November 2012 - reaching the six-month mark

[StuntNun]

Previous thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/1518656-November-2012-baby-shopping-time-has-really-taken-off

Stats list: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/1485512-November-2012-Stats-List

Morning all! Stick to your guns MissMummy (and good luck hon)... DH has buggered off early to go and play cricket on the mainland today, it's his last match of the season, which damnit I'm wishing it wasn't as I got such a lovely sleep with the bed all to me, the bump and the cat this morning from six. I'm watching the marathon on the Limpix at the moment - not recommended when sporting a bump the size of a small car. Mindst didn't Mo Farrah's wife just look fecking awesome last night!?

Glad to hear I'm not the only one finding some all of my maternity jeans getting tight, reaches for another caramac icecream

What does everyone have planned? I'm contemplating lighting the Rayburn (it's chilly up here), doing some gloss painting (joy), bit more mad nesting / cleaning and also thinking about washing the mountain of baby clothes we've been given - what should I wash them in? We use non-bio as DH is a big wuss has sensitive skin - is that ok? How about fabric conditioner?

valium my bump is uncomfy too. Finding sleeping hard. Last couple days started to have swollen hands and I can feel it in my feet too :( I've taken off my engagement ring and might take off my wedding ring if it gets worse as I don't want to end up having to cut them off!

On a more fun note, I bought all my baby clothes yesterday. 7 vests (m&s value pack for £7 which I thought was cheap!) Also bought 6 babygrows from next and mothercare. They are all 0-1month which fits upto 10lbs. Even baby ends up a lot similar then will send someone out get smaller size once bubba is here.

So what other starter clothes pack do I need for the first couple of weeks! Sleep suit/pramsuit for when we go out ?! I've bought a little hat too....

I am determined just to buy the bare essentials until baby comes and then hve a better idea of what else we need.

Brockle I never used breast shells either, it always seemed a bit of an icky way to collect up milk.

CandyPop hopefully you will receive baby clothes as gifts when the baby is born as well so you may not need to buy too much. I always buy a 'going home outfit' for the baby to wear home from the hospital. They probably don't need it but it'll be nice for him to look smart to meet the neighbours.

Caramac ice cream? sounds nice!!

We have had the Marathon on the olympics, it feels wierd to be able to watch some events live if we tune in in the evening.

I read all the thread but can never remember anything by the time I go to post! whoops. Baby brain.

I had a wakl today and I have really noticed the bump is big and heavy now and gets in the way ALL THE TIME! Bending over etc and doing up DD's shoes etc all very tricky now. I'm sleeping well though, I don;t get up to pee ever as a physio told me it's best to hold on and strengthen up the bladder, but of course when I told a friend of mine (who is pregnant too) she said a physio had told her the opposite so I don't whats 'best' really but I am glad to sleep through and to not be peeing all the time.

I only just remember my pelvic floor exercises every now and then.

yellowWellies I use non-bio and comfort for the first few months.

I am amazed at Mat Clothes getting tight already. Surely they are meant to see you to term? I am still in my normal trousers, but I had lost a lot of weight, and they are a bit stretchy. My jeans do not fit.

candy bed is the only place I can get comfy! I would get a few little cardis, preferably hand knitted as they are lovely on newborns. In relation to a snow suit, it depends what your set up is for pushchair, and how often you will be using it. If baby will be in a snugly cocoon type thing, then layers and a blanket with hat should suffice. They sell travel gro-bags that look great, but I used a fleece poncho from Jo Jo Maman Bebe so just popped it over baby's head once fastened into car seat or push chair. The snow suits look so bulky I wonder if baby would fit safely in car seat, plus could overheat once car is warm inside.

Just a quick message from me, candy, might be worth buying one or two things in the size up. DS was big (10lb 3oz) when he was born. Literally the first thing the consultant said to me was 'congratulations, you've just given birth to a 3 month old!'. He barely fitted into his going home outfit!

Am off to watch the olympic women's weightlifting (!) at the excel centre now. Not my first choice of events but am sure I'll enjoy it when I get there. I saw the rowing last week and am watching everything else on the TV. The Olympics is great! The athletics and rowing yesterday was amazing!

Other than that I am well DH is fully recovered from having his appendix out so we are getting back to normality. We've got decorators in at the moment so the house is chaos, want to get our bedroom nice before DC2 arrives so that we have one sort of child free haven (excepting for the first few months when DC2 will be in the room with us).

