August 2013 Part 3 - Adventures in the second trimester!

[FoofFighter]

Last fred here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/1654660-August-2013-Part-2-Looking-forward-to-scans-and-the-beginning-of-bumps

Stats fred here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/antenatal_clubs/1655004-Due-August-2013-Stats-Thread

Welcome one and all to the wondrous second trimester where we shall bloom and glow

I wanted a homebirth too, my midwife said she would help advocate for me but I found out yesterday that I'm outside the requirements due to my bmi. My DH who originally was in agreement about having a home birth when we discussed it when we were ttc has now changed his mind saying he'd be more comfortable if I was in hospital.

Failing a homebirth I wanted to use the more natural active birth unit at my local hospital but I'm outside the requirements for that to, but they will take all the active stuff through to the normal delivery suite for me except the birthing pool of course.

Feeding we haven't fully made up our minds yet, I know I'll breast feed for the first few days to give the colostrum (sorry if spelt wrong, no idea how to spell it) and would like to carry on but the higher frequency of feeds and the fact that I'd be the only one able to feed, to me equalling lack of sleep does put me off, I can't help thinking that I'd be better off af feeding as I'd probably be a better mum to baby and dd if I'm more rested, I'm certain I'll feel guilty if I don't breast feed. Last time they stopped me feeding as my nipples were bleeding and they wanted me to stay in hospital for 2-3 days while my nipples healed then another 2 days to reastablish breast feeding, I found the advice given in hospital contradictory, one mw would say feed for as long as baby wants then the next one said well of course your sore you shouldn't be letting her feed for so long, really helpful Mil also said the gem "well i knew you wouldn't like breast feeding" which really pissed me off as it wasn't about liking it and I was upset that I'd failed.

Anyone thats breast fed before, how much more often to you have to feed? With my dd I feed every 4 hour but have been told it's more like every 2 hours when breast feeding? Would appriciate hearing your experience on this.

morning
really interesting reading all your birth and feeding stories, I'm a first timer so trying to take in as much as possible. planning on going to the midwife lead unit as every room has a pool and water always helps me with pain so I'd like to try it. currently the consultant has plans for constant monitoring on the main unit so we shall see!
17+5 and still no 16wk app!

ago pelvic floor exercises, noted!

bargain alert! new look huge sale, including loads of maternity, I just got a load of tops for 3pounds each

ago?! stupid phone. abi it should say

lexi / any one else who is interested....

I bf both my DCs, and expressed alongside too. That enabled me to teach outside of home whilst DS was small, and for DD I expressed to build a bank supply up for when I had to go to work, it was financially necessary to do that when she was 4 months old.

I found expressing tedious, but after some discomfort and pain in the first few weeks I got on really well with bf. It was very convenient for me, and I enjoyed the bond too. Nights were easy, it was quick to pop the baby on and I'd doze whilst he/she fed. I'm planning to co sleep this time which will make night feeds even easier. The frequency of feeds varied hugely, largely reflected by growth spurts. DD had reflux and fed more often than DS who was a ridiculously easy baby. So, my real experience is that both DCs fed at completely different frequencies and again the frequency correlated to growth.

Sorry if this isnt very coherent, typing on my phone from hospital and have pins and needles in one hand! I

Thanks for that waves hope your ok. I'm just worried that if I have to feed every 2 hours and feed for 30 minutes at a time then have to get back off to sleep, i'm only going to be sleeping for 1:15 hours at a time, it's probably way too early to be thinking about this in to much detail anyway.

Have finally read the 10 pages I'd missed. chuck I'm having my 20 week scan at 22 weeks to, I phoned up to query it, they checked and the sonographer said that she felt that would be the best time for my next scan, Now you've said yours is late because of your bmi it makes sense that that's why mines being delayed too.

I'm having the gtt in May again due to bmi, everythings connected to damn bmi.

Have anyone else who has a high bmi been advised not to gain any weight at all? I was aware that with a higher bmi it wasn't advisable that I didn't put on the usual 24lbs so asked the consultant what would be an accaptable weight gain expecting her to say 10-12lbs and was suprised when she said I wasn't to gain any weight.

I fed on demand and in the first few weeks a waking gap of 40mins was good. She'd fall asleep on the boob and go maybe 2hrs, longer at night thank god (we also co-slept so very easy).
HV suggested that by six weeks DD should have been going for 2hrs between feeds during the day.

My last sentence doesn't make much sense, I meant that I'm aware that I shouldn't put on the usual 24lbs.

