March 2013 VIII: feeling kicks, comparing knits and halfway there

[theTramp]

Old thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/1588951-March-2013-VII-Our-little-pumpkins-are-getting-fatter?msgid=35174657#thread

Hey ladies!

Lovely to log on and read your wonderful news Stealth! You must be so relieved. So happy for you!

You're making me jealous with your afternoon spa, Ethel! You too, October with your walk along the seafront on a beautiful day!

I've never seen a chiropractor Pink but after what you say about releasing the diaphragm I may look into it if things persist. And certainly if things get worse! I don't know if I said, but I've stopped going to my regular osteopathic clinic and started with a woman who practises at the end of my street. She's absolutely lovely, she specialises in pregnancy, and has made space for me on her pregnancy yoga class ? but in terms of osteopathy I have my doubts as to how effective she is. Certainly the last session did nothing for me - and it's not exactly inexpensive!

Thanks again for all the CTunnel advice - great explanation JoJo! That's interesting as I had ulner nerve problems before and that was the other extreme of the hand - the little finger side. Aha. I learn something new today!

Rainbow I'm not seeing MW for a bit bit have doc appt next week and I will, as you suggest, mention the under-the-boob pain. I was worried about pre-e., too, but read up on the symptoms and I was a bit reassured ? but you can't be too careful, I know. Thanks again, all!

Sheldon agh, there is nothing like parentals for making us feel that way, no matter how old we are! I do sympathise. Oh, and see above re ulner nerve and little finger numbness.

Zoey I think I'd seriously consider a chamber pot if our loo was on a different floor!!! What a frightening experience you had this morning. Horrible enough to read about, so I can only imagine how stressful and upsetting it was to go through. Hope you have been able to put it behind you today and thank your lucky stars you and baby are okay.

Gummi - good idea about heated wheatie. I may try with my hot water bottle tonight!

Tramp how is your search for a nanny going? I'd like one to start within a few months of birth, during mat. leave so I can get some hours writing/editing done each week, but haven't got around to doing anything about it yet probably leaving it too late, eek!

Lexi sorry to hear your money worries. Must be extra daunting with all the projected work on the house too. But, you never know, the business may take off and it not be as bad as you fear. It will work out somehow and you may be too knackered to do things like go out for a meal anyway, perhaps instead having people over for a pot-luck supper - where everyone brings something to to the table - or a coffee morning at yours instead of a coffee shop? V.g. to plan, but please try not to worry too much yet. Harumph re builder telling architect different things about the plan to start 3 December. Perhaps in the interests of clarity you could call him to confirm the 3 Dec. start date, in light of what you heard from architect?

Happy evenings to everyone!

Manda by way of background to my pre-eclampsia comment, in my first pregnancy the doctors thought I had suffered from severe early onset pre-eclampsia. It turns out they were completely wrong, however in the meantime I did an awful lot of research on the condition and read a huge amount of other peoples' experiences with this, especially early-onset (pre-30 weeks). The problem is that many people do not have the classic symptoms that you read about i.e. headaches, visual disturbances, protenuria, high blood pressure - indeed many people have nothing at all, especially with early onset variety until very late in the day. My advice is to never delay checking out anything which is bothering you - I would certainly not wait a week to mention your pain to someone. Can you not call the midwife at your local surgery just to run it by her? I know my local NHS midwife is very happy to discuss concerns like this outside official appointments.

Manda - seriously go see a chiropractor, it makes the world of difference and is quite different to an osteopath. For nannies - www.childcare.co.uk/search/Maternity+Nurse/SE23+3HG/
www.littledarlingsnannyagency.co.uk/salary.htm
these two websites are useful.

Stealth - HURRAH! so pleased for you my dear. Such a relief.

Argh what a fag with the builders - seriously why can't they just be honest, utter sods. My fingers crossed for you.

Hurrah also on house find and fact that it comes with a bath, whaoo!

budgets and belt tightening.. its not fun is it :(

Quick post so I don't loose you all entirely. Shattered today after long day yesterday going down to London for a course and back again. Was supposed to have today off (first of my new Wedensdays off reigeme) but had to swap it to tomorrow. Tomorrow need to break the back of the 300 exam papers I have to mark, but might fit in a little nap since DS is still going to the childminder as I'll be marking.

FINALLY exchanged on our house today though and will complete 30 November. Since we've had to extend the contract on our rented house we have an over lap so probably won't move in till the following week, but hopefully not later than that as I'd like chance to get unpacked and start getting sorted before Christmas.

Zoey, sorry about your incedent this moring, hope you had chance to calm down The stress is so tiering at the best of times!

Stealth, fabulous news, must be such a relief. I have 4 more weeks to wait for my next growth scan. Bump seems to be getting bigger so hoping baby is too!