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Rowing that was big for a first baby. DD2 was 10lb 3 and people can be very cruel with comments about big babies. I clearly ate rubbish (true) and about missing out the small baby phase. She was still a newborn! My Mum called her fat bum for months. She hated her name, still does, but fat bum was just mean. Looking back she does look like a Sumo, and it took a long time for her to grow into her face, but she was still a new baby. I have just bought 0-3 as this one, being a boy, is likely to be a whopper too. Small babies seem to be the desired, and I guess for squeezing out purposes, yes, but they are not a fashion accessory. I have known girls to start smoking in order to have a smaller baby.

valium i honestly cant remember the last time I saw a "small" baby. A relation of mine has big babies like 13 pounds and I think their pudgy arms and legs are adorable. start smoking to have a smaller baby? Are you serious? Some people are mental!! I don't care what size my baby is as long as she's healthy! smaller for the pushing but I'm sure it will be agony all the same

27w today sorting through my wardrobe today and have another box of stuff forthe loft that doesn't fit :( wondering if to put some of it on eBay, I have some really nice dresses a few that I haven't worn but I sold something on there before and got a nightmare buyer so abit put off but I shall have a think, saves them siting in the loft and I get abit of money back which is nice

With bumps getting bigger, most deffinatly. I bashed mine of the cupboard door yday, didn't think I was that close to it :( must of give LO a shock because a couple min later I got a few kicks

Hope everyone enjoys their Sunday! And those off to the Olympics enjoy

I think the reason my mat jeans are getting tight isn't to do with the bump... more to do with my expanding arse as I can no longer run four times a week like I used to :( I used to do up to 30 miles a week... that's soooo not happening now. Now I just waddle betwixt sofa, fridge, loo, and nesting activities...

I work with people with addictions, so if they carry to term it is quite rare, and most babies are below 7lb. I worked closely with midwives in my previous job and the smoking thing only really related to the younger mums, but it does happen. Bizarre. nervous ouch for the cupboard door. I have caught mine on the back of the kitchen chairs on occasions and it really hurts. Catch my bum more often, so that must be growing too.

yellow I am sure you will lose it quickly once baby is here. Can you run with your pushchair? I am intrigued by your Island life. I have a friend who lives in Shetland, down a long track in an isolated little house. Do you live in more of a town? I can imagine it is lovely for running. I used to run many years ago.

We live in an isolated little house down a dirt track, we're about 3 miles from the nearest town Stromness, which has a bustling 1500 people - big smoke eh? The island is lovely for running in terms of empty roads - but shit in terms of gale force winds most days - so sometimes you struggle to walk. My favourite place to live for running was Fife as I used to run across the Forth Road Bridge - amazing views and just breathtaking in the winter snow. I can't wait to move back actually.

Life up here is wonderful but you hate it sometimes for the reasons you love it i.e. remote = too far from family, quiet = occasionally boring, wild = terrifying weather (138mph winds last winter, have never before seen windows and UPVc doors buckle - was shitting a brick), non-materialistic = no decent shops. The changing of the seasons and the huge differences in light and dark between the seasons are mindblowing, the wildlife is truly stunning and I always notice when south, how few birds and beasties you see in the countryside. I'm so glad to have lived here but with the little one I just want to be closer to family and perhaps somewhere (without a good chance of being grounded if the winds are too strong) not an air ambulance away from secondary health care!

Everyone says 'island life must be great for kids' and I think it is for older ones who you can literally turn out to free range all day, but for younger ones the weather here is so restrictive and there is nothing like soft play or other toddler / baby stuff to do like you find south, as our population is very pensioner dominated. So for babies it's not so good. I think if it were just me and DH, or if the bump was older we'd happily stay but at the moment it's not the right place.

Plus I miss good curry and chinese food....

And the weather is truly awful....

YW I had exactly the same love/hate relationship with my surroundings when I lived in the sticks last year, and I wasn't nearly as rural as you!

I was a bit sceptical about the move to nqf this month as I love dbay so much, but now we're here I'm completely smitten! It has a lovely villagey feel, with just a 15 minute train journey into the centre of Edinburgh. We're surrounded by gorgeous beaches and coastal walks and I can't wait till I can start running again! Even the trains are slowly becomming a comforting sound :) ! You haven't considered looking for a house here when you move back to Fife have you??

Oh and there's now a direct bus from here to spaghetti bay, hint hint!

Woo tempting, it is definitely somewhere we're considering as I think it's such a lovely spot and after living in SQ I do love the sound of the Forth Bridges (we've just spotted the most lovely steading conversion between there and Rosyth on Rightmove, which we're going to see when down later this month)... have you been to the Wee Restaurant in NQ yet - it's lovely! Not quite as good as the Room with a View in Aberdour (my personal fave in Fife), but really rather tasty... give it a try before you need a babysitter! Did it go ok with crazy landlady? Fingers crossed for you hon x

T lives in sqf when i first met him. I love it but we can't justify the extra premium for having an edinburgh postcode. Nqf seems a lot more chilled with the excitement of sqfs nightlife a mere 40 min walk away (a breeze pre pregnancy hips!)

