May 2013 Third Thread.

[SecretCervix]

Sorry for the not very imaginative title. Noticed old thread was full and couldn't find a new one.

sea am sure you are connected with work etc but is there an expat community there to help you? I bet they will know where to get lasagne or ingredients . Or if you haven't got that far yet I bet there is a blog from someone living in Singapore that you mioght learn stuff from?? When in India we found an italian restaurant (in india!) thru an ex pat friend and all sorts of hidden creature comfort excitement! And I was only there for four months but it meant the world when I was homesick :)

Thanks Kitty, sadly it's really hard to get some types of western food here. There is a lot of Asian food (Chinese, Japanese, Thai etc etc), which I normally love but even the smell makes me feel sick at the moment. I wish I could just pop down the road to a supermarket to satisfy a craving (Gu desserts, lasagne, pies, scotch eggs, 'western' soups and 'proper' chocolate being things I miss the most). I'm trying to make do but have already lost some weight. Perhaps if I were in the UK I'd be craving dim sum though (you never can win with these things...)

Thanks Wilde, that's a really good idea - so far I haven't made it out of the flat much when I'm not working as I've needed to rest and have felt too sick, but as soon as I'm feeling up to it I'll try and get out and about more. It's been a really hard first month but I'm hoping the rest of my time here will improve - I really want to make some friends and have some fun! Roll on 12 weeks! I'm going to log out now as I'm 8 hours ahead and the stuffed pasta is nearly ready (cross your fingers for me that it stays put!). Thanks for the chat everyone, you've made me feel so much better.

Sea salt, I'd send a request for a care package from home, particulaly the chocolate, that would be easy enough to send and would probably make you feel tons better, my Irish friend sometimes sends me dairy milk as it is different then that here ( contains higher coca) I love it you can get those packs of pasta with different insides which would be ok to post aswell I reacon

On a very depressing note, is anyone finding they can't stay up program's they like? Downtown tonight at 9 but what with the clocks aswell there's no way that I'll be awake, dd woke me up at 5

Downtown? Downton obviously

seasalt it must be so hard being pregnant and away from home. My scan won't be for a while yet either, I'm 9+6 and have t even got a date for it yet.

wilde sorry to hear of your friends MC, I can understand her not wanting to face you. After I had mine in June I even hid my pregnant cousin on fb, of course I was still happy for her, but I just couldn't see her scan pics and posts about going baby shopping without crying. Just give her time, she'll soon come round.

seven thanks, I know is nothing to do with me, really... after my mc I was the same and still actually haven't seen my friend who is due two weeks before I would have been in Nov or been back to the hairdressers where my hairdresser was also due in Nov! I can't face her or her bump (or crappy comments about 'squealing babies'). So I do know. Just makes me so sad that I can't help because actually I am the last person in the world she wants to see right now :(

anyway. arf am working today. is rubbish!

Seasalt - another expat here, we are in USA for a few years. Being pg is making me v homesick too, all I want is to be around my friends & family, and although I have of course made friends here, it's just not the same.

You said you were going home in March - is that for good? I'll be giving birth here which is also scary as its all v different from when I had DS in the UK.

Relying on Facebook to keep up with everyone from home - still trying to think of a witty way of putting it on there to surprise everyone!

13+3

Hello all, another sick one here. Sea sick all effing day, sometimes think throwing up might actually help? I'm 12wks on the dot, so feeling cheated that it hasn't magically disappeared...

Hard to be away from all your familiar things, much sympathy seasalt.

Appreciate that bfing talk can get wound up quickly - can I still moan about it though? It is still hurting and my DS is still a boob monster, especially since I went back to work, and has never 'slept through' (22mo) though once made it til half past six after an 11 oclock feed - at 4mo. I remember that night with great fondness. My pg friend (due to give birth last Friday so may not still be pg) was bfing when she got pg but her supply crashed and her DD just lost interest. I somehow don't think a lack of milk will put my DS off though, he is extremely fond of my boobs, which he washes with great tenderness in shared baths and sometimes just stops for a quick kiss and a pat . Obvs I will be happy when he grows out of this but a mere lack of milk is unlikely to dent his obsession....

Told my parents, who said all the right things, so I felt very happy. Think I will take up the 'boy would be better' shit with MiL as at the moment I just feel like I can not talk to her without quietly brewing on this. I really am not finding our relationship in any way satisfactory and it's so fucking dull, isn't it? This 'my MiL's a witch' narrative? I'm sure that it's related to those other horrifyingly divisive cultural narratives about women being 'bitchy' or whatever, which where they have truth are nevertheless related to the way that women are constructed in social relationships and not a quality of women in themselves. So if I am enough of a feminist to object to MiL's sexism, I should be enough of one to see that where she expresses that stuff, she's expressing the way she has been limited and degraded by patriarchy. Or something. Anyway, something has to shift and it's unlikely to be her...

Have doppler envy! Am concerned that it would turn me into a mentalist though, have tendencies to catastrophise... thoughts?

Sparkly I LOVE my doppler - I use it once or twice a day & find it a massive reassurance. I was v lucky to be able to find the heartbeat really early on though, so I can understand how for some women it might cause more worry than relief!