Oh money, I was so lucky with DS I got a really good maternity package, but this time it's just statutory and we started a brief conversation with our childminers about retainers and they charge 50%. It's not that I think it's un reasonable, we just can't justify it! Especially when I have no idea when I'll go back to work, or how many days I'll do, or how much I will earn, since I won't be going back to where I am now. But we bought a house in this specific area so DS didn't have to change childminders (and because it seems very nice). And then I realised there would be no point retaining only one place as it would be useless if tey couldn't take baby and DS when I find a new job and start work again. Arghh. Need to do some proper budgetting and then talk to the childminders properly.

Right, bed time. Sorry a bit of a me post.

Bugger! Just lost a post! Grrr! Place marking really as so so busy with work, building works, not sleeping and last minute holiday finalising.
zoey you poor love, lots of sympathy.
manda I have similar pain albeit less painful and mw thinks its diaphragmatic bit maybe follow advic and give mw a call tomorrow to check?
jojo fabbo e bay bargain and hurrah on house progress! Boo hiss on your lack of the same chef
Wonderful news stealth!!!
Loving the chat ladies, as always sharing with you the highs and lows is lovely xxx
Love to all xxx

Hello all. Growth scan today was good - all measuring as it should and the right side of my placenta has even sorted out its slight blood flow resistance (left side is still a bit pokey) which the sonographer seemed surprised and pleased about. Got meeting with consultant on Friday to discuss but it all seems fine to me.

I can attest that severe early onset pre-ec doesn't have to have many symptoms. I had no visual disturbances or headaches and the protein in my urine only showed up at the very last minute - went from nothing to the worst poss reading in four days. I too had epigastric discomfort - not pain though. ALso because my bp is naturally low the GP was all blase about the 'high' reading he found - which wasn't the 'high' in his textbook. However I now know (and he should have damn well known) that it's the relative rise that's important, not the absolute number. AS an idea my last reading at the hospital (two weeks or so ago) was 90/50, which is pretty normal for me. At 141/90, which is normal for many, I was pre-eclamptic.

Anyway, I'm sure it's much more to do with twins Manda. Are you feeling well apart from that? For me the big thing was that I didn't feel 'right' and hadn't done for weeks. Oh, and I did swell up quite dramatically, and it was the kind of swelling that doesn't spring back when you press it but leaves an indent. My legs were REALLY pretty...

Glad to hear the good news Stealth.

Jojo, bargain ebay sounds great!

Zoey, hope you're recovered.

Over and out.

pink all my 3 have been big which is why this sounded alarm bells. Ds1 was 8 lb 5oz, ds2 was 6lb 11oz at 10 days early and ds3 was 8lb 8oz. Ds4 is kicking away loads but I worry as I still struggle to eat much and the norovirus over the weekend really took it out of me.

Good website got those looking for nannies is nannyjob.co.uk - I have never used agencies. Agencies charged a fortune and I want to do all the checks myself anyhow. And most if the agency candidates are on that website.
IME don't bother looking for a nanny much more than a couple of months before you need one.
I had a nanny for 2 1/2 years who then went on mat leave and decided not to return and current nanny nearly 2 years so anyone need nanny advice I can help!

Evening, just a quick pre-bed post for me. Just waiting for tumble dryer to finish with dh's shirts that I said i'd do before tomorrow. Am hoping that a little shake and quick retrieval and i'll get away with not ironing them, slattern, me?

Glad to hear that growth scan was good Sarah

Flowery congrats on exchanging contracts, hope end is smooth and simple for you.

Am onto night three of the sleep standoff tonight. Last night darlingd 'peeped' at around 1am again but was mainly on and off wimpering for around 40 minuites, no climbing, no wailing and she dropped off again till after 7 so that was pretty good. Eig I loved what you said about teaching a child to ride a bike, that is so true! I will share that gem with dh when he is in a place to hear me on the whole process. I think he will be grateful when she is sleeping well, also know his heart is in the right place with really wanting to be a good dad. I think its just he hates seeing her sad so much and doesn't really get the bigger picture in the way that I see it. Hopefully will all be ok in the end, have just been shocked at how differently we are approaching this aspect of parenting.

Had an appointment today at VBAC clinicThe VBAC midwife was really really lovely; listened to all my worries mainly around previous experiance and was very reassuring. Also said that it may even possible for me to birth in water something that my community midwife said absolutly no to. VBAC mw told me that there is a consultant who is open to that sort of thing at our hosp, and she actually switched me to her from the consultant that I was registered with. Very excited to think that I could possibly deliver in the pool! :) :)

Right just checked dryer and shirt thing hasn't worked at all, doh. Must go and iron, joy. Not usually the iron-dh-shirts sort of woman but he's having to work late into the night tonight (v unusual for him) and has a funeral in the morning for a client who has died :(

Last thing, our new sofa arrived today, is very exciting and extremely comfy. Just need to hope that I'm not sitting on it when waters break now!!

