Due in May: the 2nd trimester, more glowing and less throwing

[Yorky]

Before the other thread bursts!
Thanks Miko for the title!

Hello PreciousPuddleduck and welcome :)

waiting - so pleased to hear how well you and DD are doing!

Mikocat - how rubbish families can be sometimes! I only have v mild SPD (there's a delicate balance between doing too little and too much I am finding!) so really sympathise with those of you suffering badly.

I am not looking forward to tonight though. We're travelling across to see DH's family in Ireland (which will be lovely) but with a 5 hr drive, 4hr ferry crossing and then another 90min drive, I'm a bit worried I'll be knackered and unable to move! All in time for my birthday tomorrow too! We're leaving home about 7pm tonight and then not arriving at DH's village until about 8am tomorrow! It will be great though and DS is really looking forward to seeing everyone -especially his 8 cousins!!

Anyway, enough waffle from me! Hope you're all doing ok and having a lovely Valentine's :)

Hello - just signed up to mumsnet on recommendation from a friend. I'm due to have my first baby 10th May this year, living in SW London - be lovely to speak to other ladies who are in the same boat...starting to feel scarily close to May now, and reading that people in this forum have already started having their babies makes it frighteningly real..need to get myself organised..be good to know how everyone else is feeling and getting on..

x

Welcome and congratulations Pickle54! You are a week or so ahead of me but it is getting closer which is fab! Completed my maternity allowance form today (I'm self-employed), having sorted a friend to cover me for six months so feeling far more relaxed about work situ. Want to empty a big drawer at the bottom of wardrobe for new baby's stuff (but nowhere to empty to yet!) and wash all ds's clothes and buy all the new wee bits I need, have to remind myself to take my time, it will all get done!

SESthebrave - Hope your travelling wasn't too stressful and you are having a lovely birthday!

Preciouspuddleduck - Welcome and congratulations to you too! Is this your first? I take it you are measuring big in the scans not bump wise? I am sure it is nowt to worry about, babies vary in size hugely! I measured small with my dd and she was perfectly formed. Plus I knew someone who gave birth naturally to an 11 Ib 10oz baby so either way you'll be grand I'm sure .

waiting - So glad to hear dd is breathing on her own! Does she have a name yet?

All fine here, breathing not too bad today, sorry to hear you are suffering two cupcake, but still definitely shallow. Managed to hang out my first wash of the year today and am off now to bake festival bread a la Joanne Harris's grandmother.

suffering too not two!

Hi LittleSarah, thank you for your welcome note! Well done for getting your work situtaion sorted - you must be feeling nice and relazed about that now. My job has just been advertised for maternity cover which feels very strange - the idea of handing over to someone else makes me feel completely out of control and has been playing on my mind a bit lately. I know what you mean about getting organised and feeling like you want to get everything done yesterday. We have just moved house from a small flat into a grown up house - within a week we have pretty much sorted all rooms (so nice that everything now has its 'place'!) but we've been putting anything that we can't find a home for in the intended nursery room, which is starting to fill up and frustrate me.. this weekend I want to get the remaining boxes emptied and start thinking about giving the room a lick of paint and getting some furniture sorted so that we can put things in a bottom drawer (instead of a moving box!) My friend who had a baby 4 months ago has started very kindly giving me hand-me-downs..and we started to look at cot/cotbeds the other day..it's hit me that we don't have that many free weekend's left to complete the jobs that we want to, so need to plan our time wisely!! and find some time to rest aswell..
I'm 28 weeks tomorrow and starting to feel a bit sluggish again (mainly because of the wierd sleep I'm getting at the moment - vivid dreams and countless wee's and running through mental to do's in my head whilst dh snores his head off contentedly!) Sat at my desk at the moment, counting down to 5:30!

It feels like the air con in our building has packed up today as well, I'm sat here red faced and wishing I had a cold fan on my face!!

Lovely to meet you!

xx

LittleSarah she does, she is called Sophia.

I had my first cuddle today :D they are really good for encouraging skin to skin, it was utterly amazing, really didn't want to give her back. She is still breathing fine, it's just all positive news at the moment.

pickle54 welcome :)

Waiting, that's such a lovely name. Sounds like she's doing really well, a little fighter! Cuddles sound lovely and you will get plenty in time but it must be so hard to not cuddle her whenever you want.

Welcome to the new people, glad you found us .