Mine is high Lexi but not high enough for consultant led care/them insisting on labour in consultant led ward rather than MLU. The cut off for that here is 40.

At 30 you are given an extra risk assessment and a bit of extra paperwork plus offered gtt. At 35 you get shared care so a few extra appts/scan plus gtt.
I was quite surprised to find that weight gain isn't monitored at all here, mw said it was now policy to only weigh if asked and that even then it wouldn't be recorded.

High bmi here (32) ref for consultant care even though cut off is supposed to be 35 no mention of amount of weight gain advised, they don't weigh you at appointments or anything.

Lexi my BMI is 35 and I have my consultant appt in 2 weeks. My friend had an appt with the same consultant and said he was lovely and worked on a 123 rule so if you were overweight, you should put on no more than 1 stone, normal weight, 2 stone and under weight, 3 stone. Seems sensible to me. No weight at all seems a bit mad and I would have thought impossible to do in a healthy way!

I'm going to be in consultant led care cos of having Crohn's. I ended up there with ds too. Im hoping to have a more normal birth this time (no forceps) and I'm open to any/all options. My birth plan went out the window last time. Last time they asked if i wanted to try the bath but i soo couldnt be arsed getting wet! Really wish now I'd tried it as normally I like baths lol! x

Hi. Can I join you?
I'm due 30th aug. 1st baby. Bit of a surprise. 27yrs old. Married. 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 chickens. 1 horse.
Babe is 16 w today (I think)

I'm very interested about the reusable nappies. My MIL suggested them, and I thought, yeah right! However I read up on bamboo and the benefits and I'm sold! However living on the periphery of civilisation there is nowhere within 100miles who sells them so I can have a look.

Looking forwards to meeting you

Hi Woofers, welcome :-)
I don't know much about reuseable nappies but I know some of the girls on here do, so they'll be able to advise you x

Thanks rugs, foof and chuck my bmi was 40.9 at my booking in, I lost weight in the first trimester 10 lbs due to most foods turning my stomach with the smell or texture and my appetite was really suppressed, just redone my bmi and its now just under 38.

woofers I used reusable nappies with my dd which was 8 years ago and got on with them fine, there are now so many styles of nappies on the market, have you visited "the nappy lady website" she has great advice and videos on each nappy system and will tell you honestly what the nappies good points and there downfalls.

Hi All

Really interesting discussions going on here at the moment. I'm reading them with interest to pick up any tips!

Lexi with mine, I BF on demand. When they wake up, offer them a feed. That could be any time, day or night. After a couple of nights, your body adjusts to the lack of sleep. And there is nothing like a lovely, snuggly, milky baby being cuddled up in your arms. After the first 6 - 8 weeks, it does calm down and they start going longer between feeds, until they hit a growth spurt every so often. I loved BF with both DS and DD, even though it didn't work out in the end with DS, and I would really like to try with this one as well.

There is one particular night that has now passed into family legend, where I only had 20 minutes sleep one night, because DS and DD were tag-teaming me - DS would want a drink, get him settled, then DD wanted a feed, then DS wanted the loo, then it was time for DD's next feed...but I can honestly say that I remember it because it was the one night that was like that.

Welcome woofers - I used reusable nappies with my first, and didn't with my second. In my experience, you have to really consider the practicalities of how you are going to deal with them eg washing every day, where are you going to dry them, how will you deal with dirty nappies when you are out and about, etc. The Nappy Lady website is very good for lots of practical information.

Sorry to hear that you are suffering stiggly. waves glad to hear the day unit wasn't too bad, hope you get some rest overnight before the next session!

I don't usually miss wine, but today I am missing wine. DS was in his second set of school uniform by 8am today, and the day just didn't get much better!

Lots to talk about. On the phone so I can't go back and check names.

We had tots bots Bamboozles reusable bamboo nappies with DS. They were good, but very very difficult to dry. We won't be using them with DC2 as we are losing drying space with not having a spare room anymore. We may use some of the bambino mio nappies we have as they dry quickly, but we'll just see what happens.

On my birth plan for DS I wanted to use the water. When I got to hospital I just didn't fancy it at all. So spent the day on just gas and air. The one thing I wish someone had told me is that the latent phase of labour can be painful and last for days. I was knackered by the time I got to 10cm dilated.

DS was delivered by forceps with a spinal block because of concerns about my health. (Won't go into too much detail and scare you!) Despite the forceps, DS was perfect and I healed really well with just some initial pain in the first week or so.

