July 2013 - thread 5 - baby kicks and scan pics, we're halfway there!

[dinkystinky]

New thread to natter on. Will go find the due date thread to link on in a tick...

Congratulations everyone on your good scans.

emblosion I'm craving carbs constantly too! I get serious munchies in the evening and hardly stop eating from when I get home until I go to bed.

Evening everyone. Congratulations on all the good scan news

Sorry to hear you had unexpected news at your scan ellie. That must have been hard, but as others have said it sounds like your hospital are very much on the ball, and thankfully it is something that is very treatable these days.

I think there's been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing on the whole Princess Kate thing, on whether it was actually an attack on her, or a criticism of the way the media is portraying her, which was then taken out of context. Either way I'm sure it's not very nice. On a purely selfish observation, though, I was reassured to see that her bump is about the same size and shape as mine (the same can't quite be said when comparing any other part of my body to hers, I hasten to add!) so that made me feel a little more normal - I wonder if she is getting "bump envy" too!

Is anyone else getting really sore hips/top of thighs from lying on their side at night, when they would normally sleep on their back or front? I thought I'd sorted it out by lying on top of a pillow, but after a week or so, it's come back with a vengeance. My funky new Carla Nougat pillow and wedge arrived from Amazon today, so I'll see if I can get any more comfortable with that...

18+2

Hurray for more scans and cooperative babies.

Ama - I got sore hips sleeping on a futon at my friends place. I find wrapping myself in a duvet seems to help alleviate it.

Not heard this latest on Kate so will have to check it out next.

On phone and can't remember who mentioned this...I thought I'd resolved the hip pain thing but it's back. Going to have to try more pillow experiments.

Or maybe take to sleeping on a Holo lilo which I got to use at my first pregnancy yoga class this evening. It lets you lie on your tummy, was soooo comfy. See www.holo-lilo.com/. Rest of the class was good too, just simple stretches and breathing (I'm not bendy and beyond walking to/from station every day and a few swims, haven't exercised since BFP). Around half the class looked like they're due very soon so guess I'll see quite a turnover over the next 20 weeks but was very welcome "me" time.

To top it off DH served dinner within 5 minutes of me getting home, and it's Grazia Tuesday.

19+5

Evening all. Second booking appointment today and thank goodness they didn't another round of bloods. I am now carrying around two huge books of maternity notes as they now need my old hospital and new hospital notes. The midwife was lovely and it was pleasing to find out she would be the same lady my entire pregnancy. She told us a lot about the hospitals labour ward and the likelihood of getting a room with a birthing pool. Was nice to be told that we can enjoy a bath in one room and also moved to a pool room if they were fully booked on arrival. Sounds silly but was unsure if they allow that. Also she expressed the midwives desire to have you mobile as much as you like (I have a phobia of hospital beds or well ppl leaning over me in one).

Scan is rescheduled for March 4th which is a week later than my previous one but its nice that they squeezed me in and that I don't have to travel 2 hours back to my old place for a scan.

notprincess I have a high bmi and hoping my notes don't say "too fat to see baby"

vine congrats!

And all those with scans :)

19 +1

i know for a fact that doc has a holo lilo...don't ask me how i know but i do!!!!

by that i meant DoC!!

Evening everyone, busy day for scans today

Ours took 1.5 hours due to trainee sonographer and unco-operative baby.
Dd was slightly bored by the end but it was nice to have the extra viewing time and all is looking good so trying to relax a bit now.

hai 0940. So excited. Feels like a looooong time since 12wscan!

Been on a shopping adventure today and made 2 exciting discoveries. (1) My local H&M has maternity wear! Bloody loads of it. Not sure why I didn't check before traipsing to Oxford Street the other week! (2) For anyone near Reading (I think there are a few) Pudding in Kings Walk have some Hotmilk bras in store, and the ladies in there are lovely.

Ellie hope you are still feeling positive after the news at your scan. These things can take a little while to sink in, but it sounds like they are looking after you well.

I was wondering if any of you seasoned mums can help with a stupid carseat question. My car has isofix points - do I need to buy the car seat and a base to attach to the isofix points, or does the seat attach straight to them? And if the former, does the base stay even though you change carseats as the child grows? Or do you have to change the base as well every time? Thanks in advance - these questions are so basic I don't want to look like a doofus by asking the shop assistant for fear of getting laughed at!

I have made progress though... we went into John Lewis and pushed a few pushchairs. Then ran away quickly... one step at a time!

