January 2012 - The one with the heartburn, kick counting and bump-gropers losing their hands...

[shonnomanom]

There we go, a nice new thread.

The BIG Question??? Will the first baby arrive during this thread???????

That's a good point, red I hadn't even considered whether there was a paternity allowance for self-employed dads...

My dh gets 1 week paid and then one week at statutory pay he says about £150 for the week. So we have decided to have the second week as annual leave.

Huge congratulations to parsley when I read all the congratulations going from the bottom up I thought we had ha our first thread baby! Have fun in John Lewis' with your vouchers!

Very jealous about the people who have Mums that are helping them.............Mine is no use whatsoever, doesn't even look after herself let alone Me! I have no idea how I am going to manage looking after her after the baby is here as I won't be able to drive for 6 weeks. At the moment I have to do all her shopping, manage her financial affairs and nag her to have a wash/change her clothes. Think a call to social services may be in order..........

Scary about the babies born at 28 weeks, fingers crossed for them.........

So day 1 of maternity leave and I am determined not to waste it laying around the house like I did yesterday. I found myself watching discovery home and health back to back episodes of A baby story, bringing baby home and I didn't know I was pregnant. Seriously there are so many women who just end up giving birth with no idea they were PG!!

Morning all,

My dh gets 120pw for paternity leave. We have kept enough savings to cushion the blow a little but that will be last of it. Once that money's gone, it's gone. Hoping that IF I finally get conf of maternity allowance were going to try and live on that and i'll give him housekeeping instead of vice versa so his wages can be saved again.

Permission to rant: I am poorly AGAIN. Stinking heavy cold, I am SO pissed off-this last 2 weeks at work I need to pull everything together for the assesors and I feel like death. On top of that my sciatica has kicked off big style-I get sharp shooting pains in my tailbone if I try to sit in the the very slightest of wrong positions and theres hardly any tolerance as to what that actually is so i keep catching myself and the pain momentarily makes me gasp it's so intense. Also the SPD has finally worked it's way into my groin so thats now sore on top of everything else, ribs are still bad in the evenings. I am consistently awake for2-3 hours a night and waking up at 4.30 am on average. It's taking it's toll. I simply cannot go in to today so that me down on money again. I am so glad that each day of pregnancy is one more day I never have to do again. I have told DH that I ever suggest more children he's to punch me squarely in the face until i forget the idea (not really obv-but it demonstrates my strength of feelings on the matter at the mo)

Honestly and truly if this baby arrived tomorrow I would not be unhappy.

Sorry to let off steam and be a miseryguts. I'm just so tired, run down and in pain.

worm are you having a ELCS? just noticed your post on driving. When I had DD I was told no driving for 6 weeks but was able to after 3 with clearance from the doctor-her test for it was could I stand on one leg and swing the other leg backwards and forwards and could I stamp my foot. That may comfort you in the midst of your worries that you may not be out of comission as long as you thought.

Dh's company is really good amd gives him 2 weeks full pay. Which will be nice.

Urgh, had a horrible day at the il's yesterday was glad to get home last night, but then had an awful nights sleep the room wouldn't stop spinning and I just felt so rough with really horrible bad drreams. I thought the night wasn't going to end! I blame listening to screaming and shouting all day, dd didn't sleep well either and kept calling out. Were just not used to being around screamy shouty people.

I'm off to the hospital today dd has an appointment to discuss her allergies.

Hope everyone has a good day.

addicted - God, your ils sound worse than mine and there's not many I can say that about! What on earth happened yesterday?

Worm - sounds like a difficult situcation with your mum. Does she have MH issues?

Ah fish sounds like a rubbish night, definately a duvet day for you today!
Yes I am to have an ELCS, even if I could drive it's the lugging shopping and a baby car seat around that is a worry. My wound split with DD as I did too much and became infected, so I really am going to have to sort something. DH will be even more busy than usual as he will have to do all the ferrying DC's about to clubs etc that I usually do, so he wont be able to do it all for her (not that he has the inclination either) My Mum was/is a dreadful mother and he doesn't like her very much.

cakes yes Mum has brain damage caused by alcohol abuse, it causes apathy, short term memory loss and psychosis, which is controlled by medication. She can cope with daily tasks and routines such as feeding herself and lives in warden controlled housing. She is very anti having help in but if I cant do it, I cant do it.

Worm - I understand your difficulty, but I think what you said is absolutely right - if you can't you can't and it is up to her if she chooses to refuse the help that is offered. Big hugs, can't be easy for you.

Morning ladies. Very of Italy, always wanted to visit there, hope you're having wonderful time.

Congratulations Parsley, what a busy few weeks for you

Hold on to your hats girls - we ordered a pram and carseat . The lady in the shop didn't have the car seat in so she's ordering it asap, but she's offered to lend one should I need it earlier (she looked a bit scared by my timings )

34 weeks today (is that officially heavily pregnant??) 6 more weeks to go. Lots of cramping and lower back pain this morning so wondering if baby is engaged.

My friend gave birth at 34 weeks, baby was fine...

sshhhhhh

As Dd pointed out yesterday "my baby can't come yet mummy, you haven't bought any nappies"

hee hee - Well if you do go into labour I'm sure we can club together to buy you some nappies!!!

My friend's labour started with back cramps too... then she drove herself to hospital and gave birth 3 hours later! Do keep us updated... :)

worm, sorry that you have your mum to worry about as well as you and your family, that must be hard. I should probably be more generous about my mum - she's thoroughly lovely but has had chronic fatigue for almost ten years now, so I've got into the habit of trying not to stress her or ask for help, when actually she'd probably be fab after the birth. I just find it a bit guilt-inducing to ask her to do things as she gets in a bit of a flap. Anyway I am resolving to give her a bit more credit in future as I should keep things in perspective too. Hope your mum will accept some help from another source.