The crazy bint has gone quiet today which is slightly disconcerting but as far as I'm concerned we have nothing left there - by some miracle the antichrist that is our landrover played ball today and started after 4 months lying dead so we managed to shift it round to the new place too - so she can do whatever the hell she likes now!

Oh and not tried wee restaurant. Heard good things and room with a view is also in our top 5 so will convince t to give it a bash sometime soon! (we're sticking by our no takeaways/meals out this month as well after saving at least £200+ last month lol!)

I am fairly local to Fife so I understand most of your codespeak! I must admit YW I could not cope with little ones being that far from decent medical help, but the air ambulance is a pretty brave beast and may actually be quicker than some mainland areas. I guess it would be knowing when it was necessary. But I guess you still have NHS 24? It sounds quite similar to where my friend lives, and she was pg same time as us but lost it at 11 weeks. We will visit her next summer. I still find myself looking for jobs in the Islands though, even now I am pg. Thank you for sharing.

Very true VQ what you say about being quicker than some mainland areas, a pal gave birth to her son - virtually in the car park of the hospital after a 3 hour drive in the snow from her home at Inverurie. Orkney is technically further but we're not 3 hours away that's for sure. Thank you air ambulance crew! Am just hoping for a calm, still, windless November just in case though. Am sure I'd be pretty distracted but I know DH would be shit in a helicopter in a gale....

I had heard it was less painful to deliver a big baby as the contractions have more to 'push' on. And trust me, a 6lb 5oz baby still hurt (particularly the stitches & bruised coccyx) and it wasn't much fun having to roll the sleeves up on the newborn size clothes, take back anything bigger & get 'small baby' size in Mothercare & resist the constant urge of the HV to give her formula top-ups to fattening her up. But you get what you're given, I certainly wasn't tiny when pg, just DD was a small baby...

It is a common preconception that a smaller baby is easier to deliver, to first time mums, people who have had a problem delivery due baby being large,and other folk who never had a baby. I remember waiting in line to have DD checked prior to giving home, and there was a tiddler in front weighing about 5 1/2lb, and I said to the mum 'gosh I bet you just farted her out' she was not amused!

It is also not nice having an 8lb 13oz baby ripped out of you with a ventouse or forceps, and being told that if she was any larger she would not have fitted through and you were seconds away from a crash section. Also shoulder dystoxia is I believe caused by a baby being too big to fit through.

I completely agree with the upset of having a small baby, with clothes etc. I would rather have a little chunk as they seem less likely to break, and are easier to handle.

wow over 200 posts since I last read on friday morning!
I put my massive bump picture up on the FB group earlier.

going to have proper read and get back

I had a petitie 7lb11oz DS1 and had bought mainly 0-3 so he drowned in them and I had to buy more newborn. DS2 was 9lb2oz so got about a week's worth of wear out of the newborn stuff. I found DS2's labour easier and in a way I think his size once my waters went was an advantage as there was very little time between my waters going and DS2 arriving. But I knew what to do with DS2 too. I saw DS2 as a lot less delicate which was good. Both my kids have toally different builds so who knows what I will get this time!

Phew, caught up!!

stunt so sorry to hear your rubbish news. I hope you manage to get a good redundancy package.

Lilianna I bought a normal gym ball and it works fine, I take it to pregnancy yoga too.

horsey wow that must have been scary! Glad it wasn't a PE! Also, have you seen the 'horsey, horsey' picture by Helena Tyce in John Lewis? It reminds me of your name whenever I see it. Think I'm going to get those pictures for the nursery.

fatima thanks for sharing your birth plan. I've not even thought about what to write or even whether to do one. Yours has given me something to think about!

I'm going to ask midwife tomorrow whether I will be tested for group b strep. I've no idea if it's done in my trust or not.

stunt I love those bibs, and accidentally just ordered some! They are so cute.

valium I've been findingmy bump uncomfy for the last few days, I feel like it has gone higher and stops me leaning forward properly. Not sleeping very well, due to being uncomfy, needing a wee, and leg cramps every time I stretch my legs!

And as for me, I went for a 4D scan today and it was amazing!! The baby has my nose and cheeks (chubby!) and DH's mouth. The sonographer said he is 3 pounds now and is a 'medium to large' baby!! Eek. Also his legs are on the 90th centime for length, so he has got his dad's long skinny legs, haha. Saw so much detail, I loved it. Got lots of good photos too. And then we came home and put the cot up, so a very lovely day!

I'm 28 weeks tomorrow, it's going very fast now!

Glad you enjoyed your scan little Did you get to see lots of good images? We're going for ours on Wednesday