Have got a nasty chesty cough at the moment so doing as little as possible, poor DS has mostly been dumped in front of the telly but I have zero energy! At least it'll help prepare him for when the baby arrives and he gets less mummy attention! Hope everyone else is feeling well.

waiting, so glad things are going so well for you. I still can't get my head around that your baby is born!! Sophia is a beautiful name. We're still waffling on about loose ideas for ours....

pickle54 welcome and agree wholewheartedly about the nightly adventures - it's what I do every other night now it seems.

I about to sign up fpr my local NCT class, to start in early March. I live in a village and everyone says it's a must for the social side, so signing up for that more than anything. But the cost made me go a bit pale!

My baby as become supe active lately - I do wonder what he/she is up to in there!! And loads of Braxton Hicks now, especially whilst drive home from work - lovely!

waiting congratulations and thank you for your welcome. So glad to hear that you little lamb is doing well. How are you feeling? You must be so relieved to have had a cuddle today

basse know what you mean about cost of nct.. But I'm assured by friends that I'll be glad I signed up. Our first session is 6th march, hope we get a friendly group!! It does seem a bit odd being thrown together with 6 strangers knowing that I'll probably be divulging my most intimate thoughts/experiences to them.. I'm not sure whether I've had braxton hicks yet, had a stitch like feeling throughout the day today..is that what they feel like? baby does kick an awful lot these days!!

wrigglebum hope you feel better soon, you poor thing :)

Hi everyone, welcome to all the newbies in our group, good to hear from you all.
waiting, what a beautiful name for your little girl. Well, I would say that, I'm a bit biased as my youngest daughter is also called Sophia, so good choice! We are now struggling to settle on a name for this little one, being our third girl.... We only really started discussing it this week, and we haven't settled on anything yet. DH only likes some of my name choices, so it's a case of finding which ones we both agree on. (I think I tend to go for more fancy/adventurous girly names than him!)
waiting it's wonderful to hear Sophia is doing so well with breathing on her own, keep filling us in on how everything's going. Are you feeling a bit better now? Is your blood pressure improving? Thinking of you both.

Like you pickle54 we are finally starting to take some kind of action to prepare for our new arrival at last. At the weekend we cleared the box room of all the kids toys and DD's clothes drawers. (so the landing and one of the other bedrooms is now cluttered up with furniture and junk!) but it means dh has been able to get on with stripping the walls / filling etc to start turning the room into a nursery. Yesterday we went and chose some wallpaper and curtains, so still plenty of work for dh to do, but at last we're doing something, and it was a really good feeling choosing the room decor together. When the room is finished I will finally be able to get the old cot out, work out where drawers can go and eventually sort the old baby clothes out and get things ready. I've been feeling really happy and excited about the baby in the last few days, (I'm sure a lot of you have been like this from day one but I think im just developing in my feelings about this surprise DC3. It also helps that it's half term, I've had days off from work this week, so I'm so a lot more relaxed and enjoying the escape from the routine this week).

(BTW my local mothercare, which is a larger store, had just reduced a load of maternity clothing today. I got a vest top for £2 and a nightdress which has has a special design for discreet breast feeding, most stuff in sale was about 70% off. I don't like spending too much on maternity and nursing clothes as they have such a limited time use, but I have found breast feeding tops and nightwear useful in the past, when in hospital, and also at home in the early weeks when you have lots of visitors and family members around while you are feeding every hour or two! So you might find a few bargains if you need any clothing).
Thinking of those of you suffering with SPD and shortness of breath, hope you're managing without too much discomfort. I'm lucky I haven't had those side effects yet, but can empathise with all the sleeping problems people are having. I wake up a lot, seems to be whenever I need to turn over, always at least one loo trip per night, and so many crazy dreams all through the night. But I comfort myself with the thought that this is bliss compared to the lack of sleep which will be coming in a few months time, I'm not tired yet!

Cooo it's been busy in here the past few days!

lucky glad you're feeling really happy and excited about the baby now - doing up the baby's room is such a lovely thing to do, I can't wait until I can get painting!

wrigglebum hope your cough shifts soon. Good plan doing as little as possible - and I'm sure your DS doesn't mind a few cbeebies days!! I've had a horrible cold this week and have mostly fancied the sofa so you have my sympathies!

waiting what a beautiful name, Sophia is just lovely. And how lovely to be able to have a cuddle. Can't believe she's breathing on her own already, what a little fighter she is! Hope you get to have lots more cuddles soon (do they call it kangaroo care or have I made that up?)

Hello Pickle! Sounds like you're getting yourself organised in your new place - I moved in December and still have a lot of unpacked boxes so you're doing better than me! I think I'm about as far along as you - I was 28 weeks this week - and I completely agree about the starting to get sluggish again! I walked to the post box around the corner yesterday and was thoroughly depressing myself that I still had 12 weeks to go and how could my tum feel so stretched already!