See you all tomorrow

Flowery today sounds exhausting! Poor you, my dear, and I don't envy your pile of 300 exam scripts. I think tomorrow you will need a very nice packet of biscuits to keep up morale! Congrats on exchanging, though! That's brilliant news!

Tramp thanks for nanny links (and chiro encouragement!) and may well be turning to you for advice Stealth!

Thanks so much for sharing your insight and experience Rainbow and Sarah and the encouragement to call midwife Lanny. Yep, Sarah, I'm generally feeling well at the mo - apart from hip awkwardness and back pain. Still not entirely over my cold either. But generally I do feel fine despite moaning a lot! Gosh, sounds like you had a bad time of it. When did it flare up?

I have a battery powered BP monitor and I might start doing it every day, just to keep an eye on any changes. BP has been ridiculously low (for me) during pregnancy; normally it's very upper end of normal range.

Xposted Three! Sounds like you may be making good progress with you LO - keep it up! And really pleased about the VBAC and possible pool-birth! Sofa too! A good day.

Stealth great news, my girls were small and ds in the middle was big, so I had growth scans with dd2, they even have her marked down as small for gestational age on this babies notes.

Lexi its hard work but hopefully be worth it, 7 years ago we moved to build up our business from home, it has been really tough but worth it, (dh may not agree after the last few months of long hours he has worked) but you adjust and you get there. We always said we didn't want to look back and say if only we had went out on our own.

I have forgotten everything else as I finally gave in and did a couple hours in the office so tired now.

Yey flowery for contracts

Three good luck tonight

JoJo - I saw this and thought of you.. www.notonthehighstreet.com/attic/product/hand-crochet-baby-owl-hat

Vivid dreams - last night classic anxiety dreams. 1) Offer to help a friend whose parents need care. Turns out parents are fine but care required is new boyfriend of her brother who is an ex client of mine who I really didn't like. Arguing ensues. 2) 3 of My teeth fall out and I discover enough black bristly hair growth below my chin and on my neck to count as a beard.

Nice dreams on mental order for tonight.

Stealth. Great news, what a relief. I did not realise you were having your fourth son. How fab. You'll have to give me some name inspiration.

Hope everyone had a good nights sleep?
Poor DS woke at 3 am and pukes all over his bed and himself. For such a fright as he has never done that before. DH and I were like headless chickens. Funnily I had been up for about 20 mins as didn't feel great so must have been a little bug. He fell asleep again at 4:30 and is now up full of the joys.

Walk was glorious. Weather is so mild here.poor friend is having a hard time. She has a great life but with all he kids in school feels unfulfilled and bored..... I know how she feels. I can't wait to go back to work next year.

Can't find my maternity clothes. Grrrr... Going mad as have no clue where they are, looked in all the places I Thought they would be. Put them away safely and now can't find them. I really need my jeans now as regular jeans are definitely a little tight.

Happy Thursday all.

OC x

Looking forward to a day off today. Am exhausted from yesterday and didn't do a lot of proper work ( meetings mainly), my memory is teally suffering at the monent. Kept firgetting names/dates
Have a case conference re my Grandad this afternoon though.
Going to pop by breastfeeding group this morning to borrow a tandem feeding book.

Right. Dropped DS off at childminders, giving myself until 10am for a sit down after the worst night's sleep ever, and possibly some tidying, washing, washing up etc. before setting to on the exam papers.

Manda I don't mind the marking, it's music exams so it's nice to feel like I'm actually using my knowedge and education directly for a change - it's pretty much the only chance I get! It's not well timed this time round because of the up coming house move, crap full time job and continuing baby exhaustion, but it's good to keep in otherwise they might stop offering me the work in future. And I started being offered only 50 and have made it up to the 300 mark so am quite pleased. I know the most the give to any one examiner per session is 500 which would be the next 'rung' and one I couldn't go up to along side full time work anyway. Most of the other markers are freelance musicians and peri teachers and practical examiners etc. and there are only a few of us doing it along side a 'regular' job to fit it around.

Regarding the cot chat, I think multiple height options for the base is really worth it Personally I never used the drop side on ours until I was pregnant again, and by that point DS could have been in a bed - we were just waiting to get it at the same time as moving. Do wish we'd got one where the side drops right down and underneath so you can have it as a bed side cot though.

Our matress was from Amazon and about a third of the price of ones in the shops and has been fantastic. 2 years on and doesn't seem any different to when we got it. Got the top quality springs, adn the cover and all that jazz and was about £35 instead of over £100 if we'd bought one in Mamas and Papas (which is where the cot came from, heavily discounted I might add). Must look up the make as I want the same make for the toddler bed we need to buy!

