Nov 2011 - Feathering our nests and buying baby vests

[PamSco]

Taking liberties again as there are only 5 posts to go on old thread. Hope everyone is well this morning!

Things on here move so fast I can't keep up!

chip sorry you had a bad day - it certainly doesn't sound like they handled it well and I'm not surprised you were upset, but you have got through so much already. I really hope Willow's eye condition is something that will resolve itself.

caz glad you are home and the countdown is really starting. I will be counting down with you as I finish work that day (although obviously much less a momentous countdown than yours!). Your message about the nursery painting made me feel so sad for you and everything you've been through. You have just been so brave and I can't wait to see the post on here saying that you are holding a gorgeous little wriggly Xander, it's all upwards from here!

Nothing much to report from me - feeling enormous and can't sleep but other than that pretty good and just looking forward to everything starting!

I've had the odd pearling of colostrom for ages. Not all the time, but occassionally.
Had a bizzarly energetic day - got a bit worried I was set to go into early labour when I found myself clambering behind the bath to hand wash the floor thismorning. Thought "oh dear, crazy cleaning frenzy, what does it mean?" but i think it was just cause I washed the floor mats yesterday and thus got a chance to get a good look at the bathroom floor. And once I was doing the floor, it seemed prudent to do the windows and shower screen too. Sadly I am now spent, stiff and with a sore undercarriage, but it was nice while it lasted. Got a few bits done that needed doing.
Why do I always encounter children whose parents dont share my feelings about teaching your child to share and play nicely at the library? Every time I go there it seems my son is left bemused by a child who, to be fair, is just being a child who no one has ever helped to understand or tolerate sharing.

I had a strangely energetic day too! Was up at 7am as I just couldn't sleep any longer, so got washing done, and hung out (was dry all day here, which is unusual to say the least), got all my ironing done, made a batch of soup. Then helped DH clear a whole car load of clutter out of the garage. How did we manage to gather up so much 'stuff'? There is a dead dishwasher in there, an old fence, our old kitchen table and chairs, cupboard doors, blinds, rugs, an old desk, a hi fi unit and loads more. And we are not even the sort of people who are constantly buying stuff, it just seems that over the years, things have migrated to the garage when they should have been dumped. But there was still room for a car in the garage, so I suppose thats why we hadn't noticed how much stuff there was!

Then my sister took me to IKEA for a wander round, and DD had to come too, because IKEA is right next to the airport runway and you can sit in the cafe and watch the planes. So a good day for all!

So, last night, my bathroom floor broke a leak through to the kitchen, my washing machine gave in and we had to put a dehumidifier in the bedroom. Is it too close to birth to move house?

chip - hope all is well with Sylvia-Rose, such a rollercoaster for you guys at the moment.

caz - can imagine the mix of emotions involved in the nursery change today.

As for me, I spent most of the day feeling battered - DD's nights are off the chain these days! She wakes up at least a couple of times and is easily led back to bed but why? why? why is she getting up anyway? then I can't fall back to sleep myself - I was up thinking about work - I can't wait to be done with it all. This project is falling to bits anyway, and I hate leaving just when things are pear-shaped (because I suppose I worry it reflects badly on me) but I am realising that for my mental health I need to peace out of work for a while...

On the plus side though - today I had a rummage through this eccentric old danish man's basement - he's been collecting bits and pieces for years and used to have a shop. So I picked up some 50's Danish design bits - a teak chair with orange seat, a huge neon sign of the letter "æ" for our wall, an enamel lamp for the kitchen, some teak plates and other bits and bobs. Everyone else is getting rid of stuff but now I am re-cluttering! To justify, they are pretty cool quirky things which will "de-Ikea" our apartment which tbh looks a bit bland after drastic decluttering and painting white.

And in other news, my best friend offered to take DD for the night so we could get some sleep! So right now I am alone in the flat (which NEVER happens) then I am about to put a lick of mascara on and go meet DH to watch a film. I love DD to bits but this is total luxury.

Morning ladies and bumps! Having a lovely quiet morning, made a cooked breakfast and actually enjoyed it! Only had a little one and actually only ate toast, scrambled egg and the mushrooms and tomatoes but it was very very nice! I think the bubs is actually turning around as she is going mad and the settee is shaking with the strength of her kicks! Dd is entranced! Going to wash some odds and ends to go on eBay today, determined to make enough cash to buy the dc's main presents this year.
Hope everyone else has nice chilled out days planned! Apart from merlioness of whom I am very jealous and whom will be watching the F1 in a grandstand!
Have a good day all :)

Oh no cali what a bummer! Hope things get sorted asap.