19+5

panda I am not seasoned but I have done car seat shopping. The isofix points allow you to fix an isofix base so yes you need to buy the base if you want to use the points. Most seats can be used with just seatbelt if you don't want to buy a base.

The base means you can get the seat in and out easier rather than threading the seatbelt each time.

Most bases are only usable with the one seat. However there are some that will also do the next one up. I've bought the maxi cosi family fix base. This fits the cabriofix carseat I've bought as well as doing the next carseat up (the pearl). This means the same base will do me until the baby is 3.

I'm sure other brands do similar. Just be careful what you buy. Don't be afraid to ask the assistants for help. I'd deffo recommend asking for help in john Lewis. They'll talk you through all ofvtheir models and bases.

19 + 5

Thanks so much, Meg - that's enormously helpful.

Lots of chatting since I last checked in!

Congratulations on all the scans- very exciting!

Ellie it sounds like the hospital have everything under control. I knew someone at school who had a sister born with a cleft lip. She had the op and was fine. A lovely healthy little girl.

Flying I think you asked about my New Forest stay (on my phone so hard to check) we stayed at the Master Builders at Buckler's Hard. It wasn't a spa hotel but I couldn't recommend them more. We stayed on a winter warmer deal on the Sunday (£99 for bed, breakfast and £30 each towards supper in their lovely restaurant) we paid normal price on Monday and ate in the pub section which was still lovely. Lovely rooms and roaring fires throughout the hotel- great food too. We had some lovely walks and explored the local area.

Panda DH and I did the John Lewis bit yesterday too. A couple of weeks ago we did the run in and out quickly but this time we asked for some help. I was really impressed as they gave us lots of information but there was no hard sell- lady even told us which sites to go to to price compare then go back to John Lewis to price match! Also said you could book a slot with your car to test boot space so think we will be doing that in a few weeks- maybe Easter as we want to have had our next scan before we buy the pushchair.

Hope everyone has lovely Wednesdays all round. I'm taking mum out for a girlie day for her birthday ignoring all the school work that needs doing

Also discussing names that my mum wants to be called as she doesn't like granny. She suggested 'Angel' I laughed out loud! My children will not be calling her Angel... Any granny names that don't sound like granny gratefully received...

Thanks cheese I'll have a look at that hotel. Definitely not going with OH on his trip to the sun tomorrow so I need to organise something to look forward to.

We called my Mum's mum "Nana", so I think that's what mum would like. And OH's mum is already "Nan" to 2 grandchildren.

Out nearest John Lewis is just a John Lewis at home, don't think they stock buggies & car seats. I think the next closest is in Kingston, has anybody been there for baby shopping?

Panda, from experience, I'd also say if you're thinking of buying a base to do more than one seat, make sure you do your group 1 seat research first (we didn't!). I think I'm right that most of the bases that will fit the baby (group 0) and toddler (group 1) seats, will only take a forward facing group 1 seat. Once I'd looked into it all a bit more (when dc1 was nearly a year old) I decided to go for a rear facing group 1 seat, which means the base we bought for the group 0 seat is no longer used. Had I considered it all at the start, I could have got a rear facing seat that would have done birth-3/4 years but I only really looked at the baby seats at the time. I might have ended up doing the same thing anyway as the birth-4yr seats can't be taken in and out of the car like most of the baby group 0 seats can, but if you know you are going to buy two separate rear facing seats then you don't need to worry about your base fitting the second seat, iyswim!

Panda - we didnt have isofix in our car when we had ds1 so just used the maxi cosi cabrio with seat belts - abit of a pain in a 3 door mini so we wished we'd had isofix base! We reused the seat with DS2 and just got an easy fix base in our next car (which had isofix) - toddler upwards car seats tend to be isofix themselves anyway.

Cheese - sounds lke you had a lovely time in the new forest. We got there often for weekends away as easy to get to from London and DS1 sees a specialist out there for his concentration (or lack thereof) every few months. Not been to Bucklers Hard, normally stay around Brockenhurst, so may suggest that to DH for next time. Also re grandparents - when I got pregnant with DS1, MIL was not ready to be called Nan so we call her the hindu name for grand ma - "Ta-ma" - which she loved. My mum and dad are also called the hindu names for Grandma on mum's side (Didimoni) and grandad (Dadu) so it was in keeping with that. Now her DD has had a daughter, she's fine being called Nan by her GD- mind you she had 5 years to get used to being phased into it with Ta-ma first. How does she feel about Grandma or nanna?