We breastfed until DS was 20months. Stopped on Christmas day when I got my bfp. I felt like it was a good time to stop as he'd been getting less and less interested anyway.

Breastfeeding was really important to me. And I am very stubborn. We had all sorts of problems with the latch, oversupply (I could leak 6oz in 30 minutes) cracked nipples (for 6 months), so, despite extended BFing, I'm not going to explain how easy it is! It was good from about 6 months on, and easy from about 12 months on.

Kellymom.com is an absolutely wonderful website. And NCT have a helpline which is useful if you just need a chat with someone who knows what they're talking about.

My tummy has got noticeably bigger in the past few days. If baby is at the top of my uterus I can feel them up there. It's nice :)

15+2 today. Due date of Aug 29th but will be having an ELCS which is planned for Aug 22nd.

Morning ladies

Welcome new duebies :)

Well i woke this a lump sticking it out of my tummy. From what i can gather it was his bum. He wasnt impressed when i touched the lump. I got a swift kick and the lump was gone :( managed to get a pic first tho :)

Xxx

Lexi I think that whether you choose to ff or bf, your baby is going to be waking up in the night, and you are going to be knackered. I'm sorry, there's just no getting around that. However, as someone else said, you do rapidly adjust to having less sleep. I wouldn't say you feel great on it, but you manage. I remember the first time DD slept through, I woke up actually feeling groggy and thick-headed from having so much sleep!

Although she wasn't exactly regular with her waking times, I'd say she woke up about 3 times a night at first, but fairly quickly she moved to waking twice each night, which was manageable for me. It took her a while to actually sleep through, but I am lucky that she was pretty easy to settle again after her feeds.

You never know, you might be one of those lucky ones whose baby sleeps through from six weeks!

oh lets see Abbie!

Lots of squirming yesterday, went to the cinema to see Lincoln (bloody good!) and just could not get comfortable at all with the wriggling, then my legs starting getting restless (feels like electric shocks running down them) then in bed I again found it hard to get comfy and woken up with cramps in my bad leg (got problems after slipped disc, nerve damage) and an almighty cramp when I woke up nearly had me in tears.

I think baby is moving up a lot now as since bfp have been waking at least once for a pee in the night usually around 2am, last few nights have been 3 4 and 5am. Every time I eat anything even just a small thing like a couple of biccies etc then my bump bloats out, everything appears to be disagreeing with me and I appear to have consti[pation and the runs at the same time thinking some yakult type thing might be in order?

Foof i'll add it on to the facebook group later on today :)
Hes a right figit this baby is.

I'm going to kill next neighbours in min as they letting their kid kick a football up against my wall :@ which i have asked plenty of times not to let him do. As the noise is keeping my daughter from napping :@

Sorry rant over.

I've got to make 1 cake and 12 cupcakes today so wont be resting at all today. Then tomorrow is gonna be even busier.

18 + 5 xxx

Foof you may have an impaction high in your bowel. Lots of water, fibre and lactulose from the chemist.

Once your clear get your self onto some probiotic capsules. Helps return the bowel to normal bacteria levels which helps motility.

If you do anything though, drink drink drink

Good luck

I'm 16w and I haven't felt anything. It's my first, and I may have felt a butterfly, but not a baby.

When does baby start kicking proper, to be felt by hubby? Baring in mind it's got about 6inches of fat to kick through.

Woofers with DS I'd felt flutters but couldn't tell the difference between wind (!) and baby. Until I had my 20 week scan, and could see him moving at the same time as feel it IYSWIM.

I can't remember when DH first felt it. It was a while though, very frustrating as I'd feel a big movement, get DH to put his hand on my bump.......nothing. As soon as DH lost interest and went off to make a coffee DS would start squirming again. He's still a little bugger now

I know you're meant to feel it quicker 2nd time round, but I'm 19+2 and still nothing I would def say was baby.

I've lots more to say, but just home from work and had a text from SIL who is babysitting asking for clean trousers for DS....I'm hoping this is him pouring his drink down himself rather than a poomaggedon.

I know that I'm going to get woken in the night I'm honestly not under the illusion that if we bf I'll get uninterrupted sleep, was just interested if people who bf did feed closer to every 2 hours instead of 4, I was very lucky with my DD she fed every 4 hours on the dot, 10pm 2am 6am etc, I can't remember when she started sleeping through.

I'm 16+4 and have been feeling slight movements for about 10 days now.

I'm an idiot, I've put bf (meaning bottle feed) when of course it should of been ff (formula feed)