December 2011 - Support tights time!

[BeeMyBaby]

Had no idea what to call it, sorry. Just googled third trimester and that was the recommendation...

plu, stress not! If you slimmed down while BFing you'll probably do so again. It's just that for me, BFing equals steady expansion!!!

(and if you Do get chunky like me, we can start a Davina-worship-thread! My extensive DVD collection includes everything from cheesy Mr Motivator (remember him?!) to billy Blanks Tae Bo! )

Fitness regimes!!! Oh, Lord, I'm having a hard enough time motivating myself to get out of my chair and stop MNing! Although I did take DS to a park today, and then dragged him into a Waitrose, where I parented loudly (it wasn't enough for me to just bloody grateful to him for sitting down while I paid; I had to thank him as though he had done it for my approval! People must have been considering me a terrible hyprocrite, which, of course, I was being )

Hee hee- don't worry, I am the worlds biggest couch potato at the moment. And I am really not a crazy gym bunny- me losing weight involves reducing my portions, not banning ANYTHiNG, calorie awareness rather than counting (been there in past, not going there again!) and frequent falls off the waggon when a tempting foodstuff comes past. But that is all going to wait til I stop BFing- the main thing I do do for exercise is walk with the buggy as much as i can, sounds daft but it does help.

Thanks plu for the massage info, sounds simple enough as long as we can reach down there. If the DH was to help out, I can't see the massage lasting so long!! Less of the Oi and more Oo-err missus! :)
I plan to lose all this weight by BFing... fingers crossed. However, I have also pledged to change my diet now. After seeing my GTT results, I'm going to cut down on the carbs. the test results were fine, but the doc showed me that there is more sugar in my system than it is accustomed to. Hardly surprising as I didn't have carbs (apart from wine of course) after lunchtime (during the week) before I got pg. But when the nausea set in in TI, i loved carbs. I now think that Gingerbaby is so big because he's getting potatoes in the evening - or pasta - and missing out on all the green veg I used to consume. So that's it. Starting today, evening meals are going back to be carb free but full of lush green veg. (Still will have cereal in morning and brown bread sandwich for lunch though. :) )
Gingerbaby will not be a starchy 11 lb-er!

Well Oi that's one way to get DH interested in a bit of "relations" Hypno lady mentioned getting DP to help with perineal massage & I just thought oh yeah, that'll work not that it wouldn't be fun trying but I think I might be cursing him after the birth when I realise that he was no bl**dy help at all :o

There are lots of videos on youtube that make me wince a bit but is very instructive & uncomplicated...it's on a dummy but I still wouldn't watch it in an open office :) I've got an epi-no but I don't know if I'm going to use it yet as it's kind of terrifying how big it blows up.

plu don't worry about the weight loss now, if BFing worked last time then it will most likely work again. :)

plu please can you send it to moi too :) lol

Me too please plu!!

seven I'm enormous too! Although, I might just feel that way as DD2 was a tiny bump, as she was IUGR.

My doula came round last night, I got to hold her 6 week old baby boy! He is lovely, it shouldn't be possible to be pregnant and broody. DD1 enjoyed holding him too and said that she liked him lots. She's doing this birth for free as she'll be bringing the baby and we had a good talk about what we'll do if this baby is in a daft position like DD2 was. I'm a bit blase about it really, if I pushed out one brow presentation baby I'm sure I can do it again.

Good God, that epi-no looks horrible, HoneyLovesCake! Sorry, but - ugh!

Mind you, it's probably more hygienic than fingers, with all their crevices, and nails and - yikes.

kri5ty and mopsytop, sending in a moment.

Hooray, my cheese porn arrived!!

cheesey photo goodness

I will be reading it over coffee. Roll on 14 weeks time!

plu can I have it too please?

Honey DH sent me a link to the epi-no last week - I wondered how he found out about it and he got very red and said he'd been doing some research and thought it would help. I took the piss out of him mercilessly I'm going to order one, if only to freak DH out, but it says on the website you're not supposed to start using it until three weeks prior to your EDD so I'm putting it off to avoid scaring myself.

plu I was so scared of tearing & getting stitched up that this was the 2nd thing I bought after getting my BFP (my doppler was the first) & I regretted it almost instantly...it really does look like some kind of torture device doesn't it? :o Well, I've been going back & forth ever since; I imagine it's really good for visualising what it'll feel like to birth the head....since it inflates to a full 10cm but I'm not entirely sure that's something I want to visualise

Just got mine out to have a look again Tyelperion & I've no doubt it would work but I'm not sure I've got the guts to use it...might have to put it on ebay :(

By the way we found out some more about the epi-no on the blog of a woman who used one - see her posts here:
thatwifeblog.com/2010/04/prepping-my-body-for-baby-2/ (from before the birth)
and here:
thatwifeblog.com/2010/05/laborbirth-qa/ (her responses to reader's questions after the birth - fascinating, and her reflections on whether the epi-no helped are in her first comment below the post)

Aww Honey - I think it's just like anything else, you've got to build up to it. Have a read of the second link I just posted above - really positive about how the epi-no helped her with techniques prior to birth and got her used to doing the breathing and stuff more naturally so it came to her easily during birth.

I know you're brave enough to use it if you decide you want to give it a go, but if you do decide it's not for you don't put it on ebay, I'll buy it off you (didn't you say you're in Cornwall?)