Laughs at sparklys boob washing incidents, he does sound like he loves them

Sparkly - that sounds hard. Do you want to gently prod your DS towards weaning or are you set on continuing until he self weans? I had to encourage both of mine to wean at around 15 months and it was so hard that eventually the only way I could do it was to go away for three days and leave DH to get them onto milk. It worked brilliantly both times and I got a holiday out of it both times!

Seasalt - I hope the stuffed pasta was good. I feel for you living somewhere so different right at the time when home comforts are what you want most.

My sickness fluctuates day by day. Somedays it ain't bad at all and I can have a near normal day (until about 8pm when I always crash). Other days like yesterday it is awful and I can't do anything much at all. Anyway, today is a good day so I've done crafts with the girls, taken then to the supermarket and made a big lunch. Now my brilliant DH has taken them both swimming, with the promise it will take hours and they will return exhausted. I am supposed to be making a sausage casserole while they are out but cutting up raw sausages is a thought worse than anything. Urgh. For that reason I am lying on the sofa messing about on my laptop and watching re runs of Greys Anatomy [high brow].

I'm late to the chat about predicting gender. I have two girls and I'm thinking that is probably a girl too because this pregnancy feels similar to the last two, although having said that maybe pregnancy is just pregnancy and I'd feel like this no matter what. We will find out at a private nuchal a week next Friday (NHS nuchal is this Friday - can't wait).

11+6

Oops, I mean 10+6, getting ahead of myself there!

ah sparkly! My DS started sleeping through about a month ago and he is nearly three! So I feel your pain. he was a boobmonster too and finally weaned just after his second birthday but still adores my boobs if we are out and he is tired and I am carrying him he will think nothing of sticking his thumb in his mouth and trying to stick the other one down my bra for a comforting grope I have told him and told him but he just can't seem to leave them alone. Arf.

am glad it was lovely telling your parents/ and in laws are oddities for a reason - other people's families are always strange :) My MIL is a complete fruitcake.

Am really thinking about getting a doppler berri. I have had spotting for the last three days (a minor amount and no cramping) but am starting to get edgy about it... but I don't want to ring the MW, or fret DH about it (again) and get to EPAU, have half another day waiting for a scan... It is sooo stressful and sad! if I had a doppler I could just check for myself couldn't I.... but what if I can't find it?!?!?! I would completely fall apart!

hmmm. what kind is good to get?

11+0

Can you really find out gender as early as 12/13wks?!? Wow, I think I may be having a boy based on nothing more then I have ms this time non last and more spots, I was thinking testosterone?
Sorry to hear about the spotting Wilde. Really, I'm sure it will be nothing but after suffering 2 mc myself I know how worried I would be to and also the telling dh when you don't want anyone to worry especially If unnecessary, from what I've read on doppelers most people seem to be recommending an angel sounds one that I think you can get resonably on eBay

wild that's why I'm holding off buying a Doppler they aren't always useful at this stage in the pregnacy and would cause me to panic if I couldn't find a heartbeat. Im going to try and wait until 16 weeks.

I have arranged to meet a doula next weekend, quite excited I hope we get on because I've really struggled to find a doula in my area.

Still getting hip pain but I've been keeping my knees together and feet flat on the ground and that seems to help. I had to buy a new armchair from ikea in order to sit with better posture as being so short most armchairs and sofas mean I can't touch the ground.

Forgot I'm now 10+5

Yes Kitty, I found the gender at 12 weeks with both DDs (not on NHS though).

12 weeks! wow rt!

I agree little. I have heard that lots of MWs are now refusing to listen in at 16 weeks for the same reason?! i hope mine tries.

Hi all, I know I'm horribly late but I wondered if I could join in this thread?!?
My stats: SmokeyEyes DC1 EDD 23/05/2013
Feeling v nervous/scared/excited for my scan in a week and a half. Feel like I can relax a bit after that, although I'm sure I'll continue to worry! Also have to see a consultant at the same time as my blood test showed low platlet levels. Hoping when they retest, everything will be back to normal.
Lovely reading all your posts and knowing there's others going through the same stages!

Hi, I am also a newbie and expecting my first DC. Hasn't really sunk in yet, bit of a shock to be honest. Partner and I only recently decided to try for a baby and it's all happened very quickly! Exciting though. Everything is fine so far. Some bloating and back pain but hardly any nauseau luckily.
My stats: BoolaBass DC1 EDD 20/5/2013
Scan is on Tues (2 days). Will start to feel a bit more real then I think. Really pleased to have found all of you. I'm sure I'm going to have lots of questions.

Welcome Boola and Smokey. Congratulations on your pregnancies.

I am having a new kind of prenatal testing today. Can't remember if I told you guys about it. It's called Harmony. It's much more accurate than the nuchal at detecting chromosomal disorders, on fact it has reliability not much below a CVS but it's noninvasive. I think I get a v quick scan today to confirm dates then a blood test that tests for baby's DNA in my blood (I think!) then the nuchal next week and all together I'll get a 99% reliable result for Downs. V nervous about today's scan even though it'll only check dates.

Is anyone losing chunks of hair in the shower every morn? I remember this happening post birth last time but not pre.

Morning ladies !
I'm home from my holiday. I had a lovely time apart from AWFUL migraines. Really suffering. Went to doctors this morning and he told me I wasn't fit for work and signed me off for 2 weeks Got my scan to look forward to tomorrow. Feeling so nervous about it. Please tell me others felt/are feeling the same x