re carseats, can recommend john lewis, as they will come to your car and fit for you, to make sure everything is compatible. i think (IIRC) that maxi cosi also have a list of compatible cars on their website. we bought the cabrio fix car seat with the isofix base for DS and it has lasted really well. just need to work out now how we are going to fit three seats across the back! we do have three isofix points, but DS is now in the high back booster seat thats just secured by seatbelts.

saw DoC on the news this morning and i have serious bump envy. where is my bump . DH said not to worry as i dont usually grow huge babies but i am 21 weeks today and i would like to look a little bit pregnant now as opposed to just a bit podgy round the middle. felt a complete fraud at my scan the other day. still i have felt a few movements today so at least someones happy!

not doing very well on the 'resting' front (as i'm supposed to be) so investigating osteopaths is on my list of jobs for today, once i have caught up with washing and been to music. hope everyone else's day is a tad more exciting than that!

Congrats on all the scans!

Ellie, hope you're ok and so glad it sounds like the hospital are being helpful. Must still be a bit of a shock but sounds as though it's usually easily treated.

Found out my placenta's anterior too and definitely finding the kicking's quite on and off and often not very noticeable.

Still can't stop eating!

I still have bump envy of pretty much every PG person I see/know!

Can't stop obsessing over pushchairs now. iCandy ones still near top of my list but can't stop worrying about spending that much and then finding it's too big and heavy. Anybody considering a Cosatto Giggle? Love the design and some good reviews though not seen in real life yet.

Oo lots of advice re carseats at jhon lewis will have to have a look at some point, despatatly need help buying a pram as me ans dh cannot decide on one :(

Still counting down the days till scan :)

19+5

Thanks to everyone who commented about my redundancy (last thread - gosh it moves fast!) and hello again. I have been made redundant but am appealing the decision. I think I would have a reasonable case at an employment tribunal, although unfortunately they probably wouldn't award any money even if I won because my employer pays above statutory redundancy pay. Still, I think I am going to go ahead with it - depending on how the appeal goes - to make sure they think twice about doing this to anyone else. It really is a horrible time to make somebody redundant; they ought at least to make sure they do it properly and fairly.

I'm at exactly 19 weeks now and I think I have been feeling some wiggling lately, which is exciting. Scan on the 9th of March, when I'll be 21 + 3...

19 + 0

BB01, Shelley - you can have some of my bump if you like. I'm looking like I have a space hopper down my top already. As I said before, bumps come in all shapes and sizes - you will get yours soon.

Mini - good luck with your claim and hope you're managing to keep yourself busy.

Thanks ladies. I'm mostly worried about breastfeeding as I breastfed all the others and really want to this time. The specialist nurse and the midwife said that I'll be given loads of support to breastfeed if that's what I want to do but that some babies can't manage it. I've got another scan with the consultant next week and a 4d scan booked for 12th April. The 4d one is free, organised by a charity which I thought was a really lovely idea. We'll know more about how severe it is then because we'll be able to see more clearly than in 2d. We get some photos too. With all these scans we'll have a whole photo album used up before he's born! We didn't find out the sex but I've been saying he because "it" feels wrong. I'm going to get a huge shock if "he" turns out to be a girl .

20+5

You lot are all marvellous, thank you for all the car seat chat.

Ellie I am sure you will get as much help as possible to support your wish the breastfeed, and the fact that you are already a pro after 3x DC will be an enormous help. Of course it will depend on your baby too, but your really strong desire to do it is a big part of the battle.

MiniPenguin I missed your original post re redundancy, but good luck to you. How awful to have to deal with this at an already stressful time.

19+6

dinky - thank you for the good wishes!

ellie - that must have been a shock, but fingers crossed that you will still be able to breastfeed. I am like you in being convinced that I am having a boy, so will be surprised at my anomaly scan if I'm actually wrong!

Ladies, I'm thinking that after my anomaly scan on the 9th of March I might start feeling ready to buy some stuff. But I'm new to this whole baby-having lark, and I've got some questions...

• any good recommendations for cheap but nice baby clothing? A friend has pointed me in the direction of M&S and it looks great, but any similar ideas would be appreciated. I like bright colours (hate the whole pale pink and pale blue thing) and clean plain Scandinavian-type design...

• how many bits of clothing (baby-grow, sleep suit etc) do I REALLY need to buy for the first month or two? I can imagine going wildly overboard on the shopping for this, so a reality check would be appreciated.

• what are the other clothing essentials that you couldn't have done without?