Thanks for the links & vote of confidence Tyel I'll try & give them a good read tonight & let you know, I am in Cornwall. So hard to make a decision, I have real issues with strangers examining me downstairs so the thought of being stitched up makes me want to just go for it but it's so huge surely my baby's head won't be that big!!!

I got my Epi-no as a manufacturers sample direct from Germany, box was still shrink wrapped & unopened but a bit squashed so at least I didn't pay the full price for it if I don't use it :)

The midwife said on Sunday in the NHS class that the average size of a baby's head is 9.5 cm and the average size of a woman's pelvis - before relaxin helps the pelvis expand, and before the tailbone hinges up and back during labour - is 10.5cm. Once those two things kick in, the space in your pelvis is even bigger than that. Finally, a baby's skull is not fused at birth - it's in five parts, so they overlap during labour to make the head smaller than 9.5cm. You actually have a lot more clearance than you think!

It's not my pelvis I'm worried about but 9.5cm definitely sounds better than 10! Maybe they'll be able to measure the head at my 32 wk scan so I ccan get an idea of what I'm working with

I have to say, squeamish as I am about the perineal massage, it feels as though it will be more human than an inflating thingy. On the other hand, if you have Issues, the impersonal nature of it might be the best thing.

Does anyone have any posture and exercise tips on preventing the baby's being back-to-back for labour? Or is it only good old scrubbing the floor which will do? I was on my hands and knees for a physio exercise last night, and baby suddenly got very excited, which started me fearing that she was getting into a comfortable, correct position... meaning she wasn't in that position beforehand!

Perineal massage doesn't bother me; I always planned on doing it as well as using the epi-no; anything to stop the tearing or worse cutting...I can't get my head around that at all. Thank goodness we don't live in a time or place where episiotomy's are done as standard.

I think on your hands & knees with bum in the air is supposed to do the trick, plus lots of swaying, rocking, figure of eights on your birthing ball.

Lots of hands and knees and squatting I'm afraid. Doesn't mean you have to clean though

Went to see the dietician midwife today. No diabetes and a weight loss of just shy (we're talking ounces) of a stone. I think she feels cheated She said before that 'we' were aiming to gain no more than a stone, so she is completely out at sea. We discussed the consultant and labour too. Have told her I'm not going to agree to monitoring 'just because' and she said the consultant might not like that. Tough. I've said I'll consider it if they can prove to me a medical need for constant monitoring, but that I'll stick to periodic prodding like all the normal folk otherwise. Apparently this will not go down well... Shame I also said I'm not going to have an epidural unless it is needed. She said that I will see the anaesthetist as a matter of routine in a couple of months and that can take it up with him/her and the consultant. I'm going to be having some fun in the next few hospital based appointments! In happier news, I get to see the normal midwives from now until I am 38 weeks, so I can relax a little, and hatch my 'foil the consultant' plan

Tmi for a minute...

Tearing is not necessarily as awful as it sounds. I've had two second degree tears, neither needed stitching, they felt normal by a week later, were actively painful for only a day or two and now I just have a little ridge where there is a bit of scar tissue. Obviously great if we can all avoid tearing, but most tears aren't really very serious.

In other news I'm bloody knackered today, could do with DP taking a day off but he has no spare holiday.

Well done, LittleMissFlustered! It always makes me proud to see a woman fulfil her ambitions and take back control like that! I bet it felt especially good to turn back her her patronisingly talking about you as "we"!

msbuggywinkle, I'm not trying to scaremonger about tearing, but I had an episiotomy and tear, and then some stitches in the middle of the row prolapsed, leaving a bulge... so I am determined to do it all right this time! However, your story of your own brow-presentation baby has given me hope!

LittleMissFlustered feel free not to answer, but why are they talking about continuous monitoring and meeting the anaesthetist as a matter of routine? Apologies if this is obvious and you don't want to talk about it.

Just find it fascinating the difference between different NHS trusts. The midwives looking after me are repeatedly asking us to consider a home birth (going so far as to ask if they can come round and look at our flat to see if it's suitable!) and are far more lentil weaving than I was expecting - the only time I've even heard mention an epidural or c-section is when they've told me how hypnobirthing can help me avoid having one.

Evening - hope you are all well. Had my 28 week appointment today. All seemed well. Measuring 27 cm so happy with that - though feel a lot bigger. WAs asked in M and S today when I was due! Made me feel like I was very big when she was surprised when I said another 12 weeks in theory! I do however have ever growing varicose vains (always been prone to them and they get worse in pregnancy ) so I am now the thread title cliche as they have ordered me some support stockings to wear! What joy - glad it is not the middle of summer as could be a bit hot. It is very annoying as I know they won't go completely after I deliver.

People were asking about tearing - I had a second degree tear after DS as he was came out very fast and has a big head!! It is not great but you are on such a high after the birth the sewing up (just with a local anaethestic) was not that bad and healed very quickly. I would however say - keep doing your pelvic floor exercises - mine has never been the same since (perhaps TMI!)

Our local NHS trust seems to be keen on home births too and I was asked this at my first appointment but I could not cope with the mess (!! sad I knoow) or the chance something might go wrong or that I might want an epidural so very happy to go into the hospital instead!

Hope you are all having relaxing evenings