches didn't pull it was fine! 2 weeks we got carried away and had to call the nurse if I could do anything but she said no as I was BF so was a long month waiting to see if I was ok. I love my baby but the thought of another one scares the life outa me!
I'm on the pill you have to take the same time everyday (found out it's the cheapest that's why they push it) and it's ok now I have an alarm on my phone or I no way would remember!

How is the conception thread going as no many grads recently?

B2B - don't worry about the stomach muscles splitting (finally something I know something about! ). I have a midwife friend, who says it's surprisingly common- you do need to do lots of exercises to get them back into place, but it's not a lost-cause. :)

ah, Katee - good point - DH used to sleep with his cats before I moved in (they hated me for that! ), so he's used to co-sleeping. thank you for pointing that out, i'm sure he'll feel easier about it thinking in that way

I think we'll go back to condoms when we start JSing after the birth. (i've only just got used to JSing without any possible consequences)

I'm all in a tizzy at the moment, because my dad had a stroke on the weekend. It's nothing to worry about now (apparently), but he woke up on Saturday morning all blurred eyes and not able to walk straight. They took him to the QMC A&E, where they told him to go to the eye part, then the eye man sent him back up to the normal A&E, saying he could tell it wasn't an eye problem and he thought it was most likely a mini-stroke.
anyway, eventually, they got aspirin to thin his blood and an appointment at the Stroke section at the City for yesterday. They spent hours there too, because they discovered dad had metal in his eye - he worked at Raleigh, and they often got swarf in their eyes (no H&S in those days!), and this one bit had grown into his eye, being covered by the white over the years. Anyway, they had to wait while the staff at the city rang the QMC to see if it was okay to proceed with the scan with this in - they said fine, so off they went.
The conclusion was that he's got a growth or lump or something in his neck, which meant that the blood flow to his brain in that area was about 10%, which is why he had this stroke. So they've given him some other medication, and he's got to go back to Queen's today for an ultrasound scan on his neck, to see how they can get rid of this lump thing.
They reckon they'll most likely have to cut his neck open to get it out (not under general anaesthetic though )
Dad's taking it all in his stride, but he did get shaken up a bit on Saturday.
Big Sis said the most telling bit about him being properly ill was that he said "they'll only tell me i'm not allowed to drink or smoke!" - he hasn't smoked for about 18 years. .
oh, also, I think he was shaken up because she said when they got to A&E, they asked him personal details, like his phone number - normally he goes "oh, i don't know,