Top tip on cot matresses is buy early, remove packaging and let them air for a few months if possible before use. There is a lot of info out there about how we should buy new for every baby (some of the back up data serriously flawed in my opinion) but very little about residues which might be left in a brand new one from the manufacturing process. We got ours just before DS was due and had it out airing until he went into the cout at about 10 weeks, so it had about 3 months airing.

Morning all - was AWOL last night as went out for dinner with the girlies from work which was nice and I was a piggy and had 3 courses not that I finished 2 of them I couldnt resist the honeycomb cheese cake though! Got home at 9.20 and litrally sent straight to bed and sleep, woke up a few times with back.

FINALLY got my test results after a lot of chasing around and now need to get my antibiotics as its high levels - but in all honesty I dont feel ill or any different ahhhmmm down there!

Little man has moved his feet up into my ribs which is funny as the top pf my bump moves when he kicks now i think there is less fat padding there, lol I am sure it sont be so cute when he get bigger and I get a wack in the ribs.

FLowery the cleaning can wait have a sit down, hot chocolate and put your feet up - your growing a little person what more can you ask of your body for one day!!!
Enjoy your day off Ood I am very jealous of that and hope you have a lovely day

I'd like to talk 'changing bags' with you all today. I've been looking around and trying to figure out what kind of price tag is suitable and how big a bag I really need.

I love the yummy mummy stuff but their price range is crazy £70-80 for a bag I can't warrant.
I quite like the babymoov range which is priced up around £40-45 which is far more affordable but they do look quite big! I've only seen them online though.
Should I go for a water resistant style? Do all of the pouches and pockets really get used??

I know this is random, but I am just preparing for Christmas, if you shop at paperchase (I am a sucker for their wrapping paper!) code red20 will give you a 20% discount which combined with the 3 for 2 makes a big difference :)

Morning All,

Am on my phone so may struggle to name check properly!

zoey sorry about your driving incident yesterday! Scary! Meal out with the girls sounded lovely though! Were you at Ask? Only wondering because we went there last week and the had honeycomb cheesecake and I was desperate to order some but couldn't eat another bite so I didn't

jojo I had the boots freebie bag last time and can highly recommend it to anyone on a budget. Only downside is that every mum round here has it and there was occasionally confusion at the end of a mother and baby group when we all had to work out who's was who's!

stealth yay for happy results. Such a weight off your mind!

Am a bit stressed completely panicky today -Had a lovely evening yesterday, dh and I went to see Skyfall and it was fab, got home however and checked on ds to find he was still awake and very hot. Turned the light on and checked his temp - 39.2 and these bright red cheeks! - he'd been like that yesterday during the day too but I'd dismissed it as teething but now I'm in a bit of a worry that he has slapped cheek! I've been googling as I can't get a doctors appointment today and the logical side of me says, if he has slapped cheek, if I haven't had it, if I then catch it, if the baby then gets it, there is still only a small chance of complications and even then these chances are greatly reduced after 20 weeks but after a bad night's sleep logic is out of the window and i'm really worried Does anyone else with little ones have any knowledge about this illness? At least ds seems more or less ok in himself!

JoJo how about just using an existing rucksack you already have especially if budget is an issue? I never really understood the need to have a special changing bag and rucksack is great for practicality. I find bigger bags that need to be carried on one shoulder incredibly uncomfortable let alone with a baby in my arms too!

I am looking at changing bags too Jojo and with a nealry 2 year old need a bigger size one but DH is main person to use it and he has said no to a yummy mummy one - I do like the pacapods but they are expensive but look so organised which I love might take a look at the babymoov ones though as havent heard of them :)

Yes we went to Ask Em and I purposly didnt finish my main so I could have it - plus was a table of 11 so the pudding took like another 20 mins to come out so by that time had digested a bit more - I managed like 3/4 of it which I was happy with! Take a breathe and step away from Dr google even though I am desperatly googling my infection and ring your midwife x

Yeay flowery on exchange! Such good news! And thanks gummi for the encouragement. Operation Save is in order and I am going to take some time over Christmas to budget down to the last penny for my mat leave!

Oh flowery sorry I must have missed that you've exchanged! Hooray! Here's to a nice easy move!

Also meant to say lexi really sorry to hear about your bad meeting. No need to destroy anyone, very unprofessional behaviour. Good luck with the savings. I'm another one who has no idea how we are going to afford mat leave but I'm being very responsible and taking the ostrich approach...

Anyway, I've managed to speak to my gp who is sending me for a blood test to see if I have antibodies to slapped cheek and then we can assess the situation from there. Feel better to be doing something about it at least rather than just sitting here worrying!