SES hope all your travelling went well and that you had a happy birthday!

Hello Precious Hope your virus passes soon. My midwife said to me at my appointment this week that it's not very accurate measuring bump until 27/28 weeks so try not to worry. It depends what position baby is in too - if they are lying across your tum you will measure smaller than if it is head down/feet down. Hope the scan goes well today though.

Sounds like we're all cracking on with the DIY at the moment! The house we moved into in Dec needs a lot of work to modernise it so there is a constant trail of electricians, plumbers and plasterers through our door at the moment. The baby's room has now had new sockets put in, wallpaper stripped and walls and ceiling plastered. So just waiting for all of that to dry so we can get painting! I'm struggling to find any nice curtains though - any recommendations of shops to try?! I'd set my heart on getting some fabric and making them, but the fabric I found turned out to be £££ so I'm thinking I might get some plain colour ones now...just tricky when I don't know if it's a boy or a girl! We're thinking off white walls with greeny curtains at the moment, but I need to find them first!

Had my 28 week check with the midwife this week - she thinks baby is lying across my tummy (she's written oblique in my notes, but from what I've read, that's more diagonal and from the kicks and lumps I can feel, I think it's more horizontal which I think is transverse). She said it's nothing to worry about though as baby still has a lot of room to turn, so I'm hoping by the next time I see her, baby will be head down, ready to go!

Our NCT classes started this week too. We were a bit worried that there were going to be a lot of cringey 'getting to know you' type activities but it was all relatively cringe-free! I'm feeling really optimistic about them, I think they'll be really beneficial. Everyone else there seems really nice too, and we discovered that one couple live just around the corner from us!

Our pram arrived this week - cue much excitement! It arrived on Tuesday so we had a very romantic valentine's day eve putting it all together and driving it around the front room! We went for the quinny buzz, with the maxi cosi cabriofix car seat (found a good deal at baby deals 4 u, or something like that) and we're really pleased with it so far. Hopefully that'll continue when it actually has a baby in it! Our cot mattress arrived yesterday too, and the cot should be arriving on Friday - it's all becoming rather real! I am so excited about being able to finally start the decorating set up all the furniture in the baby's room...otherwise known as nesting I suppose!

I'm on half term this week and really loving not being at work and being able to potter around the house. Not looking forward to the 6 weeks of work that I have left! (Although I should count myself lucky really as I get to start maternity leave 2 weeks earlier than I perhaps would've done, because of the Easter hols!)

Hope everyone is having a good week, sorry for the essay! (Can you tell I'm putting off doing the work I should be doing?!) :)

Gorgeous name waiting, cuddle sounds wonderful!

Well all the talk of organisation galvanised me somewhat today. Have cleared out the drawer for baby as well as some general tidying. Keep seeing stuff that needs done, you know, ooh those shelves could do with having everything taken off and then scrubbed, etc. I am also beginning to get planting for the garden (indoors in trays). Dh will have to get out in next few weeks to do heavy work so beds are ready (I will try and do some!) but I'm really hoping too have everything planted by April and then most of it transferred to garden by May. Then come June I can wander my veg and blooms with wee one in the sling picking baby courgettes and sweet peas... that is the dream anyway!

So bump measuring can start now dreaming? I am nearly 27 weeks. I get a little unhealthily obsessed with weighing and measuring at times, especially with dh constantly marvelling at the size of my bump as if I am growing a baby elephant in there.

Pickle54 - I think I've felt pretty tired throughout this pregnancy! Although I admit much improvement this trimester, man I was exhausted in the first. Although looking forward to trimester 3 as I have my scan to check placenta position (was low lying at 20 weeks you see) so will find out where/how I will be giving birth and just because it means the birth is closer... I am not looking forward to more tiredness, more night peeing and generally more discomfort! Bring on May I say!

This cough wouldn't be so bad if I could take something for it! Went to the pharmacy and they were very sympathetic as they recommended steam! I do have a facial sauna so will use that once DS is in bed! DS is being so sweet and keeps bringing me toys to make me feel better!

Was just thinking how glad I am that I've been strict about doing my pelvic floor exercises- it would be much worse if every coughing fit caused me to pee as well! So just thought I'd remind you all again to keep doing them!

A few too many exclamation marks in that post .

waiting, so good to hear that Sophia is doing well! I've been busy this week but you've been in my thoughts - hope you are feeling better too.

LittleSarah we have an allotment and I also have this dream of having baby down there in the summer as I garden and generally act in an outdoorsy way, ha! We shall see though.