All ok here, had quite a long walk yesterday, short on the scheme of things. Felt nacked afterwards but lovely DP did light touch massage on me and I fell into a fantastic 8 hour sleep (1 pee interruption). If you are suffering sleeplessness I seriously recommend light touch massage.

It is very easy, imagine your partners hands sweeping lightly across your back in a figure of 8, starting at the bottom and ending at the top. alternating nails and fingertips depending on direction. Very very light just back and forth. It is wonderful. You'll get loads of goosebumps, that's the oxytocin coursing.

Oh for 8 hours sleep! We had a session with a hypnobirthing woman the other day (with mixed results. I fear we both fell asleep a little at one point. Oops) and she said not to use the light touch massage until term. But that doesnt see, well, intuitive I suppose. If a bit of light touch massage was going to send me into premature labour, heaven knows what else might do it.
Well after my day of being energetic and feeling good yesterday I woke up feeling nausous this morning and very dissappointed in myself. By about 11 I felt bearable and decided to make a start on the gardening I had planned for the day when I felt ok yesterday. Now of course I have made a collossal mess, and feel rubbish again. Hoping for a second wind to at least clean up what I HAVE done. Full time week at work with a mammoth commute next week. Not best looking forward to it to be honest. Not sure I'll make it.
DP got out the birth pool last night to check it hadnt, you know, died in the last two years sat in the shed. He inflated it in the conservatory while I did the washing up - went in and took one look at it and fled for the lounge. BAD memories. DS got up this morning though and promptly declared it a paddling pool and is loving it. The top ring has a bit of a slow leak, but it did last time. It just meant DP had to spend thirty seconds pumping about once and hour, so not a big deal. Oh Lord. Having a day of extreme gratitude that I am not planning another one. And that the one I have already and his daddy are so wonderful. LESS smug about my stupid body...

That's odd just our hypnolady told us to practice light touch massage 2 or 3 times a week. As you say it's no different in it's hormonal response as a bit of how's y'father.

I'm trying to work out how I can train this boy out of his back to back tendancies? Is anyone else trying aid better positioning?

I'm cleaning the kitchen floor on my hands and knees Pam. Daily. Sitting on a birthing ball etc. No breech babies for me!

After a few very chatty days, it all looks a bit quiet on here today!

I have been knackered all day, must have been all that productiveness yesterday. Plus its been raining ridiculously heavily, so sort of a day for sitting round doing nothing.

Anyone else got swollen feet? I know swollen ankles are very common, and they are swollen a bit too, but its my feet, they are so puffy and all my shoes are blistering me. Horrible. And actually, my legs are a bit misshapen too. And I have a really strange symptom too......I had keyhole surgery a few years ago, and I have this horrible pain just underneath one of the scars from it. I can only assume that the baby growing has stretched the scar tissue on the inside (if you see what I mean, because the pain is sort of underneath the scar tissue on the skin). Am thinking I might be reduced to taking painkillers, its brutal, feels like its going to tear open at any moment. Apart from that little lot, all is good here.......unless you factor in the insomnia, constipation, Braxton Hicks, heartburn etc that I'm assuming we are all getting at this stage !

Snoozle fab excuse to put your feet up! They need to be raised above your heart from what I remember. Certainly sounds like the tissue/skin around your scar is stretching. Not sure what you do about it? I personally would get some aqueous cream/emulsifying ointment type stuff and massage it if yOu can. At least until you could get some medical solution!

I've had to down tools, not sure if I've done too much or what but I've become very lightheaded and dizzy and shaky. Not fun. However dinner is pretty much ready. Beef casserole and veg and Yorkshire puds. It's been in the slow cooker all day and smells lush! Ice cream for pudding. Yummy!

Mmmm sounds lovely voodoo I buckled and cheated today. I've bought a big pasta bake from marksies but the guilt of the laziness has pushed me into attempting to make foccacia from scratch. Eek.