I had my NCT classes this weekend! Was fun and very informative, especially for DH. And the instructor taught us some nice massage techniques for labour . One of the couples was missing for the second class and hadn't sent any word, which is a bit worrying as they have been in and out of hospital for pre-eclampsia checks over the last few weeks. Here's hoping they're ok.

Out of five couples, four had due dates within a week of mine, and all wanted a waterbirth at our local MW unit (which only has one pool!) Suffice it to say, if I see them in the car park I will be elbowing them out of the way to get there first

Anyone else getting hot flushes and sweats? I woke up in middle of night sweating buckets even though the room was very cool and I've just had anoher hot flush just now. Yuck. Is it just a third trimester thing or do I need o be checking my hospital bags too?

Sorry to here of your mother worries worm I would give Social a call and see how they can help out. As you say You cant do it.

Fish Sorry to hear your in so much pain and discomfort. Just remember though that no 2 pregnancies are the same. My first was completely text book, it was fanastic, this time around im falling apart at the seams. Dont make any rash decisions until well into the new year.

giraffe I dont know if 34w is classed as heavily pregnant but I certainly feel like I am! Have been bump bashing a lot more than usual lately. I too have been thinking baby is now engaged, Iv been getting alot of uncomfortable pressure down there in the last day or two that I havent had before. Dp also said last night that my bump had dropped slightly. Seeing MW on Wednesday for my 34wk check. Not that I want to encourage cakes or anything but as well this new pressure and the back pain (TMI ALERT) I have been excessively pooing this weekend. The same happened on the lead up to going into labour with Dd!

xpost cakes Yes hot flushes is completely normal. Iv found myself on top of the covers most nights. Dp comes in from work and puts the covers back over me because I feel cold but im sweating at the same time.
Ah another joy of pregnancy!

I don't know about hot flushes but I got some funny looks at nursery this morning in my short sleeve t-shirt :) Combination of being warmer than normal and having no jumpers that fit!

Yes Sho if I've opened the fridge door onto the bump once this weekend then I've done it half a dozen times. Also if you're having labour urges you go right ahead, I'm more than happy to let you go first! I'm guessing because we've had babies before we are more attuned to the slight changes (can you tell I'm hoping :))

Eek, giraffe!

Addicted sounds stressful. I keep visits to the ILs to a minimum for that very reason...

Worm you also have a lot on your plate. Are you an only as well, so that care of your mum is all down to you?

My DH, as I think I mentioned, is jacking in his job at the end of the year, and though he's already looking for something, he's had no offers or even interviews yet. He won't even be eligible for unemployment benefit because he hasn't been made redundant. But at least he'll be around the house indefinitely.

my DH works for himself and is taking a couple of paid weeks off, but then as he only really takes half his allowance of holidays in the year it isn't so bad. The problem he has is keeping the business going whilst he isn't there especially at that time of year when you have to work hard for sales.

the first load of washing has gone in for baby. this time i have decided not to sort them by age on the tickets, but i'm going to measure them quickly from shoulder to gusset and organise them that way. DS has short legs and a long body (as do both DH and i) and the number of items that never got worn because of this is silly. Now though, despite this, he is 2.3 and still wearing 18month clothes. Be warned ladies, the tickets mean nothing..........

i'm ignoring the rest of you talking about labour, it isn't happening

As long as baby waits until after my second hypno session!!

Sorry to hear you're feeling so rough fish - I really really hope things improve soon xxx

worm situation with your mum sounds really hard, try to take care of yourself as much as possible and as you say you can only do what you can do, and you don't need to feel bad about that, especially as there is other support available if she chooses to take it.

fish sorry to hear you feeling so rough, I have been struggling with fatigue without most of the additional symtoms you have so you have my total sympathy. Can empathize with the sciatica tho, I ended up bouncing on my birthing ball last night while reading the paper cos sitting anywhere else was pressing on my nerve.

It is all starting to seem very soon isn't it?! I was 33 weeks on Saturday and the idea that in 9 weeks at the most my baby will be here is quite mind blowing!

there seem to be a lot of mums with mental health problems about mine is actually being quite sane at the moment, just waiting for the next monumental blow-up, but the baby's existence might prevent that for a while. sorry for you having to deal with all that worm - that's a load of stuff you don't really need right now.

fish hope you feel better soon!! maybe get on the raspberry leaf tea right now and get that baby out!!

I wanted to ask about that heated airer somebody posted about a while ago now - can anyone remember what company or make it was, or repost the link? I think we have such a problem with drying clothes that we might need to get one for the reusable nappy fest that is about to occur...

red it's lakeland. I keep trying to convince DH to buy one, but he's not having it. www.lakeland.co.uk/21736/Dry-Soon-Heated-Tower-Airer i'm going to if I get maternity allowance, stuff him.

worm i'm sorry about your mum-my mum is definately better off than that, despite her silly behaviours I know she can be relied upon.

Thanks for all your messages everyone, i'm absolutely choc full of snot and now I mouth ulcers to contend with as well. Big nasty ones on both sides of my tongue. I wouldn't mind so much but I simply a never ill person. I don't do colds and haven't for about 3 years.

fish you're a legend, thanks.

I've already ordered one - hope it arrives soon as they're being a bit vague about delivery times. Our house is really open plan downstairs and I'm already sick of having washing around all the time as it takes 2-3 days to dry. At least this way it'll dry overnight, even if we have loads more washing to do because of the baby. I'll let you know if it's good redhead!