Welcome to the new arrivals on here too :)

I still have nothing much to report. Baby is extremely wriggly now; I was in a meeting at work the other day and my boss noticed my bump moving around as he/she was really going for it for some reason. Last weekend I made a list of all the essentials we will need to buy and realised I definitely need to get on with buying stuff before I have to spend a fortune on it all a few days before my due date or something.

I've also sorted out my mat leave with work and am taking all my annual leave beforehand so actually will be finishing work at Easter - six weeks to go! NCT classes also start next week.

Oh wrigglebum I am so bad at pelvic floor! I do do them here and there but can never do the complex ones mentioned on yoga DVD, open and close is about all I manage!

ballroom - good luck with the allotment! What are you going to plant this year? I want to try and grow more cut flowers this year so got a box of 'really good cut flower seeds' from Sarah Raven. I let you know in the summer if they are any good or not! Last night I wrote up a sowing plan, you know list of things to planted first two weeks March, last two weeks March, etc. Not sure how long the attempt to be organised will last...

I know what you mean about buying things along the way, I'd like to get a little more sooner rather than later too, will hopefully buy a bit or two this weekend.

Right must get dd sorted for school!!

Thanks for the pelvic floor reminders definitely need them as sneezing is a bit hazardous these days ..didn't leak between pregnancies though so hoping it's just extra pressure of the baby at the moment and it won't be like that forever!

waiting I welled up at you getting to cuddle your dd, congratulations :) so amazing she's doing so well. Have you been on the preemie boards here? (Not trying to get rid of you obviously, we need updates!! But just thought it would prob be good to get support from others who've been where you are.)

ballroom my bump is constantly throwing crazy shapes too I love watching it I filmed it the other day.

Speaking of needing new stuff for baby, I made an amazon wish list yesterday incase anyone asks what we need...I always find it really hard buying gifts for second babies so thought it might be useful for others. And tip- you can download a little amazon icon for your toolbar that means you can add items from any other website so I put loads from mothercare on there :)

Have got my industrial sized bottle of gaviscon now, thank goodness...heartburn has suddenly got much worse in the last few days. Can tell the lovely second trimester is coming to an end :(

Ooh and wanted to say lucky soooo lovely to read that you're getting excited and happy about dd3 :)

Just off to the hospital for my 28 week appointment (28 +1 day today!) Feeling really excited today for some reason..must be because it's almost the weekend - and hubby and I have got lots of 'jobs' planned for the weekend. Had horrible dreams last night - so also feeling a litle bit wired due to lack of sleep (all good practice though!)

Giggled out loud at your pelvic floor conversation wrigglebum and LittleSarah*, so much in fact that I reminded myself that I need to work on mine..

Rummaging through my bag have realised I have about 16p in change, so must dash to get some car park change..

Hope you all have a lovely weekend - enjoying reading about your gardening plans...spring is just round the corner and we'll all be popping out our little lambs then :) eeeek

xx

Cupcake - I've made an Amazon wishlist too, that Universal button is a really useful feature.

Last night I dreamt that the baby was a boy, that would be a bit weird as we are so used to her being a girl now and trying out different names for her. Mind you I also dreamt that the baby was sleeping in my bed and I kept losing it under the duvet! Normal anxiety dreams I suppose. I was excellent at BF in the dream though! :)

Off to a hotel up in the North York Moors for the weekend as soon as DH gets home. Really looking forward to it, even though the SPD is so bad right now that it's going to be more about reading books and eating than walking on the moors!

V of those of you getting nurseries ready but kind of glad we don't need to buy everything for the baby now as the car we bought 3wks ago to replace the one which died is now giving us grief, and garage bills :( Just feels like its one thing on top of another atm. Feeling pretty hormonal today - DS2 came into our bed at 1230 so I didn't have a good night, and taking the DC 10pin bowling yesterday was probably not my best idea ever with SPD! They enjoyed it though

Yay!! Namechange!!

Hello, thank you to everyone for your thoughts and kind words again!

cupcakefairy since I read your post yesterday I have posted on the preemie boards, they are all very supportive and nice, having a bit of a nightmare with expressing so its good to read others who have had similar problems.

dreaming someone else called it kangaroo care, I have no idea but it sounds nice, I was just thrilled to cuddle her, my DH got a cuddle yesterday and he welled up and looked so adorable, he put his hand over her back and completely covered her, it's easy to forget just how tiny she is. We keep seeing 'normal' babies in the hospital and they look like huge mutant babies because we are so used to looking at her.