And also, so, my son's name is Casper. Do you think it begins to sound just too much like spitting if you say their names close together if his little sister was to be called Hester? i think it might. What do people thing of Adelaide? We like it, but my parents hate it. And while I know its our choice blah de blah, we dont want to saddle her with a name everyone except us dislikes. Given some of the names I considered for Casper (which I accept isnt to everyone's taste, but enough people like it that its ok!) I think it best I take a poll. My own judgement is clearly not to be relied upon.
You ladies are beginning to convince me of the advantages of a slow cooker.
As for positioning, we are breech and back to back - I read that the evidence for positioning is anecdotal more than anything, but also that the research is rubbish, so anecdotes may have to do. I'm struggling to do anyting positionall;y advantageous due to heartburn though.
Right. I have left the garden in a leavable state and now I need to go wash my hair. I have a lot of hair. This is not a casual undertaking. I dont want to wash my hair. I want to sit on my arse and find the miraculous food stuff that settles my stomach.

Well Pam, am happy to do a swap some casserole for some foccacia? it may be just the thing to soak up the gravy! Gutted I forgot to put my pearl barley in, pregnancy brain is at it's height today. I forgot to put water in the steamer for the veg, hang a full load of uniform out on the line and dropped a full thing of dips (open) over the sparkling clean kitchen floor!

Just sorry,I just had a giggle at your post. I can't offer you anything more constructive than some moral support, especially with regards to the hair of which I too have an awful lot and as I want to wear it straight tomorrow I too am psyching myself up to go and wash it! Leave in conditioner is my friend!
Heartburn is agony here too. So so painful. Have a rennies on me petal!

evening all, hope you are had fab weekends. we had a bad night with dss last night, which has resulted in trying ds in the top bunk tonight which has me a little worried, he is only 3 after all, but the 9 yr old dss is scared (i love him but i swear he is a complete wuss) and it's causing problems. i'm just concerned ds will forget and climb out of bed normally if he wakes during the night.

Pam my baby is transverse which is going to scupper my homebirth plans unless my MW can do a CS on my dining table.

I cannot get it to shift. Im 35+ weeks now so the odds aren't looking good but I'm not giving up.

So far I have done:

• Daily inversions
• sleeping only on my left despite dreadful hip ache at night
• lots of all fours positions for watching tv, resting over birth ball.
• psoas & pelvic floor release (from spinning babies website).
• twice weekly chiropractic booked to 37 weeks. She said if it hasn't worked by then it probably won't (which was honest considering I could have kept paying for sessions upto my due date).
• headstands in a pool. Also advised by SB. DH thought I was nuts and I did notice him and DD distancing themselves from me today at the pool. I'm also not very good at headstands in a pool or on dry land

I am just about to do another inversion and then the hotwater bottle/ice pack trick.

Although I can see, now that I've written it down, that these are the actions of a crazy woman I am surprisingly relaxed about it.

I'm not sure if my IM is completely behind me anymore anyway (which was partly my PM to MrsA). She asked me if I had thought about a CS since seeing the crap consultant last week. I said not particularly in the last week but I had over the last 3 years hence paying a fortune for an IM and planning a homebirth.

She said it's ok if I do want a CS because she'd stay with me and see me afterwards. In the nicest possible way, if I have to have a CS then I don't want her there. Just DH.

Mum came round yesterday, no stepdad (nice to let me know). I think she was hoping it would be a emotional, forgiving reunion but we hardly spoke. She continued to be frosty with DH (fall out started because stepdad swore infront of DD, she repeated and my DH said "nice one" and took DD out of the room. They have ignored him ever since for embarrassing them in their own home. That's the entire petty thing in a nutshell except for the part where it escalated to mum having a huge go at me for not making DH apologise. She said some dreadful things. I wont drag the thread down but it was amazingly upsetting. I just kept thinking "what have i done here?" Childish). DD was pleased to see her though.

Probably pasta for dinner here, too tired to cook after my pool acrobatics

Just Washing hair? What is this luxury you speak of? I only just got the landlord to ask a plumber to come out tomorrow, so by any luck I'll be washing my hair as I go into labour...

I am currently cooped up in my bedroom hiding from our house guest. I'm feeling very short for personal space in our house which is a small miller's cottage with only the tiniest of front rooms - and I'm quite a private person.

But, I managed to get to church for the first time in MONTHS today, so I think all in all I'm evening out the bad girl/good girl quota today.

Wow I took so long to type it on my phone I xposted with lots of you!

voodoo you just reminded me that I need more gaviscon.

Kelly have you tried or read about hypno therapy to turn a baby? Our hypnobirthing practitioner runs a session - the Marie Mongan book seems to suggest some good success rates?

joyinbirthing.com/months/month7/hypnosisbreech/

Our hypnolady said to give her a call and she'd do a session if we were badly positioned - transverse or breech. She doesn't think back to back would benefit from the session though and I know babies can switch anterior and posterier quite quickly and randomly.

Just - I love the shortened version Adel and also have a friend called Adeline - I think its very pretty. Casper and Hester could be a bit of a mouthful and would likely get shortened. Casper is quite a Danish name - I really like it. But then again, a more and more frequent name is Storm. I think its cool here, but imagine if I had a boy and called him "Storm Harrison" - it would sound like a superhero in the UK!

I

GAH just typed a post and lost it..... now to try again :(

Firstly, sorry for not posting for a few days, have been lurking on my phone but not easy to post properly!! Will try & remember name-checks but sorry if I miss someone.

Chip yay for Sylvie-Rose moving to a cot & being on the home-straight, cannot believe how well the lil lady has done. Sorry to hear about her eye problem and that you weren't kept informed; hope that it manages to sort itself out xx

poppet hope willow is doing well xx

caz glad to hear you went home when it was the right time for you. Hope that the daily monitoring keeps your mind at ease, and an earlier date for induction means that it won't be long until you have Xander safely in your arms xx

calli sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your house, hope that they are sorted quickly for you.

Just I love the name Adelaide. Tjuice Storm Harrison is also lovely.

pam I'm soooo of 8 hours sleep, i'm lucky if I get 4 at the mo.

snoozle my feet are a little puffy by the end of the day, ankles are normal but feet definitely puffy - one of the pregnancy joys :(

Think I have over-done it a little this weekend, which isn't good as I am due to start a couple of hours a day at work tomorrow. Went shopping yesterday, got some pj bottoms and new dressing gown for me for after birth to lounge around the house in and they are soooooo comfy want to go get more!! Also picked up some of Isaac's stocking fillers for xmas :o well on my way with xmas shopping. Finished that day with food shopping which by the end I was barely able to stand :(

Today went out with my mum & sisters - we took my mum to do an indoor sky-dive (as it was her 50th a couple of months back). Was great to watch her then went for a meal & I ate a little too much, baby must've been extremely squished though the ice cream did wake baby up and had a lovely wriggle round which my mum & sisters were able to feel for the first time.

My sister also brought the last of the baby bits she had for me down with her; have just put them all away. Now have a bag full of washable nappies for when baby is a little bigger (friend is giving us some from birth ones); have a cupboard full of bottles & teats; steriliser on the kitchen side & more breast pads in the drawers :) We are now all ready.

I have my 34 week appt on Weds with MW (can't believe I am 34wks) when I have to remind her of my wishes for a homebirth and arrange for her to come and do a home visit. It is exciting, am hoping it will go smoothly (cannot see any reason for her to decline one). My mum was always going to come down to support me, DP & DS with the birth and my sister had said that she would be around to give my mum a lift if need be - my other sister then jokingly said that she would like to be there too; I jokingly said "anybody is welcome, doesn't bother me" (which it doesn't really) but now it seems that all 3 want to be around as well as DP, DS and MWs. Means lots of people to entertain DS but worried it may be too many people as I would prefer to be downstairs (more room & more comfortable) and we don't have a great deal of seating. May have to kick additional people upstairs - I'm sure that they won't mind!!

Sorry for long post. Off for a relaxing bath now and then early night as I have work tomorrow (& am slightly worried) xx

Well I went to Sainsburys with DH yesterday morning (sadly quite a treat for me as he usually goes after work on his own...). Got all the way to the tills without making a fool of myself, then dropped a jar of harissa on the floor thanks to my stupid tingly, numb carpal tunnel butter fingers. Lovely lady (v glad we were at the till next to the "superviser" desk) picked it up for me, and even went to get a fresh jar for us. But v embarassing. DH has made me promise I won't go with him any more.

I'm sure it'll turn out now I shouldn't be eating harissa anyway...

Hope everybody else is OK - sorry for being a lurker but glad most of us seem to be doing OK. I'm 31+5 so feeling a bit left behind many of you!