Thank you to everyone who asked how i'm feeling, lots better, physically especially, although its a very weird feeling that I'm about to rip open the scar! My blood pressure is pretty stable, on lots of medication and my DH has to give me injections twice a day for something, small price to pay for still beng here though really. At the moment I feel like we are doing everything on autopilot, we don't get much time to relax with going to and from the hospital and various appointments.

We registered her birth yesterday, that makes it feel very 'real', she now officially exists!

I love her name, we gave her Diane as a middle name which was my mums name, she passed away 18months ago so it's a lovely tribute and I think Sophia Diane works really well. She sounds 'classy' somehow :)

Off out to mothercare to finish paying for the pram and pick up lots of bits we will need, I'm glad I'm feeling up to getting everything, and she will have a fabulous nursery by the time she gets home!!

Gosh! so much to catch up on!
What is happening? My life seems to have gone into superspeed all of a sudden. Is it the feeling of suddenly counting down rather than counting up? Eek!

So Waiting, I mean GotMyLittleLamb! Goodness! Congratulations on the delivery of your precious little girl, that must have been incredibly scary, and I guess there's still a long way to go but so pleased your preeclampsia/HELLP was picked up and both of you made it through to this point. Are you getting support while you cope with having Sophia (great name BTW) in the HDU? I'm sure there must be lots of mums on here who have been through it and have great advice. Take care of yourself and hope you recover from the c-section smoothly. Fab about the expressing and that she's breathing, that's fantastic. I had a scan the other day at 28 weeks and the sonographer pointed out that the practice breathing movements and said that one of the reasons the babies do better the later they come out is just that they've had more chance to practice, so your little girl must get to go to top of the class for getting A+ in breathing so quickly!!

Wrigglebum - are you still getting lots of Braxton Hicks? I get them a lot too, more if I'm tired or thirsty, but still at least 5 a day. I was also getting lots of leg cramps and have started taking a magnesium supplement - that seems to be helping and I think the braxtons have calmed down a little since I started it. Do you get cramps anywhere else?

Ooh I've been prescribed Ranitidine for chronic heartburn and it works! It's like a little miracle! I started burping practically the minute I get a +ve pregnancy test and live on gaviscon daily since then but it was starting earlier and earlier and that along with the gestational diabetes was really starting to affect my relationship to food completely. This has just taken one aspect out of the equation and it make such a difference.

I've found a place for baby to sleep - I mean the thing for he/she to sleep in next to our bed. We had DS in our room for close to 6 months and anticipate something similar with this one so I wanted something that would be big enough to use for a while but not the cot which won't fit. Still got to get the carseat and probably a bassinet attachment for our stroller and go through the rest of the still packed boxes that hold our baby stuff and sort and wash. Oh and I've bought a change mat. Got to go through my nappies as well.

I've got the gym ball out too - I think I might have mine inflated a bit too much though as the one I sat on at our antenatal class was comfier...although actually I may not have been on it for as long as we were rehearsing positions for early labour so was on an off it a bit. I think it definitely 'works' your lower back to keep stable so I feel tired but my butt hurts if I sit on the couch too long.

Welcome to the new joiners - I'm excited to see what happens from here on in. I hope everyone stays happy and healthy, and gets lots of lovely sleep with no pee breaks. Speaking of which, time for me to head off.

well, i missed a few bits whilst i was away!!!
congratulations, GotMylittleLamb and i'm glad to hear you are both doing as well as you can considering the circumstances!

I'm nearly 29 weeks (or in my 30th week as they call it) aand it's scary as hell to think about how close i am to having a baby!! I've had my 28 week appointment and everything seems okay, she is moving and wriggling a lot, fundal height measurements are spot on, i've put on about 7 KG's since booking in appointment and i'm okay with that!
also had my anti-d injection and my GTT testing (in the same day, my poor right arm took a proper battering!!)
i'm getting very uncomfortable at the moment, my back pain seems to have gotten better but i think little one has an opposite sleep pattern to me as she's fairly placid during the day and in the evening/night when i'm trying to go to sleep, it's madness! she also wakes me up in the morning nearly everyday with a huge kick :) which is nice and reasurring but painful!
i also get lots of stitches when i walk in the side of my bump, i can't eat a lot in one sitting but i get hungry again after a very short while
and it seems like all i want to do is eat and sleep....

hope everyone else is not feeling as crap as i am lol!

Just a quick check in post from me.

GotaLittleLamb - love both your new name and also Sophia Diane for your DD. Sounds like you are all doing well - congrats!!

We travel back from Ireland tomorrow. Leave at about 6.30am and should be home about 6pm. Then back to work Monday morning!